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Intercepts Not Routine
CLAIM: It has been standard operating procedures for decades to immediately intercept off-course planes that do not respond to communications from air traffic controllers. ...
PM dismisses this "claim," excerpted from OilEmpire.us with the following sweeping 'fact':
In the decade before 9/11 NORAD intercepted only one civilian plane over North America: golfer Payne Stewart's Learjet, in October 1999.
This bold assertion flies in the face of an Associated Press report of scramble frequencies that quotes the same Maj. Douglas Martin that is one of PM's cited experts, Maj. Doublas Martin, [3]
From Sept. 11 to June, NORAD scrambled jets or diverted combat air patrols 462 times, almost seven times as often as the 67 scrambles from September 2000 to June 2001, Martin said.
It is safe to assume that a significant fraction of scrambles lead to intercepts, so the fact that there were 67 scrambles in a 9-month period before 9/11/01 suggests that there are dozens of intercepts per year. To its assertion that there was only one intercept in a decade, the article adds, without evidence, that rules in effect ... prohibited supersonic flight on intercepts and the suggestion that there were no hotlines between ATCs and NORAD.
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This is all I needed to read to totally discount anything else PM has to say. Just part of the mass media stranglehold on real information as noted in my sig.
Regarding whether I'd stand up and do what I think is right: I'd gladly die for my country. But what would you have me do? Storm the centers of power with my pea shooter?