New NSA docs contradict 9/11 claims

[jeff47]

174. What does this have to do with Friend or Foe?

Some background. Air traffic control radar just triggers a plane's transponder. It isn't powerful enough to see a plane without a transponder (for good reasons that are outside this discussion). The 9/11 hijackers turned off the transponders, so the planes were invisible to air traffic control radars.

Military radars are more powerful, so that they can see aircraft without transponders. However, we built those to look outside the US. Because the threat model was bombers flying into the country, not commandeered domestic aircraft.

But friend-or-foe is irrelevant here. A SAM fired at the plane heading for the Pentagon would have caused the plane to crash on civilian buildings in Arlington or DC. Those buildings are lightly constructed. The Pentagon is 100% reinforced concrete with extensive fire suppression systems not present in civilian buildings. If you are gonna pick a building to get hit, you want it to hit the Pentagon and not a civilian building - just compare the death toll from the Pentagon and the WTC.

In the 9/11 commission report it stated that fighter planes were 100 miles out in the Atlantic Ocean. Were they on exercise?

The Air Force or Air National Guard intercepts every large aircraft that approaches the US. They do things like confirm that the tail number matches what's on the flight plan, it's the right kind of plane, and so on. Passengers and crew don't see this because the fighters approach from the rear and make a point of not getting close enough to spook anyone.

Long story short, there's always fighters 100mi out in the Atlantic. And Pacific. And the Gulf of Mexico.