NYT pg. 1: Commission's 9/11 timeline, including a.m. graphics

[DeepModem Mom]

DUers who've researched the 9/11 timeline, please comment --


THE TIMETABLE
To the Minute, Panel Paints a Grim Portrait of Day's Terror
By ERIC SCHMITT and ERIC LICHTBLAU

Published: June 18, 2004

(You can click to the right of the article for two timeline graphics for the time periods 8 to 9:30 a.m., and 9:30 to 10:45 a.m.)

WASHINGTON, June 17 — At 9:36 a.m. on Sept. 11, halfway through America's most calamitous morning, military air defense officials learned that American Airlines Flight 77 was just six miles — and little more than a minute — away from the White House.

An air defense commander in upstate New York ordered three Air Force fighter jets to intercept the third airliner hijacked that morning. But he soon discovered that the Virginia-based fighters were not heading north toward Baltimore as instructed, but streaking east over the Atlantic Ocean. "I don't care how many windows you break," the commander barked, ordering the jets to turn around and "crank it up" to the White House.

At that moment in Washington, Secret Service agents were hustling Vice President Dick Cheney to a secure underground White House bunker. In Sarasota, Fla., President Bush's motorcade was speeding away from an elementary school, initially headed in the wrong direction, to rush the president to the airport — and up into the sky, to safety.

The nation has relived that morning countless times since Sept. 11, 2001, but never with the harrowing detail and minute-by-minute drama of the staff report released Thursday by the independent commission investigating the attacks....

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/18/politics/18minutes.html

[althecat]

1. my view

pure fiction....

[TomNickell]

5. Right. And you know it's fiction............how?

If you want anyone to take you seriously, you have to give reasons.

Hundreds or thousands of people participated in those events. Hundreds of 9/11 staff members participated in the investigations. Just -how- do you think that this incredible fiction is not detected?

Overall, the story is about what should be expected. FAA controllers are working with ancient computers, the military is still planning for an invasion from the Soviet Union, and there is no procedure in place for dealing with multiple suicide hijackings. You don't need a conspiracy to cripple the military response if the system had no chance of working in the first place.

If you want a conspiracy ask -why- there was no planning for attacks that probably were predictable.

[LittleApple81]

2. Myers' picture is also interesting....

Have you noticed that many RWinger "leaders" always make this gesture with their hand? Does it relate to the size of their penises?


On a more serious note, those timelines are really nice. But it is hard for me to follow on the screen. I want to compare these with other reports that have been appearing on the web. From what went on during the commission meetings yesterday, it seemed more like a whitewash of that day than anything else.

Thanks for the post.

[symbolman]

3. How does this line up

with my flash work?

sig line below..

[DeepModem Mom]

7. I tried to compare --

"In Sarasota, meanwhile, President Bush was visiting some second graders at 9:05 when Andrew H. Card Jr., his chief of staff, whispered to him that a plane had hit the second tower.

The president had been told minutes earlier about the first crash, but Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, who was on the trip, said initially that the plane that crashed was a twin-engine aircraft. When the second plane hit, however, White House aides said they knew it was no accident."

I think you indicate Bush knew something about an incident before he left his hotel.

"He remained in the classroom another few minutes. Shortly before 9:15, he returned to a holding room, where he was briefed by staff members, watched television coverage and called Mr. Cheney and others. Mr. Bush prepared to return to Washington - a decision that worried aides would later persuade him to reverse.

No one in the White House traveling party had any indication by then that any other planes had been hijacked, the report said."

The timeline graphic indicates the Bush motorcade left the school shortly after 9:30.

[NewYorkerfromMass]

4. I still can't believe we didn't shoot 93 down

If true, we did not, then we really, really suck. I mean this was nearly half an hour after the Pentagon was hit.

[TomNickell]

6. 4500 planes.....

'We' may really suck, but remember there were 4500 planes in the air that morning.

The hijackers weren't exactly phoning in their intentions to the Pentagon. The only indication of a problem was that the planes were deviating from their expected paths. No doubt they -should- have done better. But they didn't.