United 93

Many questions linger

By WILL BUNCH
bunchw@phillynews.com 215-854-2957

VIRTUALLY EVERYTHING that is known about United Flight 93, the hijacked jetliner that crashed into a coal field in western Pennsylvania, has been put into the new Hollywood feature film about the doomed voyage.

Director Paul Greengrass not only relied on known transcripts and accounts of real conversations that took place during the Sept. 11, 2001, drama, but he even used some real pilots, crew and flight controllers in filming "United 93."

"They also believed, as the families believed, that making this film an accurate account - not a conspiratorial effort - would help us," Greengrass told the Boston Herald recently. "It gave the film a veracity, an authenticity."

But while Greengrass tackled everything known about the flight - which the government believes was purposely crashed by its four al Qaeda hijackers because of the uprising by passengers who'd learned of the World Trade Center crashes - there were things the movie could not address.

Those are the unknowns of Flight 93.

Today, few but the most radical skeptics about 9/11 would question the events at the core of "United 93," the struggle with heroic passengers that was captured on the cockpit voice recording played in a Virginia courtroom earlier this month.

But other questions remain - most notably about the government's response. Why was the hijacked jet not intercepted by the military jets that had been sent aloft after the Trade Center strikes? Did President Bush or Vice President Dick Cheney order a shoot-down as the plane neared Washington? And why didn't it happen?

"Unfortunately, we have yet to have a serious and honest investigation into what happened on 9/11," said Paul Thompson, the author of "The Terror Timeline: Year by Year, Day by Day, Minute by Minute."

Thompson believes that officials should still be held accountable for what he considers a flawed military response.

Here are some other questions:

Q. Why weren't military fighters under the command of the North American Aerospace Defense Command, or NORAD, able to intercept the doomed flight?

A. Ever since 9/11, Pentagon officials have insisted that NORAD was geared toward a foreign attack and not set up to deal with a domestic hijacking, but there is considerable evidence to contradict that. In fact, the 9/11 Commission found that NORAD had been planning for a June 2002 exercise called Amalgam Virgo 2 that involved a scenario with two simultaneously hijacked planes.

NORAD also told the 9/11 Commission that it hadn't been informed of the Flight 93 hijacking until it was much too late to respond. However, NORAD Commander Larry Arnold told an author in 2004, "We watched the 93 track as it meandered around the Ohio-Pennsylvania area and started to turn south toward D.C." That was about 27 minutes, or more, before Flight 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pa.

In defending its actions, NORAD has said that it launched its remaining F-16 fighters from Langley Air Force Base in Virginia at approximately 9:30 a.m. - roughly 33 to 36 minutes before Flight 93 crashed - but after another hijacked jet had struck the Pentagon, the fighters were needed to defend the perimeter of Washington.

Q. Did high-ranking officials from the Bush administration order fighters to shoot down Flight 93, and did Bush know about it?

A. The 9/11 Commission said that it was about 10 a.m. when Cheney - running the White House command center because Bush had been speaking at a Florida elementary school - was told that a hijacked plane was 80 miles away and was asked for military authority to shoot it down.

Joshua Bolten, the aide who is now White House chief of staff, testified that he suggested that Cheney reconfirm that order with Bush, and the two top officials and other aides said such a call had been made.

But according to a June 24, 2004, article in Newsweek, "some on the [9/11] commission staff were, in fact, highly skeptical of the vice president's account and made their views clearer in an earlier draft of their staff report. According to one knowledgeable source, some staffers 'flat out didn't believe the call ever took place.' "

Some have even speculated this issue is why Bush and Cheney took the unusual step of testifying jointly to the 9/11 Commission.

Q. Who was flying the fast-moving, low-flying white jet that was seen by a dozen or more Shanksville residents just seconds after Flight 93 crashed?

A. After several accounts, the government and a supporting 2005 article in Popular Mechanics said the mystery jet had been a Dassault Falcon 20 business jet owned by the VF Corp., a North Carolina clothing firm. The magazine said the jet was descending into Johnstown Airport and circled the crash site at the request of the Federal Aviation Administration.

The plane was seen by about a dozen witnesses, including Susan McElwain, who told Britain's Daily Mirror in 2002: "It had two rear engines, a big fin on the back like a spoiler on the back of a car and two upright fins at the side... . It definitely wasn't one of those executive jets." Several residents said the plane resembled the military's A-10 Warthog.

Q. Why haven't we heard cockpit recordings nor seen the flight-data recording from the other three flights?


A. Government agencies have insisted that the "black boxes" (actually orange) found at the Pentagon were too badly damaged, while the four in New York were never recovered, which was a first.

However, the Daily News reported in 2004 that two Ground Zero rescue workers claimed they helped the FBI recover three of the four "black boxes" there. Last year, Philadelphia free-lance writer Dave Lindorff reported that a National Transportation Safety Board source told him: "Off the record, we had the boxes. You'd have to get the official word from the FBI as to where they are, but we worked on them here."

High oil prices? Punish the earth.

That'll show 'em.

And, dude, what's up with Wyoming?

Bush eases environmental rules on gasoline

NEDRA PICKLER
Associated Press

WASHINGTON - Under election-year pressure to reduce surging gasoline prices, President Bush on Tuesday halted filling of the nation's emergency oil reserve, urged the waiver of clean air rules to ease local gas shortages and called for the repeal of $2 billion in tax breaks for profit-heavy oil companies.

Still, experts said Bush's actions wouldn't have much impact on prices at the pump. The president warned that motorists would have to dig deep into their pockets all summer long.

Bush urged lawmakers to expand tax breaks for the purchase of fuel-efficient hybrid automobiles, a politically popular measure that's also supported by environmentalists. He also directed the Environmental Protection Agency to use its authority to temporarily waive air quality laws in states if that would relieve a local gasoline supply shortage.

The White House was unable to say how much Bush's actions could affect the price of gas.

Bush said, "Every little bit helps."

Wholesale gasoline futures prices for June delivery dropped 8 cents a gallon to $2.10 on the New York Mercantile Exchange right after Bush's remarks. May gasoline futures settled at $2.1291 a gallon, a decline of 4.48 cents.

Democrats, eager to blame Republicans for high gas costs ahead of the November congressional elections, said Bush has had five years to find a way to lower prices and has favored big oil companies over consumers.

"It's crystal clear that the current spike in gas prices is at least partly due to an act of greed," said Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., who proposed a 60-day suspension of the federal gas tax. "Greed that has been enabled, abetted - even encouraged, I would say - by this administration."

The country's three largest oil and gas companies were expected to report combined first-quarter profits later in the week in excess of $16 billion, a 19 percent surge from last year. Bush, a former oilman, asked his administration to investigate possible price gouging and said Congress should revoke about $2 billion in tax breaks that Congress approved and he signed into law to encourage exploration.

"Cash flows are up," Bush said. "Taxpayers don't need to be paying for certain of these expenses on behalf of the energy companies."

Menendez spoke at a press conference where Democrats sought to turn gas prices - like Hurricane Katrina and the Iraq war - into an issue to undermine Bush's standing with voters. "What happened to Iraq oil, Mr. President? You said Iraqi oil would pay for the war. Ain't seen no money. Ain't seen no oil," said Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland.

The suspension of oil purchases for the federal emergency oil reserve until the fall is likely to have only a modest impact. The halt in deposits involves only 12 million barrels - less than the 20 million barrels of oil used every day in the United States for transportation.

Bush resisted calls for a suspension of shipments to the reserve in the past. When his 2004 presidential opponent, Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., suggested the same idea during the campaign, Bush called it "playing politics."

On Tuesday, Bush said the nation's 685-million barrel petroleum reserve had enough fuel to guard against any major supply disruption over the next few months.

The president said Democrats in the past have urged higher taxes on fuel and price caps to control fuel expenses, but he said neither approach works. Instead, he called for increased conservation, an expansion of domestic production and increased use of alternative fuels such as ethanol.

David Friedman of the Union of Concerned Scientists said an even more effective move would be to require that vehicles sold in the United States get higher gas mileage.

"The fundamental problem is that the fuel economy of cars and trucks is a disgrace and the world is just consuming too much oil and gasoline," Friedman said.

The EPA said it will consider fuel waivers on a case-by-case basis if gasoline supply problems become apparent, which could result in price spikes or shortages of cleaner summer-blend gasoline.

EPA spokesman John Millett said the waivers would not adversely impact air quality because they are only for 20 days, although states can request extensions.

Refiners, meanwhile, said that most of the change to summer-blend gasoline already has been completed and waivers may not be needed - and might even be counterproductive in some cases.

"You're going to have to be careful that you're not upsetting a plan that already is in the last stage of implementation," said Bob Slaughter, president of National Petrochemical Refiners Association.

The Kindess of Strangers

SOUTH FLORIDA, U.S.A.

Kindness of stranger reunites Georgia family in S. Fla.

BY NICHOLAS SPANGLER

Posted on Mon, Apr. 24, 2006

Momma said she was going to leave and one day she did. She walked out of the house in Rome, Ga., saying nothing in particular to anyone, carrying nothing, and vanished. She left five children, ranging in age from 10 to 23.

Weeks went by, then months. A private investigator traced her as far as the airport in Chattanooga, Tenn., but she never bought a ticket. The family printed fliers and posted them all over the South. There was a flurry of hopeful phone calls from New Orleans, Jacksonville, Atlanta and Washington that came to nothing. Every so often, the phone rang but there was only silence on the other end. The daughters wondered if it was her: ``Momma, if this is you, say something! Please say something!'' But there was no answer. The line went dead.

For seven years, Janice Wood was lost to everyone who had ever known her -- until, two weeks ago, a stranger named Philicia Moore reached out and pulled her back.

It was near midnight when Philicia turned her big silver Hyundai onto 41st Street in Miami Beach, bound for Burger King. But when she saw Janice sitting at the Pine Tree Drive corner, she decided to stop. Janice was wearing a flowing gown and a scarf tied around her head like a Bedouin kaffiyeh. She had a shopping cart full of books and clothes and children's drinking straws in multiple colors.

You've seen her -- or someone like her -- before. There were, at last count, 218 homeless people in Miami Beach, said Maria Ruiz, division director for the city's Office of Community Services. Most have been on the streets for more than a year, and most of the people in this category -- the so-called chronic homeless -- are mentally ill or drug-addicted. You roll up your window when you see them. Philicia rolled hers down.

''Excuse me,'' she said. ``I was wondering if you wanted something to eat?''

Janice looked around -- a little startled, as if she weren't used to being spoken to. But she was hungry.

Philicia drove to Burger King and returned with Whopper Juniors, apple pies and iced tea. She invited Janice into her car to eat. There was nothing very strange about this for Philicia. She chats with everyone, gives a couple dollars to anyone who asks, believes fervently in astrology and had just met a fellow Sagittarius.

But it must have been strange for Janice. Life in Miami Beach had taught her not to expect much. ''Here, everything I went after, people would turn me down,'' she said. ``I guess 'cause it's a place with a lot of people moving through. But Philicia -- there was something different about her.''

And Janice must have noticed, as soon as she got in the car, that Philicia was a dwarf: four-feet, four-inches tall, driving with special attachments on the gas pedal and brake. She's an actress, and for a while she had a good thing going on the talk shows. Sally Jessy Raphael had her on a show devoted to ''Little People Looking for Love;'' Maury Povich invited her and her first husband, who stood well above six feet, to discuss relationship problems stemming from size differences.

Janice ate her food slowly and delicately -- ladylike, Philicia thought -- and answered Philicia's questions.

Janice said she was 49. She had five children back in Rome. She'd come to Miami by Greyhound a while, maybe years ago. She used to stay around 72nd Street on Miami Beach. Now she stayed around Indian Creek. She bathed and washed her clothes in the water. Sometimes she turned in cans to make money; sometimes she ate at churches. She'd been jailed for stealing. Sometimes she'd hang out at the McDonald's on 71st, or outside the Publix on 68th. But mostly she slept during the day and came out at night: fewer people, less heat, less trouble.

''I'm tired of being out here,'' Janice said.

''Well, if you could ever see your kids again, would you want to?'' Philicia asked.

``Yeah. But if I ever see my family again, it will be unexpected.''

It was now past 1 a.m. Philicia gave Janice $20 and her phone number.

Philicia went home, to North Miami Beach, but she couldn't go to sleep. What did that mean, unexpected?

Philicia does not believe in coincidences. Something unexpected was going to happen, all right. She dialed information and asked for all the listings for ''Wood'' in Rome.

''Janice! Oh my god, you found Janice!'' said the woman who answered the second number she dialed. She turned out to be Sheena, Janice's cousin. Information was exchanged, and photographs were e-mailed: It really was Janice.

But the Wood family had problems. They often didn't get along and sometimes went stretches without speaking to each other. Corey, one of Janice's sons, had been sentenced to prison for murder after his mother left.

Getting down to Miami was going to be expensive, and the Woods didn't have much money. If they got down here, could they find Janice? Would she come back with them?

They rented a minivan and drove 16 hours down, arriving sweaty, tired and nervous last Wednesday: daughters Tamaera and Tiffany, son Tavaris, sister Patricia and niece Tarika. Another son, Thomas, didn't make the trip; neither did Corey, serving life in prison plus five years.

They met Philicia in the same Burger King parking lot where Philicia had befriended Janice. Hugs were exchanged.

Life with Janice hadn't always been easy, her children said. She moved around a lot, staying in some of the poorest neighborhoods in Rome.

Tamaera, 30, thought her mother might have become mentally ill. ''There were some signs of schizophrenia,'' she said. ''She thought there were people trying to get her. She was crossed three ways by three different people.'' She thought a practitioner of folk magic -- a ''rooted person'' -- had put a hex on her.

But there were good memories, too. Tamaera remembered Janice's cooking on Thanksgiving and Christmas, everybody stuffing themselves with collard greens, catfish and peach cobbler.

''Her house was immaculate,'' said Tiffany, 27. ``She'd mop the floor till it was fitting to be filed down.''

''She'd play basketball with me,'' said Tavaris, 17. ``She taught me how to play.''

For most of those seven years, they thought their mother must have been dead -- why else had she stayed away?

Nobody was mad now. The children just wanted to see their mother again. But, as they drove down street after street, their mood started to turn. Janice wasn't anywhere. Philicia said she hadn't seen her in days and that Janice had never called her.

''I hope she ain't left,'' Tamaera said. ``Or what if, you know, she don't want to be found?''

''I'm not no magician,'' Philicia said. ``I can't just make her appear. Patience is the only thing, right now.''

Hours passed and the search continued.

''She told me she was going to leave,'' said Tavaris. ''I didn't believe her.'' It might have been the second time he opened his mouth all day.

Philicia was driving south on Alton Road and turned onto 41st Street. In the back seat, Tavaris said he could

remember, seven years ago, walking over to his grandmother's house and asking if she'd seen his mother.

He finished saying that and then ``There!''

Janice was walking east on 41st Street. She was pushing her cart and there was a man walking with her.

Philicia pulled onto a side street. ''Oh God, Oh God, that my Momma,'' Tiffany said.

Philicia braked hard at the curb and the Woods spilled out of the car.

They yelled ''Momma!'' There was a moment's lag before she realized who they were.

The sisters were sobbing. They hugged their mother. Tavaris stood quiet and hugged them all. It was a Passover day, and bewildered Sephardic Jews stepped around them on the sidewalk.

Janice, too, looked bemused, as if she'd seen something pleasant but hard to comprehend.

''Say something, Momma, please,'' Tamaera said. ``Please say you'll come back. I'll take care of you. I'm sorry for all the bad stuff I did.''

''I didn't know where y'all lived at,'' was all Janice said. Then: ``Hush, hush.''

She said she'd been to church recently, and heard Corey, her son, talking to her. The other Woods said nothing about this.

They hugged their mother and Philicia and anyone else who was near. Philicia had everyone's phone numbers and addresses; everyone agreed they'd see each other again.

But now the Woods had a 16-hour drive ahead of them. Janice took a Bible and some mystery novels from her cart. Her friend, Wallace, said he'd take the rest to the dump.

He'd been standing off to the side through all this, smiling but quiet. He was losing a friend.

The Woods told him to stop by, if he ever made it up to Georgia, and when they pulled away he was just a strange man pushing a cart full of old clothes and silly straws down the street.

Super Soldiers

Brought to you by your friends at DARPA...

Future soldiers might `taste' war

By Melissa Nelson
The Associated Press

April 23, 2006

PENSACOLA · Military researchers think the tongue could be key in their quest to create the super warrior of the future, giving soldiers sensory powers similar to owls, snakes and fish.

Army Rangers with 360-degree unobstructed night vision, Navy SEALs sensing sonar in their heads while maintaining normal vision underwater -- scientists at the Florida Institute for Human and Machine Cognition are turning sci-fi into reality.

By routing signals from helmet-mounted cameras, sonar and other equipment through the tongue to the brain, they hope to give elite soldiers superhuman senses.

The question is that while animals' brains can process the extra stimuli, it is unknown whether human brains can adapt, said institute head Ken Ford. His facility specializes in "human-centered computing," fitting technology to people to make machines more user-friendly.

"Pit vipers, that's one reason they are so dangerous. They have heat detectors, infrared as well as natural vision," he said. "We know brains can do this."

Dr. Anil Raj, the project's lead scientist, envisions Navy SEALs incorporating sonar into their senses, much like dolphins or whales.

The research is designed to create superior troops, but Ford said the same technology could restore sight or hearing to soldiers wounded in war.

The device, known as "Brain Port," was pioneered more than 30 years ago by Dr. Paul Bach-y-Rita, a University of Wisconsin neuroscientist. Bach-y-Rita began routing images from a camera through electrodes taped to people's backs and later discovered the tongue was a superior transmitter.

In testing, blind people found doorways, noticed people walking in front of them and caught balls. A version of the device, expected to be commercially marketed soon, has restored balance to those whose vestibular systems in the inner ear were destroyed by antibiotics.

The Florida institute is the first to research military uses of sensory augmentation.

Raj began his research using Navy divers for one simple reason: "These guys don't think anything about sticking something in their mouths to do their jobs."

A narrow strip of red plastic connects from the Brain Port to the tongue, where 144 microelectrodes transmit information through nerve fibers to the brain. Instead of holding and looking at compasses and bulky hand-held sonar devices, the divers can process the information through their tongues, Raj said.

Underwater crime scene investigators might use the device to identify search patterns, signal each other and "see through our tongues, as odd as that sounds," said Michael Zinszer, director of Florida State University's Underwater Crime Scene Investigation School.

They plan to officially demonstrate the system to Navy and Marine Corps divers in May.

The research is being funded by the Department of Defense's Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.

Copyright © 2006, South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Orange Sad

Mack's Groves fucking shut down.

Muther fucking shit.

Does nothing last in Lauderdale? I guess 50-plus years was a blessing...

The mail-order shit is still operational, but...no more smoothies. No more coconut juice. No more grazing all the snackables. No mroe rubber gators.

(As a kid, I dreamed about living above the storefront in Lauderdale-by-the-Sea. That store was an intergral part of my childhood, esp. when my South America grandparents lived part-time in a nearby motel.)