Page 1 of 2

Miles Kara
From: John Farmer Sent:Mon 1/19/2004 1:18 AM
To: John Azzarello; Dana Hyde; Kevin Shaeffer; Miles Kara; Geoff Brown
Cc:
Subject: NEADS VISIT
Attachments:

All ~ My apologies for not getting to the weekend e mails until late; I have been
getting caught up on the NEADS tapes and MFRs. I offer the following late-night
observations on our visit:

1) We have to use witnesses to clean up and clarify the transcripts, or we will be

relying on an extremely sloppy primary source record. This may require lengthy
sessions with some witnesses (the ID techs, for instance) simply to identify voices (in
truth, to do this "right" we could probably spend two weeks at NEADS). In any event,
at some point the documentary record of the Commission will be scrutinized closely,
and we need to keep that in mind.

2) The new ground rules will be ignored; we should have with us a copy of the ground
rules already agreed to with DOJ.

3) Speaking of new ground rules: Having spent the weekend immersed in the
contrast between what actually occurred and the way it has been presented to the
public, I am persuaded that Col. Marr ~ and perhaps others who have been part of
the public presentation (Dooley and Sanderson come to mind) ~ should be
interviewed under oath. I know what the reaction will be when I raise this ~ that our
enabling statute requires that a Commissioner be present to administer the oath ~
but I'm wondering whether that is really true. I plan to look into it tomorrow a.m.; in
any event, I am going to raise the issue, and I have reason to believe that at least one
commissioner may be willing/able to make the trip if it proves necessary.

4) I am intrigued by the e mail Dana is sending up between FAA, CONR, and NEADS
re briefing the White House. One of the lines of questioning I plan to pursue with Col
Marr will be his input to the early explanations of what occurred, beginning with Gen.
Myers's Congressional testimony the week of 9/11, in which he professed involvement
in virtually every important defense decision, and then completely botched the
scramble story. Marr is critical to understanding the evolution of the
administration's defense of its actions on 9/11.

5) My flight arrives at 9:30 Tuesday. If you want to spend the early a.m. gaining an

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understanding of the floor, that will be fine with me. I am flexible as to the
remainder of the week, but will not be surprised if the order in which witnesses are
interviewed/available becomes an issue.

6) When you are all assembled, please give me a call; I'm thinking 4:30-5:00 should
work. I should be reachable at home or on cell.

John

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Miles Kara
From: John Azzarello Senf-Sun 1/18/2004 10:17 PM
To: Dana Hyde; John Farmer; Kevin Shaeffer; Miles Kara
Cc:
Subject: RE: Documents for NEADS trip
Attachments:

Dana - Thanks for your help in culling out the pertinent documents. By the way, from
my review of the NEADS transcripts, it looks like the FIRST call to NEADS regarding
UAL 93 was made by ZOB at 10:06 a.m.

Original Message
From: Dana Hyde
Sent: Sun 1/18/2004 5:13 PM
To: John Farmer; John Azzarello; Kevin Shaeffer; Miles Kara
Cc:
Subject: Documents for NEADS trip

All-

I have looked through the recent NEADS deliveries relevant to Document Req.
4, and in the process went back over some of the other materials we've
received. The net of it is I'm sending with Kevin in the classified courier bag the
following docs:

(1) The first couple of pages of the following four Chat Logs:

a. DCO Chat Log (Bates 16070)

b. CONR Chat Log (Bates 16005)

c. CONR Consolidated Ops Chat Log (Bates 15939)

d. Intel Chat Log (Bates 53160)

The latter appears to be a new delivery; the first three we've had in the LAN
since the summer. NEADS is an active participant in all 4 Chat logs. Each of
them places a time on important decisions such as ROE, shoot down,
situational awareness re hijacked aircraft. I suggest we identify the human

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being at NEADs that contributed to each of these logs and question him/her
about the important entries. In my mind the logs are important not just for what
they say, but for what they don't say. For example, Azz has postulated that
NEADS didn't know about 93 until close to 10 am and then by accident.
Nothing in any of these logs reveals knowledge of 93 before that time, which
provides compelling support for his theory. Anyway, now that we know so
much more the chat logs make some sense and provide very useful data
points.

(2) An email from NEADS Director of Ops to CONR, etc on 9/17 (Bates
53404-05)

This is a somewhat provocative exchange in which the FAA is asking NEADS

for info about which of its centers did what in order to brief the White House. It
supports the Azz theory that Boston told NEADS about 77.

(3) 3 pages of notes identifying and summarizing issues relevant to

NORAD's response (Bates 53401-03)

The first question is whose notes these are; my guess would be Marr. Anyway,
this is a helpful document - a sort of handwritten after-action review - that
gives rise to lots of questions.

In terms of my stack, this is all that I see relevant to the trip. Good luck! Dana

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Miles Kara
From: Sarth Wermter Sent:Sun 1/18/2004 7:29 PM
To: Miles Kara
Cc:
Subject: RE: NEAOS DRM 2
Attachments:

Miles,

I forgot to mention, in the Consolidated directory, the filenames start with C0103__ or something similar. The
C01 indicates DRM01, and the 03 indicates the position number. So, C0312 indicates DRM03, position 12.

Garth

—Original Message
From: Miles Kara [mailto:mkara@9-llcommission.gov]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 1:08 PM
To: Garth Wermter
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Garth, thanks. Pis spell out again how I get to the Access files? I don't recall the ability in those
files to do time stamp ourselves. Did I miss something?

I also just sent an e-mail asking if you could strip out the non 9-11 files, for now, in voM. They
are getting in the road.

Miles

—Original Message
From: Garth Wermter
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 12:52 PM
To: Miles Kara
Cc: John Farmer; Kevin Shaeffer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Miles,

Nothing yet from the Freedom software folks. The time stamping seems to be pulled out of

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those Access database files by the Freedom software; that's a nice feature to have them
coordinated into a single application. As soon as I hear from them, we'll be ready to install and
get these tools available to you here and in NYC.

Garth

Original Message
From: Miles Kara [mailto:mkara@9-llcommission.gov]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 11:35 AM
To: Kevin Shaeffer; Garth Wermter
Cc: John Farmer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Kevin, I just listened to the Burlington VT scramble from SGT Beluscio. "Need to
scramble two fighters immediately. I authenticate [he does]. Vector them to
Hamilton Canada." [de facto heading and DME]

This was the later in the day response to the possible Canadian intruder. Note,
the niceties of the scramble procedure as laid down in writing were ignored.
Beluscio simply ordered the planes airborne and headed them to where they
needed to go.

[Source: DRM2 channel 13, call 170342. I haven't figured this out yet, but the
higher the last four digits the later in the day. Our stuff of interest would be in the
0200-0300+ range. The first two digits "17" denote the seventeenth something or
the other. The list of files on each channel begins Olxxxx and proceeds upward.
For lack of more time I am homing in on any calls with a last four of 0400 or less.
So much to learn, so little time. Garth's upload doesn't have the time stamp. I
know from the Freedom software demo that that software time stamps each
"call."]

Garth, keep us posted on the Freedom software progress.

Miles

Original Message
From: Kevin Shaeffer
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 10:41 AM
To: Miles Kara; John Farmer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde

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Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Miles,

Regarding point two below, the theory that the scramble order(s) were
flawed, I definitely think that you need to either build a small binder or a
notes-document that lays out the relevant points and provides either the
transcripts of relevant conversations or points us exactly to the tape(s) that
support it. I, at least, would find it invaluable to have as a reference for
interviews next week. This will be an interview line-item for the NEADS
interviews and will likely require a follow-up with Eckmann.

BTW, do we have the scramble order for Otis on tape/transcript? Where

there any issues with where the Otis fighters immediately went that can be
attributed to the NEADS scramble order for them? (Or, put another way, is
this a Langley scramble issue only?)

If you are correct, this will be a signicant conclusion, and we'll all need to
"know" everything the "Miles-mind" does :)

Thanks, and keep on truckin1.

Regards,

Kevin

"Never Forget"

Original Message
From: Miles Kara
Sent: Sun 1/18/2004 9:39 AM
To: Kevin Shaeffer; John Farmer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Cc:
Subject: NEADS DRM 2

All,

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To keep you from spinning your wheels. Here is what we have from
the Garth upload on Friday.

First, and as I observed to Stephanie Brewer and the Dictaphone

rep, we do not appear to have conversations in the morning time
frame. There are brief conversations prior to 0800 and then the
conversations captured skip to much later in the morning. That
observation accompanied my degree of satisfaction statement to
Stephanie that were at a "4" on a scale of "10", at best. I will pursue
the totality of the DRM2 files with Weir and Anderson on site.

Second, For the TT positions, we have what NEADS said we would

have, a replay of conversations solely with the AST leadership,
Steve Richmond and company. None of the Target Trackers speak
to the outside world. Kevin—the lingua franca of the TT world is
exactly the same as that of the Langley Tower—heading and DME
(bearing and range). As one listens to the TTs work, everything is
stated as heading xyz for range 123, from radar x. That mirrors the
practice at Langley—090 for 60 off of the Langley Radial. At
NEADS that would be stated as 090 for 60 from the Oceana Radar.
That comes back to my basic position, which I still hold, the
scramble order itself was flawed. My question is why isn't it, over
time, that NEADS didn't use common language with its Air Force
counterparts!!?? The heading and altitude in the scramble order are
useless and just confuse things, despite what Sgt Acoff said.

Third, for the WD positions, we pick up the conversations, at least on

Channel 7 with the Syracuse SOF (Supervisor of Flying). First, a
male NEADS voice speaks to Reggie at NEADS, "weapons safe, all
that good stuff, they want to know how those guys are loaded,
probably guns only even if they have anything. Later, Capt Green to
the SOF, "you guys have 506s on board (authentication tables)."
Don't think so.

Kevin, vis point two, above, the Syracuse SOF asks NEADS for
"bang and range from Syracuse."

I'm going to sample all channels, determine which ones are inactive,
and probe for any morning conversations. That's all I'll have time to
do.

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Miles

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Miles Kara
From: Sarth Wermter Sent:Sun 1/18/2004 6:46 PM
To: Miles Kara; Kevin Shaeffer; John Azzarello; John Farmer; Dana Hyde; Geoff Brown
Cc:
Subject: RE: NEADS GAMEPLAN
Attachments:

Miles,

Non 9-11 stuff is now gone from the voh folder, stored in an appropriate spot.

I'm on my way to NYC now (flight's delayed, but I'll be in there in the morning), and want to try to get the
Freedom software available for them on this trip. I'll be calling all over in the morning to try to get it to put on
those PCs.

Garth

—Original Message
From: Miles Kara [mailto:mkara@9-llcommission.gov]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 1:06 PM
To: Kevin Shaeffer; John Azzarello; John Farmer; Dana Hyde; Geoff Brown
Cc: Garth Wermter
Subject: RE: NEADS GAMEPLAN

Kevin, it will all change.

Ayers is the civilian on NEADS staff that interfaces with FAA.

The floor walk/tour is not that so much as it is a sit-down session to make sure we account for
all 72 possible channels and understand the now two different forms in which we have data,
continuous .wav files, and individual call Freedom files that we can, in fact read as .wav. We
also need to know/verify the reason for a DQM scope which is working closing with the TTs.
That verification will require some floor observations to be sure. John is better served singing
with the Dixie Chicks. We just don't have the time to do anything else.

The schedule must also accommodate add-ons—for example we now know that a person
named "Lumpy" is involved in the WD business. That means that we need to get the follow-on
work out of the road on Tues-Wed.

Given the DoD memo and the earlier Kacey e-mail to me, we will also have considerable haggle
time it seems, more than we care for. This a high maintenance visit and my strong

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recommendation is that we get the SOCC understanding/tour isolated from the main event
down at the HQ.

John A. There is some utility to the "eaches" version that Garth has posted. As
suspected, based on the Dictaphone presentation to me, we can isolate individual phone
calls. For example DRM01 CHS call 130744 is the Luis Ramirez ZDC/NEADS call "well,
you haven't talked to me." The 131938 call is the Scoggins call re D1989. That call is
taken by Sheila Richmond. Beauty of the Dictaphone approach is that you can actually
understand what is being said. Moreover, it allows us to count with some precision the
number of calls between HEADS and FAA. (Clearly, my earlier observation about the
numbering on DRM 2 does not apply to DRM1.)

For all, more wheel spinning reduction. As you first call up vol 1 you see a whole bunch of
stuff. Using the lefthand-most data—that is the date. There are only three line items of interest
the 3 DRMS for 20010911.

Garth, can you make the non 9-11 stuff go away, for now?

Miles

Original Message
From: Kevin Shaeffer
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 12:29 PM
To: John Azzarello; John Farmer; Miles Kara; Dana Hyde; Geoff Brown
Subject: NEADS GAMEPLAN

All,

Attached is a rough plan for the week. I used Miles email to Kacey Blaney as the
framework - as it is what NEADS is roughtly expecting. Of course, this will flex and
change, but is a touch-stone initial strategy. Please review.

(think back to my "if I can just write this out neatly, it will all make sense" comments re
the T8 hearing -1 need a plan, straw-man, whatever, or I tend to get a little nuts!) :)

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Regards,

Kevin

"Never Forget"

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Miles Kara
From: Sarth Wermter Sent:Sun 1/18/2004 7:26 PM
To: Miles Kara
Cc:
Subject: RE: NEAOS DRM 2
Attachments:

Miles,

Sorry, was en route to the airport when your emails came in.

I've cracked the time stamping mechanism used by the Freedom software, it's pretty nifty actually.

First, the call begin time is encoded in the filename already. For example, under DRM1, channel 3, there is a
file named C0103_11_09_2001_000019.wav; that conversation began at 00:00:19 on 9-11. Similarly, if you
were looking for a conversation held around 2:00 PM, just seek out a file with 140000.wav at the end of its
name.

I'm taking a guess that having all of the files in one directory may help you, so I've created a second directory
under NEADS DAT which is named CONSOLIDATED, so that you don't have to worry about digging through
this long directory structure to get to the audio files you need.

Now, as far as the database goes, this information is also included in the .mdb files. If you open up the "Call"
TABLE, you will find a long list of all of the files for a given DRM on the given day (e.g. DRM1 on 9-11). This
spans all channels. In the datasheet view, there are a "start time" and an "end time" that seem cryptic.
They're not too bad after all. It turns out that these times are days, so that 37145 represents September 11,
2001. The decimals after that number are tenths of a day. In other words, 37145.1000 would be the call that
started exactly 1/1 Oth of a 24-hour period after midnight. This means that it would be 2:24 AM, since each
1/1 Oth of a day is 2 hours and 24 minutes. But, I can do you one better than that. The filenames are
included in this database file, too, in order, so that you can narrow your search down by just looking at that
full listing of filenames under the "Callfile" header.

I'm not sure if this will help or further confuse. If you think it will help and need a little more explanation, just
call or email. Moreover, if you want me to isolate a time period into a separate directory, let me know and I
can easily do that.

The only thing I can't determine is whether there is a time offset. The list of files ends at 21:47:01, or 9:47 PM
on 9-11. I can find no code that indicates an offset anywhere.

Don't hesitate to call on my cell phone anytime. I'm here to help.

Garth

-_ —Original Message
From: Miles Kara [mailto:mkara@9-llcommission.gov]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 1:08 PM
To: Garth Wermter
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Garth, thanks. Pis spell out again how I get to the Access files? I don't recall the ability in those
files to do time stamp ourselves. Did I miss something?

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 Page 2 of 5

I also just sent an e-mail asking if you could strip out the non 9-11 files, for now, in voM. They
are getting in the road.

Miles

—Original Message
From: Garth Wermter
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 12:52 PM
To: Miles Kara
Cc: John Farmer; Kevin Shaeffer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Miles,

Nothing yet from the Freedom software folks. The time stamping seems to be pulled out of
those Access database files by the Freedom software; that's a nice feature to have them
coordinated into a single application. As soon as I hear from them, we'll be ready to install and
get these tools available to you here and in NYC.

Garth

Original Message
From: Miles Kara [mailto:mkara@9-llcommission.gov]
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 11:35 AM
To: Kevin Shaeffer; Garth Wermter
Cc: John Farmer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Kevin, I just listened to the Burlington VT scramble from SGT Beluscio. "Need to
scramble two fighters immediately. I authenticate [he does]. Vector them to
Hamilton Canada." [de facto heading and DME]

This was the later in the day response to the possible Canadian intruder. Note,
the niceties of the scramble procedure as laid down in writing were ignored.
Beluscio simply ordered the planes airborne and headed them to where they
needed to go.

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 Page 3 of 5

[Source: DRM2 channel 13, call 170342. I haven't figured this out yet, but the
higher the last four digits the later in the day. Our stuff of interest would be in the
0200-0300+ range. The first two digits "17" denote the seventeenth something or
the other. The list of files on each channel begins Olxxxx and proceeds upward.
For lack of more time I am homing in on any calls with a last four of 0400 or less.
So much to learn, so little time. Garth's upload doesn't have the time stamp. I
know from the Freedom software demo that that software time stamps each
"call."]

Garth, keep us posted on the Freedom software progress.

Miles

Original Message
From: Kevin Shaeffer
Sent: Sunday, January 18, 2004 10:41 AM
To: Miles Kara; John Farmer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Subject: RE: NEADS DRM 2

Miles,

Regarding point two below, the theory that the scramble order(s) were
flawed, I definitely think that you need to either build a small binder or a
notes-document that lays out the relevant points and provides either the
transcripts of relevant conversations or points us exactly to the tape(s) that
support it. I, at least, would find it invaluable to have as a reference for
interviews next week. This will be an interview line-item for the NEADS
interviews and will likely require a follow-up with Eckmann.

BTW, do we have the scramble order for Otis on tape/transcript? Where

there any issues with where the Otis fighters immediately went that can be
attributed to the NEADS scramble order for them? (Or, put another way, is
this a Langley scramble issue only?)

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 Page 4 of 5

If you are correct, this will be a signicant conclusion, and we'll all need to
"know" everything the "Miles-mind" does :)

Thanks, and keep on truckin'.

Regards,

Kevin

"Never Forget"
Original Message
From: Miles Kara
Sent: Sun 1/18/2004 9:39 AM
To: Kevin Shaeffer; John Farmer; John Azzarello; Dana Hyde
Cc:
Subject: NEADS DRM 2

All,

To keep you from spinning your wheels. Here is what we have from
the Garth upload on Friday.

First, and as I observed to Stephanie Brewer and the Dictaphone

rep, we do not appear to have conversations in the morning time
frame. There are brief conversations prior to 0800 and then the
conversations captured skip to much later in the morning. That
observation accompanied my degree of satisfaction statement to
Stephanie that were at a "4" on a scale of "10", at best. I will pursue
the totality of the DRM2 files with Weir and Anderson on site.

Second, For the TT positions, we have what NEADS said we would

have, a replay of conversations solely with the AST leadership,
Steve Richmond and company. None of the Target Trackers speak
to the outside world. Kevin—the lingua franca of the TT world is
exactly the same as that of the Langley Tower—heading and DME
(bearing and range). As one listens to the TTs work, everything is
stated as heading xyz for range 123, from radar x. That mirrors the

http://exchange.9-llcommission.gov/exchange/mkara/Deleted%20Items/R... 1/19/2004
 Page 5 of 5

practice at Langley—090 for 60 off of the Langley Radial. At

NEADS that would be stated as 090 for 60 from the Oceana Radar.
That comes back to my basic position, which I still hold, the
scramble order itself was flawed. My question is why isn't it, over
time, that NEADS didn't use common language with its Air Force
counterparts!!?? The heading and altitude in the scramble order are
useless and just confuse things, despite what Sgt Acoff said.

Third, for the WD positions, we pick up the conversations, at least on

Channel 7 with the Syracuse SOF (Supervisor of Flying). First, a
male NEADS voice speaks to Reggie at NEADS, "weapons safe, all
that good stuff, they want to know how those guys are loaded,
probably guns only even if they have anything. Later, Capt Green to
the SOF, "you guys have 506s on board (authentication tables)."
Don't think so.

Kevin, vis point two, above, the Syracuse SOF asks NEADS for
"bang and range from Syracuse."

I'm going to sample all channels, determine which ones are inactive,
and probe for any morning conversations. That's all I'll have time to
do.

Miles

http://exchange.9-llcommission.gOv/exchange/mkara/beleted%20Items/R... 1/19/2004