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Rumsfeld: 9/11 flight was 'shot down'

Phex: Dorset Doom

11:08 / 29.12.04

In a speech on Christmas Eve, US Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made, shall we say, a minor blunder.

"Here's what Rumsfeld said Friday: "I think all of us have a sense if we imagine the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples' heads on television to intimidate, to frighten – indeed the word 'terrorized' is just that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to be."

What's wrong with this picture? Well, according to the official version of the events of 9/11, the plane in Pensylvania, flight 93, crashed after passengers overpowered the hijackers. Rummy, on the other hand, says it was 'shot down'.
Now, there's two possibilities here. Either a) the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, in which case there's a cell of terrorists still out there, or b) the US military shot down the plane. Eyewitnesses say they saw 'unmarked military type jets', and an FBI investigation didn't rule it out.
9/11 conspiracies are a dime a dozen (a missile hit the pentagon, the Twin Towers were built from C4 and papier mache etc.), but this one seems to have a little more credibility than most. Any thoughts?

More Here: http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=42112

12:29 / 29.12.04

Yeah, I put this in the "Battlefield Ohio" thread below, which is about 9/11 but the title of the thread makes it sound like it's part of the election hubbub.

One thing I note is that the news source of this story is a pretty small-time news site (worldnetdaily). Then again, I'm sure no US mainstream media would touch this story...

12:34 / 29.12.04

Nah, it's getting talked about a bit. Mostly glossed over, but mentioned. Here's the CNN piece: http://www.cnn.com/2004/US/12/27/rumsfeld.flt93/index.html

14:55 / 29.12.04

Now, there's two possibilities here.

Three. C) He's a doddering, senile idiot.

Keith, like a scientist

15:57 / 31.12.04

i can't even make sense of what he is saying...what's he getting at exactly? I really detest when people start sentences with a litany of phrases, then the sentence never completes itself...it's all setup and not resolution.

21:58 / 01.01.05

Now, there's two possibilities here. Either a) the plane was shot down by a surface-to-air missile, in which case there's a cell of terrorists still out there, or b) the US military shot down the plane. Eyewitnesses say they saw 'unmarked military type jets', and an FBI investigation didn't rule it out.

Well, the syntax of Rummy's speech would seem to indicate that "the people" who attacked New York were the people who 'shot down' the plane. Barring conspiracy theories about the govt staging 911, syntax rules out your option b.

And yet, the likelihood of a terrorist cell situated perfectly in the right spot in middle-of-nowhere Pennsylvania in order to shoot down a plane seems awfully slim, to say nothing of the illogic of the idea that terrorist would shoot down what was, at that moment, their own weapon of mass destruction.

I'm going with Spatula's option C.

18:15 / 03.01.05

Personally, I think that he mispoke but at the same time revealed the half truth

He is so used to lying that he forgot himself and revealed the truth that the plane was shot down but didn't think about the logical mess he had gotten himself into by mentioning it as if it was part of a terrorist act in itself

Yes he admitted that the plane was shot down but his administration is so used to passing the buck that he included it in the well worn emotive language of the other terrorist acts

Rumsfeld is on his way out in my opinion. He is making far too many mistakes even for this arrogant regime and I think at his age, he will be allowed to fall on his sword to protect and take the blame for the misdemeanours and lies of the whole administration

As for the flight being shot down, using cold hard logic, it would be a sensible thing to do and ultimately may have been the lesser of two evils. If left to crash into who knows what target or a populated area, it may very well have caused even greater loss of life and so I have no logical (however heartwrenching) argument with shooting a rogue plane out of the sky (NO offence meant to anybody who had relatives who were involved etc, I mean that sincerely)

I was always a little uneasy with the whole 'let's roll' story. Whilst I have no way of knowing whether it was true or not and we never will.......it seemed a little bit too Hollywood for my liking. Personally, this was one of many of the 'facts' that didn't sit comfortably with me and I am afraid to admit that this has made me more than sense would dictate, willing to listen to some of the more outlandish conspiracy theories

Rumsfeld will be gone by February, that is my prediction. Even if he survives any reshuffle, he is a liability and a scapegoat is needed

08:24 / 06.01.05

From Pieces Of The 9/11 Puzzle by Russ Kick

Rick Earle, the Westmoreland County Bureau Chief for WPXI-TV, was on his way to the site of Flight 93's crash...when he phoned 911 to see what was happening. He talked to an emergency dispatcher who told him about a call that the center had received... The caller-later identified as Edward Felt- told the 911 worker that he was on a flight that was being hijacked, giving the correct flight number and model number of the plane.

Earle phoned in the following report:

He said that he was at this point being walked back to the bathroom of the plane. 911 was talking to him, trying to get more information at that time. The gentleman who had made the call from the airplane said there was just an explosion, then there was a cloud of white smoke, and then seconds later they lost the caller.

There are also apparent reports (that I can't recall hearing from the regular media) saying that a 1000-lb chunk of one of the engines was found over a mile away from the crash site.