8/14/2019 Press Clippings about NORAD/Pentagon Failure on 9/11

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N A T U R E O F T H R E A T"We don't have air defenses that are designed to protect the American people from aperson inside the United States commandeering an American Airlines plane filled withAmerican citizens, That is a customs, immigration, local law enforcement task. Anyonewho has looked around the skies over the past several years knows that we do not keepaircraft in the air to anticipate some local situation like that."

Defense Secretary Donald RumsfeldWhy Were Our Skies Defenseless? Rumsfeld: No Strategy Guards Inside Borders, Daily Press,September 20,2001 (p A6)"'The threat was perceived to be outside, It was a Cold War mentality,' says ColonelMcNeely. For decades, NEADS had looked for incoming Soviet Bear bombers or SouthAmerican drug smugglers. 'Quite frankly, we were not expecting an attack from within.'"Colonel McNeely, Operations Director, NEADS, Rome, NY"A New Diligence in the American Blue Yonder," Christian ScienceMonitor, April 16,2002

(p. 01)"The National Security Act of 1947 established essentially the combatant commandstructure we know today, European Command, Pacific Command and SouthernCommand. At that time, we believed, I think rightfully so, because of two friendlyneighbors and two wide oceans, we didn't need to establish a command in charge of thisarea of responsibility where North America lies. We later decided that we did needNORAD to counter long range aviation and Soviet ICBMs but we still did not establish acommand that was responsible, a single command, for this area of responsibility. As weknow, during the 90s, we debated this issue. We looked at America's command, welooked at a homeland defense command. We also looked at a Northern Command. It'svery difficult to get our arms around that task."General Eberhart, USAF Commander, United States Northern CommandHearing of the House Armed Services Committee, March 13,2003"W e always thought that the threat would come from overseas and we provided a fencearound North America, looking for people coming to do us harm, including our hijackscenarios. We always imagined that someone would hijack an airplane somewhere elseand would be flying inbound and wanting to do us harm. "So really, the thought of aterrorist attack coming right from North America and being mountedin North Americawas something no one ever believed, We had to adjust to that."Lieutenant GeneralKen Pennie, Canadian Air Force, Deputy Commanderof NORAD,

"Inside NORAD's mountain fortress: Guarding North America's airspace post Sept. 11,"CanadianPost, October 19,2002 (p. Bl)

"He [Eberhart] admits that what he's doing at Northcom couldn't be further from thetraditional NORAD role: watching out for Soviet bogies from a superhardened base,away from the public eye."

"The General Nobody Knows," Newsveek, July 14, 2003 (p 36)".. .because of the threat of Soviet long-range aviation and ICBMs, we establishedNORAD. But their responsibility was for air and space, not for land and sea. In the

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aftermath of 9/11, it became apparent to the secretary of Defense and the president thatwe were violating a principle of m ilitary com m and and control that w e did not havecentralized command and control, decentra lized execution. The president and thesecretary had to go to several different comm anders that day to craft ou r reaction to thosetragic events of 9/11."General Eberhart, USAF Commander, United States Northern Command,H earing of the Senate Armed Services C omm ittee, April 8,2003

"The commander ofNorthern Command will also be the commander ofNorth AmericanAerospace Defense Command, or NORAD. NORAD's missions to deter, detect, anddefend against air and space threats to North America will not change , U.S. NorthCom'sgeographic area will include, as the secretary said, the continental United States, Alaska,Canada, andMexico, portions of the Caribbean, and the contiguous waters out - in theAtlantic and Pacific Oceans, out to a minimum of 500 miles, so they can defend indepth,No new missions or roles are being created here for the Department of Defense increation of this new command. It basically docs three things. It takes the NORADmission. It combines it with the Joint Task Force for Civil Support that currentlyresides in Joint Forces Command, that is responsible to civil authorities forchemical, biological, radiological, nuclear, major conventional explosives events. Ittakes that and moves it under Northern Command. And it's looking at potentiallythe relationship it might have with Department of Defense support to naturaldisasters - hurricanes, floods, and fires."

Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld,"Special Briefing on the U n i f i e d Command," April 22,2002"We did not anticipate that this threat would takeoff f rom inside the United States andthat it would be a matter of double-digit minutes to respond. We believed domesticallythat we would have the security at our airports that would preclude this from happening."General Eberhar t , USAF Com ma nder , Uni ted StatesNorthern C o m m a n d ,

"NORAD: Watchdog of the Skies," W o r l d and I, August 1,2002 (No. 8, Vol. 17; p. 46)"'The Pentagon long has carved up the world into areas of responsibility, but the UnitedStates has never been under one. The military has considered creating a homelandcomm and for 10 years. Sept. 11 made it a necessity,' Eberhart said. 'We didn't perceive athreat (to the U.S.)prior to 9-11 that warra nted establishing a new headqua rters. Itbecame clear on 9-11, tragically, w e need to be prepared.' That doesn't mean there weremilitary failures on Sept. 11, he said, bu t commanders realized there were 'seams' in thejob of defending the Un ited States that had to be closed.""Homeland defense command plans all-out defense of U.S.," The Gazet te (Colorado S p r i n g s ) ,July 15,2002"Before the terrorist attacks of S eptember 11, the A rm ed Forces focused on deterrence,stability, and warfighting m issions arising in overseas thea ters. The U.S. homeland w asregarded as a rear area, not a front line, and the job of securing i t was primarily a task fo rcivilian law enfo rcem ent agencies at the Federal, state, and local levels. Th e a ttacks onth e World Trade C enter and the Pentagon, and the bioterrorist acts that followed, haveprompted a review that reaffirms the C onstitutional role of the Federal G overnm ent as

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protector of the states against foreign aggression and restores defense of the Americanhomeland as the primary mission of the Department of Defense (DOD).""Homeland Security. The New Role of Defense," issued by the Nationa l Defense University,prepared by Steven Tomisek, February 2002