The 9 11 Commission Report Omissions And - Amazon Noir

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CHAPTER THREE 35 one would have no idea that these problems exist. All
these inconvenient facts are simply omitted. One can fully understand
why the Commission, if it was intent on defending the official account
of the Pentagon strike, would not have wanted to discuss these
embarrassing facts. But if the Commission's task was to give "the
fullest possible account" of the "facts and circumstances" relating to
9/ 11 in an "independent, impartial" way, the Commission had a duty to
mention these facts, however embarrassing they might be to those who
have promulgated the official account. How might the Kean-Zelikow
Commission have defended the official theory while mentioning the fact
that the photographs show no airliner? One possibility would have been
to endorse what has passed for the official explanation, according to
which the entire plane went inside the Pentagon. This is perhaps the
theory that the Commission implicitly endorses. But this theory faces
difficulties. One is the fact that it must simply ignore Corporal
Ingersoll's photograph, which shows that the hole was far too small for
a Boeing 757 to have gone inside. Another difficulty involves the
testimony of Ed Plaugher, the county fire chief who was in charge of
putting out the Pentagon fire. At a press conference the next day, he
was asked whether anything was left of the airplane. He replied that
there were "some small pieces