{"id":162,"date":"2009-07-07T20:44:38","date_gmt":"2009-07-08T00:44:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/?p=162"},"modified":"2009-08-17T15:07:52","modified_gmt":"2009-08-17T19:07:52","slug":"9-11-nro-not-a-factor-not-an-issue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/?p=162","title":{"rendered":"9-11: NRO; not a factor, not an issue"},"content":{"rendered":"

Addendum, August 17, 2009. <\/strong>A document<\/a><\/strong> concerning the exercise received from NRO by the Commission Staff is now available.\u00a0 Exercise inputs are included.\u00a0 The stated purpose of the exercise is “NRO Emergency Response to a Small Aircraft Crash.”\u00a0 The handwriting on the title sheet is mine.<\/p>\n

There are two misconceptions about the NRO. One is that the NRO was actually able to track the hijacked planes on 9-11 by satellite and, by extension, should have been able to share that information immediately with others. Another is that the scheduled NRO exercise was somehow tied to other training and exercises that day. I am the single Commission staffer who worked the NRO exercise issue and I was on the Other Agency Team on the Congressional Joint Inquiry; the NRO was one of the other agencies. I know of no information which supports either misconception.<\/p>\n

NRO, a Member of the Intelligence Community
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

In the words of an NRO contact several years ago; the NRO is nothing more than a long-haul trucking company which happens to build satellites and delivers and maintains them for its customers. According to its current website<\/strong><\/a>:<\/p>\n

The NRO designs, builds and operates the nation’s reconnaissance satellites<\/a>.<\/span> NRO products, provided to an expanding list of customers like the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and the Department of Defense (DoD), can warn of potential trouble spots around the world, help plan military operations, and monitor the environment.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

As part of the 16-member Intelligence Community<\/a><\/span>, the NRO plays a primary role in achieving information superiority for the
\nU. S. Government and Armed Forces.
\n<\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

A DoD agency, the NRO is staffed by DoD and CIA personnel. It is funded through the National Reconnaissance Program, part of the National Foreign Intelligence Program.
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

Its DoD<\/a><\/strong> customers include the analytical agencies\u2014DIA<\/strong><\/a>, NSA<\/strong><\/a>, and NGA<\/strong><\/a> (formerly NIMA). None of them or the CIA<\/strong><\/a> had the mission or the staff to track national air traffic; the responsibility of the FAA<\/a><\/strong>. The only relevant reporting from space on 9-11 was the SIR (Significant Infrared Activity Report) of the impact of each of the four aircraft. The Commission requested and received that data from DEFSMAC (Defense Special Missile and Astronautics Center) <\/strong><\/a>. \u00a0 The SIR times for each crash were consistent with other data sources.<\/p>\n

The NRO exercise
\n<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n

The NRO is just one of many large civilian and government offices which lives and works under one of the Dulles flight paths. The agency long knew that it had to schedule an emergency drill to address the possibility of a flight accident. It so happened that they scheduled such a drill on 9-11 unrelated in any way to subsequent events of the day. There was no correlation to any other training or exercises that day. It was the proactive planning of a single agency. The Commission asked for and received the scenario and exercise package. I don’t recall anything unusual about the contents; certainly nothing to pursue further. I will ask NARA if those files will be coming available. One way or another, interested people can file a FOIA request with the NRO if they wish to pursue the topic further.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Addendum, August 17, 2009. A document concerning the exercise received from NRO by the Commission Staff is now available.\u00a0 Exercise inputs are included.\u00a0 The stated purpose of the exercise is “NRO Emergency Response to a Small Aircraft Crash.”\u00a0 The handwriting on the title sheet is mine. There are two misconceptions about the NRO. One is … Continue reading 9-11: NRO; not a factor, not an issue<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-162","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-nro"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=162"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":374,"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/162\/revisions\/374"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=162"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=162"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.oredigger61.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=162"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}