Clarifying the Record The defense of U.S. airspace on 9/11 was not conducted in accord with preexisting training and protocols. It was improvised by civilians who had never handled a hijacked aircraft that attempted to disappear, and by a military unprepared for the transformation of commercial aircraft into weapons of mass destruction. As it turned out, the NEADS air defenders had nine minutes' notice on the first hijacked plane, no advance notice on the second, no advance notice on the third, and no advance notice on the fourth. We do not believe that the true picture of that morning reflects discredit on the operational personnel at NEADS or FAA facilities. NEADS commanders and officers actively sought out information, and made the best judgments they could on the basis of what they knew. Individual FAA controllers, facility managers, and Command Center managers thought outside the box in recommending a nationwide alert, in ground-stopping local traffic, and, ultimately, in deciding to land all aircraft and executing that unprecedented order flawlessly. More than the actual events, inaccurate government accounts of those events made it appear that the military was notified in time to respond to two of the hijackings, raising questions about the adequacy of the response. Those accounts had the effect of deflecting questions about the military's capacity to obtain timely and accurate information from its own sources. In addition, they overstated the FAA's ability to provide the military with timely and useful information that morning. In public testimony before this Commission in May 2003, NORAD officials stated that at 9:16, NEADS received hijack notification of United 93 from the FAA. This statement was incorrect. There was no hijack to report at 9:16. United 93 was proceeding normally at that time. In this same public testimony, NORAD officials stated that at 9:24, NEADS received notification of the hijacking of American 77. This statement was also incorrect. The notice NEADS received at 9:24 was that American 11 had not hit the World Trade Center and was heading for Washington, D.C. In their testimony and in other public accounts, NORAD officials also stated that the Langley fighters were scrambled to respond to the notifications about American 77,178 United 93, or both. These statements were incorrect as well. The fighters were scrambled because of the report that American 11 was heading south, as is clear not just from taped conversations at NEADS but also from taped conversations at FAA centers; contemporaneous logs compiled at NEADS, Continental Region headquarters, and NORAD; and other records.

Who handled the U.S. air defense on 9/11?

The explosion, while killing one of the Cossacks and seriously wounding the driver and people on the sidewalk, had only damaged the bulletproof carriage, a gift from Napoleon III of France. The emperor emerged shaken but unhurt. Rysakov was captured almost immediately. Police Chief Dvorzhitsky heard Rysakov shout out to someone else in the gathering crowd. The surrounding guards and the Cossacks urged the emperor to leave the area at once rather than being shown the site of the explosion. Nevertheless, a second young member of the Narodnaya Volya, Ignacy Hryniewiecki, standing by the canal fence, raised both arms and threw something at the emperor's feet. He was alleged to have shouted, "It is too early to thank God". Dvorzhitsky was later to write:

Was the Emperor hurt when the explosion damaged his carriage?

On Monday, departing Gov. Roy Barnes will spend his first day as a private citizen by starting his new job as a full-time, pro-bono (unpaid) lawyer at the Atlanta Legal Aid Society. The decision by Barnes, the most improbable casualty of Election Day 2002, to go to work for legal aid was almost as unexpected as his November defeat. As a legal services attorney, Barnes will help women escape domestic violence, Mauricio Vivero is vice president seniors fight predatory lending scams and parents obtain child support for their kids. of Legal In doing so, he will take his place on the front line of the U.S. legal community's Services Corporation, the uphill and underpublicized struggle to achieve equal access to justice for millions of Washington-Americans too poor to afford legal representation. based nonprofit corporation chartered by The inaccessibility of the U.S. civil justice system is hardly a new development, but it Congress in took Barnes' decision to put the national media spotlight on our country's ongoing 1974 to promote equal access to access-to-justice crisis. civil justice. The 2000 U.S. census reports that more than 43 million Americans qualify for free federally funded legal assistance, yet fewer than 20 percent of eligible clients (annual income: $11,075 or less) are able to obtain legal help when they need it, according to the American Bar Association. In Georgia, there is just one legal aid lawyer for every 10,500 eligible poor people. Barnes understood this problem long before he became governor. While in private practice, he handled many pro-bono cases and was a frequent volunteer in the Cobb County office of the federally funded Atlanta Legal Aid Society. Most memorably, he secured a $115 million judgment in 1993 against Fleet Finance for victimizing 18,000 homeowners -- many of them senior citizens -- with its widespread predatory lending mortgage practices. His long-standing commitment to the underserved is certainly admirable, but it should not be viewed as a rare and laudable act of civic virtue. To be admitted to practice law, every attorney must take a professional oath to promote justice -- and every state's ethical rules include language indicating lawyers' responsibility to be guardians of fair play for those living in poverty. In Georgia, many law firms, corporations and private attorneys are working pro bono to serve the neediest clients. Yet only 23 percent of the state's 23,598 active lawyers reported meeting the Georgia State Bar's goal of 50 hours of pro-bono service in 2002. The need for volunteers is most severe outside the five-county Atlanta metropolitan area, where 70 percent of the state's poor people are served by only 24 percent of the state's lawyers. National pro-bono participation is even worse. Only 23 percent of the roughly 1 million attorneys in America volunteer even one hour of pro-bono service annually, according to the ABA.
Who does Barnes want to help while working as a legal aid lawyer?