See below--
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> [mailto:owner-lbo-talk at lists.panix.com]On Behalf Of Chuck Munson
> Sent: Monday, June 10, 2002 9:42 PM
> To: lbo-talk at lists.panix.com
> Subject: Re: WHITEWASH CONSPIRACY
>
>
> Chip Berlet wrote:
>
> > Despite mushrooming conspiracy articles about why aircraft were not
> > scrambled from closer airfields on 9/11, the jets that did
> take off were
> > from the routine scramble bases with interceptor aircraft
> -- Otis Air
> > National Guard Base on Cape Cod for NYC, (not McGuire AFB
> in NJ, etc.), and
> > Langley Air Force Base in Virginia for Washington, DC. (not
> Andrews, etc.).
>
> Weren't the Virginia planes Air National Guard units?
>
> << Chuck0 >>
Hi,
The issue is not whether or not an airfield is an Air Force Base or an Air National Guard Base. These are designations that are unrelated to whether or not an airfield is tasked to scramble a jet interceptor in between five to ten minutes, which is the goal. Whether or not the scrambled jets are piloted by regular Air Force or the Air National Guard is also not important. At any given moment, the base tasked with scrambling jets may not be the closest base to a particular target. Active fighter and interceptor jet bases are often located near the ocean, to allow for sonic booms during numerous training missions to happen over the ocean, thus reducing complaints from encroaching suburbs near other bases. Some conspiracists find this claim laughable, but it is a factor.
Some of the conspiracist claims fail to add the minimum take off time to calculations as to why the jets didn't get to their targets sooner. Other articles ask why the jets were not travelling at their top speed (which is during a crash dive) or fail to understand the concept of maximum sustained cruising speed, or fail to calculate what the maximum sustained cruising speed is at various altitudes.
What the conspiracists are doing is taking bits of information off the web and from early news reports and from specualtive articles and weaving together questions that imply Bush & Co. blocked the jet intercepts.
In fact, there is lots of evidence that Bush & Co. totally screwed up the available intelligence, and we could be organizing around their failure and opposing more power for the intelligence agencies that screwed up, rather than chasing phantoms and spreading fantastic stories that make the left look like idiots to most of our potential allies.
It's frustrating.
-Chip Berlet