Question:
In response to questions
about the advance warning President Bush received from
the CIA concerning a possible hijacking plot, his press
spokesman Ari Fleischer (identified by the New York
Times as the anonymous senior administration official)
replied in his daily press briefing on May 15th, 2002:
"The administration, based on hijackings, notified
the appropriate agencies and, I think, that's one of
the reasons that you saw that the people who committed
the 9-11 attacks used box cutters and plastic knives
to get around America's system of protecting against
hijackings."
What is the evidence that the hijackers who took over
the Boeing 767s that crashed into the World Trade Center
used box cutters and plastic knives?
Answer:
There is zero evidence of box-cutters on either plane
that hit the World Trade Center. Not a single flight
crew member or passenger on American Airlines Flight
11 or United Airlines Flight 175 reported seeing box-cutters
or plastics knives. Nor were they mentioned in the FAA
executive summary on any of the hijacked
plane.(LINK FAA MEMO.) Only on American Airlines Flight
77, which hit the Pentagon, was there a near-mention
by one passenger that the hijackers in the back of the
plane had knives and "card-board cutters,"
and even that passenger to claim to see what weapons
were actually used to hijack the plane. The claim by
administration officials that plastic knives were used
to hijack the planes is pure invention. (See Fictoid
#9)
Since unlike guns, metal knives and bombs, it was legal
for airline passengers on September 11th 2001 to carry
aboard box-cutters and plastic knives, the claim that
they used such devices to commandeer the planes that
destroyed the World Trade Center is a functional fictoid.
Not only does it serve to shield the airlines, airports
and airport screeners from massive liability from the
victims at the World Trade Center, it protects the Bush
Administration by diverting attention away from concern
that airport security at three Federally-supervised
airports was dangerously lax.
Collateral Question:
Since CBS News quoted press briefer Ari Fleischer verbatim,
why did the New York Times identify him anonymously
as a senior
administration spokesman?
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