In our review of the events of Sept 11^th, (thus far) we have found a consistent pattern, whereby, Air Traffic Control, the FAA, and NORAD consistently failed to do their jobs -in anything approaching a reasonable frame of time.

In the case of Flight 11, Boston ATC took twenty-three minutes to notify NORAD, after the plane had begun going dramatically off-course, then after radio, transponder contact was lost, and some ten minutes after the plane was hijack-confirmed.

This galling, unprecedented delay, coupled with NORAD’s inept judgement, also doomed Flight 175 to its ignoble destruction, sixteen minutes later.

Flight 77 was clearly in trouble before Flight 11 hit the World Trade Center at 8:46. ATC officials watching Flight 77 were aware that Flight 11 had been hijacked before it crashed; yet it took the FAA until 9:25, over thirty-five minutes later, to inform NORAD that Flight 77 may have been hijacked.

NORAD again responded by ordering planes to scramble from a base (Langley) which was 130 miles away from where Flight 77 was, (just outside Washington) when active fighters were stationed at Andrews AFB, just ten to fifteen miles away.

Flight 93 was hijack-confirmed at 9:16, fifty minutes before it crashed in rural Pennsylvania –with not a single fighter being close enough to intercept it, (or so we are told).

When the President of the United States, George W. Bush, was first informed that a hijacked plane had crashed into the World trade center, (and another plane hijacked) at about 8:55, he made no change in his plans. After being updated at 9:00 am, then 9:05 (presumably about the second attack) he did nothing for another twenty-five minutes, even though he was supposedly the only one authorized to shoot the planes down.

When the president tried to leave Florida for Washington, his plane, (Air Force One) was re-routed to Louisiana, and then Nebraska. He limped home, nine hours after the attacks, because of "credible evidence of a threat to Air Force One and the White House", which were later denied and dismissed by the very officials who first mouthed them.

It is now exceedingly clear that, alongside a terrorist attack on Sept 11th, there existed a campaign of gross negligence at practically all levels of American air defense: ATC, FAA, NORAD, and the Executive.

Without this colossal incompetence, the collisions of Flights 11, 175, and 77 -into those buildings- simply could not have occurred.

Within this above group we must also include the Pentagon and the Dept. of Defense, which is at the center of all command and control decisions in the case of hijackings, (and other national emergencies).

This gives specific clarification to a previous reference in Part 1A, (New York Times, Sept 15)

All of this is now a confirmation of what everyone (with access to a television) instinctively knew on Sept 11:

Now we can see, that it was not just one official, in one department; it was system-wide; and we can further see why the government, and the military, do not want us to ask too many questions about it.

This gross, systematic incompetence points to one of three probable causes:

The first scenario is not very likely.

It would mean that a long process of decay, apathy, and inefficiency would have set in: a ticking time-bomb, in place, imperceivable, waiting for a terrorist group to eventually take advantage.

While such a degradation of the overall system may have played a part in the Sept 11th breakdown, it seems far more likely that a particular ingrediant set it off: either unintended criminal negligence at a very high level, or intentional negligence, (sabotage) at a middle to high level.

It's also possible that very little negligence existed at the lower levels of the FAA and ATC; and instead, occurred in the upper echelons of the military.

For example: NORAD and the Pentagon are the last leg of communication in civilian air-defence; negligence at this level, means that the planes don't get airborne, no matter what ATC and the FAA do.

While it's also true that the planes don't get airborne if the military is not informed, it's less-likely that such negligence would occur across numerous branches of Air Traffic Control centers, and the FAA, all at the same time. The fact that the President was also utterly incapacitated, points to command and control centers in the military.

We should further remember that much of what we know of as evidence in mainstream publications -timelines, who did what, etc- ultimately comes to us from the military.

In matters of "national-security," the FAA and ATC bow to the military authority -for the final word on what "officially" transpired.

See, for example, the previously cited Newsday article, (Sept 23) wherein we read,

By the "official" documentation gathered thus far, it appears that the FAA and ATC is more at fault -for not informing NORAD in time- than is NORAD, (for not ordering the appropriate bases to respond); yet this documentation comes to us largely from NORAD; and we would not expect to publicly hear from ATC or FAA officials, if their experience differed markedly from the "official" line.

It's possible that the ATC and FAA officials did everything by the book on Sept 11 -and that NORAD simply refused to act, or the Pentagon ordered bases not to respond, (for whatever reason).

The fact that no FAA/ATC officials have been publicly charged with negligence, would suggest that the military, (which holds ultimate authority here) is either covering up for them, (taking heat onto itself) or is not charging anyone to cover up its own culpability.

Anyone familiar with the U.S. military knows that the first option, (the act of a senior authority passing up an opportunity to pin the blame for a disaster on a guilty subordinate) is the far less likely of the two.

If the negligence was intentional, (i.e. sabotage) then it still would have had to occur at a fairly high level -for it to have a critical, causitive affect across so many jurisdictions and levels of authority: ATC, FAA, NORAD, the Pentagon, and the President.

The infrastructure of civilian air defence is very complex: it may take some time before we are able to pinpoint precisely who was responsible for what, and to what degree of concious intent.

Intentional or not, such gross negligence and incompetence demands a full public hearing –and for those responsible to be brought to trial.

The only way for this to happen is for individual citizens and groups to spread the word, gather together evidence, separate fact from conjecture, cease accepting government pronouncements as gospel, then make our voices heard across the entire body-politic.

The fact that the whole affair has been overlooked by the Bush Administration, Congress, (and the mainstream media, as we shall see) does not bode well for the search for justice -for the thousands of innocents who needlessly died.

Such is the challenge which befalls the sacred duty of citizens -living in a free society.

Now: while we still do not have a conclusive idea of where the criminal negligence of Sept 11th emanated from, we may be able to shed some further light on the subject, by expanding the scope of our investigation.

That is: if the negligence of Sept. 11th emanated from a high level in the military, (and/or executive) then we should also see it reflected in other jurisdictions which are lower than the military authority, but higher than the FAA/ATC.

If it is not, this would make it more plausible for us to assume that the negligence came from the lower ranks.

It is in this regard the the "official" FBI investigation now represents a potentially fertile ground for gathering evidence -as to exactly where the breakdown (and/or collusion) of authority occurred.

It is to this that we now turn our attention.