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By Root 1549 0

Richard Clarke described Cheney, in the PEOC, complaining, “The comms [communications] in this place are terrible.” Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer recalled the President saying, “The communications equipment was good, not great, as he often had to wait to get people on the phone. After September 11, Air Force’s One’s communications equipment received a major modernization.” (Bush recalled: see Ch. 9; “The comms”: Richard Clarke, 19; “The communications”: Fleischer, 141).

58 Wherley no immediate way: Miles Kara, “The Andrews Fighters”: An Expeditionary Force, Not an Air Defense,” 9/11 Revisited, www.oredigger61.org, CR, 44, Charles J. Gross, Memo for the Record, 9/19/01, “Andrews AFB Logs-Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF.

59 less than certain/“check out”: MFR 03005418, 8/28/03, MFR of int. David Wherley, 2/27/04, “General Wherley,” B1, Dana Hyde files, CF. This first fighter to go up from Andrews carried no missiles, and its gun was loaded only with training rounds. Its pilot, Major Billy Hutchison, would later claim that the general told him to “intercept [an] aircraft coming toward D.C. and prevent it from reaching D.C.” Another officer at the base, however, Major David McNulty, said Hutchison was tasked to do nothing more than identify an aircraft approaching along the Potomac. (That plane, it later turned out, had been just a helicopter.) Senior Commission counsel John Farmer in 2009 roundly rejected an account that suggested Hutchison located United 93 on his radar and considered ramming it—Hutchison did not even take off until 10:38, more than half an hour after Flight 93 had crashed (“intercept”: Hutchison [typed notes of int.] & MFR of Hutchinson, “Billy Hutchinson Andrews AFB,” B3, Dana Hyde files, CF; McNulty: MFR 04020718, 3/11/04; Farmer rejected: Farmer, 375, & see Miles Kara, “The Scott Trilogy: Cutting to the Chase,” 9/11 Revisited, www.oredigger61.org; considered ramming: Spencer, 219–; 10:38: Relevant Andrews Timelines, “Miles Kara Docs 3,” B8, T8, CF).

60 Four more fighters: ibid., MFR 04020720, 3/11/04, Charles Gross, Memo for the Record, UA 93 and Andrews Timeline, & transcript ints. Igor Rasmussen & Leslie Filson, 9/18/03, “Andrews AFB Logs-Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF.

61 “weapons free”/“uncomfortable”: MFR of int. David Wherley, 2/27/04, “General Wherley,” B1, Dana Hyde files, CF, Staff Statement 17, CO, transcript ints. McNutz/​Thompson/​Sasseville, & ints. Thompson & Penney, undated, “Andrews AFB Logs-Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF, & see Kara to Hyde & Azzarello, 5/25/04. The general may have had reason to feel uncomfortable. According to NORAD commanding general Eberhart, Wherley “did not have the authority to give a ‘weapons-free’ order.” Wherley said later that he “didn’t feel comfortable until he heard Vice President Cheney’s interview with Tim Russert [on September 16, on Meet the Press]” (Eberhart: MFR 04018141, 3/1/04; “didn’t feel”: MFR of int. David Wherley, 2/27/04, “General Wherley, Zelikow Notes & MFRs,” B1, Dana Hyde files, CF; “had not been aware”: CR, 44).

62 formal rules: MFR of int. David Wherley, 2/27/04, “General Wherley,” B1, Dana Hyde files, CF, CR, 465n234;

63 made its way/10:31/You need to read: 9/11 NEADS Tape Transcription, “NEADS-CONR-NORAD Transcripts, NEADS Channel 2,” B3, NYC files, CF, & Channel 2 audio at B82 & B110, GSA files, CF, Spencer, 240–, Shoot-down references, “Miles Kara and Dana Hyde Work Papers,” B8, T8, CF, CR, 4;

64 Marr/Nasypany unsure: CR, 43;

65 “hostile act”: MFR 0401841, 3/1/04.

66 Any track: Kara to Hyde et al., 5/24/04. It is not clear whether the voice on the tape is that of Nasypany or that of his weapons officer, Major James Fox (CF, DH, B5, “Langley Pilots Interviews Fdr.—email thread re Flight 93—NEADS Tapes,” B5, Dana Hyde files, CF).

67 Wolfowitz/FAA & military versions: see earlier refs in Chapters 12 & 13; Farmer, 245, 251, 255, CR, 31–.

68 referred to inspectors general: The inspectors general of both the Defense Department and the Department of Transportation delivered their reports in 2006. Neither