Vigilant Guardian

One of the more troubling aspects of Condi's testimony is her continuing reliance on the assertion that nobody in the administration knew that terrorists might use airplanes as missiles. The primary problem with this idea, as many have pointed out, rests in the fact that she was warned that attackers might try to crash a commandeered jetliner into the July 2001 G-8 Summit meeting in Genoa, Italy, killing President Bush and other world leaders. On twelve separate occasions the American intelligence community issued reports warning of similar plans.

Was NORAD training for just such a contingency? Coincidentally or otherwise (some think otherwise), on September 11, 2001 that agency was embroiled in a large-scale training scenario called Vigilant Guardian. Details of this under-reported exercise remain sketchy, but it appears that the idea of "hijacked jets" played a role. An Aviation Week story of June 3, 2002 argued that the exercise expedited NORAD's response to the emergency:


Part of the exercise?" the colonel wondered. No; this is a real-world event, he was told. Several days into a semiannual exercise known as Vigilant Guardian, NEADS was fully staffed, its key officers and enlisted supervisors already manning the operations center "battle cab."

In retrospect, the exercise would prove to be a serendipitous enabler of a rapid military response to terrorist attacks on Sept. 11. Senior officers involved in Vigilant Guardian were manning Norad command centers throughout the U.S. and Canada, available to make immediate decisions.


Further on, we read:


Mineta's decision--and the military recommendation that triggered it--may have been prompted by a few airline pilots reporting terrorists on the radio, talking about other hijacked aircraft. American Flight 77 had hit the Pentagon, and United Flight 93 was being tracked, heading for Chicago or Cleveland, then Washington, prompting the F-16s' scramble.

"We had all of our armed fighters in the air, but needed more," Marr said. Every unit in the northeastern U.S. was loading F-16s, F-15s and A-10s with any armament available, then being directed to combat air patrols (CAPs) over major cities. Soon, Navy F/A-18s, F-14s and E-2Cs--some from two carriers steaming off the East Coast--were flying CAP and surveillance missions over major cities. Ultimately, Navy P-3s and USAF/ ANG C-130s would be pressed into service, using their normal radars to search for intruders.


The Aviation Week piece contains further interesting revelations. Reports streamed into NORAD of other hijacked airliners; those glued to the news on that day (as who was not?) will recall that such warnings also nosed their way onto the airwaves from time to time. Another report concerned an alleged plan to destroy the entrance to Cheyenne mountain headquarters, using the proverbial Ryder truck filled with explosives. We can presume that this nightmarish possibility had a foundation other than wispy legend-spinning, because NORAD briefly considered evacuating Cheyenne Mountain -- at a time when the country was under attack. I'd like to know more about how this "rumor" began.

But Vigilant Guardian should rivet our closest attention. If, as the Aviation Week writers claim, the exercise helped to ready NORAD for the disaster, then why did so many later ask "Where was NORAD on September 11?" Could the exercise have in some way aided the terrorists?

The few news accounts mentioning Vigilant Guardian emphasize that commanders understood quickly that the real-time hijackings had no relation to the training simulation. But can we believe those assurances? Given the credibility problems that color so much of what this administration has said since September 11, and given the fact that all bureaucracies take ass-covering lessons from Fruit of the Loom, how can we rest certain that the simulation did not hinder reaction to the Real McCoy?

All of which leads to the most troubling idea: Did the terrorists know about Vigilant Guardian?

I hope the 9/11 commission answers these questions. I doubt that we'll hear any answers, unless we press for them.