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The US military conducted a training exercise in the five days before the September 11 attacks that included simulated aircraft hijackings by terrorists, according to a 9/11 Commission document recently found in the US National Archives. In one of the scenarios, implemented on September 9, terrorists hijacked a London to New York flight, planning to blow it up with explosives over New York.
The undated document, entitled "NORAD EXERCISES Hijack Summary," was part of a series of 9/11 Commission records moved to the National Archives at the start of the year. It was found there and posted to the History Commons site at Scribd by History Commons contributor paxvector in the files of the commission's Team 8, which focused on the failed emergency response on the day of the attacks. The summary appears to have been drafted by one of the commission's staffers, possibly Miles Kara, based on documents submitted by NORAD.
In the September 9 scenario, the fictitious terrorists' goal seems to have been to kill New Yorkers with the rain of debris following the plane's explosion. However, in the exercise, the military intercepted the plane and forced it away from the city. When the terrorists realized they were not near New York, they blew the plane up "over land near the divert location," leaving no survivors. The military unit most involved in this scenario was NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), which also played a key role in the air defense response to the 9/11 attacks, two days later.
Hijacking Exercise on Day of 9/11
Although it is not listed in the document, there was also a simulated plane hijacking scheduled to take place in the Northeast US on the day of 9/11, and its timing overlapped with the real-world events. According to Vanity Fair, "The day's exercise was designed to run a range of scenarios, including a 'traditional' simulated hijack in which politically motivated perpetrators commandeer an aircraft, land on a Cuba-like island, and seek asylum."
When NEADS was informed of the first real-world hijacking, members of its staff initially assumed this was part of the exercise. For example, Master Sergeant Maureen Dooley, the leader of the ID section, told the other members of her team: "We have a hijack going on. Get your checklists. The exercise is on." Major Kevin Nasypany, the mission crew commander, actually said out loud, "The hijack's not supposed to be for another hour." Like the numerous hijacking scenarios described in the "NORAD EXERCISES" document, there was no mention of this simulated hijacking scheduled for the morning of September 11 in the 9/11 Commission Report.
Originally posted by GoodOlDave
Of *course* NORAD is going to consider aircraft hijackings in their scenarios. Am I the only one in the world who remembers the blizzards of REAL hijackings pulled off by Muslim terrorists throughout the decades I.E. Mogadishu, Entebbe, Beiruit, etc, and even a cruise liner once?
Originally posted by RenDMC
Yes, but how many of those hijacking were used as bargaining chips? How many of those planes brought down buildings... infact how many were actually used to crash into buildings?
9/11 is a day that holds many records for terrorism.
You just answered your own question. Becuase they've all been used previously as political bargaining chips it was largely assumed that any further hijackings would be used as bargainign chips. al Qaida came along and entered in a new set of rules to the game that noone expected.
Originally posted by GoodOlDave
Originally posted by RenDMC
Yes, but how many of those hijacking were used as bargaining chips? How many of those planes brought down buildings... infact how many were actually used to crash into buildings?
9/11 is a day that holds many records for terrorism.
You just answered your own question. Becuase they've all been used previously as political bargaining chips it was largely assumed that any further hijackings would be used as bargainign chips. al Qaida came along and entered in a new set of rules to the game that noone expected.
You'll notice now becuase of Al Qaida there haven't been any more regular passenger aircraft hijackings. That's becuase a) security has risen to incredible levels, and b) hijackers know the passengers won't just sit there and act like sheep during a hijacking anymore.
The undated document, entitled "NORAD EXERCISES
NORAD Maintains Northern Vigilance
Sept. 9, 2001
CHEYENNE MOUNTAIN AFS, Colo. – The North American Aerospace Defense Command shall deploy fighter aircraft as necessary to Forward Operating Locations (FOLS) in Alaska and Northern Canada to monitor a Russian air force exercise in the Russian arctic and North Pacific ocean.
“NORAD is the eyes and ears of North America and it is our mission to ensure that our air sovereignty is maintained,” said Lieutenant-General Ken Pennie, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of NORAD. “Although it is highly unlikely that Russian aircraft would purposely violate Canadian or American airspace, our mission of vigilance must be sustained.”
NORAD-allocated forces will remain in place until the end of the Russian exercise.
NORAD conducted operation Northern Denial from December 1 to 14, 2000 in response to a similar, but smaller scale, Russian deployment of long-range bombers at northern Russian air bases. NORAD-allocated forces were deployed to three FOLS, two in Alaska and one in Canada. More than 350 American and Canadian military men and women were in involved in the deployment.
Chronology of Significant Military Maneuvers
by Dr. Nikolai Sokov, CNS Senior Research Associate, August 2004
SEPTEMBER 2001
Maneuvers to simulate defense against a large-scale airspace attack began on 10 September 2001. According to Air Force chief Anatoliy Kornukov, they were intended to cover the whole Arctic, as well as northern parts of the Pacific and the Atlantic oceans, including the vicinity of Norway, Iceland, the United States, Canada, and Great Britain. The main task was reportedly to penetrate the air defense of NATO and North America (NORAD). As part of the exercise, long-range bombers were moved to auxiliary bases in Anadyr, Tiksi, and Vorkuta. A new element of these maneuvers was, according to newspaper reports, training for the use of long-range ALCMs outside the reach of NORAD (since Russia has had long-range nuclear ALCMs since the 1980s, apparently these reports meant conventional ALCMs, which began to appear in the Russian Armed Forces only in the late 1990s). The only real launches planned in these regions involved short-range missiles launched from Tu-22M3 over the Kamchatka Peninsula in a simulated attack against an aircraft carrier group.
The plan was abruptly changed immediately after news of terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, DC on 11 September 2001 reached Moscow. To avoid possible complications and misperceptions, the Air Force terminated all "practical activities" planned for the ongoing maneuvers following a request from the United States. This included a termination of flights not only toward U.S. territory, but also "around the corner" toward Norway and Iceland. Launches of short-range ALCMs from five Tu-22M3 bombers (three belonging to the Naval Air Command and two from the Air Force) over Kamchatka against seaborne targets were still conducted, but only within Russian territorial waters. Also, both heavy and medium bombers practiced missile launches at an internal Russian test range near the Caspian sea.
Sources:
[1] Yuriy Golotyuk, "Bombardirovshchiki letyat na vraga," Vremya novostey, 11 September 2001.
[2] Yuriy Golotyuk, "Yaderniy konflikt otstavit," Vremya novostey, 12 September 2001.
[3] "Pod Saratovom nachalis ucheniya dalney aviatsii," RIA Novosti, 13 September 2001.
[4] Ivan Safronov, "Rossiyskaya dalnyaya aviatsiya uletela nedaleko," Kommersant-Daily, 15 September 2001.
[5] "Na Kamchatke zavershilis komandno-shtabnyye ucheniya Tikhookeanskogo Flota," Kommersant-Daily, 19 September 2001.