Hi Geggy

[El Blanco]

Well, atleast you are within a country mile of answering my question. Still not giving me what I want but what the hell, you aren't going to anyway.

I'm not even 100% sure your timeline is correct, but I'll take a few swings.

How long does it take for hijackers to gain control of the crowd with boxcutters, break into the cockpit, force out the co-pilots, take control of the plane, turn off transponders, etc? Long enough period of time for NORAD to respond.

What on earth gives you reason for that assumption?

American Airline 77 took off from Dulles Airport in DC, and after it had been hijacked, the hijacker pilot diverted AA77 back to DC for full 45 minutes before hitting the pentagon. So where was NORAD on this one?

Still getting a bead on all the planes in the sky. Do you have any idea how much air travel happens over the US, especially the East Coast?

Not one single fighter jets were scrambled to either intercept AA77 nor protect the skies in DC.

Prior to 9-11, there were 14 fighter jets responsible for defending the skies over the continental US.

Do you know their best response times? Do you know how long it is supposed to take orders to go through the chain of command?

Besides, what if fighter jets intercepted 77? What then?

Remember, the pentagon impact occured 35 minutes after the 2nd hit in NYC when it became obviously apparent to anyone that america was under attack.

Yes, then you have to get your bearings together and find other missing planes

The only possible explanation was that the air force was given a stand down order.

No, not at all. They could have very well been caught asleep at the switch. Not that I'm comfortable with that either, but its well short of the scifi you're writing.

Mineta's testimony was completely omitted from the 9/11 report

Really?

Want to read the part of his tesitmony you are refering to?

MR. HAMILTON: We thank you for that. I wanted to focus just a moment on the Presidential Emergency Operating Center. You were there for a good part of the day. I think you were there with the vice president. And when you had that order given, I think it was by the president, that authorized the shooting down of commercial aircraft that were suspected to be controlled by terrorists, were you there when that order was given?

MR. MINETA: No, I was not. I was made aware of it during the time that the airplane coming into the Pentagon. There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, "The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out." And when it got down to, "The plane is 10 miles out," the young man also said to the vice president, "Do the orders still stand?" And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, "Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?" Well, at the time I didn't know what all that meant. And --

MR. HAMILTON: The flight you're referring to is the --

MR. MINETA: The flight that came into the Pentagon.

MR. HAMILTON: The Pentagon, yeah.

MR. MINETA: And so I was not aware that that discussion had already taken place. But in listening to the conversation between the young man and the vice president, then at the time I didn't really recognize the significance of that.

And then later I heard of the fact that the airplanes had been scrambled from Langley to come up to DC, but those planes were still about 10 minutes away. And so then, at the time we heard about the airplane that went into Pennsylvania, then I thought, "Oh, my God, did we shoot it down?" And then we had to, with the vice president, go through the Pentagon to check that out.

MR. HAMILTON: Let me see if I understand. The plane that was headed toward the Pentagon and was some miles away, there was an order to shoot that plane down.

MR. MINETA: Well, I don't know that specifically, but I do know that the airplanes were scrambled from Langley or from Norfolk, the Norfolk area. But I did not know about the orders specifically other than listening to that other conversation.

MR. HAMILTON: But there very clearly was an order to shoot commercial aircraft down.

MR. MINETA: Subsequently I found that out.

Seriously, do you even look into this yourself, or are you just taking other people with no relevent experience in the matter at their word?