The US government on Tuesday released video clips for the first time showing how a hijacked airliner struck the Pentagon and exploded into a ball of fire on Sept. 11, 2001.
The videos, released by the government in conjunction with a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit filed by the Judicial Watch legal activist group, was a longer, more complete version of still-frame images that were leaked to the news media in 2002.
Two security cameras at a Pentagon parking lot caught the moment that American Airlines Flight 77 slammed into the south west side of the military headquarters.
Although the two video clips last about two minutes, the nose of the jet is seen for only a fraction of a second in one film before the explosion. The front of the hijacked Boeing 757 can be seen entering one video frame, with a massive explosion and orange fireball erupting upon impact with the Pentagon, followed by a plume of smoke.
US authorities have said five al-Qaeda hijackers seized control of the plane, on a flight from Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia bound for Los Angeles, and flew it into the Pentagon.
Killed in the crash were 125 people inside the Pentagon, 59 passengers and crew members and the five hijackers.
It was one of four commercial planes hijacked that day. Others crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City and in a field near Shanksville, Pennsylvania. About 3,000 people were killed in the 2001 attacks.
Judicial Watch said the government previously had refused to release the video because it was "part of an ongoing investigation" involving Moussaoui, sentenced this month to life in prison for conspiracy in the Sept. 11 attacks.
"We fought hard to obtain this video because we felt that it was very important to complete the public record with respect to the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11," Judicial Watch president Tom Fitton said in a statement. "Finally, we hope that this video will put to rest the conspiracy theories involving American Airlines Flight 77."
The lack of film evidence of the Pentagon attack had fueled conspiracy theories suggesting that it had been faked by the Pentagon.
The images are online at defenselink.mil/pubs/foi/index.html.
DEATH CONSTANTLY LOOMING: Decades of detention took a major toll on Iwao Hakamada’s mental health, his lawyers describing him as ‘living in a world of fantasy’ A Japanese man wrongly convicted of murder who was the world’s longest-serving death row inmate has been awarded US$1.44 million in compensation, an official said yesterday. The payout represents ￥12,500 (US$83) for each day of the more than four decades that Iwao Hakamada spent in detention, most of it on death row when each day could have been his last. It is a record for compensation of this kind, Japanese media said. The former boxer, now 89, was exonerated last year of a 1966 quadruple murder after a tireless campaign by his sister and others. The case sparked scrutiny of the justice system in
The head of Shin Bet, Israel’s domestic intelligence agency, was sacked yesterday, days after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he no longer trusts him, and fallout from a report on the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas attack. “The Government unanimously approved Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s proposal to end ISA Director Ronen Bar’s term of office,” a statement said. He is to leave his post when his successor is appointed by April 10 at the latest, the statement said. Netanyahu on Sunday cited an “ongoing lack of trust” as the reason for moving to dismiss Bar, who joined the agency in 1993. Bar, meant to
Indonesia’s parliament yesterday amended a law to allow members of the military to hold more government roles, despite criticisms that it would expand the armed forces’ role in civilian affairs. The revision to the armed forces law, pushed mainly by Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto’s coalition, was aimed at expanding the military’s role beyond defense in a country long influenced by its armed forces. The amendment has sparked fears of a return to the era of former Indonesian president Suharto, who ex-general Prabowo once served and who used military figures to crack down on dissent. “Now it’s the time for us to ask the
‘HUMAN NEGLIGENCE’: The fire is believed to have been caused by someone who was visiting an ancestral grave and accidentally started the blaze, the acting president said Deadly wildfires in South Korea worsened overnight, officials said yesterday, as dry, windy weather hampered efforts to contain one of the nation’s worst-ever fire outbreaks. More than a dozen different blazes broke out over the weekend, with Acting South Korean Interior and Safety Minister Ko Ki-dong reporting thousands of hectares burned and four people killed. “The wildfires have so far affected about 14,694 hectares, with damage continuing to grow,” Ko said. The extent of damage would make the fires collectively the third-largest in South Korea’s history. The largest was an April 2000 blaze that scorched 23,913 hectares across the east coast. More than 3,000
RSS