The Planner

Chapter Twelve: Washington DC

Planner and Bates were surrounded by many formally dressed men sitting behind a set of desks arranged in a horseshoe. These were generals and commanders of high rank if the number of badges and flashes attached to their uniforms were anything to go by. Only three men were not in uniform. One of them, at the head of the horseshoe, was the Lodge Master that Planner had to refer to as “Senator” in this meeting.

Unusually for a meeting of this type no names were used, each person introduced themselves only by post names and role in the operation.

The Lodge Master, aka Senator, introduced himself as “CoG-3a” even though most people there knew his name, and explained himself as the main political stakeholder for the operation. The others introduced themselves as “CinC-1a Air Force”, “NG-1a National Guard”, “Psyop-7 Media” and so on. There were 15 stakeholders there. Planner did not take notes in case anyone felt they were being “recorded”.

Planner introduced himself as “Rainbow 1a Planner” and Bates as “Rainbow 1b Deputy”.

The Senator read out the progress report including the underestimation of the number of hijackers, lack of indoctrinated flight crew, uncertainty with achievement of all objectives, particularly the impact on the Pentagon, and included Planner’s concerns on plausibility of the building “collapses”.

One of the Generals snorted, “You can fool most of the people some of the time!”

Another said, “Regarding the towers, we need an academic, independent of NIST, to provide a suitable explanation.¹¹⁰¹¹¹”

Another of the non-uniformed persons, a mid-thirties man, that introduced himself as Psyop-7 Media, nodded, “We will introduce our story early. The public’s mind is very receptive to authority messages when there is apparent chaos.”

“We have talking heads positioned in all the major news channels,” volunteered Planner.

“No,” mused Psyop-7 airily, “No, it needs to come from an ordinary Joe in the street. It needs to be self evident to a man-in-the-street what has happened; he’d be our own man, of course. And only then, would the story be repeated up by the talking heads. And then backed up by academics, as the General said.”

Bates said, “Point noted. I’ll get on to the ground teams.”

Psyop-7 smiled a little.

The meeting continued with a simple animation of the day’s events, projected on the screen.

Planner gave a forty five minute presentation on the state of each individual operation, finishing with a slide showing a timeline: the preparation state for each Operation’s Stage A team and lead times required for the Stage B and C teams. There were no interruptions. Planner sat down, and picked out a mint from a conveniently placed bowl.

“Thank you very much, Planner,” assured the Senator. “It’s good to see everything on track and going to plan. I see the critical path is dependent upon the drones.”

“Yes, we’re flying out later this week to perform rehearsals,” stated Planner.

“I was just wondering whether you have entertained any cost saving measures?” said the Senator.

“We have looked at using military drones rather than 767 airliners. However this only makes sense for the crash into the North Tower since all other crashes would be highly visible or pose problems for the Stage C teams, with the clear up and air crash investigations. I understand a high quality animation of the first crash is under construction to provide cover for the drone,” said Planner.

“Suppose there were no air crash investigations?” said the Senator.

“Not something I had considered,” shrugged Planner. “Every air crash on US soil has been investigated by the NTSB. They are after all, er… my speciality.”

Psyop-7, probably the youngest person in the room, sighed.

Bates looked at him and said curtly, “Do you have a better idea?”

Psyop-7 started twisting in his seat uncomfortably, “Well we have multiple options here. One, to actually use planes or, two, use cruise missiles or some other military drone. So you’ve researched option one, civilian jets, and option two the use of military drones, and that’s great. Let’s explore that second scenario a bit more. Remember, we do have the media on our side to tell the story. The public will believe what we tell them and show them. So what do we have to worry about? Witnesses seeing the drones and somehow able to report it? People say crazy stuff all the time! And we can trot out our witnesses to say anything we want, even saying it was pink elephants. Then we show the video: hey, it really was flying pink elephants! And that story will be believed by the majority of the population, even if there are experts saying Flying Pink Elephants don’t exist! You catch my drift?”

Some of the generals chuckled a little but Planner was not impressed.

“Well maybe not.” He stood silent for a second before continuing. “But suppose we tell them what they would expect to see. What if we say,” said the young man smugly, “it was a big jet; people will certainly believe that. It is what they are expecting. If there are then contrary witness reports, then the-more-the-better in my book; They’ll just look like they’re crazy people! The TV viewers will believe the talking heads even more if people report that there was no big jet when we can show two, three, four videos of a big jet crashing into the towers.”

Planner nodded slowly, knowing he had been saying something similar the previous week.

“The first impact, say,” continued Psyop-7 nodding encouragingly back to Planner, “Fast and unexpected. No-one is too sure what it is, or whether they saw it correctly. Even if a few witness report it as a missile or small planes, this gap of uncertainty is just for a few minutes before the whole world sees another big jet, live on TV.”

“Indeed, with no air crash investigation, then I would recommend that scenario. Of course, you’d need to rig up explosives in the right area. That would take quite a long time to prepare…”

The Senator interrupted, “Planner, you might not be aware of this but we have been running a contingency plan for the past year or so. We haven’t only created an animation to cover the approach of drone aircraft, we have also been preparing the impact locations on the twin towers. Our primary plan, the one you have working on, is to use drone airliners. Our contingency plan, has been to use explosives in the towers and merely use TV animated graphics to display the impact on the towers.”

“Animation?” said Planner stunned.

“Yes,” said Psyop-7, “Using commercially available real time animation technology.”

“So you are proposing a scenario where aircraft or drones are not used at all?” said Planner incredulously.

Pysop-7 continued crisply to the quiet room, “Yes, no aircraft at all. We manage the news. The world will see explosions and we’ll provide animations of the planes hitting the towers. Before you say anything let me tell you some more. There are multiple benefits: accuracy; you can’t miss with pre-planted explosives and computer animation. Control, flexibility, cost… It’ll definitely much cheaper: we’ve spent $1million on the animation. On the drones it would be $400million. That’s quite a difference. And there are less things to go wrong. We’ll just use our own witness reports and later, we can show poor quality video live and then show high quality animation of the crash event later…” Psyop-7 stood up and asked for some media to be loaded into the laptop connected to the projector.

Pysop-7 explained the video being presented. “This is the first crash, as seen from the ground. The plane arrives from the north but we only have to animate from this building, here, to the impact point. The jet will look as though it flies behind this building and then absorbed into the north tower.”

“What happens if the weather is different,” asked Bates.

“This is just the animation, we’ll capture footage from the day and apply the animation as a composite,” said Psyop-7 coolly, and continued. “For the second impact, we have suggested multiple views and viewpoints: from the side, the bottom, flat-on and also, and I’ll think you’ll like this, live from helicopters!”

“How are you going to do that?” said Planner, surprised and unnerved.

“While the side and flat-on views uses the same high quality animation models as the first impact video, and will be slow to deliver, the helicopter views will have simple models, seen from a long distance and from the other side of the tower. The tower itself becomes a mask to the animated image. You won’t see the actual crash.”

“And you can do that real-time on live TV?” said Planner.

“Actually no. There will be about a five second delay. Record the explosion, add the animation, broadcast then cut back to live TV. Ten second delay, tops. You can do this live: composite three images together: the bottom layers is the live TV view, the next layer is the aircraft model and the third layer is live view by with the bright sky keyed to be a transparent layer. The aircraft will look like it’s flying behind buildings and into the towers,” said Psyop-7 smugly.

“I don’t know about this,” said Planner.

“TV replay will be instantly available, making people doubt their own recall of the event. There will be very few who remain unshakable in their belief that it was not a large plane that just crashed and those sceptics will not get much air time on the day or ever after. After the airlines announce they’ve lost two jets, any witness dissent will be obliterated. If someone says there were no planes, their views will be dismissed because, you know, everyone has seen the TV. Shall I show you the psychological experiments we’ve conducted upon memory recall when confronted by faked TV evidence?”

“I’m sure it’s very compelling. Depressing, but compelling,” sighed Planner.

“So, the problem of contrary witnesses is a easily overcome. Any lingering doubts or suspicions, will be quickly silenced by our Psyop personnel and the overwhelming pressure of the TV footage. Most will develop false-memory syndrome and believe that they witnessed the planes themselves. They’ll tell their friends they were there and saw the aircraft!”

“Just like War of Worlds,” injected Bates. “Orson Wells’ radio broadcast. People believed they actually saw Martians!”

There was a mild chuckle in the air while Planner was springing his fingers together deep in thought.

“Now you do have second order problems,” continued Psyop-7. “Will the video be good enough? It needs to be perfect. What you’ve seen here are just the draft animations. Except for the live feeds we have several hours if not a day to splice together real footage of the explosions and the animated aircraft.”

As Planner formulated his response, one of the Generals stated in a gruff tone, “The animated aircraft will be 100 % on target, that much we know. But will the drones be 100 %? Could they miss the target? We’re aiming for specific parts of the building, it could interfere with the demolitions.”

“Or lose the whole justification of the collapse?” suggested another General. “Or suppose one of the drones just clipped the edge the tower and spun into the Plaza, in front of TV cameras, to reveal a bunch of empty seats?”

The Senator tilted his head. “Indeed any such mistake, a botched crash, would be far worse than anything that a bunch of witnesses could say. No crash, no debris, and so perhaps… less loose ends? As you’ve said yourself, Planner, we need to be as tight as possible.”

Planner paused as he considered his response.

“This is all very interesting,” said Planner. “There are a few things that I’d like to go through in slower time. Certainly, Flight 11, the first crash, perhaps we don’t need the 767; use a cruise missile. Then rely on explosives and psychological means, as Pysop-7 has just outlined. As for the other three aircraft, I defer to my staff that have advised me of the current plan. It is not a good idea to change plans without analysing more fully and comparing the risks. This idea also requires a great deal more complicity with the TV channels than I had previously assumed and I have not investigated those relationships.”

After a moment’s silence, the Senator concluded, “I do so agree, Planner,” he said condescendingly. “Yes, continue with your primary plan. We will talk later about this after you’ve completed your exercises.”

* * * *

The Lodge Master, aka the Senator, unlike the rest of the review panel, shook Planner’s hand, using their secret Masonic handshake, as he left the room. Planner noted the Senator’s Quill and Dagger motif on his tie and was dismayed of his display of Lodge’s secret symbol.

“We’ll talk at the regular time,” said the old man cheerfully.

Planner smiled back uncertainly.

The Senator shook Bates’ hand, “Bates.”

“Senator,” smiled Bates gleefully.

Planner packed up his laptop and exited with Bates, “I need a walk,” said Planner.

“Not lunch?” said Bates. It was early afternoon.

“Ok. Lunch.”

* * * *

“Ok,” said Planner, sitting in the Pentagon canteen. “I think we’ve met the Psychologist.”

“I don’t like the way we’ve been kept away from the contingency plans,” said Bates.

“My thoughts exactly,” sighed Planner. “My assumption about Air Crash Investigations; It has driven my thinking, and I hadn’t even appreciated that. If there was no follow-up, no investigation, then we can do pretty much whatever we want. But how do we stop the NTSB? The Senator seemed confident that it could be blocked.”

“Make it an FBI investigation. I’m sure I’ve seen that used before?” suggested Bates with a shrug.

Planner looked puzzled, “Bates, I’m an expert in this field and no it has never been done before.” Planner bit into his cheeseburger.

“JFK Jr. It was done for him.¹¹²”

Planner stopped chewing for a second, “No, there was still an NTSB investigation for that plane crash.”

“Well,” said Bates dismissively, “This isn’t so different to the DNA testing situation. We gain control of the aftermath and then manage the release of information.”

Planner, his ears glowing red, could not meet Bates’ eyes. Instead, he looked at posters on the far wall. One of the posters read, “Information Security is Your Responsibility.” Planner could just able read the line below; “Computer Attacks at Department of Defense Pose Increasing Risks: 250,000 attacks in 1999.”

* * * *

Planner took a walk by himself. When he was sure he was by himself, he made a phone call on his cell phone.

“Hi Digger, it’s Planner.”

“Hello there,” he replied.

“Did you get my email?” asked Planner.

“Yes, I got one of my boys to check and you’re right, we used the original plans not the updated so yes, we could do with some help there, with the model. The contractor we used for the sighting of the er… payload… is now abroad and off-contract.”

“Ok. No, problem. One more thing.”

“Yes?”

“Has there been an allowance for er… impact holes?”

“The Cookie Cutter holes?” joked Digger.

“Yes,” said Planner.

“Oh yes, there’s a whole special effects department working on that.”

“And that doesn’t interfere with the er… main payload?” said Planner being careful not to describe too much over the phone lines. Planner knew that even cell phone calls could be tapped.

“No, the main payloads are above and below. The impact levels just have special effects, wall removal, pyrotechnics and debris cannons to simulate travel from entrance to exit. It’ll be shock and awe.”

“Of course. So all in place?”

“Yes and it is all independent of the payload we’re interested in. It’s triggered by a separate ground team. Not our problem. Well, my problem anyway.”

“What about Building 6?” asked Planner.

“The ground team are dealing with that. All the other buildings will have incendiaries,” said Digger cheerfully.

“Er… right. Thanks. I’ll email you later.”

* * * *

Planner, back at home, tinkered with the Nastran software on his laptop computer in his study.

He was taking Katherine’s suggestion of doing his job badly one step further, he was making tweaks of his own finesse just a small part of the plan. Planner opened a spreadsheet list, marked “north tower”. This spreadsheet contained the external label references of all detonators for the WTC1 building and the wireless detonation cell phone numbers and associated security codes. Planner selected and cut the row marked “Floor 7 Core”. He then opened a spreadsheet list, marked “WTC7”. This spreadsheet contained the external label references of all detonators for the WTC7 building. He then pasted the WTC1 row into sheet. The external references were recorded on the sheet in the format “WTC1-7-7”. Planner selected the external reference field and changed it to “WTC7-7-7”. He was subtlety making his own “magic bullet”.

To load the magic bullet into the weapon, he needed to write an email. It read:

“Digger,

I’ve added a few more tweaks. I’ve reduced the number of payloads for WTC1 and WTC2 as already discussed. But increased it for WTC7 to account for the extra reinforcement within the building.

Please find the new models, simulations and label sheets for the detonators attached.

Please let me know if you are going to make any changes.

Regards

Planner”

He pressed a button first to encrypt the message and attachments and then, after a pause, pressed another to send.