Mayor Says a Hijacked Plane May be on the Ground in Cleveland and Another in the Air Near Toledo

Radio Broadcasts ^ | September 11, 2001 | Michael White, Cleveland Mayor

[litany_of_lies]

Mayor spoke at a press conference. The news cut in to the press conference while in progress, so I couldn't catch it all.

Radio Announcer just said that Cleveland is having a partial evacuation of downtown, so something serious is happening.

[litany_of_lies]

Any news would be helpful. I wonder how many other cities are experiencing terrorist threats.

[Pearls Before Swine]

SOB! Catching a couple of failed hijackers would be helpful in directing our anger. There must be some--airport security is bad, but can it be so bad that 100% of hijack attempts succeed?

[craig_eddy]

I've been wondering who owns the security companies. Particularly at Dulles and Boston. Same company? Same holding company?

[nopardons]

Chicago Exchanges and all high rise business buildings have been evacuated and closed.

[steamroller]

Security at Boston has never been good compared to other airports,but it seems that this can't be just lax security in so many places-there must have been infiltration of the security apparatus.

[blam]

Either this is not over or they do not have nukes, gas or bio weapons. I would not stay in any large city at this time.

[CELTICGAEL (Celt)]

Here in Columbus the streets of downtown is a mess. Police every where. The Ohio Dept. of Education is shut down. The Mayor just said that Port Cols. is shut down and the City is on a State of High Alert.

[an amused spectator]

Like the insane big city gun laws, the airline laws against carry are shown to be totally bogus, and merely disarm the sheep on board who are then flown into buildings for the sport of terrorists.

[Travis McGee]

Capturing some hijackers or other conspirators alive would be a terrific benefit in unraveling this plot, but I would not count on any hijackers being taken alive. SOme of their ground support/logistics partners may be arrested though, and then it will be thumbscrew time until we get every detail possible.

[Terriergal]

Either this is not over or they do not have nukes, gas or bio weapons. I would not stay in any large city at this time.

Good point.

[TLI]

World trade center is toast, somthing going on at the pentagon... Saw some of the first film on CNN and FOX... WOW! Two aircraft flown into the WTC. Fireball was about 20 - 30 stories in diameter... heading back to the tube..

[AlaskaErik]

I used to work for an airline. While passengers are checked, airline employees and caterers who don't access the planes through the terminal have free, unfettered access to the tarmac and the aircraft. We've all seen the movies where the weapons are in the food service carts. Well, looks like the terrorists took a page out of Hollywood. Now we must have an immediate and horrific response to these acts of cowardice.

[Dan from Michigan]

Another in the Air Near Toledo

OH Gawd no. If that's true, anyone in the Midwest is at risk. I'd watch Chicago or Detroit(Ambassador Bridge?).

[John_In_Houston]

How did so many terrorists get past airport security checkpoints ???

This is easy. Most of the employees (baggage handlers, food services,cleaning crews, stewardesses, etcc...), are low paid, uncleared person who have FREE ACCESS to SECURE AREAS and AIRPLANES. You get 2 or three of these inside terrorist per airport (EASY) and BAM!!! you have it. Terrorist don't take UZI through security, they are stashed in luggage, food containers, and crew areas by EMPLOYEES of the AIRLINE.

If are Serious about planning this..It would not be hard to get some terrorist employed as $5-$9 hrs airport and airline employees

[BJungNan]

Any update on this?

[csvset]

True. I briefly worked for a company that had a contract to pickup " lost" luggage from the airport & deliver it to the customers home.

No background check needed. After a couple of weeks, the security guard would open the gate to anyone driving one of our company's vans.

[Travis McGee]

Keep in mind that each hijacked plane had to have had a team of at least 4 or more terrorists on board. One terrorist can hijack a plane and force the pilot to fly somewhere, and one might blow a plane up, but to take full control of a plane and fly it straight into a building, is not just luck. The American pilots would not direct the planes into a building, the terrorists had to take the controls for the last minute at least.

The fact that three planes were taken and flew perfect "bullseyes" means pretty large terrorist teams on board.

Now the FBI will check the passenger lists, we will very likely see the tracks back through Europe to the MIddle East. We won't be told this, the retaliatory strikes will occur first, then we will be told.

If we are VERY lucky, we will take some prisoners today and sweat the details out of them.

[Travis McGee]

Osama Bin Laden or others could easily have infiltrated support teams into the airport staffs over the past years, in order to stash the weapons for a big attack like this. Many of those low paid workers might have been last working in Kabul, before coming to the USA with its open borders and easy immigration policies.

Hopefully some of those employee infiltrators will be arrested and forced to talk ASAP.

[RANGERAIRBORNE]

I have been arguing for years that "airport security", using the otherwise unemployable dregs of our society to randomly give everyone a hard time getting to their flights, was a bad joke. Incredibly, I have had people argue that it was really effective- how effective does it look now?

I would hazard a prediction that, when this is sorted out, "security" employees and baggage handlers are going to be found to have been involved in these hijackings. These two areas are the weakest points in the system.

By the time this is sorted out, though, I fully expect to be back on active duty, along with a lot of other military folks who thought they were out of uniform for good.

[CELTICGAEL (Celt)]

Fox just announced that ALL Major League Baseball has been canceled. ALERT... The President is going to make a statement in a moment