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What Do NORAD's 9/11 Computer Chat Logs Reveal?
Thomas J. DiLorenzo
Lew
Rockwell.com
Monday, Dec 15, 2008
In April 2006, journalist Michael Bronner received in the post
30 hours of recordings he had requested from the Pentagon. These
recordings, which came as a series of computer audio files on
three CDs, had captured events on the operations floor at NORAD's
Northeast Air Defense Sector throughout the day of September 11,
2001. [1] NORAD--the North American Aerospace Defense Command--is
the military organization responsible for monitoring and defending
the airspace of North America. Its Northeast Air Defense Sector
(NEADS), based in Rome, New York, is responsible for monitoring
and protecting 500,000 square miles of airspace above the northeast
U.S., including the airspace over New York City and Washington,
DC. [2] It was within this airspace that the 9/11 attacks occurred,
and from the NEADS operations floor that the U.S. military's response
originated. Evidence of what happened there that day is clearly
in the public interest and of obvious importance for attempts
to unravel how the attacks were able to succeed. In an August
2006 Vanity Fair article based on the recordings, Bronner
therefore referred to these "NORAD tapes" as "the authentic military
history of 9/11." [3]
However, the NORAD tapes are not the only record of the actions
of NORAD and its Northeast Air Defense Sector on September 11.
In her recent book Touching History: The Untold Story of the
Drama that Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11, commercial
pilot and author Lynn Spencer revealed the existence of other
crucial documentation. Yet, more than seven years on from 9/11,
this record remains unreleased to the public and its contents
are almost completely unknown.
Spencer described how, at around 9:25 a.m. on September 11, Master
Sergeant Joe McCain, the mission crew commander technician at
NEADS, received a call from the Continental U.S. NORAD Region
(CONR) headquarters at Tyndall Air Force Base in Florida. Major
General Larry Arnold and his staff at Tyndall had been trying
to gather information about the ongoing crisis, and wanted to
know the transponder codes for the two fighter jets that had been
launched in response to the first hijacking. The CONR officer
that made the call told McCain to "send [the transponder codes]
out on chat." By "chat," he meant NORAD's computer chat system.
[4]
(ARTICLE CONTINUES BELOW)
NORAD'S COMPUTER CHAT SYSTEM
According to Spencer, the chat system used by NORAD that day was
"similar to the chat rooms on most Internet servers, but classified."
It had three chat rooms that could be used by anyone with proper
access. One room was specifically for NEADS, and connected its
ID, surveillance, and weapons technicians to its alert fighter
squadrons, and was where NEADS received status reports on fighter
units and their aircraft. Another chat room was for CONR, and
was where its three sectors--NEADS, the Western Air Defense Sector
(WADS), and the Southeast Air Defense Sector (SEADS)--communicated
with each other and could "upchannel" information to CONR headquarters.
The third room was the Air Warfare Center (AWC), where senior
NORAD commanders from the three NORAD regions--CONR, Canada, and
Alaska--communicated with each other. Although NEADS was allowed
to monitor this room, it could not type into it. [5]
Furthermore, when a training exercise was taking place, one or
two additional chat windows would be open specifically for communicating
exercise information, so as to help prevent it being confused
with real-world information. [6] This fact is of particular significance,
as the whole of NORAD, including the staff at NEADS, was involved
in at least one major training exercise the morning of 9/11. The
annual "Vigilant Guardian" exercise has been described as "an
air defense exercise simulating an attack on the United States,"
and was scheduled to include a simulated hijacking that day. [7]
According to Larry Arnold, who was the commanding general of NORAD's
Continental U.S. Region, this exercise was only canceled after
the second World Trade Center tower was hit at 9:03 a.m. [8]
PAPER LOGS DOCUMENT COMMUNICATIONS
NORAD kept paper logs of the communications that took place in
its computer chat rooms. As Spencer described, at NEADS it was
Joe McCain's responsibility "to monitor the chats and keep paper
logs of everything that is happening. ... These chat logs help
to keep everyone on the same page, but in a situation like the
one unfolding [on 9/11] they have to be updated almost instantaneously
to achieve that end." [9] These logs are actually referred to
in the notes at the back of the 9/11 Commission Report.
However, this is only in relation to a single communication made
across the chat system. As the report described: "At 10:31, General
Larry Arnold instructed his staff to broadcast the following over
a NORAD instant messaging system: '10:31 Vice president has cleared
to us to intercept tracks of interest and shoot them down if they
do not respond per [General Arnold].'" [10] This detail makes
clear that crucial information was being communicated in the NORAD
chat rooms. Yet, to date, we know practically nothing about what
else was being discussed in them.
Clearly, the details of the NORAD chat logs for the day of 9/11
need to be made public and must be carefully examined. They may
not tell us the full story of the U.S. military's response to
the attacks, nor give us all the answers we require about why
the military failed so catastrophically to protect the nation.
But they will surely fill a large gap in the puzzle.
NOTES
[1] Michael
Bronner, "9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes." Vanity Fair, August
2006.
[2] Leslie Filson, Sovereign Skies: Air National Guard Takes
Command of 1st Air Force. Panama City, FL: 1st Air Force,
1999, p. 51; Michael
Bronner, "9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes."
[3] Michael
Bronner, "9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes." The NORAD tapes were
previously subpoenaed by the 9/11 Commission in November 2003.
(See Philip
Shenon, "9/11 Panel Issues Subpoena to Pentagon." New York
Times, November 8, 2003; Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton,
Without Precedent: The Inside Story of the 9/11 Commission.
New York: Knopf, 2006, pp. 85-88.) However, the Commission played
only a few short excerpts from the tapes, during its final public
hearing on June 17, 2004. In August 2007, the producers of the
popular 9/11 documentary film Loose Change received audio
files of the NORAD tapes, which they made fully available to members
of the public over the Internet. (See "NORAD
Live and Uncut." Official Loose Change Blog, August 30, 2007.)
[4] Lynn Spencer, Touching History: The Untold Story of the
Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11. New
York: Free Press, 2008, p. 139.
[5] Ibid. p. 139.
[6] Ibid. pp. 139-140.
[7] Hart
Seely, "Amid Crisis Simulation, 'We Were Suddenly No-Kidding Under
Attack.'" Newhouse News Service, January 25, 2002; Leslie
Filson, Air War Over America: Sept. 11 Alters Face of Air
Defense Mission. Tyndall Air Force Base, FL: 1st Air Force,
2003, pp. 41 and 122; Michael
Bronner, "9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes."
[8] Leslie Filson, Air War Over America, p. 59.
[9] Lynn Spencer, Touching History, p. 140.
[10] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report
of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States (Authorized Edition). New York: W. W. Norton &
Company, 2004, pp. 42 and 465-466.
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