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THE LACK OF U.S. MILITARY RESPONSE 1)The first question that arose to millions of people upon learning the sequence of the attacks on 9/11/01 was: Why did the U.S. military not intercept the hijacked airliners? This question has been asked by many of you family and friends. It's been addressed but not answered by U.S. Government investigators. On July 9, 2003 the Associated Press wrote: `The 10-member National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States has held previous hearings focusing on the events of Sept. 11, including how hijackers took control of four airplanes and why U.S. air defenses did not react more quickly.' Regarding the Pentagon crash in particular, the U.S. military, headed by NORAD (North American Air Defense), had one hour and 23 minutes to protect the nation's capital after the first loss of communication with U.S. ground-control by an airliner on 9/11/01. American Airlines Flight 11 lost communication with Air Traffic Control at Boston's Logan Airport at 8:14 Eastern Daylight Time. Federal Aviation Agency regulations require Air Traffic Control to immediately request military intercept in the event of loss of radar contact or radio communication with any aircraft. Yet the Pentagon was not defended by jets from Andrews Air Force Base (two Squadrons of F-16 or F-18 fighter-jets at this Base less than 15 miles from the Pentagon and White House were specifically charged with defense of Washington, D. C.), nor was it defended by the F-16s from Langley Air Force Base that somehow were flown at 1/6 of their 1500 miles-per-hour top speed, nor was it defended by its own anti-aircraft emplacements, when it was struck at 9:37 EDT. Regarding other responses, the F-15s that were flown the 188 miles from Otis Air National Guard Base on Cape Cod, Massachusetts to lower Manhattan on the 9/11/01 morning were flown at less than 1/3 of their top speed of 1875 miles per hour, after NORAD finally scrambled them at 8:44 EDT, and these fighter jets were similarly late in intercepting United Airlines Flight 175, a Boeing 767, before it crashed into the World Trade Centers South Tower at 9:03 EDT.
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