No one could have foreseen using planes as weapons...oh really?

[Ladyhawk]

While doing some research on Leonard Bernstein, I ran across this Wikipedia entry:

Samuel Byck

Samuel Joseph Byck (January 30, 1930 – February 22, 1974) was an unemployed tire salesman who attempted to hijack a plane from Baltimore-Washington International Airport on February 22, 1974. He intended to crash into the White House in hopes of killing U.S. President Richard M. Nixon.

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. If, indeed, this was the case..

our security folks lack imagination.

[Magical]

2. Kamikaze WWII 60 years ago (n/t)

[MissMarple]

3. Tom Clancy novel...jet liner rams into a joint session of Congress.

Air liner over France had an attempted high jacking to fly the plane into, I believe, the Eiffel Tower.

They were quite aware this is possible. Condoleeza Rice lied to the American people, to the world.

[Ladyhawk]

4. Also, that episode of The Lone Gunmen, the spinoff of the X-Files.

I wish they hadn't cancelled that show. It was just hitting its stride when X-Files crashed and burned.

[bahrbearian]

6. You mean the Episode thar premiered 6 months before 9-11,

nobody watched that one.

[HysteryDiagnosis]

5. Worse than that.....

http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20050830185334880

Vigilant Warrior, the most mysterious wargame of all, is mentioned only in a direct quote attributed to Myers by former counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke in his 2004 book, Against All Enemies. The NORAD wargame denomination "Warrior" specifically indicates a "live-fly" exercise (Ruppert, Crossing the Rubicon, 2004, citing NORAD spokesperson Don Arias, who lost his brother on Sept. 11). The contrast of Vigilant Guardian to Vigilant Warrior not only suggests related exercises, but a red team and a blue team paired as enemies. It has led many researchers to speculate whether one or more of the actual 9/11 crash flights was scripted into a "warrior" scenario that suddenly turned "real."

In the timeline, Thompson covers Vigilant Warrior as follows:

9:28 a.m.: Myers Updates Clarke Videoconference on Fighter Response
Counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke, directing a video conference with top officials, asks Joint Chiefs of Staff Vice Chairman Richard Myers, "I assume NORAD has scrambled fighters and AWACS. How many? Where?" Myers replies, "Not a pretty picture, Dick. We are in the middle of Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD exercise, but ... Otis has launched two birds toward New York. Langley is trying to get two up now . The AWACS are at Tinker and not on alert." Vigilant Warrior may be a mistaken reference to the on-going war game Vigilant Guardian.

Thompson's last comment is unwarranted. Note that the ellipsus after Myers's statement, "We are in the middle of Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD exercise, but ..." occurs in the original of Clarke's book, the publication of which was delayed for months due to a prolonged vetting process by the CIA and White House. This indicates a redaction by the CIA or White House censors.

What did Myers tell Clarke about Vigilant Warrior that the censors did not want us to know?

This is one of the most sensitive passages in Clarke's book, and it is hard to believe it was not among the most scrutinized. Would the censors have allowed such a mistake to be published, with all its implications for the official story? Clarke's precise statement of the time in the same passage (9:28 am) is unusual in the book, and suggests extreme care about this point.

[dxstone]

7. Three Words: Tora Tora Tora!

More current ridiculous Condi-isms here:
The Deep Spiritual Wisdom of Mahatma Condi!

[Leopolds Ghost]

8. I almost wrote a letter to the editor about Bin Laden threats

Handwritten, mind you -- in response to a (1998 or 1999) US News (or Newsweek, forget whigh) "News in Brief" blurb about Osama being up to his old tricks... threatening to nuke Lower Manhattan... the article was entitled "Garrison Kiellor's new book and other notes" I think.

Needless to say, it wasn't taken seriously, and when I realized they had interviewed official sources who didn't take it seriously either, I threw up my hands.

Meanwhile, there was an extensive expose about how the "Blind Sheik" knew of plans to crash planes into various targets, including the World Trade Center (deemed unlikely by the CIA, they thought the terrorists would surely strike elsewhere next time to keep us on our toes) and the George Washington bridge. I grew pale when I read that during the 1993 WTC bombing trials back in... 1996? 1997? 1999? Now for some reason I can't find the relevant articles on the Internet. Funny how that works?

[Garbo 2004]

9. See Ramzi Yousef and Bojinka plot. Included blowing up US airliners

over the Pacific in flight and crashing a plane into the CIA and possibly other prominent US buildings. This was known in 1995 and even covered in the media. I remembered it. Funny Condi, US National Security Advisor, apparently knew nothing about it.