White House Briefly Evacuated

AP ^ | June 19, 2002 | AP

[Atsilvquodi]

LOL...

"...come toward the light...."

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

NATO AWACS have gone home. Rumsfeld was in Germany almost two weeks ago thanking them for their service.

[AmericanInTokyo]

They are apparantly still here with AWACS.

[AmericanInTokyo]

ANG F-16s from 121st FS at Andrews also scrambled. But not before the Germans went up with AWACs.

[RDangerfield]

Ari Fleischer just confirmed that the plane that was scrambled from Andrews Air Force Base arrived after the plane entered and exited the White House space. Just as the planes scrambled on 9-11 arrived after the plane crashed into the Pentagon. In the nine months since the original attack, why hasn't a system been put into place to get a plane into the air to intercept?
--Raoul

[cubreporter]

this story is being beaten to death. It happend, they took care of it...nothing came of it...let's move on! Yipes!

[Mudboy Slim]

"Are you really Rush Limbaugh...?"

You are relentless in yer RushBashin', OldFriend...kinda endearing, I guess.

FReegards...MUD

[AmericanInTokyo]

I dont know but I would say the terrorists have just successfully tested one of our vulnerabilities (there are hundreds of others) even if it was by a fluke by a chap who got lost and did not know what he was doing.

Brilliant. Just brilliant.

We haven't learned a damned thing.

[fivecatsandadog]

"This is a test. It is only a test. Should this have been an actual emergency, you would be instructed to tune to your local emergency broadcast station".

[RoughDobermann]

Interesting update on the story here

[SBeck]

Yeah, that was an interesting update. Get ready for the tinfoils saying that it was a "planned penetration" in order to ratchet up the security zone around the White House.

[fivecatsandadog]

Thanks for the link.

11 minutes after being notified of the potential threat by NORAD. A lot of damage could happen within 11 minutes.

[SMEDLEYBUTLER]

Rumsfeld spoke of their service in the past tense. I'm pretty sure he would have mentioned it if any NATO crews, which are multinational not just German, were still deployed to the States. If you've got a link to a source saying different, I'd appreciate seeing it. It was announced in late April that they were returning to Europe. The E-3 would already have been airborne.

Rumsfeld thanks NATO AWACS troops

[AmericanInTokyo]

It is the case he thanked them for their service. But one NATO aircraft, a E-3B, still took off in the p.m. hours heading northeast prior to the cross over into the no-fly NOTAM zone. Rather they were in connection with surveillance or not is not clear. The question is, who notified NORAD?

Did the name of this pilot ever get released?

[AmericanInTokyo]

Meant to ask: "Who informed FAA?"