"We, to this day, don't know why NORAD told us what they told us. It was just so far from the truth." -- Thomas H. Kean, Commission Chairman, to the Washington Post:

At best, the top US generals tasked with defending the skies above America failed miserably on September 11, 2001. Dereliction of duty, resulting in the death of even one person, is a serious court martial offense. At worst, US Generals Myers, Arnold, Eberhart and Weaver, among many others, were guilty of something far greater. NORAD and the Pentagon chiefs not only failed, but apparently intended to fail, to protect the skies above America, resulting in the deaths of nearly 3,000 citizens. 

I will get to my primary theory why NORAD pilots were not permitted to intercept ANY of the four alleged hijacker jetliners on September 11, 2001. As everyone knows by now, the four jumbo jets were "allegedly" hijacked. I use the word allegedly because not one of the eight Boeing pilots and co-pilots pushed a four digit code to alert air traffic controllers their planes were being hijacked.

In the nearly 40 minutes between the second WTC tower being struck and the Pentagon being hit, not one USAF fighter plane circled Washington DC. NOT ONE. Andrews Air Force base is about 10-12 air miles from the US capitol by air, less than 90 seconds by fighter jet. NORAD, at that time, was nowhere to be seen. 

According to official hearings, held two days after 9-11 the following pertinent questions arose. The reply is revealing as were the result.

SENATOR BILL NELSON: "General Myers, The second World Trade tower was hit shortly after 9:00. And the Pentagon was hit approximately 40 minutes later. That's approximately. You would know specifically what the timeline was. The crash that occurred in Pennsylvania after the Newark westbound flight was turned around 180 degrees and started heading back to Washington was approximately an hour after the World Trade Center second explosion. You said earlier in your testimony that we had not scrambled any military aircraft until after the Pentagon was hit. And so, my question would be: Why?"

GENERAL MYERS: "I think I had that right, that it was not until then. I'd have to go back and review the exact timelines."

SENATOR BILL NELSON: "Commenting from CNN on the timeline, 9:03 is the correct time that the United Airlines flight crashed into the south tower of the World Trade Center; 9:43 is the time that American Airlines flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. And 10:10 a.m. is the time that United Airlines flight 93 crashed in Somerset County, Pennsylvania. So that was 40 minutes between the second tower being hit and the Pentagon crash. And it is an hour and seven minutes until the crash occurred in Pennsylvania."

You be the judge here: Was this a massive case of incompetence or were top US generals used as scapegoats on 911? Had SecDef Rumsfeld and Vice president Cheney overridden their powers and quietly assumed command of NORAD in the months before 911? Who was in charge?

According to Micharl Kane: "The war games & terror drills played a critical role in ensuring no Air Force fighter jocks - who had trained their entire lives for this moment - would be able to prevent the attacks from succeeding. These exercises were under Dick Cheney's management."

Prior to the attack, Cheney retreated to the underground shelter of the White House and monitored the incoming flight 77 from there. Curiously, he sought shelter in what would seem to be the top target of any terrorist.

Although Washington DC contained several top targets in the country---the White House, Senate building and Pentagon among others--landmarks representing the status and supremacy of the US, and although the "attack" on America was fully 45 minutes underway, not a single NORAD plane patrolled the skies above DC.

"The facts were not only evidence of incompetence at the highest level, they were suspicious on their face because they smacked of a stand-down; which, if true, was treason," wrote Mark Gaffney. "Within days (after 911) the Pentagon amended its story to allay such concerns."

But where, exactly, were NORAD fighters?

Many were already airborne. Atlantic City F-16 fighters were airborne and only eight minutes away. They were never dispatched. ( <http://www.prisonplanet.com/051203atlanticcityfighters.html>Atlantic City F-16 Fighters Were Eight Minutes Away From 9/11) to provide air cover to nearby New York City. Why?

"Under NORAD procedures that date to the Cold War, two F-16 fighters from the 177th were parked around the clock on the Atlantic City runway. Pilots waited in a nearby building, ready to scramble," said Mike Kelly, of New Jersey Media Group. "But the 177th's jets were not on alert Sept. 11. A series of Pentagon cutbacks, beginning in 1998, changed the wing's mission from scramble-ready status to dropping bombs on enemy positions. In 2000, after two years of training, the 177th was even sent to Saudi Arabia to fly patrols over southern Iraq as part of Operation Southern Watch."

Other NORAD fighters, notably from Otis AFB in Delaware, flew far offshore the Atlantic coastline on 911, part of a series of military exercises that, in a highly suspicious coincidence, occurred simultaneously on September 11, 2001. One of the Otis intercept pilots 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."

William Thomas, a former US Navyman and foreign correspondent, remarked: "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!"

When asked why these USAF interceptors were not summoned quicker, to protect New York City, Air National Guard General Paul Weaver said to reporters that each one of the F-15 fighters (top speed 2.5 /1650 mph) flew '"like a scalded ape, topping 500 mph but were unable to catch up to the airliner."

Scalded ape? World War 2 fighter planes flew faster than that--fifty years ago. So why didn't any NORAD fighters intercept the slow-moving Boeings? Was it because of what the fighter pilots might have seen---or was it because of what they couldn't be allowed to see? You be the judge. Here are four possibilities.

1. United and American airlines pilots gesturing wildly, that the jumbo jets were remote controlled.

2. Muslim hijackers ignoring the fighter pilot commands. Had NORAD intercepted the planes, the Boeings would be warned to divert course and, if not, shot down.

3. Nobody at the controls. Instead the planes were remote controlled drones resembling big Boeings.

4. Muslim patsies in the cockpit, gesturing helplessly, at the helm of remote controlled Boeings they were unable to control.

The "official" version is number 2. But one would have thought, given the circumstances, that at least one top gun of NORAD should have closed with at least ONE Boeing and observed it closely--or even shot it down. Right? Perhaps Flight 93 was that ill-fated bird. Instead we are told a heroic struggle ensued. This passenger resistance, whether true or not, provided a fat more inspiring tale and became the single most uplifting note on an overwhelmingly tragic day.

But in explaining the failure of NORAD, pilots had to be kept away, far away, from the first three. They could not be allowed to make VISUAL contact with the planes. They could NOT look down into the cockpits and report what they saw, or didn't see. They had to be diverted far off shore--or not even launched. And so they were. Those hijacked planes--whether remote controlled drones or big Boeings piloted by Muslims--needed to accomplish their mission. Had the NORAD pilots radioed back that the hijackers couldn't control the planes---or that nobody was at the controls of drones---imagine how the entire fabricated story of 911 would have collapsed.

So the FAA had to be the scapegoat. Not NORAD. If the Pentagon--under attack---needed a fresh infusion of cash, since hundreds of billions (2.3 trillion reportedly) was missing---they would have to be exonerated. And That was why, finally, General Richard Myers, seated in his office (allegedly) throughout the ENTIRE 911 attack, was promoted for his inactions (rather than convicted in a military court martial) for dereliction of duty, along with numerous other officials after 911.

At Confirmation Hearings in Washington DC before the Senate Armed Services Committee, while the fires still raged at the WTC and the Pentagon still smoldered, General Richard Myers was nominated and accepted as the Chairman of The Joint Chiefs of Staff, on SEPTEMBER 13, 2001. And the Pentagon got their fresh billions.

And 343 firefighters got sent to Fresh Kills.

Douglas Herman wrote the suspense thriller, The Guns of Dallas, soon to be a major motion picture starring Robert de Niro, and writes for Rense regularly.