Washington, D.C.
For two years before Sept. 11, the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) practiced responding to terrorist attacks in which hijackers tried to fly airliners into U.S. targets, USA Today reported this week. In one drill, the target was the World Trade Center. In another, it was to be the Pentagon, until Defense officials scratched that scenario because it was “too unrealistic.” NORAD spokesmen said none of the exercises matched 9/11 exactly; for instance, the fictional terrorists took off from abroad, while the real ones hijacked domestic flights. President Bush has said that prior to 9/11, he never envisioned airliners being used as missiles. The White House said it had not been aware of the tests by NORAD, a joint U.S.-Canadian operation.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
-
Political cartoons for December 12Cartoons Friday's political cartoons include presidential piracy, emissions capping, and the Argentina bailout
-
The Week Unwrapped: what’s scuppering Bulgaria’s Euro dream?Podcast Plus has Syria changed, a year on from its revolution? And why are humans (mostly) monogamous?
-
Will there be peace before Christmas in Ukraine?Today's Big Question Discussions over the weekend could see a unified set of proposals from EU, UK and US to present to Moscow
