|
Knee-Jerk Liars
The Legend of United Flight 93
By Ted Rall
03/07/06 "ICH"
-- --
NEW YORK--On the first anniversary of the crash of United Airlines
Flight 93, Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge delivered a speech
at the site of the disaster in western Pennsylvania. "Faced with the
most frightening circumstances one could possibly imagine," he told
grieving relatives of the passengers and crewmembers aboard the
fourth plane hijacked on 9/11, "they met the challenge like citizen
soldiers, like Americans." He recited the now-familiar story of
passengers learning by phone about the attacks on the World Trade
Center and Pentagon, deciding to fight back and breaking into the
cockpit--a heroic act that led to their own deaths while sparing
countless others in Washington.
"The terrorists were right to fear an uprising," Ridge rhapsodized.
"The passengers and crew did whatever they humanly could--boil
water, phone the authorities, and ultimately rush the cockpit to
foil the attack."
Ridge's boss repeatedly used United 93 to close his standard stump
speech. Calling the passenger revolt "the most vivid and sad symbol
of them all," George W. Bush said: "People are flying across the
country on an airplane, at least they thought they were. They
learned the plane was going to be used as a weapon. They got on
their telephones. They were told the true story. Many of them told
their loved ones goodbye. They said they loved them. They said a
prayer; a prayer was said. One guy said, 'Let's roll.' They took the
plane into the ground."
The legend of Flight 93 had everything a nation caught with its
pants down needed to feel better about itself: guts, heroism,
self-sacrifice. Best of all, it was marketable--by Hollywood and by
a president willing to surf on a kind of heroism notably absent from
his own life. (Theatrical release of the second "United 93" movie is
scheduled to open April 28.) Lisa Beamer, widow of the passenger
credited with the call-to-arms "let's roll," wrote a bestselling
book by the same name, applied for a trademark on the expression,
and is now working the Christianist lecture circuit.
Actually, the 9/11 Commission found, the evidence indicates that
what Todd Beamer (or someone else) said was not "let's roll," but
"roll it"--possibly referring to an airplane service cart the
passengers may have wanted to use to break down the door into the
cockpit. Too bad-. "Roll it" sounds less cinematic, and more like a
book about cinematography.
The first indication that government officials were covering up the
truth about United 93 came with their refusal to make public the
cockpit voice recording (CVR). Releasing CVRs after a crash has long
been standard practice; pilots' last, usually profane, utterances
have become a cliché. Yet the FBI stonewalled victims' relatives for
months after 9/11.
"While we empathize with the grieving families," assistant director
John Collingwood wrote one widow, "we do not believe that the horror
captured on the cockpit voice recording will console them in any
way." And yet, if the tape contained inspiring proof of the
passenger revolt and its success, it would have been one hell of a
lot more consoling than Tom Ridge's oratory. Why not release it?
Finally, after seven months of political pressure, the FBI allowed
United 93 relatives to listen to the CVR. The feds told the families
not to reveal what they'd heard. "They said the information on the
tapes could be possibly used in the prosecution of [alleged "20th
hijacker" Zacarias] Moussaoui, and anything that we say could affect
the case in a negative way," said the brother of one of the victims.
Though they studied the recording, the 9/11 Commission found zero
evidence that the passenger revolt succeeded, that they made it into
the cockpit and, as Bush claimed, "took the plane into the ground."
Tom Kean & Co. offered only conjecture: "The hijackers remained at
the controls but must have judged that the passengers were only
seconds from overcoming them."
"Must have." At a time when war can be justified by waving around a
bottle of fake anthrax on TV, "must have" is judged adequate proof.
Another eyebrow-raising portion of the official account of Flight 93
states that "the passengers and flight crew began a series of calls
from GTE airphones and cellular phones" after the hijacking. Ever
forgotten to turn off your cellphone during a flight? I have. Try it
yourself: Cellular telephone calls tend to drop when you're driving
at 60 miles per hour; passenger jets travel up to ten times that
speed. Moreover, there's zero signal, and thus no ability to place a
call, above 8,000 feet. Flight 93, en route from Newark to San
Francisco at a cruising altitude of 35,000 feet, dropped 700 feet
when it was hijacked at 9:28 am. Cell calls? Not likely.
The Bush Administration has alternately claimed that the White
House, then the Capitol, and finally the White House again was the
target of the Flight 93 hijackers. Sure, it's possible that the same
terrorists who didn't know that New Yorkers don't start work until
nine--the World Trade Center was struck at 8:42--wouldn't have
thought to check Bush's schedule to find out whether he'd be home
that morning. But if the White House was the objective, why not hit
it first? After all, if Bush had been home when the news from New
York first broke, he would have been whisked away to Dick Cheney's
secret undisclosed location. If the government doesn't know what the
target was, they shouldn't say that they do.
What happened to United 93? There was almost certainly a passenger
uprising. Did it succeed? Probably not.
The 9/11 Commission Report says that "at some time between 10:10 and
10:15" Dick Cheney ordered the Air Force to shoot down the plane,
which had turned east towards Washington. The plane had already
crashed at 10:03. But the regional air traffic control center in
Cleveland asked the FAA whether military fighter jets should be
dispatched at flight at 9:36, giving the Air Force more than enough
time to intercept before the fatal plunge into the field at
Shanksville. Was United 93 shot down, despite the official story?
Local media accounts offer some evidence of that possibility. The
September 13, 2001 Pittsburgh Post-Gazette reported, for example:
"In a morning briefing, State Police Major Lyle Szupinka confirmed
that debris from the plane had turned up in relatively far-flung
sites, including the residential area of Indian Lake [two and a half
miles from the crash site]."
Flight 93 "headed down...rolled onto its back," and crashed, leaving
a smoldering crater. The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette again: "[Indian
Lake marina employee John] Fleegle said he climbed on the roof of an
abandoned cabin and tossed down a burning seat cushion that had
landed there. By Wednesday morning, crash debris began washing
ashore at the marina. Fleegle said there was something that looked
like a rib bone amid pieces of seats, small chunks of melted plastic
and checks." Seats and bones don't fly two and a half miles from a
crash. Their location could indicate an initial explosion, such as
that from a missile hitting a plane.
If the Air Force shot down Flight 93 to protect the capital, it was
the only time on 9/11, or since, that the Bush Administration has
done something to keep America safe. Whether they were concerned
about being second-guessed or for the financial health of the
airline industry, we'll never know. We do know that they've become
knee-jerk liars, even covering up the rare occasions when they do
something right. Perhaps they don't really know what happened up
there. If so, they ought to say that rather than promote more fairy
tales about Flight 93.
The passengers did try. The only thing that takes away from their
heroism is Bush's lies. So. Now that Zacarias Moussauoi has been
convicted, where's that tape?
(Ted Rall is the editor of "Attitude 3: The New Subversive Online
Cartoonists," an anthology of webcartoons which will be published in
May.)
Copyright © 2006 Yahoo! Inc
Click below to post a comment on this article
(In accordance with Title 17
U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to
those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the
included information for research and educational purposes.
Information Clearing House has no affiliation whatsoever with the
originator of this article nor is Information Clearing House
endorsed or sponsored by the originator.) |
