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STATISTICS |
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 Thursday, 29 July 2010 |
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Complete 911 Timeline: Military exercises up to 9/11 |
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Written by Paul Thomson (Complete 9/11 timeline)
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23 August 2005 00:23 |
Complete 911 Timeline: Military exercises up to 9/11 |
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At
some point between 1991 and 2001, a regional NORAD sector holds an
exercise simulating a foreign hijacked airliner crashing into a
prominent building in the United States, the identity of which is
classified. According to military officials, the building is not the
World Trade Center or the Pentagon. The exercise involves some flying
of military aircraft, plus a ?command post exercise? where
communication procedures are rehearsed in an office environment. [CNN, 4/19/04]
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At
some point between 1991 and 2001, a regional NORAD sector holds an
exercise simulating a foreign hijacked airliner crashing into a
prominent building in the United States, the identity of which is
classified. According to military officials, the building is not the
World Trade Center or the Pentagon. The exercise involves some flying
of military aircraft, plus a ?command post exercise? where
communication procedures are rehearsed in an office environment. [CNN, 4/19/04]
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Time
magazine reports in 1994, ?During the Gulf War, uniformed air-defense
teams could be seen patrolling the top floor [of the White House] with
automatic rifles or shoulder-mounted ground-to-air missiles.? [Time, 9/26/94]
While
a battery of surface-to-air-missiles remains permanently on the roof of
the White House, the rest of these defenses are apparently removed
after the war is over. [Daily Telegraph, 9/16/01]
Yet
even though counterterrorism officials later call the alerts in the
summer of 2001 ?the most urgent in decades,? similar defensive measures
will apparently not be taken. [9/11 Congressional Inquiry Report, 9/18/02]
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According
to USA Today, ?In the two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, the North
American Aerospace Defense Command conduct[s] exercises simulating what
the White House [later] says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked
airliners used as weapons to crash into targets and cause mass
casualties.? One of these imagined targets is the World Trade Center.
According to NORAD, these scenarios are regional drills, rather than
regularly scheduled continent-wide exercises. They utilize ?[n]umerous
types of civilian and military aircraft? as mock hijacked aircraft, and
test ?track detection and identification; scramble and interception;
hijack procedures; internal and external agency coordination; and
operational security and communications security procedures.? The main
difference between these drills and the 9/11 attacks is that the planes
in the drills are coming from another country, rather than from within
the US. Before 9/11, NORAD reportedly conducts four major exercises at
headquarters level per year. Most of them are said to include a hijack
scenario (see Before September 11, 2001).
[USA Today, 4/18/04; CNN, 4/19/04]
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At
some point during the two-year period preceding 9/11, NORAD fighters
perform a mock shootdown over the Atlantic Ocean of a jet loaded with
chemical poisons heading toward the US. [USA Today, 4/18/04]
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Pentagon
and Arlington County emergency responders assemble in the office of the
Secretary of Defense?s conference room in the Pentagon for a mass
casualty exercise (?MASCAL?). The exercise involves three
mock-scenarios. One is of a commercial airliner crashing into the
Pentagon and killing 342 people, while the other two involve a
terrorist attack at the Pentagon?s subway stop and a construction
accident. The exercises are conducted using a large-scale model of the
Pentagon with a model airplane literally on fire in the central
courtyard of the building. An Army medic who participates in the mock
attack calls it ?a real good scenario and one that could happen
easily,? while a fire chief notes: ?You have to plan for this. Look at
all the air traffic around here.? [MDW News Service, 11/3/00; Daily Mirror, 5/24/02; UPI, 4/22/04; 9/11 Commission Final Report, 7/04, pp 314]
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The
Joint Chiefs of Staff holds a large, worldwide exercise called Positive
Force, which focuses on the Defense Department's ability to conduct
large-scale military operations and coordinate these operations. [CJCSI, 8/14/00]
The
2001 Positive Force exercise is a ?continuity of operations exercise,?
meaning it deals with government contingency plans to keep working in
the event of an attack on the US. [Guardian, 4/15/04]
Over
a dozen government agencies, including NORAD, are invited to
participate. The exercise prepares them for various scenarios,
including non-combatant evacuation operations, cyber attacks, rail
disruption, and power outages. [Provider Update, 10/01; GlobalSecurity [.org], 6/09/02]
Apparently,
one of the scenarios that was considered for this exercise involved ?a
terrorist group hijack[ing] a commercial airliner and fly[ing] it into
the Pentagon.? But the proposed scenario, thought up by a group of
Special Operations personnel trained to think like terrorists, was
rejected. Joint Staff action officers and White House officials said
the additional scenario is either ?too unrealistic? or too disconnected
to the original intent of the exercise. [Air Force Times, 4/13/04; Boston Herald, 4/14/04; Guardian, 4/15/04; Washington Post, 4/14/04 (G); New York Times, 4/14/04]
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The
Tri-Service DiLorenzo Health Care Clinic and the Air Force Flight
Medicine Clinic, both housed within the Pentagon, train for a scenario
involving a hijacked 757 airliner being crashed into the Pentagon. It
is reported that the purpose of the training is ?to fine-tune their
emergency preparedness.? [US Medicine, 10/01]
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New
York City's Office of Emergency Management (OEM), which is located in
World Trade Center Building 7, organizes a bio-terrorism drill where
militant extremists attack the city with bubonic plague and Manhattan
is quarantined. The ?tabletop exercise? is called RED Ex?meaning
?Recognition, Evaluation, and Decision-Making Exercise?
?and involves about seventy different entities, agencies, and locales
from the New York area. Federal legislation adopted in 1997 requires
federal, state, and local authorities to conduct regular exercises as
part of the Domestic Preparedness Program (DPP). The US Defense
Department chose New York City as the venue for RED Ex due to its size,
prominence, and level of emergency preparedness. Various high-level
officials take part, including Mayor Rudolph Giuliani, OEM Director
Richard Sheirer, Fire Commissioner Thomas Von Essen, and Police
Commissioner Bernard Kerik. Agencies and organizations that participate
include New York City Fire Department, New York City Police Department,
the FBI, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA). The
exercise is supposedly so intense that, according to one participant,
?five minutes into that drill, everybody forgot it was a drill.? [New York City Government, 5/11/01; New York City Government, 9/5/01, pp 74; New York Sun, 12/20/03; 9/11 Commission, 5/18/04]
According
to OEM Director Richard Sheirer, ?Operation RED Ex provided a proving
ground and a great readiness training exercise for the many challenges
the city routinely faces, such as weather events, heat emergencies,
building collapses, fires, and public safety and health issues.? [New York City Government, 5/11/01]
In
his prepared testimony before the 9/11 Commission, Bernard Kerik later
states: ?The City, through its OEM, had coordinated plans for many
types of emergencies; and those plans were tested frequently.? The
types of emergencies they prepared for, he states, included ?building
collapses? and ?plane crashes.? [Kerik Testimony, 5/18/04]
Considering
Richard Sheirer's comments, RED Ex appears to be one example where the
city tests for building collapses. Details about training for airplanes
crashing into New York City remain unknown. The second part of this
exercise, called Tripod, is scheduled to take place in New York on
September 12, 2001, but is cancelled due to the 9/11 attacks.
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Bin Laden is pictured on the cover of the first Amalgam Virgo exercise.
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The
US military conducts Amalgam Virgo 01, a multi-agency planning exercise
sponsored by NORAD involving the hypothetical scenario of a cruise
missile being launched by ?a rogue [government] or somebody? from a
barge off the East Coast. Bin Laden is pictured on the cover of the
proposal for the exercise. [American Forces Press Service, 6/4/02]
The exercise takes place at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida.
[Global Security, 4/14/02]
The
next Amalgam Virgo exercise, scheduled to take place the following
year, will involve two simultaneous commercial aircraft hijackings.
Planning for the exercises begins before 9/11 (see Before September 11, 2001).
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The
Pentagon's police force, the Defense Protective Service (DPS), conducts
emergency drills throughout summer 2001. Some members of the DPS
subsequently assist in directing rescue efforts at the Pentagon on
9/11. [Los Angeles Times, 9/13/01 (C)]
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A
major training exercise based upon a simulated terrorist attack is held
in Westmoreland County, Pennsylvania, which neighbors Somerset County
where Flight 93 crashes on 9/11. The exercise, called Mall Strike 2001,
is conducted in Greengate Mall, Hempfield, and involves over 600
emergency first responders and emergency managers responding to the
simulated release of a toxic chemical agent and the simulated release
of radiation and radiological contamination. [Westmoreland County Annual Financial Report, 2001; Connellsville Daily Courier, 9/11/02]
Mall
Strike is organized by the Pennsylvania Region 13 Working Group: a
13-county organization that began preparing for terrorist attacks in
1998. When Flight 93 crashes on September 11, the Region 13 Working
Group's chair immediately contacts other members of the group and
emergency teams are quickly deployed to the crash site. The group's
four years of preparing and working together ?allowed them to develop
and train teams that could work efficiently together during an event of
this magnitude.? [Department of Homeland Security, 3/12/03]
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A
MASCAL (mass casualty) training exercise is held at Fort Belvoir. It is
?designed to enhance the first ready response in dealing with the
effects of a terrorist incident involving an explosion.? [MDW News Service, 7/5/01]
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In
late August 2001, two-thirds of the 27th Fighter Squadron are sent
overseas. Six of the squadron's fighters and 115 people go to Turkey to
enforce the no-fly zone over northern Iraq as part of Operation
Northern Watch. Another six fighters and 70 people are sent to Iceland
to participate in ?Operation Northern Guardian.? The fighter groups
will not return to Langley until early December. [Flyer, 7/1/03]
(Note
that the word ?operation? specifies that Operation Northern Guardian
and Northern Watch are not exercises, but actual military actions or
missions. [CJCSM, 4/23/98; Defense Department, 11/30/04]
)
Operation Northern Guardian is based at Naval Air Station Keflavik,
Iceland, the host command for the NATO base in that country. The US
sometimes assists Iceland with extra military forces in reaction to
Russian military maneuvers in the region. Approximately 1,800 US
military personnel and 100 Defense Department civilians are involved. [Flyer, 6/4/04; GlobalSecurity [.org], 4/9/02; Iceland Defense Force website, 6/30/04]
The
27th is one of three F-15 fighter squadrons that make up the 1st
Fighter Wing, the ?host unit? at Langley Air Force Base in Langley,
Virginia. The other two are the 71st and 94th Fighter Squadrons. [Langley Air Force Base, 11/03; GlobalSecurity [.org], 8/02/04]
Langley is one of two ?alert? sites that can be called upon by NORAD for missions in the northeast region of the US.
[9/11 Commission Report, 6/17/04]
Langley's
71st Fighter Squadron also participates in Operation Northern Watch and
Operation Northern Guardian at some (unstated) time during 2001. [Air Combat Command News Service, 6/13/02]
Whether
this deployment of fighters diminishes Langley's ability to respond on
9/11 is unknown. However, Air Force units are cycled through
deployments like operations Northern and Southern Watch by the
Aerospace Expeditionary Force (AEF) Center, which is at Langley Air
Force Base. [CJCSM, 4/23/98; GlobalSecurity [.org] Aerospace Expeditionary Force page, 04/26/05]
And
according to NORAD Commander Larry Arnold, ?Prior to Sept. 11, we'd
been unsuccessful in getting the AEF Center to be responsible for
relieving our air defense units when they went overseas.? [Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, pp 99]
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A
mass casualty exercise, involving a practice evacuation, is held at the
Pentagon. General Lance Lord of US Air Force Space Command, one of the
participants in the exercises, later recalls: ?[It was] purely a
coincidence, the scenario for that exercise included a plane hitting
the building.? Lord will also say that on 9/11, ?our assembly points
were fresh in our minds? thanks to this practice. [Air Force Space Command News Service, 9/5/02]
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Sergeant
Matt Rosenberg, an army medic at the Pentagon, is studying ?a new
medical emergency disaster plan based on the unlikely scenario of an
airplane crashing into the place.? [Washington Post, 9/16/01]
The
day before, Rosenberg later recalls in an interview with the Office of
Medical History, he called the FBI with questions about who would have
medical jurisdiction if such an event were to take place. ?Believe it
or not, the day prior to the incident, I was just on the phone with the
FBI, and we were talking ?so who has command should this happen, who
has the medical jurisdiction, who does this, who does that,? and we
talked about it and talked about it, and he helped me out a lot. And
then the next day, during the incident, I actually found him. He was
out there on the incident that day.? [Office of Medical History, 9/04, pp 9]
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As
the 9/11 attacks are taking place, a large military training exercise
called Global Guardian is said to be ?in full swing.? It has been going
on since the previous week. [Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/02; Omaha World-Herald, 9/10/02]
Global
Guardian is an annual exercise sponsored by US Strategic Command
(Stratcom) in cooperation with US Space Command and NORAD. One military
author defines Stratcom as ?the single US military command responsible
for the day-to-day readiness of America's nuclear forces.? [Arkin, 2005, pp 59]
Global
Guardian is a global readiness exercise involving all Stratcom forces
and aims to test Stratcom's ability to fight a nuclear war. It is one
of many ?practice Armageddons? that the US military routinely stages. [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 11/12/97; Associated Press, 2/21/02 (B); Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/02; Omaha World-Herald, 9/10/02]
It
links with a number of other military exercises, including Crown
Vigilance (an Air Combat Command exercise), Apollo Guardian (a US Space
Command exercise), and NORAD exercises Vigilant Guardian and Amalgam
Warrior [Defense Department, 5/97; GlobalSecurity [.org], 10/10/02]
Global
Guardian is both a command post and field training exercise, and is
based around a fictitious scenario designed to test the ability of
Stratcom and its component forces to deter a military attack against
the US. Hundreds of military personnel are involved. [Collins Center, 12/99; Times-Picayune, 9/8/02; Committee on Armed Services, 2000]
According
to a 1998 Internet article by the British American Security Information
Council?an independent research organization?Global Guardian is held in
October or November each year. [BASIC, 10/98]
In his book Code Names, NBC News military analyst William Arkin dates this exercise for October 22-31, 2001.
[Arkin, 2005, pp 379]
And a military newspaper reported in March 2001 that Global Guardian was scheduled for October 2001.
[Space Observer, 3/23/01, pp 2]
If
this is correct, then some time after March, the exercise must have
been rescheduled for early September. Furthermore, there may be another
important facet to Global Guardian. A 1998 Defense Department
newsletter reported that for several years Stratcom had been
incorporating a computer network attack (CNA) into Global Guardian. The
attack involved Stratcom ?red team? members and other organizations
acting as enemy agents, and included attempts to penetrate the Command
using the Internet and a ?bad? insider who had access to a key command
and control system. The attackers ?war dialed? the phones to tie them
up and sent faxes to numerous fax machines throughout the Command. They
also claimed they were able to shut down Stratcom's systems.
Reportedly, Stratcom planned to increase the level of computer network
attack in future Global Guardian exercises. [IAnewsletter, 6/98]
It
is not currently known if a computer attack was incorporated into
Global Guardian in 2001 or what its possible effects on the country's
air defense system would have been if such an attack was part of the
exercise.
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USA
Today reports that at this time, ?a joint FBI/CIA anti-terrorist task
force that specifically prepared for this type of disaster? is on a
?training exercise in Monterey, Calif.? Consequently, ?as of late
Tuesday, with airports closed around the country, the task force still
[hasn]'t found a way to fly back to Washington.? [USA Today, 9/11/01]
The
US politics website evote.com adds that the FBI has deployed ?all of
its anti-terrorist and top special operations agents at a training
exercise (complete with all associated helicopters and light aircraft)
in Monterey, California.? So at the time of the attacks, ?the chief
federal agency responsible for preventing such crimes [is] being AWOL.?
[Evote [.com], 9/11/01]
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At
Fort Belvoir, an army base 10 miles south of the Pentagon, Lt. Col.
Mark R. Lindon is conducting a ?garrison control exercise? when the
9/11 attacks begin. The object of this exercise is to ?test the
security at the base in case of a terrorist attack.? Lindon later says,
?I was out checking on the exercise and heard about the World Trade
Center on my car radio. As soon as it was established that this was no
accident, we went to a complete security mode.? Staff Sgt. Mark
Williams of the Military District of Washington Engineer Company at
Fort Belvoir also later says: ?Ironically, we were conducting classes
about rescue techniques when we were told of the planes hitting the
World Trade Center.? Williams' team is one of the first response groups
to arrive at the site of the Pentagon crash and one of the first to
enter the building following the attack. [Connection Newspapers, 9/5/02]
A previous MASCAL (mass casualty) training exercise was held at Fort Belvoir a little over two months earlier (see July 2001).
It was ?designed to enhance the first ready response in dealing with
the effects of a terrorist incident involving an explosion.? [MDW News Service, 7/5/01]
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At
the time of the first WTC crash, three F-16s assigned to Andrews Air
Force Base, ten miles from Washington, are flying an air-to-ground
training mission to drop some bombs and hit a refueling tanker, on a
range in North Carolina, 207 miles away from their base. However, it is
only when they are halfway back to Andrews that lead pilot Major Billy
Hutchison is able to talk to the acting supervisor of flying at
Andrews, Lt. Col. Phil Thompson, who tells him to return to the base
?buster? (as fast as his aircraft will fly). After landing back at
Andrews, Hutchison is told to take off immediately, and does so at
10:33 a.m. The other two pilots, Marc Sasseville and Heather Penney,
take off from Andrews at 10:42 a.m., after having their planes loaded
with 20mm training rounds. These three pilots will therefore not be
patrolling the skies above Washington until after about 10:45 a.m. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/02; Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, p. 56]
F-16s can travel at a maximum speed of 1,500 mph.
[Associated Press, 6/16/00]
Traveling
even at 1,100 mph (the speed NORAD Major General Larry Arnold says two
fighters from Massachusetts travel toward Flight 175 [MSNBC, 9/23/01 (C); Slate, 1/16/02]
),
at least one of these F-16s could have returned from North Carolina to
Washington within ten minutes and started patrolling the skies well
before 9:00 a.m.
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Barksdale
Air Force Base in Louisiana is an important node in the US Strategic
Command (Stratcom) exercise Global Guardian (see 8:30 a.m.)
on 9/11. Colonel Mike Reese, director of staff for the 8th Air Force,
is monitoring several television screens at the base as part of the
exercise when he sees CNN cut into coverage of the first World Trade
Center crash, two minutes after it happens. He watches live when the
second plane hits the World Trade Center at 9:03 a.m. Reese says that
at this point, ?we knew it wasn't a mistake. Something grave was
happening that put the nation's security at risk.? An article in the
New Orleans Times-Picayune later recounts how awareness of the real
attacks impacts those participating in the exercise: ?Immediately [the
Barksdale staff's] focus turned to defense, securing Barksdale, Minot
[North Dakota], and Whiteman [Missouri] air force bases, where dozens
of aircraft and hundreds of personnel were involved in the readiness
exercise ?Global Guardian.? The exercise abruptly ended as the United
States appeared to be at war within its own borders. Four A-10s, an
aircraft not designed for air-to-air combat, from Barksdale's 47th
Fighter Squadron, were placed on ?cockpit alert,? the highest state of
readiness for fighter pilots. Within five minutes, the A-10s, equipped
only with high intensity cannons, could have been launched to destroy
unfriendly aircraft, even if it was a civilian passenger airliner.? Lt.
Col. Edmund Walker, commander of the 47th Fighter Squadron, a novice
pilot still in training, is sitting in his fighter along with other
pilots in other fighters, ready to take off, when they are ordered back
to the squadron office. They are told they are no longer practicing.
Walker recalls, ?We had to defend the base against any aircraft,
airliner or civilian. We had no idea. Would it fly to the base and
crash into the B-52s or A-10s on the flight line?? [Times-Picayune, 9/8/02]
When
President Bush's Air Force One takes off from Sarasota, Florida, at
approximately 9:55 a.m., it has no destination, and circles over
Florida aimlessly. But around 10:35 (see (10:35 a.m.)), it begins heading towards Barksdale Air Force Base.
[CBS News, 9/11/02; Washington Post, 1/27/02]
It finally arrives at Barksdale around 11:45 a.m.
[Daily Telegraph, 12/16/01; CBS News, 9/11/02]
It's
never been explained exactly why Bush traveled from Florida to
Barksdale. The Daily Telegraph has reported, ?The official reason for
landing at Barksdale was that President Bush felt it necessary to make
a further statement, but it isn't unreasonable to assume that?as there
was no agreement as to what the President's movements should be?it was
felt he might as well be on the ground as in the air.? [Daily Telegraph, 12/16/01]
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Staff
at Fort Monmouth, an Army base in New Jersey located about 50 miles
south of New York City, is preparing to hold a ?disaster drill? to test
emergency response capabilities to a fake chemical attack. The
exercise, called Timely Alert II, is to involve various law enforcement
agencies and emergency personnel, including Fort Monmouth firefighters
and members of the New Jersey State Police. Personnel are to be
deployed and measures taken as in a real emergency. A notice has been
sent out, warning that anyone not conducting official business will be
turned away from Fort Monmouth during the exercise. Soon after 9 a.m.,
the exercise director tells a group of participating volunteers that a
hijacked plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. The
participants pretend to be upset, believing this is just part of the
simulation. When they see the live televised footage of the WTC
attacks, some people at the base think it is an elaborate training
video to accompany the exercise. One worker tells a fire department
training officer: ?You really outdid yourself this time.?
Interestingly, the follow-up exercise held in July 2002 (Timely Alert
III) does incorporate simulated television news reports to give
participants the impression that the emergency is real. And in the
first Timely Alert exercise, held on the base in January 2001, a call
had come through of a supposed ?real? bomb situation, but this
?fortunately turned out to be a report related to a training aid being
used during the exercise.? On 9/11, Fort Monmouth is geared to go into
high-alert status as part of Timely Alert II. The exercise is called
off once the base is alerted to the real attacks. [Monmouth Message, 2/9/01; Hub, 9/21/01; Monmouth Message, 9/21/01; Asbury Park Press, 7/24/02; Monmouth Message, 8/23/02; US Army CECOM, 8/03; Monmouth Message, 9/12/03]
Fort
Monmouth is home to various Army, Defense Department, and other
government agencies. The largest of these is the US Army's
Communications-Electronics Command (CECOM). CECOM serves to ?develop,
acquire, field, and sustain superior information technologies and
integrated systems for America's warfighters.? It is tasked with the
?critical role of command, control, communications, computers,
intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance (C4ISR).? [CECOM website, 4/17/02; GlobalSecurity [.org], 8/02/04; CECOM brochure, 1/03]
Fort
Monmouth services also directly assist in the emergency response later
in the day. Its fire department deploys to Atlantic Highlands to assist
passengers coming from Manhattan by ferry, and members of its Patterson
Army Health Clinic are also sent out to help. Teams of CECOM experts
from the base are later deployed to ground zero in New York with
equipment capable of locating cellular phone transmissions within the
ruins of the collapsed World Trade Center. Its explosive ordnance
company is also deployed to assist authorities should they come across
anything they think might be explosives, while digging through the
debris in search of victims. [Hub, 9/21/01 (B); Monmouth Message, 9/21/01]
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Admiral Richard Mies.
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Offutt
Air Force Base, near Omaha, Nebraska, appears to be the headquarters of
the US Strategic Command (Stratcom) exercise Global Guardian that is
?in full swing? when the 9/11 attacks begin. At least the director of
the exercise, Admiral Richard Mies, commander in chief of Stratcom, is
at Offutt this morning. [Omaha World-Herald, 9/10/02]
Because
of Global Guardian, bombers, missile crews, and submarines around
America are all being directed from Stratcom's Command Center, a steel
and concrete reinforced bunker below Offutt. [Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists, 11/12/97; Associated Press, 2/21/02 (B); Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/02; BBC, 9/1/02; Omaha World-Herald, 9/10/02]
This bunker is staffed with top personnel and they are at a heightened security mode because of the exercise.
[Associated Press, 2/21/02 (B); Air Force Weather Observer, 7/02]
Because
of Global Guardian, three special military command aircraft with
sophisticated communications equipment, based at Offutt, are up in the
air the morning of 9/11. These E-4B National Airborne Operations Center
planes?nicknamed ?Doomsday? planes during the Cold War?are intended to
control nuclear forces from the air in times of crisis. They are
capable of acting as alternative command posts for top government
officials from where they can direct US forces, execute war orders and
coordinate the actions of civil authorities in times of national
emergency. The Federal Advisory Committee (whose chairman is retired
Lt. Gen. Brent Scowcroft) is aboard one of these Doomsday planes, being
brought to Offutt to observe the exercise. Media accounts indicate
Global Guardian is cancelled at Offutt shortly after the second WTC
tower is hit (at 9:03 a.m.), with staff switching to ?real-world mode.?
[Defense Department, 1/9/02; Air Force Weather Observer, 7/02; Omaha World-Herald, 9/8/02]
However, even after Global Guardian is called off, the three E-4Bs remain airborne.
[Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/02; BBC, 9/1/02]
Also,
the morning of 9/11, a small group of business leaders are at Offutt
Air Force Base for a charity fundraiser event due to take place there
later in the day, hosted by the multi-billionaire Warren Buffett. When
the attacks begin, these visitors are having breakfast with Admiral
Mies, the director of Global Guardian. After the second WTC tower is
hit, Mies excuses himself from the group, presumably to assist in
canceling the exercise. [San Francisco Business Times, 2/1/02; Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/02; Omaha World-Herald, 9/10/02]
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An
?emergency response exercise? is scheduled to take place at 9 a.m. the
morning of 9/11, involving the simulated crash of a small corporate jet
plane into a government building. The exercise is to be conducted by
the National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) in Chantilly, Virginia?just
four miles from Washington Dulles International Airport, from where
Flight 77 took off, and 24 miles from the Pentagon. The NRO draws its
personnel from the CIA and the military. The exercise is to involve the
jet experiencing mechanical problems then crashing into one of the four
towers at the NRO. In order to simulate the damage from the crash, some
stairwells and exits are to be closed off, forcing NRO employees to
find other ways to evacuate the building. However, according to an
agency spokesman, ?as soon as the real world events began, we cancelled
the exercise.? After the attacks, most of the agency's 3,000 staff are
supposedly sent home. [National Law Enforcement and Security Institute, 8/6/02; Associated Press, 8/21/02; UPI, 8/22/02]
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A
team in the 102nd Fighter Wing at Otis Air National Guard Base, Cape
Cod, Massachusetts, finishes loading dummy missiles onto two fighters
that are going to fly a training mission over the Atlantic. They take
off sometime before the second WTC tower is hit. Shortly after that
hit, the fighters on the training mission are recalled. The implication
is that the fighters are then refitted with actual weapons instead of
dummy ones. [Cape Cod Times, 9/8/02]
Otis is the base from which the two F-15s launch in response to the first hijacking (Flight 11) at roughly the same time.
[9/11 Commission Report, 6/17/04]
One of the pilots of these F-15s?nicknamed ?Nasty?
?is reportedly standing in for the usual ?alert? pilot, who is ?scheduled for training? on 9/11.
[Cape Cod Times, 8/21/02]
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NORAD
Commander Larry Arnold later says that after Flight 175 hits the South
Tower, ?I thought it might be prudent to pull out of the exercise
[presumably Vigilant Guardian (see (6:30 a.m.))],
which we did.? He says: ?As we pulled out of the exercise we were
getting calls about United Flight 93 and we were worried about that.?
Some early accounts say the military receives notification of the
possible hijacking of Flight 93 at around 9:16 a.m. [CNN, 9/17/01; 9/11 Commission Report, 5/23/03]
However, the 9/11 Commission later claims that the military first receives a call about Flight 93 at 10:07 a.m.
[9/11 Commission Report, 6/17/04]
Larry
Arnold adds, ?Then we had another call from Boston Center about a
possible hijacking, but that turned out to be the airplane that had
already hit the South Tower but we didn't know that at the time.? [Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, pp 59]
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According
to the 9/11 Commission, ?During the course of the morning, there were
multiple erroneous reports of hijacked aircraft in the system.? [9/11 Commission Report, 6/17/04]
Around
9:09 a.m., the FAA Command Center reports that 11 aircraft are either
not communicating with FAA facilities or flying unexpected routes. [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02]
NORAD's
Major General Larry Arnold claims that during the ?four-hour ordeal? of
the attacks, a total of 21 planes are identified as possible
hijackings. [Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, p. 71; Code One magazine, 1/02]
Robert
Marr, head of NEADS on 9/11, says, ?At one time I was told that across
the nation there were some 29 different reports of hijackings.? [Newhouse News Service, 3/31/05]
It
is later claimed that these false reports cause considerable chaos.
Larry Arnold says that particularly during the time between the
Pentagon being hit at 9:37 and Flight 93 going down at around 10:06, ?a
number of aircraft are being called possibly hijacked ? There was a lot
of confusion, as you can imagine.? [Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, pp 73]
He
says, ?We were receiving many reports of hijacked aircraft. When we
received those calls, we might not know from where the aircraft had
departed. We also didn't know the location of the airplane.? [Code One magazine, 1/02]
According
to Robert Marr, ?There were a number of false reports out there. What
was valid? What was a guess? We just didn't know.? [Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, pp 73]
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According
to former counterterrorism ?tsar? Richard Clarke, around this time the
acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers tells him
via video link: ?We are in the middle of Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD
exercise, but ... Otis [Air National Guard Base] has launched two birds
toward New York.? [Clarke, 2004, pp 5]
However,
no other references have been found to this exercise, ?Vigilant
Warrior.? Considering that exercise terms are ?normally an unclassified
nickname,? [CJCSM, 4/23/98]
this is perhaps a little odd. Could Richard Clarke have mistakenly been referring to the Vigilant Guardian exercise (see (6:30 a.m.)),
which is taking place on 9/11? According to a later news report though,
NORAD confirms that ?it was running two mock drills on Sept. 11 at
various radar sites and Command Centers in the United States and
Canada,? one of these being Vigilant Guardian. [New Jersey Star-Ledger, 12/5/03]
If
this is correct then there must be another NORAD exercise on 9/11. If
not ?Vigilant Warrior,? a possibility is that the exercise referred to
by Richard Clarke is in fact ?Amalgam Warrior,? which is a
NORAD-sponsored, large-scale, live-fly air defense and air intercept
field training exercise. Amalgam Warrior usually involves two or more
NORAD regions and is held twice yearly, in the spring for the West
Coast and in the autumn for the East Coast. [Airman, 1996; GlobalSecurity [.org], 4/14/02; Committee on Armed Services, 2000; Arkin, 2005, pp 254]
Is it possible that in 2001 the East Coast Amalgam Warrior is being held earlier than usual (like Global Guardian (see 8:30 a.m.))
and is taking place on 9/11? In support of this possibility is a 1997
Defense Department report that describes the Stratcom exercise Global
Guardian, saying it ?links with other exercise activities sponsored by
the Chairman, Joint Chiefs of Staff, and the Unified Commands.? The
exercises it links with are Crown Vigilance (an Air Combat Command
exercise), Apollo Guardian (a US Space Command exercise),
and?significantly?the NORAD exercises Vigilant Guardian and Amalgam
Warrior. [Defense Department, 5/97; GlobalSecurity [.org], 10/10/02]
Since in 2001, Vigilant Guardian (see (6:30 a.m.))
is occurring the same time as Global Guardian, might Amalgam Warrior be
as well? In his book Code Names, William Arkin says that Amalgam
Warrior is ?sometimes combined with Global Guardian.? [Arkin, 2005, pp 254]
Amalgam
Warrior tests such activities as tracking, surveillance, air
interception, employing rules of engagement, attack assessment,
electronic warfare, and counter-cruise-missile operations. A previous
Amalgam Warrior in 1996 involved such situations as tracking unknown
aircraft that had incorrectly filed their flight plans or wandered off
course, in-flight emergencies, terrorist aircraft attacks, and
large-scale bomber strike missions. Amalgam Warrior 98-1 was NORAD's
largest ever exercise and involved six B-1B bombers being deployed to
Eielson Air Force Base, Alaska, to act as an enemy threat by
infiltrating the aerial borders of North America. [Airman, 1/96; GlobalSecurity [.org], 4/14/02; Arkin, 2005, pp 254]
Another
Amalgam Warrior in fall 2000 similarly involved four B-1 bombers acting
as enemy forces trying to invade Alaska, with NORAD going from tracking
the unknown aircraft to sending up ?alert? F-15s in response. [Eielson News Service, 10/27/00; Associated Press, 10/29/00]
If
either one (or both) of these exercises ending with the name ?Warrior?
is taking place on 9/11, this could be very significant, because the
word ?Warrior? indicates that the exercise is a Joint Chiefs of
Staff-approved, Commander in Chief, NORAD-sponsored field training
exercise. [NORAD, 8/25/89]
Real planes would be pretending to be threats to the US and real fighters would be deployed to defend against them.
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At
the Education Center at Fort Myer, an army base 1.5 miles northwest of
the Pentagon, the base's firefighters are undertaking training
variously described as ?an airport rescue firefighters class?; ?an
aircraft crash refresher class?; ?a week-long class on Air Field Fire
Fighting?; and a ?training exercise in airport emergency operations.?
Despite hearing of the first WTC crash during a break, with no access
to a TV, the class simply continues with its training. According to
Bruce Surette, who is attending the session: ?We had heard some radio
transmissions from some other units in Arlington about how they thought
they had a plane down here or a plane down there. So you're thinking,
?Hey this could be real.? But it really didn't strike home as being
real until our guy came on the radio and said where the plane crash
was.? The Fort Myer firefighters then immediately head for the
Pentagon, arriving there at 9:40 a.m., only three minutes after it is
hit, and participate in the firefighting and rescue effort there. The
fire station at the Pentagon heliport is actually operated by the Fort
Myer Fire Department, and is manned on the morning of 9/11 by three
Fort Myer firefighters who have already undertaken the airfield
firefighting training. [MDW News Service, 10/4/01; Pentagram, 11/2/01; JEMS, 4/02; Arlington County After-Action Report, 7/02; First Due News, 4/1703]
The
Fort Myer military community, which includes Fort Myer and Fort Lesley
J. McNair?another army base, just two miles east of the Pentagon?was
scheduled to hold a ?force protection exercise? the week after 9/11.
However this has been cancelled, so just prior to the attacks the
morning of September 11, ?some of its participants [are] breathing a
sigh of relief.? [Pentagram, 9/14/01]
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While
President Bush is still in Sarasota, an AWACS (Airborne Warning and
Control System plane) is flying a training mission off the coast of
Florida. Referring to the AWACS plane, NORAD Commander Larry Arnold
later says: ?I had set up an arrangement with their wing commander at
Tinker [Air Force Base, Oklahoma] some months earlier for us to divert
their AWACS off a normal training mission to go into an exercise
scenario simulating an attack on the United States. The AWACS crew
initially thought we were going into one of those simulations.? Another
AWACS is also flying a training mission, near Washington, DC, the
morning of 9/11. [Code One magazine, 1/02]
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Two
F-16s from the 147th Fighter Wing, Ellington Air National Guard Base,
Texas, are said to be already airborne on a local training mission when
they are instructed to escort Air Force One after it departs Sarasota,
Florida, with President Bush on board. [American Defender, 12/01; Code One magazine, 1/02]
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Having left Barksdale Air Force Base, Louisiana at around 1:30 p.m. (see (1:30 p.m.)),
Air Force One lands at Offutt Air Force Base near Omaha, Nebraska.
President Bush stays on the plane for about ten minutes before entering
the United States Strategic Command bunker at 3:06 p.m. [Daily Telegraph, 12/16/01; Salon, 9/12/01 (B)]
Offutt
Air Force Base appears to be the headquarters of the US Strategic
Command (Stratcom) exercise Global Guardian that was ?in full swing? at
the time the attacks began (see 8:30 a.m.).
While there, the president spends time in the underground Command
Center from where Global Guardian was earlier being directed, being
brought up to date on the attacks and their aftermath. [Daily Telegraph, 12/16/01; Omaha World-Herald, 2/27/02; Washington Times, 10/8/02]
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Fort
Myer and Fort Lesley J. McNair, both within two miles of the Pentagon,
implement ?full access control,? which means they increase the level of
military police surveillance of those who enter them. These measures,
being taken throughout the US Army, allow commanders to know who is
entering their installations 24 hours a day and adjust their security
measures immediately as needed. [MDW News Service, 8/3/01]
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NORAD
plans for the Amalgam Virgo 2 exercise. The exercise, scheduled for
June 2002, involves two simultaneous commercial aircraft hijackings.
One, a Delta 757, with actual Delta pilots and actors posing as
passengers, will fly from Salt Lake City, Utah, to Honolulu, Hawaii. It
will be ?hijacked? by FBI agents posing as terrorists. The other will
be a DC-9 hijacked by Canadian police near Vancouver, British Columbia.
US and Canadian fighters are to respond and attempt to escort the
hijacked planes to airfields in British Columbia and Alaska. But they
possibly could ?mock? shoot down the aircraft. [USA Today, 4/18/04; CNN, 6/4/02 (B); American Forces Press Service, 6/4/02]
USA
Today will note that this is an exception to NORAD's claim that the
agency focused only on external threats to the US and did not consider
the possibility of threats arising from within the US. [USA Today, 4/18/04]
9/11
Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste will similarly comment that this
planned exercise shows that despite frequent comments to the contrary,
the military considered simultaneous hijackings before 9/11. [9/11 Commission Report, 5/23/03]
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According
to an FBI official interviewed by journalist Seymour Hersh, for several
years prior to 9/11, the US government reportedly plans for ?simulated
terrorist attacks, including scenarios [involving] multiple-plane
hijackings.? This presumably refers to more than just the Amalgam Virgo
02 (see Before September 11, 2001) exercise, which is based on the scenario of two planes being simultaneously hijacked.
[New Yorker, 9/24/01]
Similarly,
NORAD will tell USA Today that before 9/11, it normally conducted four
major exercises each year at headquarters level. Most of them include a
hijack scenario, the newspaper reports [USA Today, 4/18/04]
, and some of them were apparently quite similar to the 9/11 attacks (see Between 1991 and 2001)
(see 1999-September 11, 2001).
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Dawne Deskins.
 |
Lieutenant
Colonel Dawne Deskins and other day shift employees at NEADS start
their workday. NORAD is conducting a weeklong, large-scale exercise
called Vigilant Guardian. [Newhouse News Service, 1/25/02]
Deskins is regional mission crew chief for the Vigilant Guardian exercise.
[ABC News, 9/11/02]
Vigilant
Guardian is described as ?an exercise that would pose an imaginary
crisis to North American Air Defense outposts nationwide?; as a
?simulated air war?; and as ?an air defense exercise simulating an
attack on the United States.? According to the 9/11 Commission, it
?postulated a bomber attack from the former Soviet Union.? [Newhouse News, 1/25/02; Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, pp 55 and 122; 9/11 Commission Final Report, 7/04, pp 458]
Vigilant Guardian is described as being held annually, and is one of NORAD's four major annual exercises.
[GlobalSecurity [.org] Vigilant Guardian page, 4/14/02; Air War Over America, by Leslie Filson, 1/04, pp 41; Code Names, by William M. Arkin, 1/05, pp 545]
However, another report says it takes place semi-annually.
[Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02]
Accounts by participants vary on whether 9/11 was the second, third, or fourth day of the exercise.
[Newhouse News Service, 1/25/02; Ottawa Citizen, 9/11/02; Code One Magazine, 1/02]
Vigilant
Guardian is a command post exercise (CPX), and in at least some
previous years was conducted in conjunction with Stratcom's Global
Guardian exercise and a US Space Command exercise called Apollo
Guardian. [Committee on Armed Services, undated; GlobalSecurity [.org] Vigilant Guardian page, 4/14/02; Code Names, by William M. Arkin, 1/05, pp 545]
All of NORAD is participating in Vigilant Guardian on 9/11.
[Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02]
At
NEADS, most of the dozen or so staff on the operations floor have no
idea what the exercise is going to entail and are ready for anything. [Utica Observer-Dispatch, 8/5/04]
NORAD
is also running a real-world operation named Operation Northern
Vigilance. NORAD is thus fully staffed and alert, and senior officers
are manning stations throughout the US. The entire chain of command is
in place and ready when the first hijacking is reported. An article
later says, ?In retrospect, the exercise would prove to be a
serendipitous enabler of a rapid military response to terrorist attacks
on September 11.? [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02; Bergen Record, 12/5/03]
Colonel
Robert Marr, in charge of NEADS, says, ?We had the fighters with a
little more gas on board. A few more weapons on board.? [ABC News, 9/11/02]
However,
Deskins and other NORAD officials later are initially confused about
whether the 9/11 attacks are real or part of the exercise. There is a
National Reconnaissance Office exercise planned to occur as well (see 9:00 a.m.), involving a scenario of an airplane as a flying weapon.
[Associated Press, 8/21/02; UPI, 8/22/02]
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