On 9/11, U.S. radar was facing wrong way

Star Ledger ^

[Sub-Driver]

WASHINGTON -- A top U.S. air defense official testified yesterday that an outdated "cold war" view of the world before the 9/11 attacks blinded the nation to mounting evidence that hijacked airliners were becoming the terrorist's weapon of choice.

Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, commander of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, said even the nation's radars were, in retrospect, turned the wrong way, looking out to sea for incoming invaders rather than searching the skies for threats from within the country.

[amom]

awwwwww thanks.

re #60...very interesting.

[Defender2]

See my post #60. Got to get some rest. See Ya'll tommorrow!!!!:-)

[amom]

nite nite.

Hugs

[Defender2]

Hugs,Good Night!!!!:-)

[Vast Buffalo Wing Conspiracy]

On 9/11, U.S. radar was facing wrong way

That is an absurd headline, unless the radars were pointing straight down. Radars rotate 360 degrees; even if "pointing out to sea" they still cover the land with the other 180 degrees. And that isn't counting the commercial air traffic radar. The hijacked jets flew past several air bases, and there was plenty of time for interception, after they had gone off course and before they reached their targets. Intercepting wayward aircraft was a standard USAF duty for many decades prior to 9/11/2001. Whoever is at fault, I don't expect the government to cooperate in exposing the facts about what went wrong.

[Defender2]

Please see my #45, #52, and #60 replies.

[The Duke]

Maybe I am mixed up, but didn't Clinton change the rule about first strike?

While I don't recall specifically about that I would assume he did whatever it was his fellow Communists would have him do.

However, I do recall that he changed the rules governing our nuclear subs such that ultimate command and authority to fire weapons rested within the Whore - er - White House. Thus rendering one entire leg of our nuclear deterrent ineffective.

One wonders, in fact, why President Bush has yet to correct such abominations(?)

[Alamo-Girl]

Thank you so much for that insight! Hugs!!!

[Defender2]

You're always very Welcome, Alamo-Girl!!!!:-) Hugs!!!!:-)

[MississippiMan]

I don't know, maybe it's just me, but I think the responsibility for 9/11 rests solely and 100% on the shoulders of Osama bin Laden.

If you follow that line of thought exclusively, we may as well get rid of all our defenses.

MM

[Blue Jays]

OPSEC, boys!

[thinden]

It turns out there was a NORAD exercise the morning of 9/11. I suspect initial reports of what was going on that morning were discounted as being part of the exercise.

very similar M.O. to:

1. Naval Live Fire Exercise below FAA W-105 on 7/17/1996
2. BATF operation "Dipole Might"; spring of 1995

[rubbertramp]

Then there was that X Files spinoff, the lone gunman?...had an episode about planes going into the WTC. A girl in my office claimed was warned not to go to NYC by FBI...how come Norad didn't know?

[rubbertramp]

I am a taxpayer. I am paying for a Norad system which was asleep at the switch. Why wasn't anyone fired over this? What is with our Commander-in-Chief...all sizzle and no steak. Bush looks guilty as hell to me and the rest of the world. Not only was a deficient intelligence community not chastised but they were promoted.

[rubbertramp]

JFK would have kicked the CIA and Norad's butt.

[radarhistorian]

You say the DEW Line is no more? Not true. It still exists, but has been modernized and changed to the "North Warning System" (NWS). Also, BMEWS still exists; all three sites now operate solid-state phased-array radars. For more information, see http://www.radomes.org/museum/.

[radarhistorian]

Wrong. The Distant Early Warning (DEW) Line was never designed or used to detect ICBMs coming over the north pole -- that was the function of the three Ballistic Missile Early Warning System (BMEWS) sites at Clear, AK, Thule, GL, and Fylingdales Moor, UK. The DEW Line consisted of radars that detected air-breathing threats (i.e., Soviet bombers). The DEW Line is now the North Warning System (NWS), modernized and still in use. For more information, see http://www.radomes.org/museum/.

[AnAmericanMother]

The really strange thing is the resignation of what everyone thought would soon be reality. There weren't any riots (there would have been today), or looting, or just plain craziness and anarchy (likewise would have occurred today), just this eerie quiet resignation of one's fate.

. . . except that my dad and other like-minded good old boys bought every bullet, every grain of powder, every primer, and every box of loaded ammo in the City of Atlanta . . .

I was still using up his powder hoard as late as 1980 . . .

[radarhistorian]

You state that the DEW Line operated AN/FPS-7 radars -- that is not correct. The DEW Line used AN/FPS-19 and AN/FPS-23 radars. Today, the DEW Line has been modernized with AN/FPS-117 and AN/FPS-124 radars, and is now known as the North Warning System (NWS). For more information, see http://www.radomes.org/museum/.