On September 11 2001, as the eyes of the nation were focused on the gruesome events at the World Trade Center, the networks interrupted their television coverage in New York with a breaking story from Washington. A large plane had just been sighted over the White House. Exactly when it first appeared is not certain, but the reports aired at about the time of the Pentagon strike, or shortly after. Witnesses who saw the plane say it circled over Washington. CNN’s Senior White House correspondent John King watched it while standing in Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House. At about 9:53 AM King reported live that...
“about 10 minutes ago, there was a white jet circling overhead. Now, you generally don't see planes in the area over the White House. That is restricted air space. No reason to believe that this jet was there for any nefarious purposes, but the Secret Service was very concerned, pointing up at the jet in the sky.” [1]
Kate Snow, another CNN correspondent, was standing two blocks from the Capitol when she saw the plane. Snow mentioned the mysterious plane onair, adding that a security guard told her it was responsible for the decision to evacuate the seat of government. [2] In his book Against All Enemies, Counter-terrorism Czar Richard A. Clarke writes that the decision to evacuate the White House was made after a warning from the Secret Service about the approach of an unidentified aircraft. [3] Was this the plane?
NBC host Katie Couric was covering the unfolding events at the World Trade Center when she interrupted her broadcast with a live report from Bob Kur, the network’s senior Washington correspondent. Kur was then at the White House and he described the tense evacuation in progress:
“Administrators, cooks, whatever, running at a fairly high speed all of the way out of the building, through the top gates. Then we huddled for awhile in Lafayette Park, across the street. And we’ve been moved, now, from there a block or so away. The offices along Jackson Place which are across the street from the White House and adjacent to Lafayette Park also have been evacuated. And in the most surreal of this morning’s scenes here at the White House, a white plane, a very big jet, was flying an unusual pattern near the White House over Lafayette Park. Very slowly it made one circle and then, we have not seen it since. There was a lot of concern about what this plane might be. But, again, it’s only speculation. But most people say that since flights have been cleared from US air space, and it was a totally white plane, looked unusual to all of us, that it was a government plane of some kind.” [4]
CNN photographed the mysterious plane as it flew over the Capitol. Unfortunately, the aircraft was too far away to identify.
ABC anchor Peter Jennings also picked up the story, and aired the following report at 9:41 AM:
“The White House, of course, is--is--is--has leapt to the forefront of people's concern this morning. And there is a plane circling the White House at the moment. And they're clearing the grounds there… We've had incidents, as you know, in the past, several years ago where a small aircraft landed in the White House--in the White House garden and the pilot mentally deranged, as I recall at the time, was killed. But the White House is certainly, certainly been very heavily defended. And this plane circling the White House adds to the trauma that people are feeling today but we have no idea precisely what that means.” [5]
The strange sighting of a large white plane above the White House on September 11, 2001 was certainly noteworthy, because, as mentioned by John King and Peter Jennings, the airspace over Washington is very tightly restricted. In fact, it’s probably the most restricted airspace on the planet. At the time of the September 11, 2001 attack, the prohibited area, known as area P-56, extended out seventeen miles in all directions from the Washington Monument. [6] This zone included the Pentagon and most of the Washington DC metropolitan area. It was more restricted than standard restricted FAA commercial air space, and was closely monitored by FAA radar. Every plane entering this area would have been detected immediately, and if not identified should have activated Washington’s air defenses. The Secret Service would also have been alerted, because, according to multiple sources the Secret Service has a direct feed to FAA radar. This was reported by the Washington Post, [7] and by Richard A. Clarke in his 9/11 memoir. [8] It has also been confirmed by none other than Vice President Dick Cheney. During a September 16, 2001 interview on Meet the Press, Cheney told Tim Russert that “the Secret Service has an arrangement with the FAA. They had open lines after the World Trade Center was...” [9] At this point Cheney stopped in midsentence, as if catching himself before he revealed too much.
The core of P-56 is the most restricted zone of all, and is centered around the White House, stretching from the Potomac River to downtown Washington. A separate area known as P-56B surrounds the Vice Presidential mansion on the grounds of the Naval Observatory, located near Wisconsin Avenue. Other than approved flights, no aircraft is allowed to fly through these areas.
One of Washington’s biggest security problems has always been the close proximity of the capital to Reagan National Airport, which is located in Arlington, just west of the Potomac River. Reagan’s flight corridors follow the Potomac, hence, directly adjoin the most stringently prohibited area. After a series of violations in the 1990s, the FAA and Secret Service jointly conducted a security review and arrived at a memorandum of understanding. In 1996, a “P-56 Work Group” was also set up to review procedures and make recommendations, some of which were implemented. Occasional incidents continued, however. For example, in July 1998, a scheduled American Airlines flight accidentally passed directly over the White House en route to Reagan Airport. This prompted the airport manager to issue a stern warning to his flight controllers to “treat this area as a ‘Granite Mountain’ to be avoided in every possible way.” A similar letter was sent to all pilots. Nevertheless, there were occasional incidents in the period before the September 11 attack.
Given all of this, it’s not surprising that the sudden appearance of an unidentified low-flying plane over the White House on 9/11 would set off alarms. Let us remember, by this time the World Trade Center was in flames. Hundreds of people had already perished. Multiple hijackings were known to be in progress. The only planes that should have been in the sky over Washington were fighters for the purpose of protecting the nation’s capital. Yet, as we know, Washington lay completely undefended. Scrambled F-16 fighters from Langley AFB, near Norfolk, Virginia, did not establish a Combat Air Patrol (CAP) over the city until shortly before 10 AM––– much too late; and, subsequently, as we also know, the 911 Commission absolved the Joint Chiefs of responsibility for the security breach. The official panel put the blame squarely on the FAA, for failing to notify NORAD about the hijackings. But what about the mysterious plane that circled over the White House? The fact that it penetrated to the very core of P-56 raises obvious questions that the 9/11 Commission should have investigated. Yet, incredibly, the panel never broached the issue. The 9/11 Commission Report makes no mention of the white plane, not even a passing remark in a footnote. Nor does it mention the news reports cited above. The question that Americans should be asking is: Why not?
After a crime it is standard procedure for police detectives to interrogate witnesses who were at the scene, and cross-check their testimony in an attempt to reconstruct what actually happened. Had the members of the 9/11 Commission been serious about their charge to provide “the fullest possible account” [10] of the horrific events of September 11 2001, they would have followed this well-established forensic procedure. Certainly the news reports carried by numerous networks and the many eyewitnesses at the White House merited close attention. These were obvious starting points for the official investigation. It was not necessary for the panel members to go above and beyond the call of duty. Had they merely done their job they would surely have discovered the evidence I am about to present; and the evidence would have led them to ask the important questions. In that case the commissioners would have reached very different conclusions in their final report. Indeed, as I will show, the presence of the mysterious white plane seriously undermines the official story that the US military did not know about the hijacked planes until it was too late to respond. Instead of following the obvious leads, however, the commissioners evaded their charge by selectively embracing only those facts which supported the preferred narrative, which was already in place by 2003 when the commission began its work. The panel ignored or excluded everything else. In short, the commission conformed to the pattern of selective denial operative since the period shortly after September 11 when the official narrative was born. This was only possible because the compliant US media cooperated by censoring itself. During the five years after 9/11 the US press never again mentioned the mysterious white plane. The fly-over quietly disappeared from history. To this day the Pentagon says it has no knowledge about any plane circling over the White House on 9/11.
The evidence I will now present, however, conclusively refutes the Pentagon.
In March 2007, after I posted an article on the internet about 9/11, [11] I received a email from an independent 9/11 investigator who directed me to some remarkable evidence of which I was unaware. (This individual prefers to remain anonymous because he is currently pursuing several FOIA requests, which he does not wish to place in jeopardy. I will refer to him by his screen name: Pinnacle.) I was surprised to learn that the evidence had been around for quite some time. It seems that during the evacuation of the White House on 9/11, a woman captured an amazing photo of the mystery plane. Linda Brookhart, at the time Vice President of the Taxpayer Federation of Illinois, was in Washington attending a National Taxpayers Conference in the old Executive Office Building (located immediately next to the White House) when she and many others were told to vacate the building. Ms. Brookhart explained to me that after she walked outside she was standing in the street talking to a security guard when she just happened to look up and see the white plane. [12] At that point she snapped this excellent photo with her Pentax. The photo refutes both the 9/11 Commission and the Pentagon. Fortunately, it also enables us to identify the mystery plane–––as we will see. In fact, Pinnacle correctly identified the plane as early as May 2006 based solely on this photo.
I also learned from Pinnacle that the BBC captured a video of the mysterious plane as it circled over Washington. The BBC aired this footage in a live report in the UK on the day of the attack. Unfortunately, the footage is of poor quality. However, the Spanish Telemundo network also filmed the plane, and they too aired a live report. The following excellent still-shot was taken from this footage. The caption explains in Spanish that a third hijacked plane hit the Pentagon, and gives the time, 9:43 AM, the originally reported time of impact. The BBC and Telemundo segments are very similar, and both were probably filmed from Lafayette Park, across the street from the White House.
Pinnacle also informed me about yet another startling piece of evidence. It seems a reporter at the White House also captured an excellent video of the mysterious white plane as it made a banking turn; and this short segment even appeared in a made-for-TV docudrama about Flight 93. The two-hour movie, titled The Flight that Fought Back, aired on the Discovery Channel in August 2005. Once alerted to its existence, I had no difficulty locating this short clip on the internet. A 9/11 investigator named Chris Bornag had pulled it from the film and posted it at YouTube as part of a short melange of video footage about 9/11. YouTube has since removed this short video, due to a copyright infringement. However, for many months it was viewable on line by anyone with access to cyberspace. The following still-shot was taken from this footage.
A DVD of the original Discovery Channel movie is available for purchase at Amazon.com. The crucial segment appears 47 minutes into the film (in scene four). It is not a part of the dramatic production itself, but is a short segment of raw documentary footage embedded in the film. The crucial segment is very brief, only about three-to-four seconds long, which probably helps to explain why this remarkable footage did not attract more attention. At that time, I had seen no reference to it in any of the published literature about 9/11, nor on any of the many 9/11 web sites. However, I now realize that I simply missed it. An excellent analysis of this evidence occurred in July 2006 on the Loose Change Forum, an internet discussion board associated with the 9/11 film producer, Dylan Avery. [13] Several months later, Pilots for 9/11 Truth posted their own excellent discussion about this important evidence. [14] Although the cameraman has not yet been identified, there is every reason to believe the footage is bona fide.
As I’ve noted, in the video the plane makes a banking turn. The angle was fortunate, because it brought the plane’s unique features and markings into plain view, establishing its identity. This was no ordinary plane. The aircraft belonged to the US Air Force. It was an E-4B, the US military’s most advanced electronics platform. Even a casual comparison shows that the stillshot from the docudrama matches an official photo (see below) of the E-4B, from a USAF web site. [15] There is no mistake.
The plane is a modified Boeing 747-200. Notice the white color, the US flag painted on the vertical stabilizer (i.e, the tail), and the blue stripe and insignia on the fuselage. The clincher, however, is the bump or pod directly behind the bulging 747 cockpit, which is clearly discernible in both photos. No other plane has this piggy-backed appendage. It is unique to the E-4B and is integral to its military role as a state-of-the-art airborne command center. The pod contains a communication satellite-dish and perhaps other advanced electronic hardware. This is the same plane that Linda Brookhart photographed outside the White House. How can we tell? Although her vantage point was not ideal–––Ms. Brookhart was standing in the street looking almost straight up when she snapped the shot–––nonetheless, a careful inspection shows that the plane in her photo is an E-4B. Notice that the aircraft has four engines and all of the characteristics of a Boeing 747. In addition to the white color, which is also a match, another crucial detail positively identifies the airplane. Notice the tiny blue spot near the rear of the aircraft. Several close-ups of an E-4B clearly show that this blue spot is simply the place on the fuselage where the blue stripes on the side of the plane come together at the rear of the aircraft. This same blue spot can also be seen in the still-shot from the Telemundo network. Again, no mistake. It’s the same plane.
The spot is the only place on the 747 fuselage where the E-4B’s otherwise conspicuous blue stripes are visible, from beneath. This establishes a positive ID, as no other airplane has this unique combination of features.
Linda Brookhart explained to me that at the time of the evacuation, she believed the White House was under attack. Many others had the same impression, including government officials. On September 12, 2001, White House spokesperson Air Fleischer told the press that “We have specific and credible information that the White House and Air Force One were intended targets of these attacks.” [16] Attorney General John Ashcroft and Sean McCormack, representing the National Security Council (NSC), made similar statements.[17] So did Vice President Dick Cheney during his September 16, 2001 appearance on Meet the Press, already mentioned. In the interview, Cheney explained that Secret Service agents evacuated him on 9/11 after “they received a report that an airplane was headed for the White House.” [18] Whatever Cheney’s role may have been on 9/11, there is no reason to doubt his statement that the White House was under attack. Barbara Riggs, the Deputy Director of the Secret Service on 9/11 (the first woman to hold that post), provided yet another confirmatory account of this during a 2006 interview. Riggs was in the Secret Service crisis center at agency headquarters at the time, and she watched SS staff persons track two planes on radar, real-time, as they approached Washington. Riggs emphasized that everyone in the room was operating under the assumption that the White House was a target. [19] Her interview is important for another reason: because it also disputes the claim of the 9/11 Commission that the FAA did not inform the US military about the hijacked flights until too late to respond. The Riggs interview corroborates the testimony of Secretary of Transportation Norman Mineta, who overheard a conversation in the White House bunker between VP Cheney and a young man, presumably a Secret Service staff person, who informed Cheney about an approaching plane, which Mineta identified as American Airlines Flight 77. The second plane was probably United Flight 93. Obviously, if the Secret Service was tracking one of the hijacked planes from at least 50 miles out, so was NORAD, which had access to the same radar information.
According to the Washington Post, the White House evacuation began at 9:45 AM. Judging by the story, the scene was one of pandemonium. The Post states that the Secret Service ordered staffers to file out in an orderly way, then screamed at them to run as fast as they could across Pennsylvania Avenue to Lafayette Park. Women were told to remove their highheeled shoes so they could move faster. Some stepped out of them altogether and kept on going. The sidewalks in the vicinity were apparently littered with women’s shoes. Other evacuees were advised “to remove the White House ID from around their necks so they couldn’t be singled out by possible snipers outside the White House gates.” [20] This gives some idea of the tense atmosphere; and it was the same on Capitol Hill, where House Speaker Dennis Hastert and other high officials were whisked to safety by security guards. Hastert later said two burly cops came up, grabbed him under each arm, and carted him out of the building. Hastert, who was third in line of succession, flew by helicopter to Andrews AFB. There he and other cabinet officials boarded a plane to site “R,” the secure facility near Camp David where the continuity of government (COG) backup team assembled to ride out the crisis. Deputy Secretary of Defense Paul Wolfowitz was also a part of this group.
VP Cheney reportedly had the same treatment as Hastert. Secret Service agents grabbed him and hustled him down the stairs to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), the secure bunker under the White House. I mention this because President Bush’s experience was strangely different. When United Flight 175 hit the south tower Bush was sitting in a classroom with second graders in Sarasota, Florida. At 9:06 AM, Andrew Card, Bush’s Chief of Staff, came up and whispered in Bush’s ear: “A second plane hit the other tower. America is under attack.” At which point, the Secret Service should have immediately hustled Bush out of the school to safety. His presence at Booker Elementary school was no secret. The press had widely reported his scheduled appearance. Given that the nation was under attack, an attempt on Bush’s life was a real possibility. Standard procedure would have been to move the president to the nearest secure location as soon as possible; and this definitely was not the school. Indeed, Bush’s presence at Booker put the children in danger. According to Philip Melanson, an expert on the Secret Service, "You're safer in that presidential limo, which is bombproof and blastproof and bulletproof." [21] Yet, Bush’s handlers allowed him to remain in the classroom for another ten minutes while the children and Bush took turns reading “My Pet Goat.” This incredible lapse of security has never been explained. Even when Bush did leave the class, his casual behavior is hard to fathom. Bush dallied at the school and even made a short speech and posed for a photo-op. The presidential motorcade did not leave Booker-Elementary until 9:34 AM. Later, Andrew Card stated that the president first learned of the attack on the Pentagon and the threat to Air Force One during the drive to the airport, which was only about three miles from the school. [22] At this point, the Secret Service finally kicked into gear. [23] ABC News reporter Ann Compton, who was with Bush, called it “...a mad-dash motorcade out to the airport.” [24] Kevin Down, a Sarasota police officer who was also present, described what he saw: “I thought they were actually anticipating a terrorist attack on the president while we were en route.” [25] Therefore, it would appear that Bush received the call about the Pentagon shortly after leaving the school. From this point there was real concern about the president’s safety. USAF Col. Mark Tillman, pilot of Air Force One, insisted on an armed guard at his cockpit door while the Secret Service ran an identity check on everyone aboard the presidential plane. When Tillman departed Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport at 9:57 AM, he reportedly lifted off in a near vertical ascent. Dan Bartlett, the White House Communications Director, said: “It was like a rocket. For a good ten minutes the plane was going almost straight up.” [26] Once aloft, Tillman communicated with FAA air traffic controllers by telephone instead of using radio, so as not to reveal his position. Curiously, President Bush also refused his originally planned fighter escort, i.e., four F-16s from the Minnesota Air National Guard, which were left on the tarmac at Tyndall AFB. Instead, Bush scrambled his own pretorian guard: fighters from his old Texas Air National Guard Unit, which caught up with Bush en route to Barksdale AFB, Louisiana. [27] The above accounts and other powerful evidence call into question the exact time of the Pentagon strike, and also raise serious questions about the E-4B fly-over.
Despite the report in the Washington Post, there is abundant evidence that the White House evacuation began long before 9:45 AM. Apparently it happened in stages. Norman Mineta told the 9/11 Commission the evacuation was already in progress when he arrived in the PEOC at 9:20 AM. [28] He said he spoke briefly with Richard Clarke before descending into the bunker, and Clarke confirms this in his 9/11 memoir.[29] In a 9:52 AM live broadcast during the attack, CNN’s John King mentioned that the evacuation “had begun about 30 minutes ago.” [30] Also, Newsweek reported that staffers were leaving the West Wing at 9:30 AM. The story is important because it also mentions the white plane, thus linking its appearance with the evacuation. According to Newsweek, security police urged staffers to “run, not walk, as fast as possible” and also shouted “There’s a plane overhead, don’t look back!” Some caught a glimpse of it anyway, though apparently they failed to recognize it. The report continues: “Several staffers saw a civilian airliner, reflecting white in the bright sunlight, appearing to circle nearby.” [31] The White House evacuation seems to have begun in a slow and orderly fashion, but later turned chaotic.
The story in Newsweek does not mention when the E-4B was first seen, but it suggests that the white plane appeared before the Pentagon crash. This chronology is supported by other accounts, including a news report that aired in the UK. Two days after the attack, Mark Easton, anchor of Channel 4 News in England, reported that...
“just before the crash a civilian plane was filmed over the city apparently banking hard and there were reports of a military plane circling the US Capitol. Moments later, the Department of Defense was hit.” [32]
In a separate story, CNN reported that US Army Brig. General Cloyed Vaughn watched a commercial-size plane circle over Georgetown a few minutes before the Pentagon strike. At the time, Vaughn was driving in his car on Interstate 395, making his morning commute to the Pentagon. In Gen. Vaughn’s own words:
“There wasn’t anything in the air, except for one airplane, and it looked like it was loitering over Georgetown, in a high left-handed bank.”
As the CNN story mentions, Georgetown is a part of the District of Columbia and thus, it lies within the prohibited zone. Commercial planes arriving and departing from nearby Ronald Reagan follow the nearby Potomac River, and avoid flying over Georgetown. [33] These accounts do not contradict other eyewitnesses who saw the white plane later, since people in different parts of Washington may have seen it at different times. Even so, the above accounts are extremely damaging to the official 9/11 narrative.
Linda Brookhart also agrees with the chronology I have just described. She says she snapped the photo of the white plane before the towering plume of smoke became visible at the Pentagon. Days later, after developing the film, Brookhart notified the FBI, which sent an agent to her office to pick up a copy of her photograph. However, Brookhart never heard back. Nor did the 9/11 Commission ask her to testify. In fact, the panel never even contacted her. [34] With hindsight, their disinterest is not surprising, given that their primary concern was to substantiate the official cover story. Although the Brookhart photo provides sufficient information to positively ID the mystery plane, the short segment from the Discovery Channel docudrama is important corroborating evidence. The E-4B footage appears in the Discovery Channel film in the context of the 9/11 evacuation of the White House and Capitol building. This places it in Washington on the day of the attack. However, we still don’t know for sure who filmed it. Nor does the footage include any visual evidence linking it to Washington. The brief segment simply shows the E-4B banking against a backdrop of blue sky; and for this reason some have discounted it.
Fortunately, it is not necessary to place undue weight on the Discovery Channel clip, because additional compelling evidence has since emerged. In June 2007 we learned that yet another cameraman, this one from CNN, also filmed the E-4B as it circled the White House on 9/11. Pinnacle deserves credit for discovering this stunning video evidence in the CNN archive, where it gathered dust for nearly six years. [35] Subsequently, I contacted CNN and was able to acquire a screener’s copy of this raw footage, which I will now describe in detail. The video is 18 minutes long and it documents the White House evacuation on September 11, 2001. As it starts, the CNN reporter and other members of the press are obviously on the White House grounds. A guard appears and instructs everyone to leave. As the camera continues to roll, the CNN reporter joins the exodus of journalists and staffers walking down the White House driveway. At this point, a voice is heard talking about “an explosion at the Pentagon.” The CNN cameraman then exits through the White House gate. In other scenes, familiar Washington landmarks, including the old Executive Office Building, Lafayette Park and Jackson Place are plainly in evidence. Suddenly, loud sirens are heard and two red fire engines appear in front of the old Executive Office Building–––apparently in response to the fire alarm reported by the Washington Post. [36] At 6:20 minutes into the video the camera pans up over Jackson Place and catches the E-4B against a cloudless blue sky. I pulled the following three still-shots from the CNN video. As the camera zooms up, the four engines, white color, and even the blue spot on the fuselage, are plainly visible.
It is obvious that the E-4B was flying at a slow speed because, just as Bob Kur and General Vaughn noted, it appears to hang or loiter in the sky. Moving north, it banks to the east and makes another even lower pass, filling about a fourth of the screen until it passes out of sight behind a tree. In the bright sunlight, the blue stripe on the side of the plane and the communications pod behind the cockpit are clearly visible. This CNN close up...
...is very similar to the Discovery Channel clip, however, the CNN video is steadier and generally of better quality. Their similarity is not surprising because security police had relocated most of the press to Lafayette Park. So, both segments were filmed from the same general location. The total length of the E-4B segment is about twenty-nine seconds. Later in the video, Secret Service agents can be seen moving around on the White House roof. About 8:40-8:45 minutes into the film, smoke appears in the distance, behind the White House. At this point the camera shifts to several men with cell phones who are talking on the sidewalk. Apparently they have just learned about the Pentagon strike. One says: “Did it actually hit the Pentagon?” Another voice says: “It’s unclear. There’s a fire over there.” This dramatic CNN footage eliminates any remaining shred of doubt, and proves that an E-4B circled over Washington at approximately the time of the Pentagon attack. (Required disclaimer: “Usage of the above CNN material does not constitute an implied or express endorsement by CNN.”)
Amazingly, there is still more evidence. Recently, we learned that the BBC captured a second video of the E-4B over the White House. This footage was included in Clear the Skies, a 2002 BBC special report about the September 11 attack. The program aired on British television, but as far as I know has never been shown here in the US. The film is commercially available, however, at amazon.com. This E-4B segment is very similar to the clips already discussed. It too was probably filmed from the press compound in Lafayette Park. However, it is distinguished by an audio component which proves that at least one journalist positively identified the white plane. As the film rolls a voice can distinctly be heard saying: “It’s the doomsday plane!” a moniker that now requires further explanation.
Again, I must emphasize: the E-4B is no ordinary airplane. Its official designation is the National Airborne Operations Center (NAOC), although in former years was also known as the National Emergency Airborne Command Post (NEACP), pronounced “knee-cap.” Its common name, however, is the one heard in the BBC film, i.e., the “doomsday plane,” because the E-4B’s premier function is to serve as a flying command, control and communications (C3) center in the event of nuclear war, or during a national emergency. For this reason one of the planes is always kept on alert. When the president travels on Air Force One, it is standard procedure for an E-4B to follow behind the presidential entourage, in order to be close-at-hand for reasons of national security. Strangely, however, it seems this protocol was not followed on September 11, 2001. In Air War Over America, the official US Air Force account of the events of that day, author Leslie Filson writes that an AWACS plane was ordered to accompany the president when Air Force One departed Sarasota-Bradenton airport, bound for Barksdale AFB, in Louisiana. [37] If an E-4B had been with the president in Florida, the AWACS plane would not have been necessary. At the time, the AWACS was supposedly on a training mission off the Florida coast. The US government has never explained why an E-4B failed to accompany the president on September 11.1
Like Air Force One, the E-4B can be refueled in flight. Therefore, it has essentially unlimited range and can remain airborne for many days. The plane also doubles as a mobile office for the Secretary of Defense. Recently, for example, when the newly appointed Defense Secretary Robert Gates traveled to London for talks with Prime Minister Tony Blair, he rode on an E-4B. [38] According to various reports, his predecessor, Donald Rumsfeld, also frequently traveled on the plane.
A recent article in the Air Force Civil Engineer describes the E-4B as “a truly amazing” aircraft, and provides more details about its impressive specs. [39] The $800 million plane has all of the advanced electronics needed for world-wide communication. If Air Force One can accurately be described as a flying White House, the E-4B is a substitute Pentagon. The plane’s electronics cover the full radio spectrum, from extremely low frequency (ELF) to ultra high frequency (UHF). This enables the E-4B to communicate with all US military commands, world-wide, including tactical and strategic forces, naval ships, planes, nuclear-armed missiles, even submarines. The plane has as many as 48 different antennae, one of which is a long wire mounted on a spool at the rear of the plane. When in use, the wire unreels, dragging a small cone hundreds of feet behind the aircraft. In short, the E-4B is a state-of-the-art communications platform and can serve as an airborne command center for all US military forces in a national or world crisis. The aircraft carries its own electrical-generating plant to power its electronic hardware, which is also shielded against the damaging electromagnetic pulse (EMP) effects generated by nuclear explosions. The task of hardening the E-4B’s electronics was an enormous undertaking, due to the hundreds of miles of wiring in the plane. According to a Boeing engineer who witnessed the work, braided shielding had to be installed around every wire bundle, more than doubling the weight. The problem of shielding the pilots was solved in a novel way: The large windows in the forward cockpit were covered with the same kind of screen material commonly used in the windows of microwave ovens. [40] Even the plane’s white color is a design feature, not simply cosmetic. Its purpose is to reflect heat away from the plane and, thus, to help the E-4B survive––-hopefully–––above a nuclear battlefield.
The Air Force has a fleet of four E-4Bs, one of which, as noted, is always kept on alert status. Collectively they are known as the “Nightwatch.” The lead plane is designated as “Nightwatch-1,” but each E-4B also has its own radio call sign. Some of these are known, including Adios, Defy, Gordo and Tangy. [41] Usually the fleet is assigned to Offutt Air Force Base, near Omaha, Nebraska, although on occasion individual E-4Bs are temporarily assigned to other bases. Offutt is also the home of STRATCOM, i.e., the Strategic Command (formerly SAC, the Strategic Air Command). The Nightwatch fleet is under the operational control of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, [42] in other words, the national command authority, and is maintained by the First Airborne Command and Control Squadron (ACCS), a part of the 55th Strategic Reconnaissance Wing. Incidentally, the wing’s motto is Videmus Omnia, which means: “We see all.” Each E-4B has a crew of 64, but can accommodate an additional 50 passengers, for a total of 114. The spacious 747 fuselage includes command and work areas, conference and briefing rooms, as well as an operations center or battle station. The plane also reportedly has a rest area, bunks for sleeping, even a galley stocked with a week’s provisions. In 2005 the US Air Force awarded Boeing Corporation a $2 billion contract to upgrade the Nightwatch fleet, an enormous amount of money considering the fleet includes only four planes. The reported goal of the five-year upgrade was “increased readiness.” [43]
According to a 2002 story in the Omaha World-Herald, on the day of the September 11 attack three of the E-4Bs were participating in a live command-level exercise known as Global Guardian. [44] The exercise apparently involved the loading of nuclear weapons onto planes, which is interesting given the recent snafu at Minot AFB, where a half-dozen nucleararmed cruise missiles were mistakenly loaded under the wings of a B-52, then flown to Barksdale AFB, in violation of long-standing Air Force protocols about the handling of nukes. Global Guardian is an annual event, staged to test the readiness of the US military’s command and control procedures involved in waging thermonuclear war. The 2001 exercise started the week before September 11 under the directorship of Admiral Richard Mies, commander-in-chief of STRATCOM. The drill was reportedly in “full swing” at the time of the 9/11 attack. Although few details about the 2001 exercise have been released, NORAD almost certainly participated, along with numerous other commands. In previous Global Guardian exercises, these have included the US Space Command, the Air Combat Command, and the US Atlantic and Pacific Fleets, among others. [45]
Starting in the 1990s, Global Guardian included pre-planned mock attacks upon the military’s computer and information systems. For example, during the 1998 exercise, a Red Team of mock terrorists attempted to disrupt STRATCOM’s internal communications by hacking into its computers, and by tying up its phone/FAX lines with phony messages. [46] Although the details have not been released, these staged “terrorist attacks” apparently were at least partly successful. In recent years, the military has incorporated similar “attack” scenarios in Global Guardian exercises; however, it is not known if these were a part of the 2001 drill. The 9/11 Commission Report makes no mention of Global Guardian, but does mention a NORAD exercise, Vigilant Guardian. [47] In fact, as many as twenty-five separate security drills were either in progress on September 11, 2001 or occurred in the months prior to the attack. [48] Global Guardian was probably the umbrella for a number of these, including Vigilant Guardian. Even the names suggest a set of tiered exercises. A FEMA drill named Tripod was also in progress in New York City on 9/11, and it too may have been tiered to Global Guardian. Tripod involved hundreds of government employees and its purpose, according to NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, was to defend against a hypothetical biochemical attack. [49] Involvement of the E-4B in Tripod is likely, since one of the plane’s secondary roles is to provide a mobile command center for use by FEMA during national emergencies. [50] Although the flying command post evidently played no role in the Katrina disaster, FEMA did use the plane during hurricane Opal in 1995. [51]
Let us now review what is known about the whereabouts of the Nightwatch fleet on 9/11. According to the Omaha World-Herald, one of the E-4Bs was en route to Offutt AFB carrying a special high-level advisory panel chaired by Lt. General Brent Scowcroft. A source in the US military confirmed to me that the panel was the creation of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and its purpose was to conduct an end-to-end review of the US nuclear command and control system. This was unprecedented. Although the US military once conducted a more limited fail safe and risk reduction review (in 1991-93), never before had it undertaken anything this comprehensive. The same source also confirmed the names of the panel members: Maj. General Michael Carns, Dr. John Crawford, William Crowell, John Gordon, and Art Money, although in April 2001 the latter was replaced by Linton Wells. [52]
STRATCOM reportedly terminated the 2001 Global Guardian at 9:03 AM after Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower.53 However, the E-4Bs remained aloft. [54] In his 2003 book about cyber-terrorism, Black Ice, author Dan Verton, a former US Marine Corps intelligence officer, writes that at approximately the time of the second World Trade Center strike an E-4B carrying civilian and military officials was preparing to lift off from an airport near the nation’s capital. [55] This was almost certainly the doomsday plane seen over the White House. Verton also mentions that the E-4B was participating in a military exercise–––probably Global Guardian. When I contacted Verton I learned a few more details. His informant is a “long-standing source” and was on board the E-4B the morning of 9/11. Verton did not know the exact time when the E-4B took off. All he knows is that “they transitioned from exercise status to real-world status in the air.” This agrees with the story in the Omaha newspaper. Verton also identified the airport as Andrews AFB. Later, this same E-4B joined President Bush at Offutt AFB, where Verton says he spoke with his informant by telephone the day following the attack. He describes this source is “a former senior military officer (with many stars).” [56] The author of Black Ice currently writes for Computerworld.
In a retrospective article in the Washington Post, reporter Bob Woodward wrote that on September 11, “Pentagon officials ordered up the airborne command post [i.e., the E-4B] used only in national emergencies.” [57] The context of Woodward’s story implies that the order to launch the E-4B did not come until after the Pentagon strike. His account agrees with a September 12, 2001 story in the Dayton Daily News, which reported that shortly after 9:43 AM “An E-4B National Airborne Operations Center, a white 747 jumbo jet often confused with Air Force One, took off from Wright-Pat [Wright-Patterson AFB] for an undisclosed location. It returned later in the day. Wright-Pat is one of a few designated bases for the flying command center.” [58] The story failed to mention anything about Global Guardian, or whether the E-4B from Wright-Pat was the designated alert plane. Based on the above information, it appears that the advisory panel was aboard the E-4B that took off from Andrews AFB and which buzzed the White House on 9/11. Was Dan Verton’s informant Brent Scowcroft?
Although the 2001 Global Guardian exercise was originally scheduled for October, in March 2001 the date was changed and moved up to September, for reasons that have never been disclosed. The schedule change is curious, because Rumsfeld’s special advisory panel also began to meet in March 2001. In previous years, according to various reports, the Pentagon had always staged Global Guardian in October or November. [59] The year following the attack the date reverted back. The 2002 Global Guardian came off in October, as in previous years, and this has continued to be the case. [60] All of which raises a number of disturbing questions.
Some months ago, in a search for answers, Pinnacle filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request with the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), in which he requested two types of data: identification data, if any, from transponders, and the images of all radar tracks for Washington between 9:30-10:00 AM on the morning of September 11, 2001. The FAA completely ignored his request for radar images, and merely responded that they had “no identification records.” Pinnacle promptly filed an appeal, but as of this writing has received no decision. He also filed a FOIA request with the Secret Service for all relevant information, including radar data, and was told the Secret Service has “no records or documents of any kind relating to any aircraft whatsoever flying near or circling above the White House on 9/11 in the 9:30-10 AM time frame.” [61]
Pinnacle also sent the basic facts covered in this article to his Congressman, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) and requested that Schiff look into the matter. His congressman complied by making an inquiry in Washington through official channels about “a four-engine white jet” observed and photographed near the White House on 9/11. Eventually, Rep. Schiff received a letter from the US Air Force, which stated: “This is in reply…. to your request for information relating to an unidentified aircraft that may have been in restricted airspace near the White House on September 11, 2001 between the hours of 9:30 and 10:00 AM. Air Force officials have no knowledge of the aircraft in question.” [62] The odd timing of the official response also deserves a comment. Rep. Schiff received the above reply as a FAX at 8:12 AM on the morning of November 8, 2006, literally just hours before Donald Rumsfeld resigned as Secretary of Defense. As I’ve noted, the command authority for the E-4B rests with the Joint Chiefs of Staff, so it’s likely that Schiff’s inquiry was passed up the chain of command for a decision. The timing suggests that Rumsfeld himself may have personally attended to the matter as one of his final actions as Secretary of Defense. No doubt, on his last day Rumsfeld signed off on numerous issues, clearing his desk of all unfinished business. But why did a simple FOIA request necessitate his personal attention?
In any event, it is evident that the Department of Defense lied to Congressman Schiff. No other conclusion is possible, because the evidence presented above leaves no doubt about the identity of the white plane. The question bears repeating:
Why did an E-4B circle the White House on 9/11?
If the command and control plane was on a legitimate mission, the denials by the Air Force, FAA and Secret Service make no sense. If the E-4B was responding to a terrorist attack, acknowledging the basic facts in the case surely would have helped to restore the public’s confidence in our government and the military. So, why the denials? People generally lie because they have something to hide. What is the US Air Force hiding?
Pinnacle and I have continued to vet the video evidence. According to the credits for The Flight that Fought Back, the Discovery Channel docudrama was produced by Brook Lapping, a London-based company. When I contacted them, I was told they used the E-4B segment under license from FOX News, which holds the copyright. Brook Lapping also informed me they could provide no further assistance in the matter. After a tortuous series of phone calls, I eventually contacted a company named ITN Source, which handles all of FOX’s licensing contracts. A cordial individual at their Burbank office assisted me. However, a search failed to locate the short segment in the FOX News archive, at which point I was politely informed there was nothing more they could do for me. My repeated attempts to contact the FOX legal department were fruitless. FOX never responded to my queries. In this way my investigation reached a blind alley. Shades of Catch-22.
All of this underscores the urgent need for a new 9/11 investigation:
It must be independent, nonpartisan, adequately funded, and empowered with the authority to subpoena witnesses. Representatives of FOX News must be brought before a genuine panel and made to testify under oath about the whereabouts of this important evidence; and why it was made to disappear. Bob Woodward and Dan Verton should also be subpoenaed and made to identify their sources of information. Without a genuine investigation, we will probably never learn the true role that the E-4B played on September 11.
This article was written in 2007, so some links below may no longer work
