Humint Events Online: 9/11 Hijacker Tactics, Part IV

Thursday, December 16, 2004

9/11 Hijacker Tactics, Part IV

The weapon that would have helped the 9/11 hijackers tremendously was of course the handgun. And for some reason, there was an early report that on flight 11, one of the passengers (Daniel Lewin) was shot by a gun. This story was later retracted though and all we heard about was knives, boxcutters, mace and bomb-like devices. This early report of a gun is strange, since it conflicts with other reports from the hijacked planes, but the retraction of the gun story is even more strange. Nonetheless, for various reasons, it is likely that guns were not used by the 9/11 hijackers.

Reasons to think guns were not used on 9/11:
1) the phone calls from the hijacked planes do not decrsibe guns being used
2) it would be too risky for the hijackers to smuggle guns on board

However, where did this report of a shooting on flight 11 come from?

Possibilities:
1) the hijackers did have guns but this was covered up because it made the airlines too liable for security failures. This would also mean the other calls from the hijacked planes were either edited to leave out information on guns.
2) the 9/11 hijackings were fake all along, and there was early confusion about what sort of cover story to use as to how the planes were taken over.
3) the hijackers did not have guns, and this call describing a shooting was simply the result of confusion.

I lean towards number two, myself.

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