With Kevin on holiday and me working like crazy in my day job and helping with the new contributors, this blog has gotten a little dust on it lately. So here’s some info:
Kevin will return in April, and at that time the weekly e-mails will resume.
Another contributor, paxvector, is doing yeoman work posting a tremendous number of obscure but important 9/11 Commission documents online:
http://www.scribd.com/historycommons
I’m going to make that one a permanent link in the sidebar.
Lots of new things coming down the pike, slowly but steadily. Don’t forget, we’re in need of any and all donations — financial and volunteer — that you can make.
History Commons Groups 
Thank you paxvector.
For paxvector or anyone who knows something about this issue. I sent this email to the NARA staff:
I am hoping to find information related to gate agent interviews from the Dulles, Logan and Newark 9/11 plane gates. I didn’t see any MFR’s of these interviews so the only other likely place would be in the Team 7 files.
The reply:
The Team 7 files do include FBI interviews with security personnel at the airports. We can send you photocopies of those folders (Team 7, Box 17: folders “Screeners 9/11 and Check-in” and “FBI 302s of interest: Checkpoint Screeners”) for a fee of 75 cents per page. The first folder is 149 pages, the second is 123 pages (total 272 pages, $204).
—
My concern is that there won’t be any gate agent interviews. The reason I find this important is because the gate agents may have confirmed whether the named 19 hijackers did indeed board the planes. It’s odd how we heard from Portland Jetport ticket agent Michael Touhey (and his vivid recollections of Atta) but did not hear from the actual 9/11 gate agents.
I’ve done a fair amount of Internet searching on this issue. Results:
1) A couple of Paul Sperry (WND) articles describe the Flight 11 gate agent. This evidently was the gate agent rumored to have committed suicide. AFAIK, this was proven to be a hoax. IMO this notion that the gate agents bear any blame is absurd. Some debunkers like to infer that seeking to know their firsthand accounts is the same thing as suggesting they are in some way responsible.
2)Gail Jawahir. AFAICT, she was a ticket check in agent and not the actual Flight 175 gate agent.
3)Reclaiming the Sky by Tom Murphy (found this information on History Commons) has the description by the Flight 93 gate agent. “They were too well-dressed. Too well-dressed for that early in the morning. And their muscles rippled below their suits. And their eyes.”
Comment by Mike — March 22, 2009 @ 1:29 am |
I read Murphy’s book which does provide additional context for the Flight 93 story. Early in the book Murphy refers to the workout sessions by the hijackers at a gym. So he clearly seems to be linking the workout sessions to the description provided by the Flight 93 gate agent. Whether all four truly bulked up at the gym is another issue.
He also relates by way of a Logan customer service manager the observation of UA employees who dealt with Flight 175 hijackers. They too commented on their eyes. I guess their eyes gave signs of anger or some sort of fanaticism.
Comment by Mike — July 17, 2009 @ 10:43 pm |