The
first public hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon
the United States
U.S. Custom House,
One Bowling Green, New York City.
March 31 - April 1, 2003
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The Commission is restricted to $3 million for their investigations see the end of http://www.9-11commission.gov/about/107-306.title6.htm By comparison, the
government spent over $47 million by March of 1999 investigating Clinton's
Whitewater and Monica Lewinski dealings,according to the Washington
Post: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp- This restriction
in funds, after the Bush Administration resisted having an independent
commission, and then tried to appoint Kissinger to head it, shows how
serious they are about knowing what The following 3/31
Statement of Mindy Kleinberg to the Commission may explain what the
Administration wants to avoid. Mindy Kleinberg is a founding member
of September 11th Advocates, a family advocacy Americans and the
world must know the truth about 9/11, for the same reasons President
Nelson Mandela established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission to
illuminate the truth about Apartheid Please send this page anywhere you can! http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing1/witness_kleinberg.htm First public
hearing of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United
States
This war is being fought on two fronts, overseas as well as here on our shores; this means that we are all soldiers in this fight against terrorism. As the threat of terrorism mounts here in the United States, the need to address the failures of September 11 is more important than ever. It is an essential part of "lessons learned". As such, this commission has an extremely important task before it. I am here today to ask you, the commissioners, to help us understand how this could have happened; help us understand where the breakdown was in our nation's defense capabilities. Where were we
on the morning of September 11th? At around 8:55 I was confirming play date plans for Sam with a friend when she said, "I can't believe what I am watching on TV, a plane has just hit the World Trade Center." For some reason it did not register with me until a few minutes later when I calmly asked, "what building did you say?" "Oh that's Alan's building I have to call you back." There was no answer when I tried to reach him at the office. By now my house started filling with people--his mother, my parents, our sisters and friends. The seriousness of the situation was beginning to register. We spent the rest of the day calling hospitals, and the Red Cross and any place else we could think of to see if we could find him. I'll never forget thinking all day long, "how am I going to tell Jacob and Lauren that their father was missing?" They came home to a house filled with people but no Daddy. How were they going to be able to wait calmly for his return? What if he was really hurt? This was their hero, their king their best friend, their father. The thoughts of that day replay over and over in our heads always wishing for a different outcome. We are trying to learn to live with the pain. We will never forget where we were or how we felt on September 11th. But where was our government, its agencies, and institutions prior to and on the morning of September 11th? The Theory of
Luck The SEC On the Chicago Board
Options Exchange during the week before September 11th, put options
were purchased on American and United Airlines, the two airlines involved
in the attacks. The investors who Interestingly, the names of the investors remain undisclosed and the $5 million remains unclaimed in the Chicago Exchange account. Why these aberrant
trades were not discovered prior to 9/11? Who were the individuals who
placed these trades? Have they been investigated? Who was responsible
for monitoring these activities? Have those The INS With regard to the INS, the terrorists got lucky 15 individual times, because 15 of the 19 hijackers' visas should have been unquestionably denied. Most of the 19 hijackers were young, unmarried, and un-employed males. They were, in short, the "classic over-stay candidates". A seasoned former Consular officer stated in National Review magazine, "Single, idle young adults with no specific destination in the United States rarely get visas absent compelling circumstances." Yet these 19 young single, unemployed, "classic overstay candidates still received their visas." I am holding in my hand the applications of the terrorists who killed my husband. All of these forms are incomplete and incorrect. Some of the terrorists listed their means of support as simply "student" failing to then list the name and address of any school or institution. Others, when asked about their means of support for their stay in the US wrote "myself" and provided no further documentation. Some of the terrorists listed their destination in the US as simply "hotel" or "California" or "New York". One even listed his destination as "no". Had the INS or State Department followed the law, at least 15 of the hijackers would have been denied visas and would not have been in the United States on September 11th, 2001. Help us to understand how something as simple as reviewing forms for completeness could have been missed at least 15 times. How many more lucky terrorists gained unfettered access into this country? With no one being held accountable, how do know this still isn't happening? Airline and Airport
Security But, the terrorist's luck didn't end at the ticket counter; it also accompanied them through airport security, as well. Because how else would the hijackers get specifically contraband items such as box-cutters, pepper spray or, according to one FAA executive summary, a gun on those planes? Finally, sadly for us, years of GAO recommendations to secure cockpit doors were ignored making it all too easy for the hijackers to gain access to the flight controls and carryout their suicide mission. FAA and NORAD These "protocols" were in place and were practiced regularly for a good reason--with heavily trafficked air space; airliners without radio and transponder contact are collisions and/or calamities waiting to happen. Those protocols
dictate that in the event of an emergency, the FAA is to notify NORAD.
Once that notification takes place, it is then the responsibility of
NORAD to scramble fighter-jets to intercept the errant plane(s). It
is a matter of routine procedure for fighter-jets to "intercept"
commercial airliners in order to regain contact with If that weren't
protection enough, on September 11th, NEADS (or the North East Air Defense
System dept of NORAD) was several days into a semiannual exercise known
as "Vigilant Guardian". This meant that our Lucky for the terrorists none of this mattered on the morning of September 11th. Let me illustrate using just flight 11 as an example. American Airline Flight 11 departed from Boston Logan Airport at 7:45 a.m. The last routine communication between ground control and the plane occurred at 8:13 a.m. Between 8:13 and 8:20 a.m. Flight 11 became unresponsive to ground control. Additionally, radar indicated that the plane had deviated from its assigned path of flight. Soon thereafter, transponder contact was lost - (although planes can still be seen on radar - even without their transponders). Two Flight 11 airline attendants had separately called American Airlines reporting a hijacking, the presence of weapons, and the infliction of injuries on passengers and crew. At this point, it would seem abundantly clear that Flight 11 was an emergency. Yet, according to
NORAD's official timeline, NORAD was not contacted until 20 minutes
later at 8:40 a.m. Tragically the fighter jets were not deployed until
8:52 a.m. -- a full 32 minutes after the loss of Why was there a
delay in the FAA notifying NORAD? Why was there a delay in NORAD scrambling
fighter jets? How is this possible when NEADS was fully staffed with
planes at the ready and monitoring our Flight's 175, 77
and 93 all had this same repeat pattern of delays in notification and
delays in scrambling fighter jets. Delays that are unimaginable considering
a plane had, by this time, already hit the Even more baffling
for us is the fact that the fighter jets were not scrambled from the
closest air force bases. For example, for the flight that hit the Pentagon,
the jets were scrambled from Langley Air Force in Hampton, Virginia
rather than Andrews Air Force Base right outside D.C. As a result, Washington
skies remained wholly So the hijackers
luck had continued. On September 11th both the FAA and NORAD deviated
from standard emergency operating procedures .Who were the people that
delayed the notification? Have they been Had the belatedly scrambled fighter jets flown at their maximum speed of engagement, MACH-12, they would have reached NYC and the Pentagon within moments of their deployment, intercepted the hijacked airliners before they could have hit their targets, and undoubtedly saved lives. Leadership Whose responsibility was it to relay this emergency to the Joint Chief of Staff? Have they been held ccountable for their error? Surely this represents a breakdown of protocol. Secretary
of Defense As reported, Secretary Rumsfeld felt the building shake, went outside, saw the damage and started helping the injured onto stretchers. After aiding the victims, the Secretary then went into the 'War Room'. How is it possible that the National Military Command Center, located in the Pentagon and in contact with law enforcement and air traffic controllers from 8:46 a.m. did not communicate to the Secretary of Defense also at the Pentagon about the other hijacked planes especially the one headed to Washington? How is that Secretary of Defense could have remained at this desk until the crash? Whose responsibility is it to relay emergency situations to him? Is he then supposed to go to the war room? President In contrast, on the morning of September 11, President Bush was scheduled to listen to elementary school children read. Before the President walked into the classroom NORAD had sufficient information that the plane that hit the WTC was hijacked. At that time, they also had knowledge that two other commercial airliners, in the air, were also hijacked. It would seem that a national emergency was in progress. Yet President Bush was allowed to enter a classroom full of young children and listen to the students read. Why didn't the Secret Service inform him of this national emergency? When is a President supposed to be notified of everything the agencies know? Why was the President permitted by the Secret Service to remain in the Sarasota elementary school? Was this Secret Service protocol? In the case of a
national emergency, seconds of indecision could cost thousands of lives;
and it's precisely for this reason that our government has a whole network
of adjuncts and advisors to insure that these top officials are among
the first to be informed--not the last. Where were these individuals
who did not properly inform these Was it luck or
No Fault Government To me luck is something that happens once. When you have this repeated pattern of broken protocols, broken laws, broken communication, one cannot still call it luck. If at some point we don't look to hold the individuals accountable for not doing their jobs properly then how can we ever expect for terrorists not to get lucky again? And, that is why I am here with all of you today. Because, we must find the answers as to what happened that day so as to ensure that another September 11th can never happen again. Commissioners, I
implore you to answer our questions. You are the Generals in the terrorism
fight on our shores. In answering our questions, you have the ability
to make this nation a safer place and in turn, minimize the damage if
there is another terrorist attack. And, if there is another attack,
the next time, our systems will be Mindy Kleinberg is a founding member of September 11th Advocates, a family advocacy group that spearheaded the grassroots effort for the establishment of the independent commission on September 11th. Her husband Alan Kleinberg was a NASDAQ security trader with Cantor Fitzgerald in the NorthTower of the WTC on the 104th Floor. He was 39 and had been a NASDAQ security trader for 15 years. Mrs. Kleinberg
is a Certified Public Accountant. She met her husband when they both
worked at Deloitte-Touche, but she left the accounting profession to
become a stay-at-home mom. She lives in New Jersey with
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