Memo: Pre-9/11 drill was nixed (boston heraLd) [View All]

[sniffa]

Five months before the Sept. 11 terror attacks, military officials wanted to train for the possibility that hijacked planes would be slammed into the Pentagon but were told the scenario was ``too unrealistic.''

North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) officials unsuccessfully pitched a training exercise in April 2001 for ``an event having a terrorist group hijack a commercial airliner and fly it into the Pentagon,'' according to an e-mail transcript obtained by the Project on Government Oversight (POGO).

The document, verified as authentic last night by NORAD officials, says military higher-ups ``didn't want it because it would take attention away from their exercise objectives.'' The e-mail also says White House officials ``rejected it as too unrealistic.'' NORAD is responsible for defending the country's airspace by dispatching fighter jets to emergencies

http://news.bostonherald.com/national/view.bg?articleid=1744