Air defense unprepared for attack, report says

0 Comments | USA TODAY, June, 2004 | by Alan Levin and Mimi Hall

WASHINGTON -- Military and aviation officials reacted to the Sept. 11 hijackings through a fog of bad information and poor communication that caused serious lapses in the nation's defense, the commission investigating the attacks will report today.

The report offers the most in-depth look so far at how the nation's military command was so unprepared for attacks using aircraft as missiles that "the existing protocol was unsuited in every respect for what was about to happen."

Among the findings, according to a copy of the report obtained Wednesday by USA TODAY:

* NORAD, the North American Aerospace Defense Command, mistakenly sent jets assigned to guard the nation's capital to positions over the Atlantic Ocean.

* An order by Vice President Cheney to...