Commentary; Posted: 8/18/04

Heed findings of 9/11 Commission and soon

Sen. Mark Dayton
Guest Columnist

A wise teacher once said to me, ìIf the student doesnít learn the lesson, the teacher reappears.î Now is the time for us to learn the lessons from 9/11, before another attempted terrorist attack appears.

That is why it is necessary for the 9/11 Commissionís recommendations to improve our countryís intelligence operations and national security to be Congressí top priority. ÝI am a member of the Senate Committee on Governmental Affairs, which designed the Department of Homeland Security in 2002. I am also a member of the Senate Committee on Armed Services, which oversees the Department of Defense, where reportedly over 80 percent of the budget for all U.S. intelligence-gathering operations resides.

Both Committees have already met with members of the 9/11 Commission, and we are continuing hearings with other experts about ways to streamline and strengthen our intelligence operations and our homeland security.

The 9/11 Commission identified tragic failures to anticipate and prevent the terrible events of that day. Even more shocking are the commissionís findings that our country remained completely undefended during the hijackings that morning, due to colossal failures of communications and proper responses by high-level civilian and military officials. The commission also cited serious inaccuracies in the versions of those events that were later distributed by the White House, the militaryís North American Aerospace Defense Command, and the Federal Aviation Administration. They all pretended that their responses to the terroristsí attacks were far more efficient and effective than the 9/11 Commission found actually occurred.

Incredibly, the commission determined that the FAAís air traffic controllers failed to notify the military about three of the four hijackings, before those planes crashed into the second World Trade Center Tower, the Pentagon, and the ground in Pennsylvania.

Neither the FAA nor NORAD could track the hijacked airplanes on their radar systems, after the hijackers turned off the planesí communications devices.ÝThirty-five minutes after the first hijacked airplane had crashed into the World Trade Centerís North Tower, the FAA mistakenly told the military that the plane was flying from New York City toward Washington!

NORADís fighter planes took off from an air base in Virginia, and the pilots were instructed to fly north to meet this supposed threat. Instead, they flew east over the Atlantic Ocean! Thus, when the Pentagon was struck by the third hijacked plane, NORADís fighters were 150 miles away!

When the fourth hijacked airplane crashed into Pennsylvania farmland, 35 minutes after the terrorists seized control and only 10 minutes before they would have reached their reported target, the U.S. Capitol, the FAA had not yet informed the military of the hijacking. ÝThe 9/11 Commission Report recounts the following conversation between FAAís Command Center and its Headquarters.

ìFAA Command Center: ëUh, do we want to think, uh, about scrambling aircraft?í

ìFAA Headquarters: ëOh, God, I donít know.í

ìFAA Command Center: ëThatís a decision somebodyís gonna have to make probably in the next 10 minutes.í

ìFAA Headquarters: ëUh, ya know, everybody just left the room.íî

No one at FAA Headquarters ever did inform the military about the fourth hijacking. It was the heroism of passengers on board that plane, led by Minnesota native, Thomas Burnett, Jr., that saved our nationís Capitol Building and probably thousands of lives. Even when NORADís fighters finally returned to Washington, seven minutes after the hijacked plane had crashed in Pennsylvania, their pilots were ordered not to fire upon an incoming plane.

The 9/11 Commission determined President Bush and Vice President Cheney did not discuss the shoot-down authority necessary to defend our country from those airborne terrorists, until almost two hours after the first hijacking and 10 minutes after the last hijacked plane had crashed. According to the Commissionís Report, Vice President Cheney then ìauthorized fighter aircraft to engage (any) inbound plane.î

It took 20 more minutes before NORAD communicated that instruction on its ìinstant messaging system.î Then, incredibly, NORADís mission commander did not give the vice presidentís order to the fighter planes circling New York and Washington, because he was ìunsure how the pilots would, or should, proceed with this guidance.î

Almost two hours after the first hijacking began, our country was still undefended.ÝHad there been more planes hijacked that morning, as the terrorists once intended, they could have reached their targets and killed more innocent Americans. Those failures must be the first to be corrected, before Al Qaeda tries to strike us again.

True, we need better intelligence to prevent future attacks. However, spending billions more dollars will not be effective, if the people responsible for our defense do not communicate immediately and act instantly. It is also true that the terroristsí unprecedented methods caught our defenders by surprise on 9/11.

That, however, is the intent of a sneak attack. It is also the reason for procedures and chains of command, whose orders must be carried out immediately, especially in unexpected emergencies.

It would be easier to learn the lessons from 9/11 if we were not in the midst of a presidential election campaign. Time, however, is not on our side. Whatever we do, we must decide wisely. Whatever we decide wisely, we must do immediately.

Sen. Mark Dayton is Minnesota senior senator in the U.S. Senate.

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