The 9 11 Commission Report Omissions And - Amazon Noir

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220 THE 9/11 COMMISSION REPORT: OMISSIONS ANI) DISTORTIONS was headed
towards the Pentagon. But another account, provided by Secretary of
Transportation Norman Mineta, suggests that Vice President Cheney, at
least, had direct knowledge of such an aircraft. As we saw earlier,
Mineta said, in his testimony before the 9/11 Commission on May 23,
2003, that he arrived at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center,
where Vice President Cheney was in charge, at 9:20. During Mineta's
testimony, he described the following episode: During the time that the
airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would
come in and say to the Vice President, "The plane is 50 miles out." "The
plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to "the plane is 10 miles
out," the young man also said to the Vice President, "Do the orders
still stand?" And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around
and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to
the contrary?"31 When asked by Commissioner Timothy Roemer how long this
conversation occurred after he arrived, Mineta said: "Probably about
five or six minutes," which, as Roemer pointed out, would mean "about
9:25 or 9:26." With regard to what "the orders" referred to, Mineta
assumed that they were orders to have the plane shot down. There are,
however, three problems with Mineta's assumption. In the first place,
this interpretation would imply that Cheney had given shoot- down
authorization at some time before 9:25, which is much earlier, as we
will see below, than even Clarke says. Second, Mineta's interpretation
would not fit with the subsequent facts, because the aircraft headed
towards the Pentagon was not shot down. Third, Mineta's interpretation
would not make the episode intelligible. Had aircraft approaching the
Pentagon? The 9/ 11 Commission could have played an important role in
answering such questions and clearing up this controversy. It could have
subpoenaed all the videos taken by the Pentagon's outdoor security
cameras during the relevant time period. It could have also subpoenaed
videos from the nearby Sheraton Hotel and Virginia's Department of
Transportation. The Commission could also have looked into a story that
the FBI confiscated a video from a nearby gas station immediately after
the strike on the Pentagon. According to this story, published ill the
Richmond limes ten days later,