©02 The Media Desk
The Conspiracy Theorists are working overtime on this one.
Yes, the Desk is going to weigh in on the 'Operation Home Run' nonsense. So just hang on and watch out for Black Helicopters while you read this.
OK, there have been several operations named "Home Run" or "Homerun". Including cold war overflights of the USSR, and a campaign against drunk drivers. So any search on the internet is going to return everything from the email quoted below to pictures of the U2 (which makes it even more mysterious and yet somehow credible) and a project to donate money for every home run hit by Slammin' Sammy Sosa.
So those that see 'THEM' behind every other tree and the true believers that listen to their ranting have plenty of fuel for their fire. And they take a little of this; actual existing technology- thirty year old contingency plans- and the plot for a B-grade movie, and a little of that; fear, suspicion and a government that seems to live to screw its own credibility into the ground, and they come up with something about three quarters baked that maybe, could be, possibly, if you really stretch, believable.
Airplanes have telemetry devices, that is no secret. And after the rash of sixties and seventies hijackings all sorts of plans were trotted out of the back rooms of the FAA and the Pentagon and universities. A few were even tried. Most would have been workable to some degree, all were expensive, many would have required extensive retrofitting of existing aircraft and the complete redesign of many systems of planes still on the drawing board. Suffice it to say, if the airlines, FAA, and travelers groups can't agree on a standardized carry on size without years in the courts and bitter bickering in contract negotiations, how would they agree with something like this. Even now, in the shadow of the two missing towers in New York, they cannot agree on cockpit defense tactics.
But that doesn't slow down those that say the 'Agency' did it all. Hand in glove with 'One Worlders', the Military Industrial Complex, and maybe even Elvis.
The Email goes on to talk about the Cockpit Voice Recorder and somehow its tie to the transponder, the mysterious Homerun program and cel phones. It denies the obvious goes into detail about nothing, and in general, so overstates its case as to be almost as fanatical as your most loyal Talib.
The Desk doesn't know much about aviation technology, but from what it has read, a transponder can't do what this email says it can do.
The email seems to be written by somebody with as much of an ax to grind on America as ossama himself. It cites passenger manifests as proof, however, the passenger manifests showed the nineteen Arabs were on the planes, as did their own diaries and papers found later. It cites airport SOP's as proof, yet these are proof of nothing. It goes into depth stating the unremarkable and ignores videotape of the hijackers and their boss both planning and claiming responsibility for the crime.
The author of this chain of twisted reasoning and haphazard string of unrelated and loosely connected events and data is out to prove that:
A. Nobody but the US Government and affiliated outfits could pull the Attack off.
B. Nobody but the above would have any reason to do it.
C. Nobody but the above is cold and calculating enough to do it.
D. Nobody would believe it so it has to be true.
Your standard issue conspiracy theorist isn't worried about the believability factor and they work from the premise that:
A. If a given script is even remotely possible, it must be true.
B. If a given script is possible if certain aspects of reality are negated, it must be true.
C. If a given script can be dreamed up by anybody, it must be true.
D. If a given script is called absolute malarkey by any government agency, it's true.
And, to help even the wackiest of the 'Space Alien Loving, Elvis Hugging, King Jr. was Killed by Nixon in Drag, Bigfoot Flies Black Helicopters on Weekends' crowd along. The US Federal Government has denied, restated, and covered up everything this side of the moving of the Sierra Nevada Mountains about twenty miles west to help the railroads make a profit during their heyday.
Face it. If Kennedy was killed by the 'One Bullet' and it was found whole and intact during the investigation, what was still in Governor Connelly's body when they buried him?
The Government does not have a sterling track record here.
But then again, somewhere along the way.
Common Sense must come into play.
Even when dealing with tragedy and conspiracy and the government.
Occam's Razor is still there.
"The simplest explanation is most likely the correct one."
The Desk isn't a pilot, it doesn't even play on on TV. But it does know politicians and the government and how things work and not work.
The CIA can't even root out spies in its own house. The White House can't manage to successfully hit some banana republic dictator and dope pusher.
In this case, the September Attack on America was masterminded by an evil half-bastard with more money than sense and a hatred of anything he can't have. Namely: freedom, liberty, and peace. And carried out by a whole bunch of fanatics who had been lied to for years by people just like him.
Yes it was. Get over it.
This email and all its variations on everything from Christian Message Boards to Shadow Government fan sites is nothing more than evidence on the hoof that you cannot believe everything you read on the Net, and anybody can post anything they want. Isn't it rather odd that the original author of this piece is admittedly unreachable? Talk about conspiracies.
To contact the Desk. Email: dr_leftover[~at~]themediadesk[~dot~]com
Once again. DO NOT FALL FOR INTERNET HOAXES. Do not forward SPAM without at least some background
"And just who are the 'American Patriot Friends Network?" The Desk was asked.
Well. The Desk will let them answer this themselves.
[FROM ONE OF THEIR HOMEPAGES]
American Patriot Friends Network a/k/a American Patriot Fax Network was founded Feb. 21, 1993. We started with faxing daily reports from the Weaver-Harris trials. Then on Feb. 28 1993, The BATF launched Operation Showtime - "The Siege on the Branch Davidians". From this point, it's been the Death of Vince Foster, the Oklahoma Bombing, TWA-800, The Train Deaths, Bio-War, on and on. We are not anti-government, we are anti-corrupt-government. A Patriot is one who loves God, Family and Country..... We believe Patriots should rule America.... Please joint in the fight with us in seeking TRUTH, JUSTICE AND FREEDOM FOR ALL AMERICANS.... Join our e-mail list and build your own e-mail/Fax networking contacts. Without Justice, there is JUST_US![END QUOTE]
http://apfn.freeyellow.com/
Any more questions?
-30-
Operation Home Run
From: American Patriot Friends Network
01/24/02 "Jack Duggan" jxduggan@optonline.net wrote:
The author of the below cannot be contacted, since his e-mail address was not listed.The below I edited for brevity and to let you know which aircraft you may feel safer flying aboard.-JD
OPERATION HOME RUN
disc.server.com/discussio...icle=16869
In the midseventies America faced a new and escalating crisis, with US commercial jets being hijacked for geopolitical purposes. Determined to gain the upper hand in this new form of aerial warfare, two American multinationals collaborated with the Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) www.arpa.mil/baa/ on a project designed to facilitate the remote recovery of hijacked American aircraft. Brilliant both in concept and operation, "Home Run" [not its real code name] allowed specialist ground controllers to listen in to cockpit conversations on the target aircraft, then take absolute control of its computerized flight control system by remote means. Home Run Electronically Hijacking the World Trade Center Attack Aircraft serendipity.cia.com.au/wot/home_run.htm
From that point onwards, regardless of the wishes of the hijackers or flight deck crew, the hijacked aircraft could be recovered and landed automatically at an airport of choice, with no more difficulty than flying a radiocontrolled model plane. The engineers had no idea that almost thirty years after its initial design, Home Run's top secret computer codes would be broken, and the system used to facilitate direct ground control of the four aircraft used in the highprofile attacks on New York and Washington on 11th September 2001.
In order to make Home Run truly effective, it had to be completely integrated with all onboard systems, and this could only be accomplished with a new aircraft design, several of which were on the drawing boards at that time.Under cover of extreme secrecy, the multinationals and DARPA went ahead on this basis and built "back doors" into the new computer designs. There were two very obvious hard requirements at this stage, the first a primary control channel for use in taking over the flight control system and flying the aircraft back to an airfield of choice, and secondly a covert audio channel for monitoring flight deck conversations. Once the primary channel was activated, all aircraft functions came under direct ground control, permanently removing the hijackers and pilots from the control loop.
Remember here, this was not a system designed to "undermine" the authority of the flight crews, but was put in place as a "doomsday" device in the event the hijackers started to shoot passengers or crew members, possibly including the pilots. Using the perfectly reasonable assumption that hijackers only carry a limited number of bullets, and many aircraft nowadays carry in excess of 300 passengers, Home Run could be used to fly all of the survivors to a friendly airport for a safe auto landing. So the system started out in life for the very best of reasons, but finally fell prey to security leaks, and eventually to compromised computer codes. In light of recent highprofile CIA and FBI spying trials, these leaks and compromised codes should come as no great surprise to anyone.
Activating the primary Home Run channel proved to be easy. Most readers will have heard of a "transponder", prominent in most news reports immediately following the attacks on New York and Washington. Technically a transponder is a combined radio transmitter and receiver which operates automatically, in this case relaying data between the four aircraft and air traffic control on the ground. The signals sent provide a unique "identity" for each aircraft, essential in crowded airspace to avoid midair collisions, and equally essential for Home Run controllers trying to lock onto the correct aircraft.
Once it has located the correct aircraft, Home Run "piggy backs" a data transmission onto the transponder channel and takes direct control from the ground. This explains why none of the aircraft sent a special "I have been hijacked" transponder code, despite multiple activation points on all four aircraft. Because the transponder frequency had already been piggy backed by Home Run, transmission of the special hijack code was rendered impossible. This was the first hard proof that the target aircraft had been hijacked electronically from the ground, rather than by [CIAinspired] motley crews of actors toting box-knives.
The Home Run listening device on the flight deck utilizes the cockpit microphones that normally feed the Cockpit Voice Recorder (CVR), one of two black boxes armored to withstand heavy impact and thereby later give investigators significant clues to why the aircraft crashed. However, once hooked into Home Run, the CVRs are bypassed and voice transmissions are no longer recorded on the 30minute endless loop recording tape. If Home Run is active for more than thirty minutes, there will therefore be no audible data on the Cockpit Voice Recorders. To date, crash investigators have recovered the CVRs from the Pentagon and Pittsburg aircraft, and publicly confirmed that both are completely blank. The only possible reason for this, is data capture by Home Run, providing the final hard proof that the attack aircraft were hijacked electronically from the ground, rather than by "Arab terrorists".
Many readers might by now be indignant; convinced this is incorrect or misleading information because of "those telephone calls from the hijacked aircraft". Which telephone calls exactly? There are no records of any such calls, and the emotional claptrap the media fed you in the aftermath of the attack was in all cases thirdperson. We had the media's invisible "contact" at an airline who "said" a hostess called to report a hijacking, and we had a priest (?) who "said" he received a call from a man asking him in turn to call his wife and tell her he loved her.
Presumably this man would have had his wife's name filed in his cell phone, and faced with imminent death would have called her direct. The FAA helped out by claiming that it had "overheard" a heated argument from a cockpit where the radio transmit switch had been left in the "on" position. When push came to shove, the FAA was forced to retract, and admit that the mythical argument was not on the tapes at all.
Critically, the passenger manifests for all four aircraft serve as the final (independent) proof that no alleged hijackers or anyone of Arabic name boarded any of the four aircraft used in the attacks. As Laurence T. May points out: "On September 11, airline checkin counters were the only places in the United States that required travelers to present a photo ID in order to travel. A photo ID meant (and still means) a card issued by some branch of civil government. Years ago, the United States government took the first step toward a national ID card when it mandated the requirement that all passengers present a photo ID card before being allowed to get on a commercial airplane.
"This means that the tightest security that the typical American ever confronts is airport security. This is the model for all other security systems governing the general public. Let's go through the checkin routine together. Pretend that it's September 11, and you are a checkin agent at either a United Airlines counter or an American Airlines counter. It is your job to ask the standard questions.
"Did you pack your own luggage? Have you had it in your possession at all times?" Then you ask for a photo ID. The name on the ID must match the name on the ticket. The photo must match the person presenting the card. "And--you guessed it--the name on the ID must match that on the passenger manifest held by the airline ground staff! It seems highly likely that these revealing passenger manifests will magically disappear when the American Government realizes the dangers of allowing the public access to such incriminating documents. To visit a page and copy the lists, click here. Whether more information will be forthcoming about Home Run is unknown, but nowadays there are large numbers of people apart from the author privy to the basic data. As long ago as the early nineties, a major European flag carrier acquired the information and was seriously alarmed that one of its own aircraft might be "rescued" by the Americans without its authority. Accordingly, this flag carrier completely stripped the American flight control computers out of its entire fleet, and replaced them with its own version. These aircraft are now effectively impregnable to penetration by Home Run, but that is more than can be said for the American aircraft fleet.
A casual count indicates that more than 600 aircraft in the USA and elsewhere are still vulnerable and could be used in further attacks at any time, which might help explain why America has been bombing the Afghans primarily with bags of wheat. For the first time in US history, American officials appear to be genuinely fearful of future reprisals, and justifiably so, with 600 giant bombs parked on the wrong side of their missile defense shield.
It is a "Catch 22" situation. In order to make all of the aircraft safe, the flight control systems would have to be stripped out and replaced, at a cost of billions of dollars the airlines cannot afford because they are going broke. Nor is there enough time. The most innovative antihijacking tool in the American arsenal, has now become the biggest known threat to American national security.
For the purpose of public reassurance I would like to publish a complete list of aircraft which cannot be affected by Home Run, but I cannot do so for legal reasons. Any aircraft manufacturer not on the list might feel inclined to sue me for defamation and I can't afford that. However, there is nothing to stop me publishing my personal choice of aircraft for a flight from, say, Atlanta to Singapore via JFK, Frankfurt, and Kuala Lumpur.
From Atlanta to JFK I would probably travel on a Boeing 737, and connect with a Boeing 777 for the onward flight to Frankfurt. At Frankfurt I would probably board an Airbus A340 for Kuala Lumpur, and finish the journey on a DC9 or a Fokker 100. Naturally I might be unlucky and pick an aircraft with an intoxicated pilot, or an unrelated mechanical problem, but apart from those minor risks I'd feel pretty safe.
Remember, the Federal Government kept Reagan National airport in downtown Washington, DC shut, despite the fact that none of the "hijacked"planes came from there. However, if it were possible to "take over the controls" of a plane, then it would take less than a minute for planes close to DCA airport to be diverted to a target anywhere in the capital. There were just two aircraft types involved on the 11th of September.
Eventually, after much reluctance, the government has now opened up Reagan National airport again, but ONLY for planes with less than 156 seats. Now what kind of planes previously operating happily out of Reagan National will this new "seating" restriction exclude? Hint: Among a few others, the Boeing757 and 767. Cynics might be tempted to conclude that, as usual, "important"politicians and bureaucrats are being provided with discreet special protection from Home Run, while everyday Americans are left to take their chances as best they can, and run the continual risk of being shot down by one of their own F16 fighters.Ignorance may be bliss for some folk, but not for those who have studied this page and realized the implications.
18 October 2001
Suddenly, more than five weeks after the attack and for no apparent reason, the most powerful newspaper in the western world published a major article "reinforcing" the myth that physical hijackers were responsible for the attacks on 11 September. No hard facts of course, no corroboration at all, just the usual pathetic series of media "sources", all of them far too "secret" to reveal.
Within hours of this newspaper going to press, television reporters across the entire western world repeated the fiction to their own viewing publics.From London in England to Sydney in Australia, everyone woke to this new "proof" that Arabs were the real culprits.
While we can prove how the attack was carried out, we cannot prove why or by whom. Of all the work on the Internet, the closest to the truth may be the report called "Orient Express" written by journalist Israel Shamir, who says, "Israelis used the event to the max. They killed twenty Palestinians including a nine year old girl, brought tanks into Jenin and Jericho, destroyed few Goyiish houses in Jerusalem. The reports were rather gleeful, in the style 'we told you,' and the experts of Israeli TV concluded by one o'clock, the attack 'was good for the Jews'. 'It is very good!' said Bibi Netanyahu, Why? Because it would strengthen American support of Israel."
20 January 2002
FORMER GERMAN MINISTER VON BUELOW ALREADY KNEW ABOUT REMOTE CONTROL!
In his interview with the German daily "Tagesspiegel" on January 13th, former German Secretary of Defense Andreas Von Buelow made the following statement:
"There is also the theory of one British flight engineer: according to this, the steering of the planes was perhaps taken out of the pilots' hands, from outside.The Americans had developed a method in the 1970s, whereby they could rescue hijacked planes by intervening into the computer piloting [automatic pilot system]. This theory says [that] this technique was abused in this case..."
Not quite so much a theory as might first appear. When I released the above report about "Home Run" remote control in October 2001, I mentioned that one European flag carrier was aware of the technology, though at that precise point in time I thought it prudent not to name the actual airline:
The European flag carrier which completely stripped the American flight computers out of its aircraft was Lufthansa, the German national airline.Bearing in mind his former posts as Secretary of Defense and Minister of Science and Technology, Herr Von Buelow would have known all about this mammoth but secretive task.
How very clever (and discreet) of Von Buelow to sort of "drop the information" into the middle of an interview about the 9/11 attacks!
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