Eberhart will face 9/ 11 panel
NORAD chief’s testimony part of government inquiry
By PAM ZUBECK THE GAZETTE
(CORRECTION: A spokesman for the North American Aerospace Defense Command issued a statement saying command officials will not discuss the investigation by a national panel about issues surrounding the Sept. 11 attacks. Gen. Ralph "Ed" Eberhart, who has agreed to testify before the panel, was not interviewed for the story. Clarification ran 1/28/2004.) The chief of Colorado Springs-based U.S. Northern Command and North American Aerospace Defense Command has agreed to testify before a panel investigating why the government didn’t detect and prevent the Sept. 11 attacks. Although Gen. Ralph “Ed” Eberhart declined to say what he would tell the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, his testimony will come one month before the controversial commission issues its report May 27. Congress formed the panel despite White House objections and ordered it to find out why the country was caught off-guard on Sept. 11. Among those who have testified since the commission was formed in 2002 were two NORAD officers who said their command wasn’t watching for attacks from within the United States. They also said notification was slow, and procedures hampered any possibility that one of the hijacked planes might be intercepted. Eberhart was commander of NORAD, U.S. Space Command and Air Force Space Command when hijacked airliners crashed into the World Trade Center towers, the Pentagon and a Pennsylvania field, killing almost 3,000 people. Eberhart declined an interview. NORAD issued a statement through a spokesman pledging cooperation. “NORAD is committed to providing timely and complete responses to the 9/11 Commission’s requests for information,” the statement said, adding officials won’t otherwise comment until the panel finishes its work.
As leader of the joint Canadian and U.S. effort to monitor airspace surrounding North America, Eberhart likely will be asked what NORAD knew and when and how procedures have been changed since the attacks. Two NORAD generals, testifying May 23, said there were significant delays in NORAD learning about the hijackings from the Federal Aviation Administration and in mobilizing fighter jets to escort or shoot down the airliners. They said fighters took off about the time the first plane crashed into the North Tower and were eight minutes from New York City when the second airliner struck the South Tower. Retired Maj. Gen. Larry K. Arnold, in charge at NORAD on Sept. 11, said it was “physically possible” for fighter jets to have arrived at the Pentagon before American Flight 77 had they taken off sooner. Arnold testified NORAD obtained authority from President Bush to shoot down United Flight 93 five minutes after it crashed in Pennsylvania. Military officials since have been given authority to order a shoot-down. Maj. Gen. Craig McKinley, Air Force deputy inspector general on Sept. 11 who now commands the 1st Air Force, Air Combat Command, and Continental U.S. North American Aerospace Defense Command Region at Tyndall Air Force Base, said in May that NORAD’s mission is to detect threats from outside the country, not from within. Commission member Richard Ben-Veniste cited numerous intelligence findings dating back years that showed terrorists contemplated using planes as weapons. “Was not this information, sir, available to NORAD as of Sept. 11, 2001?” he asked. “We had not postured, prior to Sept. 11, 2001, for the scenario that took place that day,” McKinley said. “There was no intelligence indication at any level within NORAD or DOD of a terrorist threat to commercial aviation prior to the attacks.” On that day, NORAD, for the only time since it opened in 1966, closed its 25-ton, 3½- foot-thick blast doors upon receiving intelligence that an additional hijacked aircraft was headed for NORAD, a spokesman said this week. The doors were opened four hours later after officials learned the threat was bogus. Since then, Northern Command was created to detect threats against the United States, and it and NORAD work closely with other federal agencies to monitor airspace in the United States. “We have increased the number of fighters on alert, improved radar surveillance capabilities and communication connectivity,” Mike Perini, director of NORAD/Northern Command public affairs, said this week in a statement. “We have also made improvements in airspace control measures and enhanced inter-agency coordination.” Perini said more than 34,000 missions have been flown during Operation Noble Eagle to patrol the skies since Sept. 11. Those included 1,700 fighter missions, which responded to potential threats or emergencies. The Defense Department has given the panel more than 38,000 pages of documents. Among those are records from the Air Force, including radar tracks, crisis action team logs, situation and mission reports, F-15 cockpit tapes, command and flight logs and schedules, crew lists, maps, charts and weapons logs. Subpoenas for White House and city of New York documents also have been fulfilled, panel spokesman Al Felzenberg said. The 10-member commission will have its seventh public hearing about border and security issues Monday and Tuesday in Washington, D.C. It will “share some important facts about the immigration and aviation security systems in place on Sept. 11, 2001,” panel chairman Thomas Kean said in a statement. The panel also will hear from officials with the departments of state, justice, homeland security and defense, as well as United Airlines and American Airlines. CONTACT THE WRITER: 636-0238 or zubeck@gazette.com
GEN. EBERHART: Was commander of several agencies during the Sept. 11 attacks.
