I remember it was like watching a bad movie. I was on Capitol Hill. I was about ready to meet with Senator Cleland. I was meeting with him in preparation for my hearing, my confirmation hearing to be the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. And I remember before we walked in there was a TV that was playing and somebody has said, "An airplane has hit one of the World Trade Center towers." They thought it was an airplane, and they thought it was a small airplane or something like that. So we walked in and we did the office call with Senator Cleland.
Sometime during that office call the second tower was hit. Nobody informed us of that. But when we came out, that was obvious. Then right at that time somebody said the Pentagon has been hit.
I immediately, somebody handed me a cell phone, and it was General Eberhart out at NORAD in Colorado Springs talking about what was happening and the actions he was going to take. We immediately, after talking to him, jumped in the car, ran back to the Pentagon.
The Chairman had left that morning to go to Europe, so he was somewhere over the Atlantic. As I got to the Pentagon I noticed a lot of people were coming out of the Pentagon. Of course they'd been told to evacuate.
My concern was where can you best discharge your duties? Where's your duty station? As a sailor, Quinn, you know a lot about your battle station. Well my battle station was in the National Military Command Center. I asked if it was still running, they said it sure is, so I went back in the building to the Command Center and was joined shortly thereafter by the Secretary of Defense. The Deputy Secretary actually went to another location at that point. We did what had to be done in terms of the command and control of the day.
Source
RedIbis is careful to avoid complicity or conspiracy. In this very thread he urged that his mild LIHOP POV actually doesn't require either facilitating or conspiring. What it involves is having a name and a vague relationship to the hypothetical "plan" to allow 9/11 to happen.I'm interested to hear RedIbis' explanation for how Richard Myers facilitated the 9/11 Attacks.
Here's Richard Myers' version of events:
I'd be interested to hear where it was in that sequence of events that General Myers facilitated the attacks.
-Gumboot
The Goldwater-Nichols DOD Reorganization Act of 1986 identifies the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff as the senior ranking member of the Armed Forces. As such, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff is the principal military adviser to the President. He may seek the advice of and consult with the other JCS members and combatant commanders. When he presents his advice, he presents the range of advice and opinions he has received, along with any individual comments of the other JCS members.
http://www.jcs.mil/chairman/chairman_resp.html
Oh dear, Red has tripped up and fallen down an open manhole
Did you read his story? He clearly did not know that the US was under attack when he went into the meeting. It was, at that time, thought to be an aircraft of some sort and most likely an accident.
Only after when he got a cell phone call does it become clear that it was an attack and he then bursts into action.
How this translates into let it happen is beyond me? Please enlighten?
I remember that day also someone called me to the television and said a plane has hit the tower. We thought it was an accident and went back to work. Then another hit and we started to think something was up. Same situation for Myers. Exactly what would have changed if someone had come into his meeting?
Ask the people who did not disturb him Red?
Was it them who were let it happen?
Read his own story and digest. Did someone come into the meeting and tell him the US was under attack?
If someone bursts into the meeting and tells him there has been another hit on the Tower and it is thought to be an attack on the US and he still does nothing then he has boobed. Show me this happened.
Then tell me exactly how it would have affected anything else that day?
Excuse me? How in the hell didn't he know because he was in a meeting? I was in a meeting 1000 miles away from DC and I was interrupted to watch what was unfolding. How was he not "disturbed"?
I suspect that Myers couldn't find a phone booth in which he could rip off his outer uniform to reveal his blue and red tights with a cape, and big red "S" on the front.
Do you know how hard it's become to find a full-size phone booth?
In your view, does anyone deserve reprimand, dismissal, criminal charges of negligence, even performance review?
What did you do after you were notified? Watch TV! Bwhaaaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!
For the hell of it, I'll try to track you here. Uh, yeah, I watched TV, just like nearly everyone else at the time. And do I actually have to point out that I'm not the acting Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff?
Humor me, do you have anything of substance to add at this point?
Guess what Myers did when he got to the NMCC? I won't tell you, you tell me.
Unfortunately, it was too late by then.
In your view, does anyone deserve reprimand, dismissal, criminal charges of negligence, even performance review?
Or should we not scrutinize what might have been deep and dangerous human error, or worse willful negligence and complicity?
It's as if such questions are preposterous, and it's inspiring me to start another thread in which I post a similar list to Tam's and ask if anyone deserves investigation for their (non)actions that day.