Follow the Dots

One is Logan Airfield, Two is the South Tower of the World Trade Center

By Bryan Zepp Jamieson
05/16/02
http://www.zeppscommentaries.com/Politics/dots.htm

After the disclosures of the past 24 hours, I have to conclude that George W. is either the dumbest son-of-a-bitch to ever sit in the Oval Office, or the most cynical.

For anyone living in a cave, the White House admitted that they had received warning for several weeks prior to 9/11 that Osama bin Laden was planning to hijack commercial airliners. What's more, they had even received warning that the hijackers were going to fly the planes into the Pentagon and other notable structures.

Well, gosh. If you're Osama bin Laden, there really isn't much you can do with a hijacked airliner except fly it into something. One reason there hasn't been many skyjackings over the past twenty years – aside from the fear that half-sober minimum-wage security guards cause in even the stoutest terrorist heart – is that nearly all nations have signed treaties agreeing not to give in the hijacker's demands, and to return the plane and the people on board safely, and if the hijacker gets killed in the process, oh well. And of course, the few places you can fly a plane that doesn't have an extradition treaty are far enough away that you have to consider the problems inherent in a 12 or 14 hour flight, like having the Air Force shoot you down, or a passenger insurrection, or that you might simply run out of gas.

So you fly your hijacked plane into something. Or at least try. If the Air Force shoots you down first, even your failure is incredibly spectacular, likely to be caught on video, and will still be the greatest crime in American history. But since, being a good terrorist, you don't want to fail, you face the problem of getting to the Pentagon before the Air Force scrambles, something it's supposed to be able to do on five minutes' notice.

One answer, it turned out, was to hijack several planes at once, and hope the confusion caused by such an audacious move will allow one of them to get through. Perhaps someday we'll hear that some official in the government considered such a possibility. Before 9/11, I would have dismissed the notion as too far-fetched, something in a Mission Impossible movie that would make me groan in disgust and consider asking for my money back.

It's the extent of the "confusion" that has me wondering just what the story is. We know that the Administration had gotten warnings from Mossad and European intelligence agencies that bin Laden had something big planned for the immediate future. They didn't bother to tell Congress, but they did apparently tell various agencies. We now know that the administration was warned that bin Laden was going to attempt skyjackings. We know that the government, on September 10th, was bracing for an imminent attack. We know this because on that day, they raided ISPs around the country, shutting down 2,500 Moslem websites. That's not something that happens every day in America, not even in the strange new post-Bush vs. Gore America.

Airlines waste no time if something goes drastically wrong with a flight. A flight sharply deviating from its flight path minutes after takeoff, and with no explanation from the pilot, in the busiest air corridor in the United States at the busiest time of the day, is of immediate concern, and airlines don't dick around with PR considerations when something like that happens. For one thing, the FAA already knows, and they are going to alert the government.

Within air minutes of Boston, there are three staging areas for interceptors. They are designed to be airborne within minutes. Even though the cold war is over and Russia isn't overtly hostile, nobody told those guys to stand down, and being well-disciplined, they haven't. It's a source of pride to them that they get into the air, ready to tackle a bogey, in minutes.

So within minutes, you have two west-coast bound flights suddenly and without explanation veering off and making a beeline for New York.

Does anyone think that the two pilots simultaneously decided to give the passengers a little thrill and give them a quick fly-by over Manhattan so all those jaded commuters would all be perked up?

I doubt that particular sequence of thoughts went through anyone's mind.

Why weren't the fighter squadrons scrambled? The Northeast ones never were, not until an hour after the final crash in Pennsylvania.

Imagine that there is a sudden volley of shots and screams out front of a major metropolitan police station. An hour after the shooting stops, a few cops come sauntering out to see what all the fuss was about. Are you having trouble imagining that?

Fighter squadrons are better trained and disciplined on fast response then the best metropolitan police force. It's unlikely they sat around to finish their morning coffee once the call went out.

What could terrorists possibly want by flying two planes straight at New York? Were they hoping to get a glimpse of the scoreboard at Shea Stadium as they flew past, and find out how the Dodgers did?

What is there in New York of interest to Osama bin Laden? Let's see; he likes to go after symbolic targets. He was foiled in 1994 in a plot to fly a plane into the Eiffel Tower. He likes to blow up buildings, particularly tall ones.

Condolleezza Rice, doing spin control today, said, "We just didn't connect the dots." Cartoonists are having a field day with that. Here's my ASCII effort.

Hey, Condi!

1 2
. .

Here's how it's done:

1 2
. _______________ .

OK, Condi. Now you try:

1 2
. .

Even Putsch should be able to figure that one out.

Putsch didn't even act even mildly surprised or shocked when told of the first plane crashing into the tower. I doubt a man who never learned to wipe a smirk off his face would ever develop any real credible acting abilities, and I can't imagine the puerile and undisciplined Putsch keeping his cool, wearing a good poker face for the kiddies.

So we're starting to get an idea of what the administration knew prior to the attacks, and the answer is, quite a bit. Indeed, at this point, the only thing that may have taken them by surprise that day was the towers collapsing the way they did. Even Osama, if that videotape is to be believed at all, was surprised about that.

The administration strenuously resisted any and all efforts to have 9/11 investigated, and even those of us who aren't into conspiracy theories found that extremely puzzling. The biggest crime in American history, and the government doesn't want to investigate to find out how it was pulled off?

We still don't know what prompted the administration to divulge the information if did today. Given that Putsch has absolutely no interest in the public's right to know, it's unlikely that there was any sudden surges in the White House toward honesty and openness.

Something pushed them from behind. Today's admission is the political equivalent of a back fire, a fire lit to rob a greater conflagration of fuel. This is the same as Nixon releasing the tape transcripts in the hopes it would calm down demands for the tapes themselves.

Something scared the White House into making this move.

Mark my words: this story has only just begun.