Getting the facts straight: a growing number of people have been led to believe that an airliner did not hit the Pentagon on 9/11. However, in this case the "official version" of events is irrefutable

New American, The, August 23, 2004 by Dennis Behreandt

Father Stephen McGraw had taken a wrong turn on his way to Arlington National Cemetery the morning of September 11, 2001. After taking the Pentagon exit onto Washington Boulevard, Fr. McGraw found himself mired in traffic, stewing impatiently over being late for a planned graveside service. Suddenly the priest heard a deafening roar as a large aircraft passed directly over the roof of his car. "It looked like a plane coming in for a landing ... I mean, in the sense that it was controlled and sort of straight," recalled Ft. McGraw.

The priest "looked out just as the plane clipped all overhead sign and then toppled a light pole, injuring a taxi driver a few feet away," recounts investigative author James Bamford in his new book A Pretext for War. "A second later, American Flight 77 smashed into the gray concrete wall of the Pentagon. The jet hit with such force that it penetrated four of the five concentric rings of corridors and offices surrounding a gazebo in the center court, long nicknamed Ground Zero."

"I saw it crash into the building," testifies the priest. "There was an explosion and a loud noise, and I felt the impact. I remember seeing a fireball come out of two windows.... I saw an explosion of fire billowing through those two windows. I remember heating a gasp or scream from one of the other cars near me. Almost a collective gasp, it seemed."

That "collective gasp" was wrenched from the throats of numerous witnesses who--like Father McGraw--saw the crash with their own eyes, heard the explosions with their own cars, and felt the percussive aftershock with their own bodies.

"Did you see that?" exclaimed Aydan Kizildrgli, a student from Turkey who had also been snarled in traffic. Notes Bamford: "Traffic along the highway came immediately to a halt as people jumped out of their cars and began putting their cell phones to their ears. Stunned and dazed, Kizildrgli left his car on the road and began walking aimlessly for half an hour."

Also among the eyewitnesses were Dan Creed and two colleagues from Oracle Software, who, seated in a car near the Naval Annex, watched in horrified wonder as the hijacked plane dived, leveled off and struck the Pentagon next door. Telling his story to the Phoenix, Arizona, Ahwatukee Foothills News, Creed recalled the dreadful events. "It was no more than 30 feet off the ground, and it was screaming. It was just screaming. It was nothing more than a guided missile at that point," said Creed.

Moments later, the plane struck the Pentagon, killing all 64 of its passengers and crew. The crash took the lives of another 125 people on the ground. "I can still see the plane, I can still see it right now. It's just the most frightening thing in the world, going full speed, going full throttle, its wheels up," Creed recalled.

Frank Probst, an employee of the Pentagon Renovation Program Office, was outside the Pentagon on the morning of September 11, 2001. In an interview with the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE), Probst gave his own eyewitness account. He had been watching live television coverage of the second plane hitting the World Trade Center tower in one of the construction site trailers.

Around 9:30 a.m., Probst left the trailer and (as paraphrased in an ASCE report) "began walking to the Modular Office Compound ... located beyond the extreme north end of the Pentagon" for a 10 o'clock meeting. Approaching the heliport, he looked over and saw "a plane flying low over the Annex and heading right for him." Understandably, Probst "hit the ground and observed the fight wing tip pass through the portable 750 kW generator" that provided backup power to a portion of the Pentagon. He saw the right engine take out "the chain-link fence and posts surrounding the generator." The left engine, he said, "struck an external steam vault before the fuselage entered the building."

Probst described to the ASCE how, "as the fireball from the crash moved toward him," he ran toward the South Parking Lot. He said that he fell down twice, and while running, "fine pieces of wing debris floated down about him." He only saw "fire and smoke within the building at the point of impact."

The ASCE also interviewed Don Mason, another employee of the Pentagon Renovation Program Office. At the time of the crash, Mason was "stopped in traffic west of the building," according to the ASCE account of his story. "The plane approached low," flying "directly" over him, "possibly clipping the antenna of the vehicle immediately behind him" It also "struck three light poles between him and the building."

Mason, the ASCE recounted, said that he saw his colleague Probst "directly in the plane's path, and he witnessed a small explosion as the portable generator was struck by the right wing." He also recalled "seeing the tail of the plane" as it entered the building, followed by a "fireball that erupted" upon the plane's impact.

Pentagate?

With eyewitness testimony like this, it's hard to see how anyone could believe that American Airlines Flight 77 did not hit the Pentagon. Shockingly, though, that's just what a growing number of people have been led to believe. A number of Web sites claim that the twin-engine Boeing 757 did not crash into the Pentagon. Their theories range from truck bombs and pre-set on-site explosive charges to remotely controlled aircraft and missile attacks.