Military considered hijacked plane exercise, and rejected it

By Nicole Gaudiano
Times staff writer
http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2819359.php
Five months before Sept. 11, 2001, an air defense planner proposed an exercise scenario in which military officials would have to deal with foreign terrorists who were threatening to crash a hijacked foreign commercial plane into the Pentagon, according to a North American Aerospace Defense Command-U.S. Northern Command spokesman.
But the scenario was rejected -- as were many others, said Canadian Army Maj. Douglas Martin, spokesman for Norad-U.S. NorthCom.
Martin, responding to a report by a government watchdog group that highlighted the proposed exercise, said the reason for scrapping the idea was tied to the training objective, which was supposed to involve the movement of forces into the Korean peninsula.
"If you're looking at a training exercise where your main objective is overseas and you have a scenario that causes something traumatic on the homeland, the homeland is going to be your focus -- not your training objectives in a foreign country," he said.
Asked why the idea wasn't used at a later exercise, Martin said Norad's focus was not domestic airspace back then.
"Our mission was threats that could come toward the U.S. [and Canada]," he said. "Because of Sept. 11, our mission has evolved. ..."
The proposal surfaced during planning for a combined exercise in April 2001: Positive Force, an exercise run by the Joint Chiefs of Staff for evaluating decision making; and Reception, Staging, Onward Movement and Integration, an exercise involving the Republic of Korea and Pacific Command that focused on deploying forces.
Norad, now Norad-U.S. Northern Command, was invited to participate. The planner was asked for a scenario in which the Pentagon was rendered inoperable and part of its functions in the exercise had to be moved to another location. Martin would not identify the planner, but said he still works at Norad.
On Tuesday, the watchdog group Project on Government Oversight, known as POGO, released an e-mail, written by a former Norad employee and sent to seven people on Sept. 18, 2001, citing the proposal and its rejection.
The employee, a retired Army lieutenant colonel, wrote that Joint Staff action officers rejected the idea as "too unrealistic."
The lieutenant colonel, who could not be reached for comment, also wrote that U.S. Pacific Command "didn't want [the exercise] because it would take attention away from their exercise objectives."
The author of the e-mail began by stating that he was writing "in defense of my last unit, NORAD," whose mission is to defend U.S. and Canadian airspace. He had already retired upon its writing.
Though he was not at the planning session, Martin said the e-mail's depiction of the Joint Staff's and U.S. Pacific Command's response could be judged as the writer's opinion.
A spokeswoman for the Joint Chiefs of Staff did not return a call for comment. Marine Corps Maj. Guillermo Canedo, media officer for PaCom, said on Wednesday, "We have seen the alleged document and we're looking into the matter."
While the idea may seem prophetic now, a Pentagon spokesman said things were different before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
"In April of 2001, was that a likely scenario?" asked Navy Lt. Commander Dan Hetlage. "Up until that time, hostages had been safely landed. Sadly 9/11 taught us a whole different paradigm."
Martin could not say who rejected the proposal, but added, "I think a lot of people are putting a lot of weight on the rejection of the scenario as if this could have cured Sept. 11. What his suggestion was and what happened on Sept. 11 have literally no connection."
In a statement released with the e-mail, POGO pointed to April 8 testimony from National Security Adviser Condoleeza Rice before the 9/11 Commission in which she said, "I do not remember any reports to us, a kind of strategic warning, that planes might be used as weapons."
Peter Stockton, senior investigator for POGO, said on Tuesday he plans to turn the e-mail over to the 9/11 Commission.
"We believe the 9/11 Commission should ask the Joint Chiefs why they prevented NORAD from training to respond to the possibility that terrorists might hijack commercial airliners and use them as missiles," he said in a statement.
Stockton said POGO received the e-mail from a source in the military who has been "highly reliable over time." He was not sure why it was given to POGO or why it was written, and would not say whether the source knows the author of the e-mail.
Asked about the significance of the e-mail, Stockton said, "I'm not arguing we could have averted 9/11 because of this. The argument is that if these exercises had gone ahead, we might have been better prepared to respond to this kind of a threat."

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Commander vows to restore order in flashpoint city of Fallujah

By Gidget Fuentes
Times staff writer
Lance Cpl. Ryan Deady, 20, of Chicago, with Weapons Platoon, Alpha Company, 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment, keeps watch on an alleyway in Fallujah, Iraq, on Thursday. -- M. Scott Mahaskey / Marine Corps Times
FALLUJAH, Iraq -- The commander of a Marine Corps division poised to resume fighting in this city where a wavering, six-day cease fire has been in place vowed Wednesday to wipe out anti-coalition forces and reopen the city.
More than three battalions of his Marines, reinforced with tanks and armored vehicles and supported by aerial gunships, have been holding their lines since the top military command in Iraq ordered a temporary cessation in offensive operations on April 9.
Although the Marines have allowed some food and supplies into the beleaguered city, the worry here is in the longer term. "Our concern right now is what's happening to the innocent people the longer we stay here," said Maj. Gen. James N. Mattis, who commands the 1st Marine Division, a 22,000-member force based at Camp Pendleton, Calif. He spoke with reporters at the 1st Battalion, 5th Marine Regiment's outposts on one edge of Fallujah..
"Eventually we have got to open this town up," he said. More than 60,000 residents fled after the Marines entered the city last week.
Like other Marines here, the situation has frustrated Mattis, who said the enemy isn't abiding by the spirit of the cease-fire.
"This is bulls--t right now, and you can quote me," said Mattis, a soft-spoken but tough commander who is popular with his troops and officers for his plain-spoken, pointed style.
Mattis said he doesn't think the wait will be long before the Marines move on the city.
"I have no doubt that we will respond appropriately if they don't knock it off," he said. "And when they tell us it's time to go, the Marines will be fired up and ready to go."
Although Fallujah has garnered much attention in the past week, Mattis' fighting force, along with an Army brigade, is spread throughout Anbar province, from east of Fallujah to the Syrian border. At every camp and on many combat patrols and civil reconstruction projects, Marines and soldiers have been attacked, ambushed, sniped at or mortared.
In Fallujah, despite the so-called cease-fire, the barrage is a constant.
"I tell you right now that if they move against my men, if they fire against my men, we will respond with decisive force," Mattis said. "We are not going to permit them to get in some cheap shots and then have us play by certain rules that they want to be violated."
Hours before dawn Wednesday, an AC-130 Spectre gunship fired dozens of 105mm artillery rounds and 40mm gunfire at two locations targeted by a Marine air controller with 1st Battalion, 5th Marines. A battalion operations officer said the targets included a "safe house" and weapons cache believed used by enemy fighters that had regularly attacked one of the infantry companies' locations and a second building that contained weapons.
For an hour, sounds of the cannons fired by the aircraft flying above and unseen in the darkened sky echoed across the battalion's outpost, followed by the whizzing of rounds slicing through the air and the subsequent booms in the near distance.
Throughout the morning, like previous days, Marines with 1/5 encountered sporadic sniper and rocket fire. At one point, a mortar landed about 75 meters from an infantry position in a warehouse area of the city. No one was injured.
Mattis said the attacks show the "lack of good faith" among enemy fighters in Fallujah who are attacking his Marines. He didn't hide his disdain for their tactics.


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Familiar Scene
Feeding continues, so terror continues.
By Rachel Ehrenfeld
"I am the beating arm for Hezbollah and Hamas here in Iraq," declared Muqtada al-Sadr last week. Yet, despite President's Bush's statement Tuesday night that "The violence we are seeing in Iraq is familiar, " the U.S. fails to directly acknowledge that there is no difference between the Shiite and Sunni militias in Iraq and Palestinian terrorism. As a matter of fact, it was the Palestinian-Jordanian Musab al-Zarkawi (whose real name is Fedel Nazzel Khalayleh), one of al Qaeda's major operatives in Iraq, helped to coordinate the infiltration of Palestinian, Yemenite, Afghani, North African, and other insurgents, into Iraq.
The horrid pictures of a raging, incited mob, lynching uniformed soldiers in broad daylight, have certainly been seen before -- not only in Mogadishu, but also in the Palestinian territories. In October 2002, the Palestinians murdered, dismembered, and dragged the bodies of two Israeli soldiers throughout the streets of Ramallah in the West Bank.
Even the use of mosques as military forts, and ambulances to transport terrorists with their armaments, has been practiced for many years by the Palestinian terrorists. What we see in Iraq is really not much different than what we have been witnessing in the West Bank and Gaza for the last decade, only here, American and Coalition forces are the targets.
The historical and persisting failure of the U.S. and the West to denounce the Palestinian terrorists' atrocities, and to put an end to their activities, was clearly perceived as a weakness by the Islamists. This weakness is now being exploited by al Qaeda and other Muslim fundamentalists, who have taken up arms against the U.S. and Coalition forces.
Al-Zarkawi, and his group, Anzar al Islam, like Hamas, al Qaeda, and other Muslim fundamentalist terrorists, adhere to the teachings of the Muslim brotherhood, and call upon their followers in Iraq, as in the Palestinian territories, "to burn the earth under the occupiers' feet." Similar statements are made by Abdel-Aziz al-Rantissi, who, in a televised address two weeks ago, pointed out the similarities between the U.S. and Israel: "We knew that Bush is the enemy of God, the enemy of Islam and Muslims. America declared war against God. Sharon declared war against God and God declared war against America, Bush and Sharon." He went on to say that, "The war of God continues against them and I can see the victory coming up from the land of Palestine by the hand of Hamas." Now that al-Sadr sees himself as a representative of Hamas, he added Iraq to the equation.
The increasing violence in Iraq, supported by foreign insurgencies from Iran, Syria, and Saudi Arabia, will be as difficult to control as the ongoing terror activities by the Palestinians. As long as tens of millions of dollars in funding from Iran continue to fuel the thousands of unemployed and disenfranchised that have joined al-Sadr's Shiite militia, and as long as tens of millions will continue to flow from Saudi Arabia to Palestinian terror organizations, terrorism will continue.
Despite the Saudi crackdown on dissidents in the Kingdom and their claims that they are taking steps to stop both terrorism and terrorist funding, and even despite Condoleezza Rice's recent praise of the Saudi Kingdom's cooperation in the war on terrorism, Saudi money continue to fuel terrorist activities against the U.S. and Israel.
Recent revelations about the transfer of millions of dollars in suspicious transactions by the Saudis through Riggs Bank in Washington, D.C., including to some Muslim charities that have been identified as fronts for al Qaeda, cast doubt on the sincerity of Saudi cooperation in stopping the funds for terrorism.
Similarly, of all the Arab League countries, Saudi Arabia is the only one that continues to fund the Palestinian Authority, led by Yasser Arafat, who, as a U.S. investigation just concluded, approved the attack on a U.S. embassy convoy in which three Americans were killed in 2003. The Saudi contribution, even before latest "reforms" in the PA were announced, amounts to $15.4 million every two months, and at least $50 million continues to flow to Hamas "charities" in the West Bank and Gaza.
The jihadist ideology, both on the Sunni and Shiite fronts, will not be easy to change. And despite the president's assertion that we have deprived the terrorists of their shelter and many of their leaders, we could do much more to prevent them from carrying out their "holy war" against us -- we should do more to cut off their funds.

-- Rachel Ehrenfeld, author of Funding Evil; How Terrorism is Financed -- and How to Stop It, is director of the New York-based American Center for Democracy.


http://www.nationalreview.com/comment/ehrenfeld200404140848.asp
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Tax Twister
Sen. Dorgan is crafty, but deceiving, this time of the year.

It's once again the time of year when competing interests play battle of the press release on taxes. The goal is to capture the taxpayer's allegiance during that brief period when his attention is focused on his tax burden, as he fills out tax forms and, often, writes large checks to state and federal governments. Both sides play this game.
One long time player is the Tax Foundation, which annually calculates "Tax Freedom Day." Its assumption is that we pay our taxes from the first dollar we earn each year. When we have worked enough to pay all our taxes for the year, we are then free to work for ourselves. According to the latest study, Americans could start to keep all their earnings on April 11 this year, the earliest date since passage of the Kennedy tax cut in the 1960s. This represents a sharp reduction from the last year of the Clinton administration, when Tax Freedom Day fell on May 2.
Other countries also calculate their tax freedom days. According to the Adam Smith Institute in London, Tax Freedom Day in Britain falls on May 30. The Fraser Institute in Vancouver calculated Canada's Tax Freedom Day to be June 28 last year.
After many years when advocates of lower taxes were the primary players in the tax game, the tax increasers are now also vigorous participants. However, since no one likes paying taxes and few want to hear about why they should pay more, the tax increasers have to play the finesse game. Their approach is to dramatize the insufficient taxes paid by fat cats. Those of modest means are thereby led to believe that they would pay less if only the rich paid their "fair share."
Sen. Byron Dorgan, Democrat of North Dakota, has become the point man for liberals looking to make hay on tax day. Back in 1993, he had the U.S. General Accounting Office look at taxes paid by U.S.-based and foreign-based corporations. The report found that a significant percentage of foreign-controlled corporations paid no federal income taxes in the U.S. But it also showed that many domestic corporations paid no income taxes, either.
This initial report got little attention because it was not released until June 11, too late to catch the attention of taxpayers. In 1999, Sen. Dorgan wised up and got another report on the same subject out on March 23. This report received a lot more attention by once again showing that many corporations pay no income taxes. However, its main focus was still on foreign companies, even though the percentage of domestic corporations with no tax liability was almost exactly the same.
This year, Sen. Dorgan was even smarter. He got the GAO to do yet another report on corporate taxes, but this time was clever enough to make them get it done by February 27. And rather than release it then, when few would be paying attention, Sen. Dorgan got the GAO (which his staff misnames the "Government Accounting Office") to hold the report until his office could release it on April 2, in the middle of tax season.
Sen. Dorgan was also smarter this year in playing up the percentage of U.S. corporations, as well as foreign companies, with no tax liability. For shifting the emphasis in this manner, he was rewarded with a front-page article in the Wall Street Journal, as well as heavy play in the Los Angeles Times and other papers. With the data showing that almost three-fourths of foreign corporations and two-thirds of U.S. corporations had no tax liability in 2000, many individual taxpayers with large tax liabilities no doubt felt some anger and resentment.
This is exactly what Sen. Dorgan was hoping for. It will help pave the way for tax increases on corporations in order to expand the welfare state and perhaps put Democrats back in control of the White House and Congress.
Unfortunately, the GAO report provided little context for its findings. It would have been helpful to know that 45 percent of all corporations had no net income and nearly 60 percent had assets of less than $100,000 in 2000, according to the Internal Revenue Service. It is hardly surprising that a company pays no taxes when it has no income and virtually no assets. After all, about 40 percent of individual income-tax returns report no tax liability, according to the Joint Committee on Taxation.
Another point worth mentioning is that all of this alleged tax avoidance came during the Clinton administration. Yet because the data have been released now, many casual readers are probably left thinking that the Bush administration is responsible.
In the battle of the press releases, Sen. Dorgan probably won this year. By the time analysts are able to explain why his data are misleading, tax season will be over.

-- Bruce Bartlett is senior fellow for the National Center for Policy Analysis. Write to him here.

http://www.nationalreview.com/nrof_bartlett/bartlett200404140835.asp
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U.S. to pull out most forces from Korean DMZ this year
Special to World Tribune.com
EAST-ASIA-INTEL.COM
Tuesday, April 13, 2004
The U.S. military will withdraw most if its forces from the Demilitarized Zone separating North and South Korea this year, an official announced today.
The withdrawal means the United States will no longer have combat troops anywhere on the DMZ except at Panmunjom, where a U.S.-Korean battalion, commanded by a U.S. army lieutenant colonel, remains on guard in what is known as the Joint Security Area.
Therefore South Korea, which has a 600,000-member military, will face North Korea's armed forces, the world's fifth largest with 1.1 million soldiers, most of whom are concentrated near the DMZ.
The United States will turn over Observation Post Ouellette, which provides a view into North Korea, as part of a force reshuffle, the official said. U.S. forces will no longer guard the border, except except for the troops at the JSA in Panmunjom.
South Korean forces will take over Ouelette, just as they have replaced U.S. forces everywhere else along the DMZ since the Korean War ended in 1953. South Korea officials, however, want the U.S. to keep its troops in the Joint Security Area as symbols of America's commitment to defend the South.
The 2 1/2-mile wide, 151-mile long DMZ, is considered one of the last remaining symbols of the Cold War. However it is still an active war zone with mines, barbed wire and tank traps.
U.S. troops guarding the inter-Korean border have served as a strategic "tripwire" because they are presumed to come under fire during a North Korean attack, thereby prompting U.S. intervention in South Korea's defense.
The United States has about 37,000 troops stationed in South Korea, but has long kept fewer than 200 soldiers along the DMZ, at Observation Post Ouellette and Panmunjom, said U.S. Air Force Lt. Col. Deborah Bertrand, a spokeswoman for U.S. Forces Korea.
Details on the timing of Ouellette's turnover and the eventual troop level at Panmunjom are still being decided in consultation with South Korea, Bertrand said, adding: "It will be this year."
U.S. Gen. Leon J. LaPorte, joint commander of the U.S. Forces Korea and the United Nations. Command overseeing the cease fire that ended the 1950-53 Korean War, has briefed Congress on U.S. plans to give South Korea more autonomy in its defense.
He said the "Republic of Korea will replace all United States personnel directly involved in security patrols, manning observation posts, and base operations support" along the DMZ, except for Panmunjom, where the United States will maintain command over a battalion of joint U.S.-South Korean forces.
The United States is currently reviewing its military posture in South Korea as part of a global realignment overseen by Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld who wants greater flexibility and more emphasis on technology and Special Forces.
Earlier this year, the United States agreed to transfer about 7,000 U.S. forces and their families from its sprawling Yongsan Base in downtown Seoul.
It has also decided to close half of its bases in South Korea -- 28 combat and support facilities and three training ranges -- and return more than half the land occupied by U.S. forces to South Korea by 2011.
South Koreans have long complained that the U.S. military occupies prime real estate and that its bases near densely populated cities contribute to crime. But the majority support the presence as a deterrent against the North.
Copyright ? 2004 East West Services, Inc.

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Sadr aided by largest Shi'ite militia
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
BAGHDAD - The Mahdi Army has received support from the largest Shi'ite militia in Iraq.
U.S. officials said the Mahdi Army loyal to Iranian-aligned cleric Moqtada Sadr has obtained the assistance of the much larger Badr militia.
Badr has been described as a 30,000-member force formed by the Supreme Council for Islamic Revolution in Iraq.
Iraqi sources said leading Shi'ite clerics have been trying to mediate an end to the revolt against the United States, Middle East Newsline reported. They said one proposal called for the expulsion of Sadr to Iran, where he would be granted safe haven. Sadr has been wanted by the United States for the killing of a leading Shi'ite cleric in April 2003.
Badr and the Mahdi Army fought together in several engagements in the Shi'ite city of Karbala. But officials said the cooperation was limited.
"We are getting preliminary reports at this time that there may be some engagements between those two organizations," Brig. Gen. Mark Kimmitt, deputy director of operations for the coalition, said.
At the same time, officials said the U.S. military has revised its figures on the strength of the Mahdi Army. They said the latest estimate was that Sadr has 10,000 men under arms, a significant increase from its previous assessment of between 1,000 and 6,000 fighters.
Sadr has also received offers of help from Sunni insurgency groups. The Ansar Islam Army, regarded as an Al Qaida-inspired group, released an announcement that offered to help Sadr in the Shi'ite revolt against the United States. The communique said an Ansar delegation was sent to Sadr earlier in April to discuss cooperation.
Lt. Gen. Ricardo Sanchez, commander of the U.S.-led coalition forces in Iraq, said on Monday that U.S. troops have regained control of Kut and Nasseriya. Sanchez said Sadr, whose deputy was arrested in Baghdad on Tuesday, has remained in control of Najaf as well as parts of Karbala.
"We have maneuvered forces down into the vicinity of Najaf to ensure that we are prepared to conduct offensive operations to eliminate the final elements of Muqtada Al Sadr influence down there," Sanchez said. "The mission of the U.S. forces is to kill or capture Muqtada Al Sadr."
Copyright ? 2004 East West Services, Inc.
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Arafat gave blessing to attack on U.S. convoy



SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
RAMALLAH - The United States has determined that Palestinian Authority Chairman Yasser Arafat approved an attack on a U.S. embassy convoy in which three Americans were killed in 2003.
In October, a bomb exploded as a U.S. embassy convoy passed through the northern Gaza Strip on the way to a meeting in Gaza City. Three U.S. embassy security guards - protecting American visitors who were to discuss the Fulbright Program - were killed in the attack next to the Jabalya refugee camp.
A Fatah-aligned group later claimed responsibility, Middle East Newsline reported. The U.S. sources said the attack was planned and directed by elements within the Palestinian security services.
U.S. diplomatic sources said a U.S. investigation into the bombing of the embassy convoy in the Gaza Strip in October 2003 pointed to a clear role by Arafat. The sources said Arafat granted approval to a plan to strike U.S. interests in PA areas.
Arafat, the sources said, did not draft or approve any details for a Palestinian attack. But they said Arafat agreed to a proposal relayed by a high-level aide for the Palestinians to "pass a message" to the United States.
According to the sources, a senior Arafat aide and member of the Fatah Central Committee left Gaza City for Arafat's headquarters in Ramallah in September 2003 to seek approval for a Palestinian attack on U.S. interests in the area. The Fatah official, described as a liasion between Arafat and Palestinian insurgents in the Gaza Strip, complained of U.S. policy toward the PA and Arabs.
During their meeting, the sources said, the official asked Arafat whether it was time to relay a message to the United States. Arafat was said to have replied, "May God bless this," which translated into "Go ahead," the sources said.
"Arafat did not require or want details of this plan," a U.S. diplomatic source said. "That's not his style. He has always wanted to maintain an element of deniability."
Weeks after the attack, PA security forces arrested and charged four Palestinians with the bombing. But U.S. officials said the defendants were not the actual suspects and in March 2004 they were ordered released by the Palestinian High Court.
[On Monday, Israeli troops foiled a Palestinian insurgency attack on the Israeli community of Netsarim outside Gaza City. The insurgents - said to come from Fatah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad - fired mortars, hurled grenades and employed small arms fire in an attempted raid of the community.]
U.S. officials said the failure of the PA to capture the killers of the American security guards has marked a major impediment to U.S.-Palestinian relations. They said the PA was warned that the United States would not approve any funding for the Gaza Strip in the aftermath of a planned Israeli withdrawal.
Palestinian National Security Adviser Jibril Rajoub has been sent to Washington to meet senior U.S. officials to discuss the Israeli withdrawal plan. Rajoub, scheduled to be joined by PA International Cooperation Minister Nabil Shaath, was expected to discuss the PA's role in ensuring security in the Gaza Strip after any Israeli pullout.
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Copyright ? 2004 East West Services, Inc.

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U.S. offers Iraqi oil projects to Gulf contractors
SPECIAL TO WORLD TRIBUNE.COM
Wednesday, April 14, 2004
ABU DHABI - The United States seeks Gulf Arab contractors for a range of energy and development projects in Iraq.
The U.S. State Department has been encouraging firms from Gulf Cooperation Council states to become subcontractors to U.S. companies that have won $6.7 billion of projects. Over the next two weeks, the United States has arranged for GCC executives to meet these U.S. companies to discuss partnerships in Iraq.
On April 20, the U.S. consulate has scheduled an Iraqi reconstruction conference in Dubai with 12 U.S. contractors for the Coalition Provisional Authority, Middle East Newsline reported. They were expected to include Kellogg, Brown and Root, Parsons Corp, Lucent Technologies, Washington Group International, Contrack, Flour-AMEC and Perini and Shaw International.
The U.S. contractors, all of whom won awards for projects in Iraq, will later visit such Middle East cities as Amman and Istanbul.
Copyright ? 2004 East West Services, Inc.