In article <br9lrh$19ka$1@pencil.math.missouri.edu>, Mark Graffis says...

From: "Will Thomas" <rwt@telus.net>
Subject: 911 Smoking Gun - The story they don't want you to read!
Date: 5 Dec 2003

Dear friends and others,

You have in your hands the genuine, US government-signed and issued
smoking gun of 911.

Now you know how I felt when this NORAD news release crossed my desk
late one night in a blur of too many late nights.  Like an overlooked
explosive device emplaced just a week after Sept. 11, this little gem
blew up as soon as I scanned it.  Holy smokes!  Woke me right up: a
statement by the Pentagon saying basically that they had deliberately
let it happen.

"Stand down" is militareze for "put down your weapons".  Which is
exactly what happened on a day that traumatized a nation of
somnambulists into welcoming their own police state.

I can't think of a more accurate description for Patriot 1 and Patriot
II, the Guantanamo gulag, surrogate Syrian torture chambers, airport
"watch lists" - and soon-to-be-introduced by the grandson of the man who
financed Hitler - scanning of mandatory ID cards (or "more convenient"
implanted VeriChipsb") for all purchases and police requests.

At least, for those they let out of the camps.

Am I really saying this?  Haven't I spent countless hours on talk radio
trying to calm hysterical Americans who see a NATO tank around every
street corner?  After all, I've lived under martial law in Milwaukee,
while the ghetto burned to the nighttime accompaniment of shotgun blasts
and automatic weapons back in '67.

Martial law is very nuts.  Since everyone gets the democratic choice of
staying inside during curfew - or getting shot - everything stops.
Parking all those cars may be good for global warming.  But it's hell on
businesses and wage earners.  (Just ask a Palestinian.)  Imposing
military law indefinitely basically crashes the economy.  Not to mention
- at least in the Excited States where everyone owns at least 15 guns -
risking civil war when all those yahoos, rednecks, militias, whackos and
paranoids are proven right.

What I hadn't reckoned on is the massive and mounting desperation
tightening like a noose around a gang of seriously psychotic paranoids
watching the wheels come off their war wagon.

It's not looking good in "Eyerack".  Or Afghanistan.  Or Illinois, for
that matter.  Pick your state.  The whole country's tanking.
Washington's weapons debt is poking another hole in the stratosphere,
both poles are melting, cheap oil is about to run out - hell, why not
pull the plug on pretenses and just get down and RULE by naked
intimidation and force?

Don't look at me.  I'm only a reporter repeating what General Tommy
Franks said a few days ago.  Flying a trial balloon above swiftly
gathering darkness, the Desert Stormtrooper stated that it would take
just one more "big attack" on Americans to "suspend the Constitution"
and bring in "a military government."

Say what?

In a statement heard round the world and hardly at all in the land of
the free, Franks managed to make martial law sound, if not reasonable,
at least inevitable.

And imminent.

Which snaps NORAD's admission below into even sharper focus - by
confirming the Sept. 11 installment of a silent coup that took place in
Dallas over Kennedy's dead body, warned would-be resisters not to resist
by murdering a dozen or so children at Waco, then really got ruthless at
Oklahoma City - before stealing the present presidency outright and
putting all future electronic election results under direct Washington
control.

Which isn't all that difficult when the media lays down like a White
House whore.

Too bad all those innocent people had to die.  I don't mean just in
Manhattan, DC and Pennsylvania - but all the children, wives and
mothers, sons, daughters, fathers, husbands, infants and elders blown to
bits in so many more buildings, villages and suburban homes equally 
vulnerable to terror weapons hurled without warning from the sky.

OLD NEWS AND NEW NEWS

The following information will be old news to many Internet junkies.
What's new - and so explosive none of the hundreds of "news" agencies
who received this story dared print or broadcast it - is that this
official confession can't be spun!

I know because I called NORAD in Colorado Springs and asked the
spin-doctor on duty about their own press statement.  I wanted to know
why on Sept. 11, all the interceptors flew so slow?  Maybe there was
some kind of regulation or something, prohibiting them from flying
faster than the airliners they were chasing?

After a brief pause, the Public Disinformation Officer said he would
have to buck this smoking info-grenade "upstairs".  He would get back to
me if they could defuse the damn thing.  I said great.  I would look
forward to quoting NORAD verbatim in the story I would be releasing
worldwide in five days.

Since NORAD never got back to me with either confirmation or correction,
it's probably safe to conclude what is already starkly apparent: namely,
that the "official" airspeeds of the Sept. 11 interceptors corroborate -
and are in turn confirmed by - the logged flight times of fighters
scrambled during what was the biggest military debacle on US soil since
the Canadians sacked Washington.

Or another day of deception as treacherous as the closely tracked
Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor.

PRE-EMPTIVE STRIKE

Five days later, a shorter version of the story on your screen went by
special, paid news wire to every major news org in Europe.  It also went
to all major media across Canada, as well as the biggest broadcasters,
news magazines and newspapers in the USA.

Somebody somewhere - possibly Newsweek or the NY Times - must've scanned
my memo and bucked it back to NORAD.  Next thing I know, Colorado
Springs emails me my own news release.  The accompanying message is one
sentence: "Is this your writing?"

"Yes," I wrote back, feeling flattered to be asked.  Especially since
I'd never sent NORAD a copy.

But this was not the time to get into a terseness contest.  Since we
were developing such a cozy relationship, I asked NORAD why the ready
alert jets at Andrews hadn't been scrambled that morning.  Perhaps they
could get back to me on that?  And then we could discuss the shootdown
over Pennsylvania.

Since no ordnance was expended, and I was not actually buzzed, I can
only conclude that the American F-15 that flew past my place 20 minutes
after I pressed "Send" was on a routine return mission from the big
Canadian air base nearby.  Still, I took it as a hopeful sign that I had
rattled some cages at Cheyenne Mountain.  (My landlord saw it
differently, and began erecting a blast wall.)  Alas, my advances to the
not normally shy NORAD must have been too forward.  Because that was the
end of our correspondence.

But not the end of this story.

Feel free to clip and post it to your local news mafia.

===============================
Subject: TOO FAR, TOO SLOW, TOO LATE
Date: Fri, 5 Dec 2003 22:28:34 EST
From: NCEpanacea@aol.com

Pentagon says Sept. 11 interceptors flew:

TOO FAR, TOO SLOW, TOO LATE
by William Thomas

Senior Correspondent lifeboatnews.com
Dec. 5/03

It happens all the time.  When a small private plane recently entered
the 23-mile restricted ring around the U.S. Capitol, two F-16
interceptors were immediately launched from Andrews Air Force Base, just
10 miles away.  In a similar episode, a pair of F-16 "Fighting Falcons"
on 15-minute strip alert was airborne from Andrews just 11 minutes after
being notified by the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD)
of a Cessna straying towards the White House.  [AP Nov11/03; CNN
June20/02]

These were well-practiced routines.  With more than 4,500 aircraft
continuously sharing U.S. airspace, between September 2000 and June 2001
the Pentagon launched fighters on 67 occasions to escort wayward
aircraft.  [FAA news release Aug/9/02; AP Aug13/02]

But on Sept 11, 2001, NORAD and the FAA ignored routine procedures and
strict regulations.  In response to a national emergency involving
hijacked airliners as dangerous as cruise missiles, interceptors
launched late from distant bases flew to defend their nation at a
fraction of their top speeds.  [NORAD news release Sept. 18/01]

WHAT NORAD KNEW

A recently resurfaced NORAD news bulletin released seven days after
Sept. 11 explains that America's aerial defenders were slow to counter
rapidly developing air attacks because they didn't hear from the FAA
that American Airlines Flight 11 had been hijacked until 8:40 that
fateful morning.  [NORAD news release Sept. 18/01]

But at the National Military Command Center (NMCC) in the basement of
the Pentagon, Air Force staff officers monitoring every inch of airspace
over the northeastern seaboard would have caught that first hijacking

hen Flight 11's identification transponder stopped transmitting at 8:20

-- automatically triggering a radar alarm.

With their capability to monitor developing "situations" by tapping into
military and civilian radars, U.S. military commanders would have also
seen Flight 175 turn abruptly south 25 minutes later -- just as they had
watched on radar in October 1999 when pro golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet
abruptly departed its flight path while enroute to Dallas.  [CNN
Oct26/1999]

In that legendary intercept, a fighter jet out of Tyndall, Florida was
diverted from a training flight to escort the Lear, whose pilot had
become incapacitated, trapping Stewart in the stratosphere.  An F-16 was
reportedly sitting off the left wingtip of Payne's pilotless business
jet within 19 minutes of the FAA alert.  [ABC News Oct25/99]

If NORAD had been as quick to scramble or divert airborne fighters on
Sept. 11, two "anti-terrorist" F-15's on armed alert could have been
sent south from Otis Air Force Base on Cape Cod.  Flying at full
afterburners without edging over the Atlantic to disperse their sonic
footprint, two of the fastest fighters on the planet would have broken a
few windows.  But all the glass in the Twin Towers might have stayed
intact had the "fast-movers" intercepted Flight 11 over the Hudson River
at least six minutes from Manhattan.

NO HURRY SAYS NORAD

Instead, in a stunning admission that received little press scrutiny at
the time, NORAD noted that for all interceptions flown against the
hijackers on Sept. 11, "Flight times are calculated at 9 miles per
minute or .9 Mach."  In other words, every interception flown by the
world's hottest air-combat aircraft was flown at less than a third of
the planes' top speed.

A Defense Department manual insists, "In the event of a hijacking, the
NMCC will be notified by the most expeditious means by the FAA."  To
make this happen, the Federal Aviation Administration permanently posts
a liaison officer in the Pentagon air defense room.  [CJCSI 3610.01A,
June1/01]

Yet, according to NORAD, after air traffic controllers realized that
Flight 11 had been hijacked, 38 vital minutes passed before a pair of
F-15's was scrambled from Otis.  As they lifted off, American Airlines
Flight 11 struck the North Tower of the World Trade Center, 153 air
miles away as a Falcon flies.  [NORAD Sept. 18/01]

United Airlines Flight 175 was still 20 minutes out.

"The F-15 pilots flew ''like a scalded ape, topping 500 mph but were
unable to catch up to the airliner," Maj.  Gen.  Paul Weaver later told
reporters.  [St.  Augustine Times Sept16/01]

Scalded apes?  Airliners fly at 500 mph.  An F-15 can fly almost
four-times faster.

STEP ON IT

One of the Otis intercept pilots dubbed "Duff", later lamented: "We've
been over the flight a thousand times in our minds and I don't know what
we could have done to get there any quicker."

For starters, he and his wingman could have tried pushing their twin
throttles fully forward.  Instead of flying two-and-a-half times faster
than a bullet, "Nasty" and "Duff" drove their expensive air superiority
fighters at a leisurely 447-mph -- supposedly to intercept a Boeing 767
flying 43 mph faster!  Utilizing only 27% power, the F-15's were "eight
minutes/71 miles" away, according to NORAD, when Flight 175 struck the
South Tower with 56 souls and more than ten tons of fuel onboard.
[Christian Science Monitor Mar8/02]

HONOR THE THREAT

With both Trade Towers burning, and hijacked United Flight 93 shadowed
by a circling F-16 over Pennsylvania, American Airlines Flight 77 was
the only threat left in the sky.  When that Boeing 757 silenced its
transponder signal, made a U-turn over Kentucky and headed directly for
the White House and the Pentagon, one billion viewers riveted to the big
networks knew this was a kamikaze run.  [Telegraph Sept13/01]

With no other bogeys on eastern seaboard scopes, air combat doctrine
dictates that the two unemployed Otis F-15s already in the area be
redirected to "honor the threat" of an incoming flying bomb, 330 miles
out.  Even loafing along, the fighters would have more than 20 minutes
to confront Flight 77 before it neared the Pentagon.

Instead, Pentagon professionals defending their country's nerve centers
waited more than an hour after watching Flight 11 go rogue -- including
30 critical minutes after Flight 77 turned abruptly toward them and the
nearby White House -- before scrambling two F-16's out of Langley Air
Force Base to protect the capitol.

Nearly half-an-hour after receiving the belated order to scramble, two
Falcons coasted in over the burning Pentagon.  Slowed down to just 410
mph, it had taken the 1,500 mph-capable fighters 19 minutes to cover the
130 miles from Virginia.  It should have taken just over seven minutes
to reach the Pentagon -- at about the time Flight 77 was making a
predatory circle overhead.  [NORAD Sept18/01; USAF]

GROUNDED

The supersonic jets were flown no faster than WWII prop-driven
fighters.  But it hardly mattered.  Sitting on the Andrews ramp just 10
miles away, were two fully armed and fueled supersonic interceptors
tasked with protecting the capitol from airborne terrorist threats on 15
minutes' notice!

Isn't it about time someone asked why those routinely launched Andrews
interceptors were "stood down" as Flight 77 bored in toward the
headquarters they were supposed to protect?  [San Diego Union-Tribune
Sept12/01

In the most heavily armed nation on Earth, at least two-dozen air force
installations were within fast flying time of the World Trade Center and
Pentagon.  Does anyone else wonder why none of those aircraft were
ordered launched -- or why none of the armed fighters on training
flights or patrolling Air Defense Intercept Zones just off the Atlantic
Coast were diverted to intercept four commandeered airliners until after
the Pentagon was struck -- one-hour and 18 minutes after Flight 11 was
hijacked?  [www.af.mil/sites/alphabetical.shtml#a]

According to NORAD, the F-16s from Langley were still "12 minutes/105
miles" away when the big Boeing they were "chasing" soared past the
White House and the Andrews runways.  Allegedly flown by an incompetent
Egyptian flight student who couldn't solo a Cessna, the 757 peeled off
and piled into the Pentagon after an abrupt dive and pull-up that left
veteran pilots agape.  [San Diego Union-Tribune Sept12/01; NBC Nightly
News Sept11/01; All Fall Down]

Immediately after the Pentagon was hit, the Andrews alert jets were
launched to guard empty skies.  [Mirror Nov13/03]

ASLEEP AT THE SWITCH

Responding to questions from a Senate confirmation committee two days
after this suspicious fiasco, the Joint Chief's acting air defense chief
on Sept. 11 said he was in a meeting while all hell was breaking loose
in his sector.

Air Force Gen.  Richard Myers had not let a TV report about a small
plane hitting the World Trade Center interrupt his routine.  As jumbo
jetliners kept diving into buildings, apparently no one thought to
inform the acting commander of U.S. air defenses that his country was
under attack.  Myers said he came out of his meeting just as the
Pentagon was hit.

Asked repeatedly when the brass were first informed of the emergency,
and when interceptors were scrambled, Myers repeated a muddled mantra
six times, saying ""I'll have to get back to you on that."
[www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2001/n10232001_200110236.html]

Instead of being court-martialed like the luckless commanders defending
Pearl Harbor, or even reprimanded, General Myers was awarded command of
the entire U.S. military as new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Bush publicly commended the air force general for his "calm manner,
sound judgment, and his clear strategic thinking."  [White House press
release Oct15/01]

As this bizarre and possibly treasonous story goes to press, the FAA has
refused to disclose documents relating to when that agency notified U.S.
air defenses about the four hijacked airliners.  A second subpoena
served on the Pentagon by the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks
Upon the United States has been similarly unsuccessful in attaining
records concerning whether NORAD responded quickly enough in dispatching
interceptors on Sept. 11.  [Washington PoX-Mozilla-Status: 0009 of
fingering air traffic controllers for not following
procedures, these documents could show that the FAA did follow its own
Standard Intercept Procedures and notify NORAD within a few minutes of
each hijacking -- which would leave the Air Force with even more
explaining to do.  [AP Oct18/03]

# # #

William Thomas is the award-winning author of "Scorched Earth",
"Bringing The War Home", "Chemtrails Confirmed" and "All Fall Down: The
Politics of Terror and Mass Persuasion."

For commercial reprint rights, kindly contact William Thomas:
rwt@telus.net