Fall and Rise: The Story of 9/11: A gripping biography of triumph over tragedy

by Mitchell Zuckoff

An aide conveyed Cheney’s reaction to a multiagency conference call about airborne threats: “The vice president’s guidance was we need to take them out.” That lethal authorization order reached NEADS at 10:32 a.m., delivered in the form of a message from General Larry Arnold, commander of the Continental Region for NORAD. It read: “Vice president has cleared us to intercept tracks of interest and shoot them down if they don’t respond.” (By “tracks of interest” he meant hijacked passenger jets that refused to heed commands.) Nasypany finally had clear authority. Nevertheless, no one at NEADS shared that order with the fighter pilots circling high over Washington, D.C., New York City, and elsewhere across the country. In fact, the lead fighter pilot from Langley still hadn’t heard anything about hijackings. He still thought he was protecting the capital from Russian cruise missiles. As he flew over the damaged Pentagon, the pilot said to himself, “The bastards snuck one by us.”