Group of pilots disputes question official version of 9/11

The Portugal News ^ | 8/3/02 | The Portugal News

[DrLiberty]

September 11 - US Government accused

A Portugal-based investigative journalist has presented THE NEWS with version of the September 11th attacks that has to date failed to attract the attention of the international press. The report, compiled by an independent inquiry into the September 11th, World Trade Centre attack, warns the American public that the government’s official version of events does not stand up to scrutiny.

A group of military and civilian US pilots, under the chairmanship of Colonel Donn de Grand, after deliberating non-stop for 72 hours, has concluded that the flight crews of the four passenger airliners, involved in the September 11th tragedy, had no control over their aircraft.

In a detailed press communiqué the inquiry stated: “The so-called terrorist attack was in fact a superbly executed military operation carried out against the USA, requiring the utmost professional military skill in command, communications and control. It was flawless in timing, in the choice of selected aircraft to be used as guided missiles and in the coordinated delivery of those missiles to their pre-selected targets.”

The report seriously questions whether or not the suspect hijackers, supposedly trained on Cessna light aircraft, could have located a target dead-on 200 miles from take off point. It further throws into doubt their ability to master the intricacies of the instrument flight rules (IFR) in the 45 minutes from take off to the point of impact. Colonel de Grand said that it would be impossible for novices to have taken control of the four aircraft and orchestrated such a terrible act requiring military precision of the highest order.

A member of the inquiry team, a US Air Force officer who flew over 100 sorties during the Vietnam war, told the press conference: “Those birds (commercial airliners) either had a crack fighter pilot in the left seat, or they were being manoeuvred by remote control.”

In evidence given to the enquiry, Captain Kent Hill (retd.) of the US Air Force, and friend of Chic Burlingame, the pilot of the plane that crashed into the Pentagon, stated that the US had on several occasions flown an unmanned aircraft, similar in size to a Boeing 737, across the Pacific from Edwards Air Force base in California to South Australia. According to Hill it had flown on a pre programmed flight path under the control of a pilot in an outside station.

Hill also quoted Bob Ayling, former British Airways boss, in an interview given to the London Economist on September 20th, 2001. Ayling admitted that it was now possible to control an aircraft in flight from either the ground or in the air. This was confirmed by expert witnesses at the inquiry who testified that airliners could be controlled by electro-magnetic pulse or radio frequency instrumentation from command and control platforms based either in the air or at ground level.

All members of the inquiry team agreed that even if guns were held to their heads none of them would fly a plane into a building. Their reaction would be to ditch the plane into a river or a field, thereby safeguarding the lives of those on the ground.

A further question raised by the inquiry was why none of the pilots concerned had alerted ground control. It stated that all pilots are trained to punch a four-digit code into the flight control’s transponder to warn ground control crews of a hijacking - but this did not happen.

During the press conference Captain Hill maintained that the four airliners must have been choreographed by an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS). This system can engage several aircraft simultaneously by knocking out their on-board flight controls. He said that all the evidence points to the fact that the pilots and their crews had not taken any evasive action to resist the supposed hijackers. They had not attempted any sudden changes in flight path or nose-dive procedures - which led him to believe that they had no control over their aircraft.

THE NEWS, in an attempt to further substantiate the potential veracity of these findings, spoke to an Algarve-based airline pilot, who has more than 20 years of experience in flying passenger planes, to seek his views. Captain Colin McHattie, currently flying with Cathay Pacific, agreed with the independent commission’s findings. However, he explained that while it is possible to fly a plane from the ground, the installation of the necessary equipment is a time-consuming process, and needs extensive planning. THE NEWS will publish a full interview with Captain McHattie in next week’s edition.

The FBI also came in for criticism for the various pieces of contradictory evidence it has published regarding the suspects. Questions are now being asked as to how incorrect information was given out regarding the ID cards of the suspects, and the seat numbers they supposedly occupied after boarding the flights.

None of the suspects named by the FBI appeared on any of the official passenger lists. A further point was how the FBI had managed to retrieve the passport of one of the suspects amid the molten and twisted remains of thousands of tons of steel and rubble brought about by the Twin Towers collapse.

Dr. Paul Roberts, former Assistant Secretary of the US Treasury, and presently Senior Research Fellow at Stamford University, has lent his support to the independent inquiry findings. He also claims that Osama Bin Laden was not responsible for September 11th. The doctor has challenged President Bush to make public the so-called “irrefutable evidence” incriminating Bin Laden.

Colonel Donn de Grand said that if President Bush is lying it would not be the first time that the American people had been mislead by its government. He cited the recently published official government archives describing President Roosevelt’s duplicity in deceiving Americans about the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbour, which triggered the US entry into WWll.

He also highlighted the role of the country’s government in misleading its citizens in respect of the Bay of Pigs invasion in Cuba, and the events that brought about the Spanish American war in the late 19th, century. “Whilst considering who committed this act of war on September 11th,” he said, “albeit Russia, China, an Islamic country or NATO, we must also consider that the enemy may well be within the gates.

“Not for the first time the American public might be being mislead, by those with ulterior motives, into lending its support to a war, this time against Iraq, that has no bearing whatsoever on the interests of the people of the USA.”

So far the mainstream American news media has failed to publish or broadcast any details regarding the independent inquiry. Similarly, the White House, whilst having received a copy of the report, has remained silent on its findings.

[LaBradford22]

This guy has seen the move "Conspiracy Theory" with Mel Gibson way too many times.

[Maximum Leader]

I've never heard of this Colonel De Grand before. How much are you willing to bet that his commission is from some militia?

As for Paul Roberts... I read his column regularly and I haven't seen him endorse anything like this (though he does compare the FBI to the Gestapo, confusing I think general incompetence with all too competent evil). As for Roberts' university, I'm pretty sure the big school in Palo Alto is NOT called "Stamford".

Just a sloppy article.

[mikegi]

This is very old tinfoil hat stuff. Do a search on google.com for "Donn de Grand" and you'll see the exact same story over and over again ("Enemy is Inside the Gates"). I guess the AWACS planes use their hallucination rays to make Barbara Olsen see hijackers take over and fly the planes.

[tracer]

let's bump

[PJeffQ]

The tinfoil hats in Signs are pretty good...

[pabianice]

What Is An AFDB?

An Aluminum Foil Deflector Beanie (AFDB) is a type of headwear that can shield your brain from most electromagnetic psychotronic mind control carriers. AFDBs are inexpensive (even free if you don't mind scrounging for thrown-out aluminium foil) and can be constructed by anyone with at least the dexterity of a chimp (maybe bonobo). This cheap and unobtrusive form of mind control protection offers real security to the masses. Not only do they protect against incoming signals, but they also block most forms of brain scanning and mind reading, keeping the secrets in your head truly secret. AFDBs are safe and operate automatically. All you do is make it and wear it and you're good to go! Plus, AFDBs are stylish and comfortable.

[BullDog108]

Quick Instructions For Building Your AFDB

[ex-snook]

"This is irrational crap. "

Righto. It totally misses what happened on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania. Let's roll doesn't sound like a remote.

[Krafty123]

There are both Stanford and Stamford Universities.

[Pistolshot]

TIN FOIL ALERT!!!

[Mat_Helm]

This writer has no idea about what he is talking about. 767's praticly fly themselves. I have over 2000 simulated hours over 9 years in F/A-18 hornets in various weapons tactics trainers, flight simulators, and part task trainers after doing maintenance, modification, and operations for the Navy. I am not a fighter pilot but I can fly, navigate, bomb, do all major ACM combat, land on a carrier, and do other classified operations in my sleep and would not flinch at an opportunity to fly an F/A-18 on any occasion. I used to amaze pilots with stunts they would never ever attempt for real such as drop from martial at 20,000 feet, pull up on the deck 1/2 mile from the fan tail with speed brake out, lower the gear-hook-flaps while doing a complete aileron roll, and catch the 3-wire just as Hornet leveled with deck after the roll. During tours of the simulator I could have people flying an F/A-18 with less than an hours instruction. I would wax (shoot down) Lt.JG Nugget flying against them from another cockpit in simulated Air Combat Maneuvering (ACM)on a regular basis.

Yes, with little flight time these SOB's were able to simply type in the coordinates in the Nav system to the major cities or just head that direction and easily find major large targets in those cities and hit them. I have seen the MSN Flight Simulator and other software available to anyone and yes they could easily learn to do what these SOB's did with that and basic flight training.

I used to fly in a weapons trainer with 360 degree visual capability with realtime topagraphy and nap of the earth and fly to monument valley and fly through the mountains or fly through the buildings in down town LA or under the Longbeach harbor bridge.

No you can not take over a 767 with a radio signal that overrides the cockpit avionics input and remotely fly it into a building without the pilots being able to stop it. First and foremost even if they had access to modify the aircraft all the pilot would have to do is pull the breakers to the radio equipemnt or other circuit breakers that would prevent the avionics from receiving inputs. 767's have a database management unit and flight control computers that control the engines and avionics. The pilots could also have shut down the engines at anytime regardless. Why would they hit three targets and crash one in an empty PA field?

Where was the tinfoil hat alert on this one.

[DrLiberty]

Congressman Billybob: "The panel reached its conclusion after "deliberating for 72 straight hours." Any panel on anything that deliberated for 72 straight hours would agree to anything to get out of the room and get some sleep. -- that Bill Clinton is an honest man, that O.J. Simpson didn't do it, that Britanny Spears is a good actress, whatever."

Very funny. Your point proves nothing.

Congressman Billybob: "Regarding the comment that the hijackers "could not have become familiar with IFR operations in 45 minutes," they didn't use the instruments. They flew down the coast by looking at the waterline. In New York, they found their targets by sight. In D.C. they missed their target (apparently the White House), because it is short and hidden by trees when seen from the air, and so diverted to the Pentagon."

You obviously haven't seen the flightlines. You're just assuming what they did, like everyone else here does all the time. They flew straight down across New York State, not the coast.

If that's the best you can do Billy, we better get you back up to congress to help all the other nitwits. Or how about The CIA or FBI. They can't see the forest for the trees either.

[bootless]

Grab the Reynolds Wrap - another ignernt aviation story!

[bootless]

GPS coordinates.

[ravingnutter]

If this is the same Paul Roberts...his bio is at the Hoover Institution on War, Revolution and Peace .

[fellowpatriot]

So explain to me, what was the point of killing 19 of their comrades if they were indeed controlling the planes remotely?

[Poohbah]

The 767 has a lovely navigation suite. One simply punches in the GPS coordinates desired (not hard to obtain--simply stand on the WTC observation platform with a GPS receiver and store the data), engages the navigation system, and the plane either (a) tells you where to steer or (b) if you're in a lazy mood, it will fly there itself on automatic pilot with altitude hold engaged.

Once in visual range, simply turn off the autopilot and steer the damn plane. Not terribly difficult.

This "report" improperly describes equipment (the description of the AWACS is a particularly funny one for those who actually know how these sorts of things work), jumps to conclusions not supported by the data, and generally multiplies entities beyond necessity.

[bootless]

...simply stand on the WTC observation platform with a GPS receiver and store the data),

Perzackly. BTW, wasn't Atta spotted loitering around the towers a day or so before?

More generally, this is one of the looniest theories I've seen in a while.

[Maximum Leader]

True enough, but Paul Craig Roberts is a fellow at the Hoover Institution, which is affiliated with Stanford.

There may in fact be (though I doubt it) a Paul Roberts at Stamford, but PCR is the one that was an assistant secretary of the Treasury.

[colorado tanker]

"And the moon is made of cheese." Yep. Tastes like Stilton.