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DUBROOM
ARTICLE SECTION |
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| NORAD
had drills of jets as weapons |
NORAD
had drills of jets as weapons By Steven
Komarow and Tom Squitieri, USA TODAY
WASHINGTON — In the two years before the
Sept. 11 attacks, the North American
Aerospace Defense Command conducted
exercises simulating what the White House
says was unimaginable at the time: hijacked
airliners used as weapons to crash into
targets and cause mass casualties. One of
the imagined targets was the World Trade
Center. In another exercise, jets performed
a mock shootdown over the Atlantic Ocean of
a jet supposedly laden with chemical poisons
headed toward a target in the United States.
In a third scenario, the target was the
Pentagon — but that drill was not run
after Defense officials said it was
unrealistic, NORAD and Defense officials
say.
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NORAD, in a written statement, confirmed that such
hijacking exercises occurred. It said the
scenarios outlined were regional drills, not
regularly scheduled continent-wide exercises.
"Numerous types of civilian and military
aircraft were used as mock hijacked
aircraft," the statement said. "These
exercises tested track detection and
identification; scramble and interception; hijack
procedures; internal and external agency
coordination and operational security and
communications security procedures."
A White House spokesman said Sunday that the Bush
administration was not aware of the NORAD
exercises. But the exercises using real aircraft
show that at least one part of the government
thought the possibility of such attacks, though
unlikely, merited scrutiny.
On April 8, the commission investigating the Sept.
11 attacks heard testimony from national security
adviser Condoleezza Rice that the White House
didn't anticipate hijacked planes being used as
weapons.
On April 12, a watchdog group, the Project on
Government Oversight, released a copy of an e-mail
written by a former NORAD official referring to
the proposed exercise targeting the Pentagon. The
e-mail said the simulation was not held because
the Pentagon considered it "too
unrealistic."
President Bush said at a news conference Tuesday,
"Nobody in our government, at least, and I
don't think the prior government, could envision
flying airplanes into buildings on such a massive
scale."
The exercises differed from the Sept. 11 attacks
in one important respect: The planes in the
simulation were coming from a foreign country.
Until Sept. 11, NORAD was expected to defend the
United States and Canada from aircraft based
elsewhere. After the attacks, that responsibility
broadened to include flights that originated in
the two countries.
But there were exceptions in the early drills,
including one operation, planned in July 2001 and
conducted later, that involved planes from
airports in Utah and Washington state that were
"hijacked." Those planes were escorted
by U.S. and Canadian aircraft to airfields in
British Columbia and Alaska.
NORAD officials have acknowledged that
"scriptwriters" for the drills included
the idea of hijacked aircraft being used as
weapons.
"Threats of killing hostages or crashing were
left to the scriptwriters to invoke creativity and
broaden the required response," Maj. Gen.
Craig McKinley, a NORAD official, told the 9/11
commission. No exercise matched the specific
events of Sept. 11, NORAD said.
"We have planned and executed numerous
scenarios over the years to include aircraft
originating from foreign airports penetrating our
sovereign airspace," Gen. Ralph Eberhart,
NORAD commander, told USA TODAY.
"Regrettably, the tragic events of 9/11 were
never anticipated or exercised."
NORAD, a U.S.-Canadian command, was created in
1958 to guard against Soviet bombers.
Until Sept. 11, 2001, NORAD conducted four major
exercises a year. Most included a hijack scenario,
but not all of those involved planes as weapons.
Since the attacks, NORAD has conducted more than
100 exercises, all with mock hijackings.
NORAD fighters based in Florida have intercepted
two hijacked smaller aircraft since the Sept. 11
attacks. Both originated in Cuba and were escorted
to Key West in spring 2003, NORAD said.
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