Quote:
Originally posted by widebody911
http://edition.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0412/24/nfcnn.01.html
And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten -- indeed the word "terrorized" is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be.
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Seems to me that Rummy either misspoke or he is saying that al-quaida would be responsible for "shooting the plane down".
So, if "they" did it, how? Were they following it in a pickup with a stinger? Or did OBL have a few fighters laying around?
Either way, the idea of this A/C being "shot down" by *anyone* is a stretch at best, given the time and location constraints. The ability of the military to place a fighter in range given the circumstances that morning is nearly impossible.
I was doing a MCO turn on the day of the Daytona 500 and the military had turned a 50nm radius of the track into "special use airspace" ie restricted. On top of that, there were several F-18s patrolng the area, there was probably more, but that was what I had pointed out to me as traffic by center. Given those circumstances, i would buy a "shot down" scenario, but in some remote area of PA, when no one knew what was going on? I don't think so.
But don't let facts and reason get in your way there "red", just wrap yourself in some heavy-duty tinfoil and guard your doors against those JBTs..............
Pete