NORAD-looking outward
General Myers was asked by the 9/11 Commission why NORAD hadn't been more prepared for the possibility of planes being hijacked and flown into the buildings. It was, he said, because NORAD were "looking outward":
MYERS: Well, a couple of things. I don't know that we would have because exercising alone is not enough. If you look at all, and you have -- you've looked at all the policy guidance we've gotten through the '90s into early 2000, 2001, all the policy guidance was that we treat terrorism primarily as a criminal event.
And the role of the Defense Department was to defend our forces, primarily, it was force protection, anti-terrorism, not counterterrorism. Counterterrorism responsibilities domestically were the FBI, externally were the CIA.
There was an exercise, and this was -- the idea was to stress the continuity of command in the one you referenced there. But it was an exercise focused on Korea and that's why the scenario was rejected, because it did not contribute to the exercise at hand.
I can't answer the hypothetical. It's more -- it's the way that we were directed to posture, looking outward. Those were the orders that NORAD had and has had for -- ever since the end of the Soviet Union when we had at that time I think it was 26 alert sites around the United States and we'd gone down to seven.
So it would have required more than exercising if you wanted to be effective and it would have been not just the military, because civilian agencies had the major role.http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0406/17/bn.01.html
The "looking outward" comment has attracted criticism from across the truth movement. It's false, say some. A lie, claim others. Fortunately the 9/11 Commission have released many documents summarising interviews with other NEADS and NORAD personnel, so there are plenty of additional statements available for comparison.
National Airspace Manager for the FAA
Aires noted that the main purpose of NEADS before 9/11 was to look out over the water, and there was a rare occasion for operations over land.http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00766.pdf
Arnold noted that in the early 1990s NORAD's mission of air defense shifted to a mission of air sovereignty. Air defense was protective, whereas air sovereignty was intended to maintain control and prevent illegal entries into CONUS.
http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00172.pdf
Deskins noted that the primary mission ofNORAD has always been to look out over the oceans and identify targets...
Previous to 9/11, the alert bases were based on the Air Defense mission of looking out over the water. Which asset is scrambled depends on the proximity to where the threat is incoming.http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00778.pdf
The primary difference between NORAD's projected missions and the 9111 attacks, according to Eberhart, was that in fulfilling NORAD's air sovereignty and defense missions, whether in support of other U.S. agencies or not, the threats NORAD was tasked with always originated from outside of CONUS. Therefore, in these circumstances there was more time to respond to the event.
http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00788.pdf
Fox understood NORAD's air defense mission as a task to survey and identify all aircraft entering United States airspace. If NORAD was unable to identify an aircraft, then the mission would be to scramble and actively identify. NORAD is also tasked to work with customson.counter-drug operations, Thirdly, NORAD is tasked with defending against a coordinated air attack on the United States.
http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-01256.pdf
He explained that there was a scenario (either a coastal Russian Bear or Akula Submarine threat exercise) in which there were no forces between Langley and Jacksonville, and that caused him to be concerned over the pre 9/11 reduction in alert sites. Marr noted that his position is to use the number of forces at his disposal in the best manner possible. He continued and commented that using the forces that were on alert in the Paine Weber scenario there were not adequate forces to follow the aircraft across the middle of the country...
Looking out" posture: 1) the "looking out" mission:
NEADS primary job is to identify aircraft crossing over the Air Defense Zone (ADZ). The second part to this, according to Marr, is the "friendly by origin" issue within the ADZ. Anything that was beyond this military responsibility was "in the hands" of civilian authorities.http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00767.pdf
He started as a Senior Airmen Tracking Technician. His primary responsibility was for surveillance. Surveillance will initiate a "pending track" on an unfamiliar target headed towards the US coastline from over water... Powell noted that the training prior to 9/11 was focused on a mission that mostly monitored that airspace out from the continental United States; he also noted that the training for this purpose was outstanding. He stated that there are now new procedures with the FAA to coordinate the monitoring of internal airspace.
http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00768.pdf
Rountree briefly described the role of the Identification Technician at NEADS (the ID Tech) as primarily investigatory. She noted that the ID desk is responsible for feeding the Mission Crew Commander (MCC) information. The MCC expects the ID Techs to identify incoming aircraft within a set period of time. Once an aircraft crosses the ADIZ (Air Defense Identification Zone), the period of space located 12 minutes off of the coast, the ID Techs most identify the aircraft as friendly within the allotted time frame. If that time frame is passed, fighters are scrambled to intercept and identify the aircraft. Rountree noted that the radar that was in place on 9/11 did have some coverage on the interior, but did not receive low altitude feeds. She mentioned that now the radar has surface to 10,000 foot coverage.
http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00764.pdf
Scott commented that despite the notice of the terrorist events that were analyzed in the RAM report they still looked at the NORAD mission as a direct mission to protect the continental United States (CONUS) from external threats...
http://media.nara.gov/9-11/MFR/t-0148-911MFR-00172.pdf
Myers wasn't the only one talking about NORAD's role, then. Throughout the NEADS and NORAD personnel statements there is general agreement: NORAD primarily looked outwards. Monitoring over the continental US before 9/11 was mostly handled by the FAA.