The American Empire and 9/11 - Journal of 9/11 Studies

account). But in addition to the evidence that Cheney hadbeen in the PEOC since about 9:15, we also have evidence---including statements from Richard Clarke, who was thenational coordinator for security and counterterrorism, andColonel Robert Marr, the head of NORAD’s northeast sector(NEADS) 66 ---that Cheney’s shoot-down order was issued wellbefore 10:00. 67The 9/11 Commission’s obvious lies about Cheney’sactivities give reason to suspect that it, under theleadership of Philip Zelikow, was trying to conceal Cheney’sresponsibility for the Pentagon strike and the downing ofFlight 93. 68Incidentally, although Michael Bronner’s aforementionedarticle and the movie United 93, on which he worked, wereobviously intended to bolster the official account aboutthis flight, they do not refute the conclusion that thisaccount is false. For one thing, the cell phone calls, whichplay a central role in the drama, were technologicallyimpossible in 2001. 69 Moreover, Major General Larry Arnold,66 Clarke reports that he received the authorization from Cheney shortlyafter 9:45, when the evacuation of the White House began (Against AllEnemies: Inside America’s War on Terror [New York: Free Press, 2004], 7-8). According to James Bamford and an ABC News program entitled “9/11”(September 11, 2002), Colonel Marr, after receiving Cheney’s shoot-downorder, “sent out word to air traffic controllers to instruct fighterpilots to destroy the United jetliner” (Bamford, A Pretext for War [NewYork: Doubleday, 2004], 65-66).67 See Griffin, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions,237-40.68 Why exactly the military and the White House denied shooting downFlight 93, rather than taking credit for preventing a second attack onWashington, is unclear. But the very fact that they have steadfastlydenied shooting down Flight 93 suggests that this was a criminal act,which needed to be covered up.69 See Michel Chossudovsky, “More Holes in the Official Story: The 9/11Cell Phone Calls,” Aug. 10, 2004[http://globalresearch.ca/articles/CHO408B.html]) and A. K. Dewdney,“The Cellphone and Airfone Calls from Flight UA93,” Physics 911(http://physics911.net/cellphoneflight93.htm). However, the technologyof “voice morphing,” through which the calls could have been faked, wassufficiently developed at the time, as explained in a 1999 article byWilliam Arkin (“When Seeing and Hearing Isn’t Believing,” Washington23