Posted on 09/11/2001 6:51:30 PM PDT by George W. Bush
ABC described that cell calls from the planes described only knives, no guns mentioned. Jennings and company at ABC described the three different planes from which calls came and they said only that knives were used, not guns. One of the calls said the hijackers were using boxcutter knives. Earlier today, I heard ABC mention plastic knives but haven't heard any more on that rumor again.
I think it is futile to second-guess what happened up there. This was a cold, well-coordinated terrorist crime.
First, the 4 hijackings were obviously centrally directed as to strategy and timing. It is also most likely that tactics were centrally directed. Independent teams working out their own tactics for attaining control of the plane would take longer and clearly have higher risk of early detection, or failure, or poor timing, than a centrally directed plan such as this one, which could probably achieve the level of success as this one did even with only 16 people in the US. It would not be necessary to have help from airline or airport employees.
The hijackers carried knives or box cutters (based on, e.g., Olson phone call). Not the ideal weapon, or even the ideal knives, for the affair. While guns might be obtained with inside help from airport security, today’s plan required teams to reliably get on 4 planes, and even good inside help could not guarantee that with serious weapons. (Even a medium-sized steel Rambo knife would possibly get found even with the best terrorist operatives, and the plan had to let 4 teams of hijackers at 3 airports to get through with low risk of any detections.) Far more reliable to sneak on with fake knives, or quite real nylon knives, which would do the trick with several adult men taking charge of an airplane. The terrorists would expect that the passengers would never quite motivate themselves to fight back, especially since passengers don’t expect hijackers to kill themselves by taking out the whole plane. That said, the Pittsburgh crash in the middle of nowhere was probably the result of such a fight. Surely the hijackers wanted some target besides rural Pennsylvania, so unless their pilot was uniquely incompetent, that means the terrorists did not hold complete control over the cockpit, and thus that the passengers and/or crew fought back, with some success.
There were probably about 4 men on each plane. 3 at a minimum, 6 at a maximum. Under 4 men and the odds of taking over a group of 60 or more people goes way down with mere knives. Over 4 men, and the odds of secrecy being compromised go up quickly (even with 6 men, you have 24 people on 4 planes, a lot to keep secret, whether they are foreigners or domestic). Also, the fact that the hijackers could not quickly take and keep control in 1 of the 4 cases (Pittsburgh) is another reason to expect that the number was probably not much over 4.
The planes did not go to the closest targets (e.g., the plane that took off from NYC did not attack in NYC). That was to maximize the odds that all the planes would be in the air, even if one were delayed, before crashes would shut down the system. Planes going to close targets would otherwise be better, due to better fuel loads (as everyone has properly speculated, the terrorists used transcontinental flights for big fuel loads). The terrorists would not want to depend on in-air communications to ensure this timing.
Everyone, of course, assumes it was Muslims, although they are generally loathe to say it in so many words, after some such early speculation on Oklahoma City proved completely baseless. We will know soon enough. The men almost certainly bought tickets – no need to sneak on when anyone can buy a ticket for relatively trivial money and a mediocre ID. The men were also almost certainly buying the tickets under assumed names, and if they were smart, names which they did not use in any other context (such as housing or purchases of other goods or services, including previous travel). But odds are a witness somewhere will be able to remember what some of them looked like, and what languages/accents they spoke in.
That's all it would have taken today to prevent the deaths of thousands of Americans. I hope the anti-gun crowd wakes up soon.
I still have to agree with the post that says that the pilots were in league with the terrorists.
Not a chance, in my opinion. I think it's much more likely that the pilots on the three planes that hit their targets were already dead while the planes were still in the air. I also suspect that the pilot of the fourth plane intentionally drove that plane into the ground to save lives.
Highly unlikely, IMO. But, time will tell.
For goodness sake! Boxcutter knives?? And no one did anything? Is this the product of years of feminazis' indoctrination turning men into wimps? A few terrorists with boxcutter knives against 50 or more passengers. All they had to do was get up, all of them, and overpower the bastards!
Excellent point.
Wanna bet on that, sparky? ESPECIALLY the flight Barbara Olsen was on.........'cause she was told what happened to the two hijacked flights that struck the WTC, and she undoubtedly passed this on to the others.
I just heard on the radio that on a cell phone conversation with a passanger, they gave the seat number of one of the hijackers. Anyone else hear this?
It is difficult for me to comprehend, though, how four men with mere knives could maintain control of a widebody (2-aisle) plane.
At least two of the terrorists would be required to assault the flight deck (one of whom would have been trained to operate the aircraft). The other two would have to maintain control of sixty-or-more passengers...stationed in separate aisles.
Given such a disposition, either would have been vulnerable to a "rush" from the passengers (how do you hold people at "bay" with a knife?). And, if one went to support the other, he would be abandoning his own aisle and leaving them subject to a flanking move.
Perhaps you should allocate at least six terrorists to each of the widebodies.
They probably told the passengers that they had demands, and everybody would be released safely.
Like I said, that was before today. Now, I'd rush the bastards and expect fellow passengers to do the same.
The world's changed.
No one, other than criminals, terrorists, etc., has reason to fear armed American citizens.
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