Pentagon security agency not told of potential attacks before 9/11

The organization responsible for physical security at the Pentagon was not informed that planes might be used as weapons to target government buildings before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, even though military planners were weighing such a possibility, the director of the agency said this week.

Ralph Newton, head of the Defense Facilities Directorate, told Government Executive it was a clear oversight within the military that his organization was never informed that planes might be used as missiles to attack U.S. buildings. The 9/11 attacks killed 189 people at the Pentagon.

"It was not in our plans at the time," Newton said. The organization was called the Real Estate and Facilities Directorate at the time.

One of his biggest concerns today, he said, is handling people who are moving in and out of buildings-in parking lots or on public transit-if another terrorist attack occurs, especially a chemical or biological attack that contaminates the air.

The commission that investigated the 9/11 attacks uncovered several examples of knowledge within the U.S. government that planes might be used as weapons to target buildings and U.S. infrastructure. Commissioner Richard Ben-Veniste rattled off a list of examples dating back to 1994 during a May 2003 hearing.

In April 2001, officials from the North American Aerospace Defense Command sought to conduct an exercise in which a terrorist group used a plane as a missile to attack the Pentagon, according to a memo obtained last April by the Project on Government Oversight. The exercise was rejected by Joint Chiefs of Staff officials as "too unrealistic."

April Gallop, an attack survivor, told Government Executive she believes that Pentagon security officials such as Newton should have been told of the possibility of an attack on the building using a plane, especially since other parts of the military were contemplating such a scenario.

"I never recalled any alarms going off whatsoever on that particular day. Maybe we would have had a chance to jump out of an exit," Gallop said. "I strongly believe that if [a plane attack] was considered, people might not have been killed or injured. Who knows in hindsight how many lives could have been saved."

Gallop was on her first day back to the Pentagon from maternity leave when the attack occurred. An Army administrative specialist, she was working in a newly renovated part of the building. She had her newborn son, Elisha Zion, with her to enroll him in day care when the force of the plane hitting the Pentagon blew her across the room and Elisha out of his stroller.

With debris landing on top of her and smoke filling the room, Gallop lost sight of her son. Elisha stopped crying as Gallop searched for him. With a desperate reach, she found him and pulled him out of the debris. Once outside, she helped others to safety. Elisha is the only child to survive the attack, while eight others died.

Today, Gallop and her son still suffer from injuries sustained in the attack. She walks with a cane because of a spinal misalignment; he has experienced developmental delays. In July, Gallop founded the 9-11 Elisha Zion Peace Foundation to assist people who are injured as a result of acts of terrorism or in the war on terrorism.

Newton said much has been learned about protecting government buildings since the attacks, and Defense facilities are much better prepared today. For example, the Pentagon is adding eight new radial corridors in its renovated space to reduce the distance people must travel to reach an exit corridor, and has installed photoluminescent directional arrows along wall baseboards to provide guides to exits. Corridor walls also are being strengthened. Newton said he now gets regular threat briefings that weren't conducted before 9/11.

Newton's agency is responsible for management and security of 120 leased buildings and four government-owned buildings. Overall, the U.S. government has about 500,000 facilities, mainly in the United States, worth an estimated $300 billion.

During a keynote speech at the Federal Buildings Expo in Washington Wednesday, Newton said security and accessibility need to be balanced, and encouraged building managers to familiarize themselves with the government's National Response Plan and National Incident Management System.

"You need a very sound, expert understanding of how your facility operates," he said. "We've been trained in this country as schoolchildren that when the fire bell rings, you get up and leave the building. Well, in the current environment, that may be the worst possible thing you could do."