Truth911.net
When examining almost any aspect of 9/11, there is strong evidence to support the alternative theory that 9/11 was a false-flag attack committed by elements within the U.S. Government and Military.  The controlled demolition of the Twin Towers and WTC 7 is perhaps the strongest argument with the best scientific evidence since all three buildings collapsed at near freefall speed, leaving behind pools of an orange hot material (aka “molten metal”).  The degree of pulverization of the concrete in the Twin Towers creating the pyroclastic dust cloud has proven to be nearly impossible to explain with a legitimate building collapse.

The problem with discussing this evidence is that these are scientific arguments that can only be fully understood by experts in the necessary fields.  Though my science background is limited, common sense tells me that these scientific arguments are legitimate criticisms of the official theory of the collapse of the three buildings.

Supporters of the official theory have attempted to debunk the scientific evidence supporting the alternative theory (aka, the conspiracy theories), but the argument I present here cannot be debunked.  The argument I present in this paper is not a scientific argument, does not require any special knowledge, and can be understood by any rational person.  This argument definitely proves that 9/11 was an inside job and no other rational interpretation of these events presented could lead to any other conclusion.

Norman Mineta

Norman Mineta served in the President’s Cabinet as the United States Secretary of Transportation. Mineta was the only Democratic Cabinet Secretary in the Republican George W. Bush Administration. On June 23, 2006, Mineta announced his resignation after five years and six months as Secretary of Transportation, effective July 7, 2006, making him the longest-serving Transportation Secretary in the Department’s history.

In Mineta’s testimony before the 9/11 Commission on May 23, 2003, he said that he arrived at the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), where Vice President Cheney was in charge, at 9:20am on 9/11/01. 

The Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) is a tube-like bunker structure that lies beneath the East Wing of the White House. Originally constructed for President Franklin D. Roosevelt during World War Two, it is presumed to be designed to withstand a nuclear blast, although in the event of an incoming ICBM, the President is more likely to be evacuated to safety by Marine One. It is not the same room as the White House Situation Room, which is under the West Wing. However, it does possess several televisions, telephones and a communications system to coordinate with other government entities during an emergency. As the name implies, the area is not normally in use.

Mineta’s testimony contradicts the Government’s official narrative and the 9/11 Commission Report by revealing the fact that Cheney knew about the aircraft approaching the Pentagon, long before the impact. This testimony was broadcast on C-Span.  Anyone is able to watch this video on the internet to confirm that these were in fact his exact words and watch him give this damaging testimony.  The entire testimony is also available online though the 9/11 Commission Report’s official website where the entire transcript of the May 23rd, 2003 hearing is available.

Directly from Mineta’s Testimony:

During the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, “The plane is 50 miles out”. “The plane is 30 miles out”.And when it got down to “the plane is 10 miles out,”the young man also said to the Vice President, “Do the orders still stand?” And the Vice President turned and whipped his neck around and said, “Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?”

From David Ray Griffin’s book, The 9/11 Commission Report: Omissions and Distortions:
When asked by Commissioner Timothy Roemer how long this conversation occurred after he arrived, Mineta said: “Probably about five or six minutes,” which, as Roemer pointed out, would mean “about 9:25 or 9:26.” With regard to what “the orders” referred to, Mineta assumed that they were orders to have the plane shot down. [The airplane hit the Pentagon at 9:37:46am]
There are, however, three problems with Mineta’s assumption. In the first place, this interpretation would imply that Cheney had given shoot-down authorization at some time before 9:25, which is much earlier, as we will see below, than even Clarke says. Mineta’s interpretation would not fit with the subsequent facts, because the aircraft headed towards the Pentagon was not shot down. Third, Mineta’s interpretation would not make the episode intelligible. Had Cheney given the expected order - the order to have an aircraft approaching the Pentagon shot down - we could not explain why the young man asked if the order still stood. It would have been abundantly obvious to him that it would continue to stand until the aircraft was actually shot down. His question would make sense, however, if “the orders” were ones that seemed unusual.

Some critics of the official account have suggested, therefore, that “the orders” in question were orders not to have the aircraft shot down.  But of course this interpretation, while arguably being the more natural one, would also be very threatening to the Bush administration and the Pentagon.

It is not surprising, therefore, that although Mineta’s account was released in the 9/11 Commission’s staff report in May 2003, this account is not included, or even mentioned, in the Commission’s final report.  This omission provides rather clear evidence that the Commission’s real mission was not to provide the fullest possible account of 9/11 but to defend the account provided by the Bush administration and the Pentagon.

Griffin’s analysis of this event proposes that “the orders” that the “young man” referred too, were in fact to stand down, rather than shoot down.

According to Mineta’s testimony, the plane approaching the Pentagon was “50 miles out” at around 9:26.  Since the Pentagon was hit at 9:37:46, it therefore took about 12 minutes for the plane to fly 50 miles, make a 330 degree turn descending 7000 feet and strike the Pentagon. 

The 9/11 Commission Report tells us that:
At 9:34, Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport advised the Secret Service of an unknown aircraft heading in the direction of the White House.  American 77 was then 5 miles west-southwest of the Pentagon and began a 330-degree turn.  At the end of the turn, it was descending through 2,200 feet, pointed toward the Pentagon and downtown Washington.  The hijacker piloted then advanced the throttles to maximum power and drove toward the Pentagon.

At 9:37:46, American Airlines Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon, traveling at approximately 530 miles per hour.  All on board, as well as many civilian and military personnel in the building, were killed.

Because the pilot “advanced the throttle to maximum power” after his 330 turn, we know the plane must have traveled the 45 miles at a speed significantly under 530mph.  And since we know that at 9:34, the plane was 5 miles out, the plane would have traveled 45 miles in about 8 minutes according to Mineta’s timeline.  Assuming the plane traveled at 400mph, it would have taken almost 7 minutes for the plane to travel 45 miles.  From this calculation, Mineta’s timeline is accurate to within a couple of minutes.  Mineta arrived at around 9:20 and he recalled that the “young man” told Cheney the plane was “50 miles out” about 5 or 6 minutes after he entered the PEOC.  Mineta’s memory that the plane was “50 miles out” at 9:26 proved to be very close to the actual time that the plane was in fact 50 miles out, which would have been around 9:27, only 1 minute off.  So when Mineta said the conversation occurred “probably about five or six minutes” after he arrived, it would have been more like six or seven minutes, or maybe he arrived closer to 9:21, or some combination thereof.  But the bottom line is that Mineta’s timeline proved to be as accurate as could be expected and nearly exactly fits with his assumption that the conversation concerned the plane approaching the Pentagon.

To confirm the accuracy of the time when the plane was “50 miles out” which was calculated above to be around 9:27, the 9/11 Commission Report also tells us that

“At 9:29, the autopilot on American 77 was disengaged; the aircraft was at 7,000 feet and approximately 38 miles west of the Pentagon.59 At 9:32, controllers at the Dulles Terminal Radar Approach Control “observed a primary radar target tracking eastbound at a high rate of speed.” This was later determined to have been Flight 77.”

So if the plane was 38 miles out at 9:29, then when would it have been at 50 miles out?  Assuming this fact and that the plane was traveling at around 400mph, the plane would have been 50 miles out at right around 9:27.  Again, Mineta’s timeline completely fits with the subsequent facts presented to us in the 9/11 Commission Report.

Supporters of the official story could argue that the “young man” was actually referring to a different plane, since there were still many planes in the sky during that time.  This is an unlikely option since it would require this other plane to be “50 miles out” of some place of interest other than the Pentagon at the same time the plane approaching the Pentagon was also 50 miles out.  This would be an awful coincidence.  Imagine that, some imaginary plane, which was of no threat, was “50 miles out” of somewhere else, when a real plane that was a threat to the Pentagon and White house, was also 50 miles out at that same time.  There is no evidence to support that any other plane was “50 miles out” of anywhere of interest at this time, or any other time.  Also, Mineta clearly states that he was in fact referring to the plane that hit the pentagon by explaining “during the time that the airplane was coming in to the Pentagon, there was a young man who would come in and say to the Vice President, “The plane is 50 miles out”.”  One of the Commissioners conducting the cross-examination, Lee Hamilton, then later clarifies by asking him if “the flight that you’re referring too…” and Mineta finishes his sentence by saying “the flight that came into the pentagon”.

The official theory and the 9/11 Commission Report implies that Mineta’s testimony is not accurate by claiming that Cheney was not even in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) until after the Pentagon was struck.  The 9/11 Commission Report states that “news of an incoming aircraft (later discovered to be American 77) prompted the Secret Service to order the evacuation of the Vice President just before 9:36. The Vice President entered the underground tunnel that led to the shelter at 9:37.”  This proposed timeline by the 9/11 Commission Report does not make rational sense when considering the testimony of Norman Mineta.  If Cheney didn’t arrive until after the Pentagon was stuck, this would require the belief that Mineta had lied and completely fabricated the entire event of a “young man” telling Cheney that a plane was “50 miles out”.  Mineta clearly states that the plane in question, which was “50 miles out”, was the plane approaching the Pentagon.  If this conversation occurred after 9:37, why would Mineta think that Cheney and the “young man” were discussing the plane that hit the Pentagon if the Pentagon was already hit?  Mineta gave this testimony over a year and half after 9/11/01, and it makes no rational sense why he would be under the belief that Cheney and the “young man” were discussing the plane approaching the Pentagon if the Pentagon was already attacked.
The Timeline:

Skeptics still maintain that Norman Mineta is only one man.  Skeptics are therefore faced with the option of 9/11 being an inside job, or that Mineta was terribly confused.  People who cannot fathom their government committing such atrocities find more comfort in believing that Mineta’s testimony is grossly inaccurate when faced with the horrifying alternative.  The only fact that therefore needs to be corroborated is whether Cheney was in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) before or after Pentagon was attacked.  Though Mineta’s testimony clearly places Cheney in the PEOC before the Pentagon was struck, both Richard Clark and David Bohrer can also corroborate that Cheney was in the PEOC before 9:37.

Richard Clarke

Richard A. Clarke (born 1951) provided national security advice to four U.S. presidents: Ronald Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, consulting on issues of intelligence and terrorism, from 1973 to 2003. Until his retirement in 2003, Mr. Clarke was a member of the Senior Executive Service.  Clarke’s specialties are computer security, counterterrorism and homeland security. He was the counter-terrorism adviser on the U.S. National Security Council when the September 11, 2001 attacks occurred.  He resigned in January of 2003 to work on his book, Against All Enemies, which came out in early 2004. He testified before the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States on March 24, 2004.
Paul Thompson’s Complete 9/11 Timeline explains Clarke’s actions and observations on the morning of 9/11.

(9:05 a.m.): Clarke, Cheney, and Rice Talk, Clarke’s Recommendation to Evacuate White House Is Ignored

Counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke is driving up to a gate outside the White House when an aide calls and tells him, “The other tower was just hit.” He responds, “Well, now we know who we’re dealing with. I want the highest level person in Washington from each agency on-screen now, especially the FAA.” He has already ordered this aide to set up a secure video conference, about five minutes earlier. A few minutes later, he finds Vice President Cheney and National Security Adviser Rice in Vice President Cheney’s White House office. Cheney tells Clarke, “It’s an al-Qaeda attack and they like simultaneous attacks. This may not be over.” Rice asks Clarke for recommendations, and he says, “We’re putting together a secure teleconference to manage the crisis.” He also recommends evacuating the White House (However, evacuation does not begin until 9:45 a.m. (see (9:45 a.m.)), after a critical 40 minutes has passed). Rice notes the Secret Service wants them to go to the bomb shelter below the White House, and as Clarke leaves the other two, he sees Rice and Cheney gathering papers and preparing to evacuate. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 1-2; Australian, 3/27/2004]

(9:10 a.m.): Rice and Cheney Apparently Go to White House Bunker; Other Accounts Have Cheney Moving Locations Later

According to counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke and others, Vice President Cheney goes from his White House office to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), a bunker in the East Wing of the White House, at about this time. National Security Adviser Rice, after initiating a video conference with Richard Clarke in the West Wing, goes to the PEOC to be with Cheney. There is no video link between response centers in the East and West Wings, but a secure telephone line is used instead. [Clarke, 2004, pp. 3-4; ABC News, 9/14/2002; New York Times, 9/16/2001; Daily Telegraph, 12/16/2001] One eyewitness account, David Bohrer, a White House photographer, says Cheney leaves for the PEOC just after 9:00 a.m. [ABC News, 9/14/2002] However, there is a second account claiming that Cheney doesn’t leave until sometime after 9:30 a.m. In this account, Secret Service agents burst into Cheney’s White House office. They carry him under his arms—nearly lifting him off the ground—and propel him down the steps into the White House basement and through a long tunnel toward an underground bunker. [Washington Post, 1/27/2002; BBC, 9/1/2002; Newsweek, 12/31/2001; New York Times, 10/16/2001; MSNBC, 9/11/2002; 9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] At about the same time, National Security Adviser Rice is told to go to the bunker as well. [ABC News, 9/11/2002] In addition to the eyewitness accounts of Clarke and Bohrer, ABC News claims that Cheney is in the bunker when he is told Flight 77 is 50 miles away from Washington at 9:27 a.m., suggesting that accounts of Cheney entering the bunker after 9:27 a.m. are likely incorrect.

(9:10 a.m.): Clarke Directs Crisis Response through Video Conference with Top Officials

Around this time, counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke reaches the Secure Video Conferencing Center next to the Situation Room in the West Wing of the White House. From there, he directs the response to the 9/11 attacks and stays in contact with other top officials through video links. On video are Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, CIA Director Tenet, FBI Director Mueller, FAA Administrator Jane Garvey, Deputy Attorney General Larry Thompson (filling in for the traveling Attorney General Ashcroft), Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage (filling in for the traveling Secretary of State Powell), and Vice-Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Richard Myers (filling in for the traveling Chairman Henry Shelton). National Security Adviser Rice is with Clarke, but she lets Clarke run the crisis response, deferring to his longer experience on terrorism matters. Clarke is also told by an aide, “We’re on the line with NORAD, on an air threat conference call.” [Clarke, 2004, pp. 2-4; Australian, 3/27/2004] The 9/11 Commission says of this conference in a staff report: “The White House Situation Room initiated a video teleconference, chaired by Richard Clarke. While important, it had no immediate effect on the emergency defense efforts.” [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004] The 9/11 Commission’s Final Report covers the conference in greater depth and suggests begins about 15 minutes later than Clarke claims, at 9:25 a.m.(see 9:25 a.m.). Yet, as the Washington Post puts it, “everyone seems to agree” Clarke is the chief crisis manager on 9/11. [Washington Post, 3/28/2004] Even Clarke’s later opponent, National Security Adviser Rice, calls him 9/11’s “crisis management guy.” [United Press International, 4/10/2004] The conference is where the government’s emergency defense efforts are concentrated.

Motives

According to USA Today, the attack occurred on “the only part of the Pentagon that already had been renovated in an 11-year, $1.3 billion project meant to bolster it against attack.”  Renovations were due to be completed on September 16th, 2001.
Casualties in the Pentagon consisted mostly of Navel Intelligence Officers and accountants. [Killtown] The Office of Naval Intelligence were likely monitoring the classified US Military war games that were taking place the morning of 9/11, which simulated terrorists using hijacked airplanes as weapons.  The confusion that ensued between the real world hijackings and the imaginary drills is likely what allowed the attacks to succeed.  The deaths of accountants, bookkeepers and budget analysts and the destruction of accounting information also likely prevented discovering the whereabouts of $2.3 trillion that Donald Rumsfeld admitted on September 10th, 2001 that the Pentagon “cannot track”. [CBS. The War on Waste. January 29th 2002.]
Below is the entire CBS article, The War on Waste, since the article reveals shocking amounts of money missing and damaging testimony that has been largely overlooked and provides clear motive for Cheney allowing the plane to strike the Pentagon.

Directly from CBS:

(CBS) On Sept. 10, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld declared war. Not on foreign terrorists, “the adversary’s closer to home. It’s the Pentagon bureaucracy,” he said.

He said money wasted by the military poses a serious threat.

“In fact, it could be said it’s a matter of life and death,” he said.

Rumsfeld promised change but the next day – Sept. 11– the world changed and in the rush to fund the war on terrorism, the war on waste seems to have been forgotten.

Just last week President Bush announced, “my 2003 budget calls for more than $48 billion in new defense spending.”

More money for the Pentagon, CBS News Correspondent Vince Gonzales reports, while its own auditors admit the military cannot account for 25 percent of what it spends.

“According to some estimates we cannot track $2.3 trillion in transactions,” Rumsfeld admitted.

$2.3 trillion — that’s $8,000 for every man, woman and child in America. To understand how the Pentagon can lose track of trillions, consider the case of one military accountant who tried to find out what happened to a mere $300 million.

“We know it’s gone. But we don’t know what they spent it on,” said Jim Minnery, Defense Finance and Accounting Service.

Minnery, a former Marine turned whistle-blower, is risking his job by speaking out for the first time about the millions he noticed were missing from one defense agency’s balance sheets. Minnery tried to follow the money trail, even crisscrossing the country looking for records.

“The director looked at me and said ‘Why do you care about this stuff?’ It took me aback, you know? My supervisor asking me why I care about doing a good job,” said Minnery.

He was reassigned and says officials then covered up the problem by just writing it off.

“They have to cover it up,” he said. “That’s where the corruption comes in. They have to cover up the fact that they can’t do the job.”

The Pentagon’s Inspector General “partially substantiated” several of Minnery’s allegations but could not prove officials tried “to manipulate the financial statements.”

Twenty years ago, Department of Defense Analyst Franklin C. Spinney made headlines exposing what he calls the “accounting games.” He’s still there, and although he does not speak for the Pentagon, he believes the problem has gotten worse.

“Those numbers are pie in the sky. The books are cooked routinely year after year,” he said.

Another critic of Pentagon waste, Retired Vice Admiral Jack Shanahan, commanded the Navy’s 2nd Fleet the first time Donald Rumsfeld served as Defense Secretary, in 1976.

In his opinion, “With good financial oversight we could find $48 billion in loose change in that building, without having to hit the taxpayers.”

CBS. The War on Waste. January 29th 2002.