9/11 conspiracy: why were no fighters scrambled
A lot of conspiracy theorists have argued that no fighters were scrambled to intercept the hijacked airliners on 9/11-01. In fact, fighters were dispatched, but too late to reach any of the planes. Michael Meacher is at least reasonably well updated on these facts, so to build a case he begins with a very deceptive presentation of the facts.
All of this makes it all the more astonishing - on the war on terrorism perspective - that there was such slow reaction on September 11 itself. The first hijacking was suspected at not later than 8.20am, and the last hijacked aircraft crashed in Pennsylvania at 10.06am. Not a single fighter plane was scrambled to investigate from the US Andrews airforce base, just 10 miles from Washington DC, until after the third plane had hit the Pentagon at 9.38 am. Why not? There were standard FAA intercept procedures for hijacked aircraft before 9/11. Between September 2000 and June 2001 the US military launched fighter aircraft on 67 occasions to chase suspicious aircraft (AP, August 13 2002). It is a US legal requirement that once an aircraft has moved significantly off its flight plan, fighter planes are sent up to investigate.
Note how Meacher concentrates on a single airport, and only on the plane that hit Pentagon outside Washington DC. A casual reader will be given the impression that no fighters were scrambled anywhere, which is false. If you look at this timeline of the events on that fateful day, you can easily see how his above presentation is deceptive.
It is true that NORAD was warned about the hijacking of the flights that hit the World Trade Center, both taking off from Boston, long before dispatching aircraft near Washington DC. But that is beside the point, as at that time there was no known threat to the capital area, only to New York.
--8:38 a.m.: Boston air traffic center notifies NORAD that American Airlines flight 11 has been hijacked.
--8:43 a.m.: FAA notifies NORAD that United Airlines flight 175 has been hijacked.
--8:44 a.m.: Otis Air National Guard Base in Mass. orders to fighters scrambled.
--8:46 a.m.: American Airlines flight 11 strikes the World Trade Center's north tower.
At this time, flight 77 has just left Dulles in DC (8:22), and is probably not yet hijacked. So why should craft then have been dispatched around Washington DC? That happens some time later.
--9:25 a.m.: FAA notifies NORAD that United flight 77 may have been hijacked.
--9:27 a.m.: (approximate time) NORAD orders jets scrambled from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia to head to intercept United Airlines flight 77.
--9:35 a.m.: Three F-16 Fighting Falcons take off from Langley AFB headed toward Washington area.
--9:37 a.m.: American Airlines flight 77 is lost from radar screens.
--9:38 a.m.: American Airlines flight 77 strikes the Pentagon.
As we can see, there was too short a warning to intercept the flight that hit the Pentagon. Ten minutes after the plane hit the building, F16s were in place over the capital. At this time, nobody knew how many hijacked planes were in the air.
Indeed, in his deceptive account Meacher trusts the reader to be unaware of the exact timeline, and he makes it sound like there was a several hour delay from a plane was hijacked until any fighters were even scrambled. Meacher is also inaccurate with his times.
Based on this deceptive presentation, he starts speculating:
Was this inaction simply the result of key people disregarding, or being ignorant of, the evidence? Or could US air security operations have been deliberately stood down on September 11? If so, why, and on whose authority?
As we have seen, it was not a particularly long delay from NORAD was notified until fighters were in the air. As we all know, unfortunately there was little chance of intercepting the hijacked planes (and if fighters did intercept, the only option would have been to shoot the commercial airliners down, a very uncomfortable idea indeed, and no doubt one that conspiracy nuts would have a field day with).
Meacher jumps from his own distortions into atrocious speculations. Is he seriously arguing that people at air traffic centers, NORAD itself, members of the air force have been ordered by top members of the Bush adminstration to "step down" the defences? Is he further thinking that after 3000+ of their countrymen are brutally murdered, the hundreds of people, dedicated to their jobs and their country, would keep mum about the worst and most murderous conspiracy ever on American soil, and all for the sake of oil contracts and a pipeline?
There is a saying, two people can keep a secret if one of them is dead. Grand conspiracy theories all rely on potentially dangerous information being kept hidden by hundreds of people, few of whom would have any personal interest in keeping the facts hidden in the first place.
9:02:47 PM 
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