Let me see if I can head this one off at the pass.
First off, Dr. Dietrick is a psychoanalyst and a pilot. However, let's look at a few things he doesn't have :
Dr. Dietrick, at his own admission, does not have ATC rating. This means he cannot under current FAA regulations fly any commercially rated craft. He's flown planes, but he has never flown a 757.
I can drive a car, but I sure as hell can't drive a semi. I have no idea how one would react to any sort of control input. I don't know what it's like to drive one.
I've flown a plane before. I am
not qualified to comment on how these planes fly.
Dr. Dietrick is not an air traffic controller. He does not have a full knowledge as to the way an air traffic control centre operates.
Dr. Dietrick is not a military officer. He does not have any inner knowledge in regards to how the military works.
Dr. Dietrick
is not an aviation expert. He is a pilot.
His comments on NORAD SOP are true, but misleading. The ADS was not nearly so co-ordinated as he implies. When a plane disappears off radar, the air traffic controllor who is monitoring that plane is required to first ascertain that there is no mechanical malfunction. He is then required to attempt to establish contact. He then reports to his superior, who then reports to his superior, following the chain of command until the incident reaches an individual with the authority to contact NORAD and report a suspected hi-jacking. At this time the officials at NORAD, while following their own chain of command, must contact the airbase nearest to the last known location of the suspected hijacked aircraft, who (again, following that chain) will scramble fighters. Most of this notification occurred by voice. In other words, somebody has to physically pick up a telephone and make that actual phone call to manually relay the pertinent information. This is not an instant notification.
At this point, the aircraft who fails to transmit transponder codes or is otherwise suspected of being hijacked must be found. That's not as easy as it sounds. As Dr. Dietrick points out, there are thousands of aircraft in the air over the United States of America at any given time. Without that transponder code, somebody has to actually scan the radar screens and attempt to locate that one dot that might be the aircraft in question. The old adage about the needle and the haystack springs to mind.
It's also worth noting that at the time there was no coverage of the airspace over North America by NORAD. Picture NORAD like a donut, with the radar coverage pointing outward and the entire continent of North America in the 'hole'. The system was designed to protect us from outside threats - the idea of covering interior airspace was deemed unnecessary. I haven't confirmed this, but it was my understanding that this flaw has since been rectified.
Moving on...
I haven't heard about this "stand down order". I will look into it and give my thoughts at a later time. Again, it doesn't sound substantiated to me.
Who "reliably informed" the so-called truth seekers that President Bush was notified almost immediately that the hijackings had occurred? This is unsubstantiated and very unlikely; unless someone in direct contact with President Bush had some precognition of the hijackings, there's simply no way anyone could know in "near-real time."
This documentgives a more accurate description of the process involved from the NORAD side of the fighter scramble, as well as the actual timelines on the different fighter responses and makes it apparent why the planes weren't stopped. The response just isn't that quick.
His discussion of IFR rules are factually correct, but again misleading. See above for reasons.
I'm skeptical about his assertion that all control was taken from both civilian and military personnel for two reasons. The first being that it's simply impractical. As Dr. Dietrick himself observed, anyone who deviates from their flight plan by fifty feet vertically is asked to state intentions. If Mr. Rumsfeld was required to sign off on every altimeter malfunction he simply wouldn't hav time to do anything else. Further, if this is truly the case, why hasn't anyone come forward? Such an order would need to be known by thousands of civilian and military air traffic controllers. Why haven't some of these people come forward?
I'm not even going to comment on the war games...
I find it suspicious that the only substantiation of this so-called CNN tape that has seemingly vanished. I will, however, admit that I don't have all the facts on this. I have not done all the research. However, a google search turns up no substantiation immediately, but just a conspiracy theory sites.
Dr. Dietrick seems to have a lot of peronal contacts, but doesn't seem to be able to procure any names or documents to prove any of it.
I will not comment on his assertions in regards to Cheyenne Mountain - I have no facts as to the inner workings of NORAD. What he's suggesting doesn't seem very likely, however.
There are both photographs and video footage of an aide speaking with the president on the morning of September 11. However, this does not mean that there is any connection between the aide speaking with President Bush and with the attacks.
His claim that there was a mobile command centre in the basement of that grade school that was capable of watching the attacks in real time seems ludicrous to me. I will acknowledge that it's a possibility, but it seems unlikely to me.
I will not comment on the issue of Flight 93 because he refuses to make any definitive statements. However, he again makes a claim that his personal contacts can provide proof, but that he cannot identify them or provide any documented proof.
I do not represent myself as any sort of an expert or even knowledgeable on the subject. I don't know very much about what went on that day. Yet I can raise so many doubts about what this man says? Something just doesn't jive here.
I like that he addresses all of his documents by stating that they're available on the DoD website if you know how to find them, yet he
does not provide any sort of methodology on how. This is what might be called hedging your bets; if anyone confronts him by saying they looked for said documents and were unable to find them, he can respond by suggesting the individuals did not know where or how to look.
Once more, Dr. Dietrick is not ATC rated. He has no clue how to fly a commercial aircraft any more than you or I do. Flying a 757 or 767 is nothing like flying a small single or dual engine commuter aircraft. He makes this admission himself. He is not qualified to make the claims he's making.
Once more, I don't understand a lot of what happened that day and I do not have all the facts. I didn't even do any research into this - my comments have all been made in real time as I listened. Personally, if I'm able to debunk or question every single assertion Dr. Dietrick makes with my very limited knowledge on the subject, I'm going to have a real hard time accepting that he is an expert or really, anything more than a scare-mongerer.