The Eleventh Day_ The History and Legacy of 9_11 - Anthony Summers [243]
The skeptics have claimed flatly that American Airlines 757s “were not equipped with seatback phones.” Though the airline had apparently decided to discontinue seatback phone service prior to 9/11, analysis indicates that such phones were still in use on some flights as late as March 2002. That they were still in use on 9/11 is evident from the phone records alone.
The skeptics have also claimed that the reports of passengers’ calls from Flight 93—see Ch. 7—are suspect. Griffin even suggests that Todd Beamer’s long call to operator Lisa Jefferson did not occur. Beamer’s call, however, is listed in the telephone company records now available. As in the case of Flight 77, early reports of “cell phone calls” made from Flight 93 sowed confusion. Deena Burnett, widow of Flight 93 passenger Tom Burnett, told the FBI that her husband made a series of three to five calls home on his cell phone. The records show that Burnett made three calls on a seatback phone. There is no way of knowing whether Mrs. Burnett simply misremembered the exact number of calls she got from her husband, or whether he did use his cell phone to make some of the calls. The records show that many Flight 93 calls, initially described as being by cell phone, in fact originated from seatback phones (early news: Las Vegas Review Journal, 9/13/01; made it clear: Olson, Fox News, 9/14/01; only seatback phone: DOJ “Briefing on Cell and Phone Calls from AA77,” 5/20/04, in “Flight 93 Calls” folder [inc. details on other flights], B12, T7, CF, & Moschella to Marcus [& attachments], 4/26/04, in “Flight 11 Calls folder—Calls from AA11, AA77, UA175, & UA93, ATT Wireless & GTE Airphones,” B13, T7, CF; “were not equipped”: Griffin, Debunking, 266–; discontinue/analysis: “Airline Grounds In-Flight Phone Service,” 2/6/02, www.news.cnet.com, Business Week, 9/30/02, AA spokesman John Hotard cited at “American Airlines Flight 77 Calls,” www.911myths.com; suspect: e.g., Griffin, Debunking, 86–, 292–; Griffin re. Beamer: “The Ultimate 9/11 Truth Showdown,” 10/6/08, www.alternet.org; Burnett: FBI 302 of int. Deena Burnett, 9/11/01, INTELWIRE, Moschella to Marcus [& attachments], 4/26/04, records show: MFR 04020029, 5/13/04, CF, FBI 302 of int. Mark Rugg, 7/1/02, “Key 302s,” B19, T7, CF).
62 “have had a little”: “Comments on the Pentagon Strike,” www.cassiopaea.org;
63 “transformers”/“morphing”: Griffin, Debunking, 89, 86;
64 “Either Ted”/“is based on”: “The Ultimate 9/11 Truth Showdown, www.alternet.org;
65 scattered in three: Exhibit P200318, U.S. v. Zacarias Moussaoui.
66 “It took”: transcript, Larry King Weekend, CNN, 1/6/02; Mrs. Olson is indeed interred in Door County, at Ellison Bay Cemetery. Had Dr. Griffin cared to check, he could have established this long before he made his most recent suggestion, in 2008, that she might be alive. (Ellison Bay Cemetery: int. Mayor’s Office, Liberty Grove, WI, Barbara K. Olson listing, www.findagrave.com).
67 “cannot ignore”: Griffin, Debunking, 266, & see Griffin, New Pearl Harbor: Disturbing Questions About the Bush Administration and 9/11, Moreton-in-March, U.K.: Arris, 2009, 28;
68 “overwhelming”/“an inside”: Griffin, Debunking, 1, 309, & see Griffin & Scott, Empire, 12;
69 “a prima facie”: Griffin, New Pearl Harbor, 2009, 131.
70 Project: “Rebuilding America’s Defenses,” Washington, D.C.: Project for the New American Century, Sept. 2000, 10, 4, 51, “Statement of Principles,” www.newamericancentury.org.
71 “the Pearl Harbor”: WP, 1/27/02; This part of the passage echoed almost word for word testimony before the Senate Armed Services Committee in 1999. The then–executive director of the Center for Strategic and Budgetary Assessments,