Retouching History
On her June 4 program Diane Rehm's guest was ExpressJet pilot Lynn Spencer promoting her "inside" account of the purported 9/11 FAA/NORAD Keystone Cops debacle, "Touching History".
http://wamu.org/programs/dr/08/06/04.php#20305
http://www.amazon.com/Touching-History-Untold-Unfolded-America/dp/1400107601
In the course of selling her book and the (latest) official narrative, Spencer nervously contradicted herself and repeated various breathtakingly false, easily-dismissed assertions about the aerial events of 9/11.
Incredibly, she echoed Rice's perjury that "no one had ever imagined terrorists using airliners as missiles", apparently unaware that even USA Today reported in 2004 that NORAD had conducted exercises based on this scenario, specifying targets including the World Trade Center.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2004-04-18-norad_x.htm
Though virtually unchallenged by Ms. Rehm, Spencer was exposed to several informed callers. When reminded of the Mineta testimony scrubbed from the Commission Report, Spencer insisted that Mineta was simply honestly mistaken, that he was misremembering Cheney's officially reported "10:10" shootdown authorization of UA93, and that he had subsequently corrected himself. Of course, Mineta has never retracted his testimony, and confirmed its accuracy as recently as June 2007.
Reminded by another caller of the oddly casual response of the Otis F-15s, Spencer replied that these fighters had flown "supersonic" toward Manhattan, failing to mention that in fact this rare pair of Alert fighters had been vectored not to New York to intercept "UA175" but to Whiskey 105, a training area off Long island where other "non-alert" Otis F-15s were training that morning.
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/context.jsp?item=a903fightersrecalled
Forced by yet another caller to acknowlege the coincidental hijacking drills scheduled for that morning (as partially revealed by Vanity Fair in 2006), Spencer was unwilling to explain how the presence of war-gaming "hijacked" aircraft (and, presumably, their designated interceptors) aloft in the Northeast Sector and/or radar insertions could create no significant confusion for controllers or military responders.
At one point Spencer even claimed that according to SOP on 9/11 any order to shoot down commercial aircraft had to originate from the "Vice-President", seemingly unaware that the VP is not in the military chain-of-command and that two men who should have been--Bush and Rumsfeld--were "unavailable" to authorize decisive action. Elaborating, Spencer insisted that although Cheney was properly in command his "shootdown order" failed to reach NORAD because the communication was somehow bungled by Andrews Air Force Base.
"Touching History" certainly deserves scrutiny from attentive students of 9/11.
- Michael Fury's blog
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Mrs Bronner...
This writing is in response solely to Ms Spencer's radio interview with Dianne Rhem. I may read the book down the road. A few points about the radio show:
1. Dianne Rhem is a WDC insider and has never met a uniform that she did not bow in front of...no bragging here-just her history. I would think that Ms. Rehm would now allow David Ray Griffin on her show for the same amount of time that Ms. Spencer has been given for her FIRST book. So, lets see, that's about six interview sessions that are due David...
2. My years of dealing with NPR and PBS...
NPR nd PBS are NOW heaviliy influenced by the Military Industrial Complex, giant corporations forming Perkin's "corporatocracy", and certainly wealthy individual contributors who are comfortable seeing our foriegn policy punish people's af arabic descent. You know this oil laden group, the NEW "Evil Empire" that has so handily replced the old Soviet Union...aka...the OLD "Evil Empire" just in time to avoid a "Peace Dividend". How "fortunate" a development to happen when one has an annual 500 BILLION defense budget to justify! Maybe the HI PERPS grabbed some of the missing 2 TRILLION in defense slush funds to help Ms. Spencer cover costs...
3. The way that terms such as "Command and Control" smoothly flow out of Ms Spencer's mouth indicate to me that she is Mrs. Bronner...just another insider tool very familiar with military jargon and that her job is to spread the military cover-up and lies that we in the 9/11 Truth Movement have already debunked.
4. So, its is no surprise that the HI PERPS have allowed her access to all things military all the time...to get yet another round of their "all military is all right all the time" disinformation circulated yet again into the public's ethos. Thankfully most folks no longer believe the US Government and its lethal Boy Scout Troop.
5. In the radio interview she noted that she talked to EVERY NEADS "controller" [they are radar techs and NOT controllers] working on the floor on 9/11. Perhaps in her book she indicates that she has interviewed, off the record, all the FAA ATC's that were working the floor on 9/11....but I do not think so. The FAA ATCs know what the FAA did to PATCO...and they are very, very smart people so, mum's the word inside the FAA controller force.
6. Being an experienced air traffic controller who has inside contacts at Boston Center who tell "a different story" about 9/11, and a fellow who has scrambled military assets to assist [and save] aircraft suffereing "in Flight Emergencies", [a role that the FAA directs the USAF-NORAD to help out with], and a fellow who has been and still is being quoted and used by authors and researchers about the FAA-NORAD-ATC-RADAR aspects of 9/11, and a fellow who has 1600 hours of flight time, and a fellow who earned both flight and ground school instructor certification, and a fellow who was a facility training instructor while working at Boston Center, she didn't ask me a thing. But that's probably because as a youth I was asked to leave the younger Boy Scouts because I kept asking my "Command and Control" persons "why" we would be doing what we were being asked to do.
7. Factually speaking, she is correct that there were, and are specific communications protocols to discover IF an airliner is being hijacked. This helps explain why it took ATC so long to find out that of all the suspected airliners that "could have been" hijacks were not "hijacks". An air traffic controller simply did NOT directly ask if the airliner was being hijacked...for security reasons. This makes little difference in the eventual situation because the four airliners were ALL "in flight emergencies" well before they were considered hijackings. The FAA and NORAD have well polished procedures to deal with "in flight emergencies", and have done this at a rate fo about 150 per year for decades. And NEADS actually did not even react to a DIRECT request from Scoggins to give the FAA some help...again, a subject not discussed.
8. I think that Chip Burligame's family has it right when they state that Chip would NEVER give up his aircraft to another untested and unknown pilot. Its pretty simple beyond just a responsibility issue. What if the "new guy" couldn't fly and the aircraft might be crashed thus killing Burlingame anyway? See, some of this stuff is really simple here. Of course, we all know that there is never any problem should a captain of a troubled ship at sea be the first one to get in a life boat? Yeah, right! So, when Ms Spencer states that she woud give up her cockpit to another unknown pilot, well, that's a tell tale indicator of who she is as she tells this tale. If one pilot in 10,00 agrees with her about willingly giving control of their aircraft over to an unknown pilot while in the air, I would be stuned. Pilots just don't do that!
9. Another interesting point is that I must wonder what she would expect of the FAA and NORAD if an aircraft that SHE was flying was suffering an "in flight emergency" and was in need of some form of help in the air. Wouldn't she expect some help in the skies from the aviation "first responder" system?...she should know about the system that had, up until June 2001, to September 11, 2001, scrambled 150 times per year for "NON-HIJACKINGS". [And we know that there were exactly ZERO reported scrambles from June to September...even though that time period is the busiest in aviation activity every year. HMMMM? And the June protocol change and reorganization DIDN'T have its desired effect?] So, I find it interesting that she does not mention anyhing about the "NON-HIHJACKING" scrambles or their historical frequency...but then again, she is being Mrs. Bronner here.
10. In her attempts to blame the FAA and air traffic control about the events of 9/11, I find it interesting that she goes well out of her way to inform us that Collin Scoggins was the "only" FAA person to be making the calls to NEADS-NORAD-NMCC etc. Well, the entire thing started well before the second tower was hit, at around 8:14-20 and NOT 9:20 which she "concidentally" stated in correcting herself. [You gotta admire the HI PERPS' determination to push the timeline downstream just like Bronner tried to do in the infamous "NORAD TAPES" and Vanity Fair article.] Well, the Boston center was the ONLY FAA facility in which AA11 was hijacked. And factually speaking, the first call went from ZBW [Boston Center] to a military facility at 08:27-28...and that later, Scoggins relates that he made 40 phone calls to NEADS starting around 08:30 or so, of which, Bronner's "tapes" only makes reference to one of the phone calls at around 08:39 or so. This was a shifty management of words by Ms Spencer trying to deflect the storyline from the truth and thusly, the military's complicity and incompetence. [Actually, I see the 9/11 Attacks War Game Scenario as a very well designed compartmentalization of innocent responsibilities that keeps the "big picture" away from all but a few at the top...] So, inconclusion, its more important to Ms Spencer that ONE ATC type was calling and that the 40 phone calls made in time to make a difference on 9/11 were not discussed and thusly less important. Good try-no fly!
11. The responses by the US Military to the events of 9/11 should not have taken "TWO HOURS" as she has noted...TWO MINUTES would be a better answer. However, her mission is obviously to reinforce the HI PERP's lies and to expand or stretch the timeline downstream which is the ONLY hope that the US Military has for getting off the hook.
12. Now, the nice thing here is that regardung anytthing factual, her entire work can be thrown away because of her impotent attempt at burying Mineta's testimony about Cheney's stand down while in the PEOC. She goes well out of her way to seemingly make a huge point that Cheney's conversation with Mineta and the young soldier or specialist was in relationship to UA93 and that shoot down order. Although she is a pilot, and distances and locations are of extreme importance to how successful pilots are at getting an airplane from one place to another at some distance away, she didn't notice that Shanksville was NEVER as close as 60 miles away from WDC. Nor was it 50, 40, 30, 20, 10, or even SIX miles away from WDC. Shanksville is in Pennsylvania, and the Pentagon is in WDC. There is a remarkable difference, and we have maps. At least she has some help in explaining such distance from these "facty thingys" because if one notices the first three reviews of her work, two of which are from military folks, they seem to steer the interested reader away from these little issues called "facts".
13. It should be of great pride that 9/11 Truthers know that we are a band of folks all across the world who read, think, articulate, and ask good questions about the "facts" behind the events of 9/11. The phone calls were good, the questions were good and to the point [except one], and the HI PERPS really are concerned about an educated populace. Hey, NEW RULE: when calling into such shows to ask a question that informs as it is asked AND answered, we should limit "side points" to one or two very brief ones. Have patience, we are making progress each and every day, and besides, don't hog the MIC!
I also appreciate that one of the callers may have seen or read about the talk that I made up in Vancover, BC a year ago. The presentation was called: "ITS THE CIVILIANS STUPID: An Air Traffic Controllers View of the Institutional Stand Down of NORAD on 9/11/2001" and can be found at www.911TV or through www.v911.org. Its boring but very informing about the differences between "in flight emergency" and "hijacking" scramble protocols.
14. In conclusion, Mrs Bronner indicates to me that the HI PERPS have been reading our stuff, and that the two things that they really need to get behind them are:
Mineta's testimony about Cheney's involvement as puppeteer for the War Game events on 9/11 and the ongoing COG activities...
...and to get the timeline pushed back to a point where folks will see that it was the FAA who were the bad guys because they didn't inform the military soon enough for them to be able to do thier jobs...
This interview also tells me that the US Military has its FOURTH timeline ready and waiting for insertion into the discussion. Well, "bring it on" Dick, Rummy, Phil Z and General Meyers because you are still lying...just like you all were when the Bush Regime took office in 2001!
Finally, Lynn Spencer does state that more books should be written, and that the 9/11 Commission missed quite a bit of stuff and that more questions need to be asked. So, whomever her paymaster, she is perhaps unkowingly, asking some questions because there are inadequate answers and using her position to get to this issue. So, I'm glad that she is at least helping continue the discussion.
Its just these "facty thingys" are so elusive.
Robin Hordon
Thanks for your input,
Thanks for your input, Robin.
“On the altar of God, I swear eternal hostility against all forms of tyranny over the mind of man."--Thomas Jefferson
A lot to think about....
Thanks for sharing, Robin. You've given me plenty to think about. By the way, I heard you in Vancouver but want to review the "differences between "in flight emergency" and "hijacking" scramble protocols."
You make another good point on the omnipresence of the HI PERPS' influence even on the supposedly "public" channels NPR and PBS.
Robin nails it in the service of the Oligarchs, Invisible Government, HI PERPS. "Retouching History" by Lynn Spencer is the more appropriate title. It's a retouching of history with the hope of swaying public opinion with glossed over misrepresentations--albeit reasonable-sounding ones--obfuscations in the service of and funded by deep pockets. I don't know, if any of us fully realize, the pervasiveness of these influences and efforts?
I would only disagree, to the small extent, the 9/11 Commission missed a lot and more questions need to be asked? This proposition by Spencer is offered as an illusory carrot not for more discussion but more ommissions and deceptions. It's amazing how much they can accomplish with obfuscation, e.g., what's happened with Mineta's observation at the PEOC. It's all meant just to string you along, IMHO.
those in the service of HI PERPS...
...don't believe them!
Extraordinary work Robin Hordon and thank you Michael Fury
In addition to the incredibility of the information contained in Lynn Spencer's book, "Massaging History," an obvious in-joke may mean the publication is intended to have a destabilizing effect on the movement, populace and culture.
Check out Lynn Spencer's personal "credibility establishing" web page at girlswithwings.com Crediting Ms. Spencer with such a broadly constructed bimbo persona moves us beyond a purpose of coded joke into a stinging Psy-Op slap to our collective faces.
I've satirized "About Lynn" in a piece Lynn Spencer: Authoress and Pilotess (although it doesn't need the humor to draw out the point.) That we are meant to understand this effort as a legitimate and credible book published by Simon and Schuster means the foundation of our society has broken apart already. Likewise, the as- incredible book, Firefight: Inside the Battle to Save the Pentagon doesn't represent poor effort so much as it says they no longer care. They've grasped the implications, so we should grasp the implication of that.
I think the Financial Times of London piece from June 7, "The truth is out there," represents the defining moment in the movement.
Who's Mrs. Bronner?
OK, an alternate version of Ms. Spencer's persona exists.
Weirdly, as arbitrary and capricious as Lynn Spencer's page at girlswithwings.com seems, it gets odder. An entire alternate Lynn Spencer personality can be found at cleartheskies.com, which is even spookier because it comes with all the professsional trappings: her agent: Jane Dystel, the literary agency: Dystel & Goderich, author contact info: aviatress@cleartheskies.com, (Spencer self-identifies as an aviatress--not an aviatrix or aviatrice, so I feel a certain vindication in having unwittingly titled yesterday's blog "Lynn Spencer: Authoress and Pilotess!")
Today Lynn Spencer is a Duke University grad who "completed her high altitude training at the Johnson Space Center," something NPR never got around to mentioning.
But look at her acknowledgments!
"I am especially indebted to Paul Worcester and Don Shepperd, who graciously opened the doors of the aviation and military communities. Their encouragement, guidance, and tireless introductions made this book possible. I am deeply grateful for their “you can do it and you’ll do it right” attitudes, which motivated me to reach deeper within myself to achieve more than I thought I could.
"Several individuals deserve special thanks, including Colin Scoggins, Larry Arnold, Ben Sliney and Joe McCain for their prompt replies to my myriads of e-mail and phone questions that arrived at all hours of the day and night asking for information and explanations. Thanks also to Paul Olechowski, Harvey Siegel, Sandy Niedzwiecki and Kerri Cole of the 102nd FW, James Hambrick at the FBI, Thomas Territt at NEADS and authors Loree Lough, Rick Newmann, Carol Jose and J. Carson Black. Your input, advice and guidance were much appreciated. Thank you Gen. Myers for the time you gave me over cups of coffee at Starbucks.
"I knew I could fly, but I was not as sure about writing, and I owe a debt to those who helped with reading and editing the manuscript: Paul Worcester, Rose Shepperd, Ann Levy and Jordan Genest. Your assistance enabled me to pull everything together and produce a readable manuscript for my wonderful editor, Emily Loose. I was awed by Emily’s quick grasp of the intricacies and complexities of this project, her patience and, above all, her insightful and creative editing. It was a delight to work with her. My heartfelt thanks to everyone at Simon & Schuster for helping me make this dream a reality.
"I could not have accomplished this project without the assistance of the Air Line Pilots Association, the Allied Pilots Association, and the National Air Traffic Controllers Association, who spread the word to their memberships. Heartfelt thanks to all their members who generously shared their stories.
"It has been a pleasure and an honor to work with NORAD and the Air National Guard, whose units and members were tirelessly forthcoming with information and personal accounts. Thank you to the men and women of NEADS, the 177th Fighter Wing, the 113th Wing, the 119th Fighter Wing and the 180th Fighter Wing, and to Lt. Col. Roberta Neidt of the New Jersey Department of Military and Veterans Affairs who was kind enough to make my first military introductions. A special thanks to the 102nd Fighter Wing, whose members not only shared their stories, but also gave me the opportunity to fly in an F-15. In doing so – and retracing the flights paths of the Otis fighters as well as American 11 on that fateful day – I gained an invaluable understanding and perspective. You all are the best!
"And finally, a huge thank you to my agent, Jane Dystel, who took a chance on a pilot who had no writing experience. She believed in the stories and my ability to share them, and offered invaluable guidance and assistance every step of the way, never once making me feel foolish for my ignorance of the publishing business. I will always be grateful for the opportunity and her faith in me."
We now have some real flesh and blood to subpoena, indict and leverage. This book was a cover-up. The effort at establishing legitimacy failed. THEY THEN ATTEMPTED TO COVER-UP THE COVER-UP, throwing the book under the bus through creating a bimbo persona.
I have been searching variations of search terms trying to find a copy of a Simon & Schuster press release, which I remember reading. It was an heroic anecdote of such absurdity I must have blacked it out--it must be from the book. In the story detail, an American fighter pilot is aloft and within effective range, but unarmed with missile or offensive capabilities, so the American pilot volunteers to crash his jet into the errant American airliner in an effort to stay its course, effectively co-opting the themes of using airplanes as missiles, and the sacrifice and valor of "throwing oneself on a grenade" to save one's buddies.
Of course, I may have simply imagined this, but at least I found found something else and I'm going to keep looking.