If military personnel heard rumors of an actual conspiracy intending to play out the NORAD wargame* LIVE, the perps could just point to the recent TV show on FOX. * see official counter-terrorism scenario AMALGAM VIRGO, 'played' June 1-2, 2001.
"The pilot episode, which first aired on March 4, 2001, concerned a terrorist plot to fly a hijacked airplane into the World Trade Center towers."
- Trivia for "The Lone Gunmen" (2001) - IMDb
TV spinoff The Lone
Gunmen comes to DVD with its prescient 9/11 episode - Canada.com(03/28/05)
"The Lone Gunmen, the Complete Series (Fox) - Back in 2001, when The X-Files was breathing its last prime-time gasp, this oddball spinoff series hit the airwaves for 13 episodes. The three unlikely conspiracy investigators built their own little cult following with the show, still shot in Vancouver after the original fled to sunny California.
"The most remarkable episode... aired just a
few months before 9/11 with an incredibly prescient plot about terrorists hijacking an airliner and threatening to crash it into the World Trade Center. Except, in this plot, the terrorists were a cabal within the U.S. government itself.
On the episode's commentary track, the creators themselves cannot believe the irony. They recall how, in the immediate hours after the event when it wasn't known who was responsible, they feared their story might have inspired the real terrorists."
"In the early 1960s, America's top military leaders reportedly drafted plans to kill innocent people and commit acts of terrorism in U.S. cities to create public support for a war against Cuba.
Code named Operation Northwoods, the plans reportedly included the possible assassination of Cuban émigrés, sinking boats of Cuban refugees on the high seas, hijacking planes, blowing up a U.S. ship, and even orchestrating violent terrorism in U.S. cities." -ABC (5/01/01)
► "THE PRESIDENT:
No one could have conceivably imagined suicide bombers burrowing into our society and then emerging all in the same day to fly their aircraft - fly U.S. aircraft into buildings full of innocent people - and show no remorse.
Never did anybody's thought process about how to protect America did
we ever think that the evil-doers would fly not one, but four commercial aircraft into precious U.S. targets - never. But never did I dream we would have been under attack this way." -White House
(09/16/01)
►
"I don't think
anybody could have predicted that...they would try to use an airplane as a
missile, a hijacked airplane as a missile," said National Security Adviser
Condoleezza Rice." -CBS (05/17/02)
► "Exactly two years before the Sept. 11 attacks, a
federal report warned the
executive branch that Osama bin Laden's terrorists might hijack an airliner and dive bomb it into the Pentagon or other government building." -CBS (05/17/02)
"On March 4, 2001,
during Season 8 of “The X-Files,” the three spun off in a seriocomic series
of their own, created by “X” producers Chris Carter, Frank Spotnitz, Vince
Gilligan and John Shiban, and co-starring Zuleikha Robinson (“Hidalgo”) and
Stephen Snedden (“Coyote Ugly”).
Despite the concern of some fans, the pilot of “The Lone Gunmen” is indeed
part of the boxed set. This would seem like a no-brainer — until you realize
that the central conspiracy in the episode involved the high-tech
electronic hijacking of a commercial airliner with the intent of crashing it
into the World Trade Center.
Although the episode was conceived and shot in 2000 and
aired six months before the tragic events of Sept. 11, 2001, the
eerie coincidence sent shockwaves through cast and producers.
“I'll never forget that,” says Spotnitz, calling in from the set of the
pilot for his remake of “Kolchak: The Night Stalker.” “That was such a
disturbing thing. It was very upsetting. As I say in the DVD featurette, you
write something like that, and you assume that if you can think of it, being
a Hollywood writer, then somebody in the government has thought about it
already.
“Obviously that wasn't the case. Just the idea that a plane could fly into a
building, and the building would be unprotected was just … anyway, it was
upsetting.”
Although their scenario involved using sophisticated electronics to remotely
control the plane and had nothing to do with suicidal terrorists, Spotnitz
had some long moments on the fateful September morning.
“I was directing an episode of ‘The X-Files' when that happened,” he
recalls, “so I woke up a little late because we'd been shooting the night
before. It was the first thing I saw on TV, one of the trade towers burning.
The first thing that went through my head was, 'I hope this doesn't have
anything to do with what we did, that it wasn't somehow inspired by anything
we did.'
“Nobody knew who had done it or what had happened, but we knew it was an
airplane. It became obvious that it didn't have any connection to what we
did.”
Haglund, a frequent guest at sci-fi conventions, had noted a brisk business
in “Gunmen” bootlegs over the years. He attributes some of that to the
pilot.
“Once the pilot and the 9/11 thing came together,” Haglund says, “all the
conspiracy theorists started passing around that pilot at conventions and
UFO conventions and started propelling that forward. These guys are all
asking questions about, ‘How much did we know?' ‘Who wrote the script?' —
that kind of thing.
“Other than small, middling details, what's odd about that ‘Gunmen' pilot is
the larger details they got right. I assume somebody will look through the
rest of the episodes and see what other details may be right. I can assure
you, I don't think there is a legion of super-smart military chimps out
there.” -Kansas City Star (03/21/05)
BYERS SNR: What the
hell are you doing? Why can't you stay out of this. Leave me buried.
BYERS: What is scenario 12-D?
BYERS: We know it's a war game scenario. That it has to do with airline counter-terrorism. Why is it important enough to kill for.
BYERS SNR: Because it's no longer a game.
BYERS: But if some
terrorist group wants to act out this scenario, then why target you for
assassination?
BYERS SNR: Depends on who your terrorists are.
BYERS: The men who
conceived of it the first place. You're saying our government is planning to commit a terrorist act against a
domestic airline?
BYERS SNR: There you
go again. Blaming the entire government as usual. In fact, a small faction
...
BYERS: For what possible gain?
BYERS SNR: The Cold War's over, John.
But with no clear enemy to stockpile against, the arms market's flat. But bring
down a fully loaded 727 into the middle of New York City and
you'll find a dozen tin-pot dictators all over the world just clamoring to
take responsibility, and begging to be smart-bombed.
BYERS: I can't
believe this. This is about
increasing arms sales?
BYERS: When?
BYERS SNR: Tonight.
SCENE 15
BYERS: Find anything?
BYERS SNR: Well the
luggage hold's clear if this thing can be trusted. What did you do - make
with your Erector Set?
BYERS: Are you
absolutely sure this is the targeted flight?
BYERS SNR: This flight was chosen primarily for its visibility. It's scheduled to pass
over Manhattan on its way to Boston.
BYERS:
You said they intend to bring this
down in the middle of New York City?
BYERS SNR: Shush!
BYERS: What if there
is no bomb.
BYERS SNR: Well, how they going to bring it
down?
BYERS: The same way a
dead man can drive a car.
SCENE 16
FROHIKE AND LANGLY: What do you mean, no bomb?
BYERS: Langly, I need you to hack into the
airline's onboard navigation system. We need to know where
we're headed.
FROHIKE: OK. Going
to headsets.
FROHIKE: I'll clone
the airphone's carrier. Make them think we're sending a ground-to-air fax.
LANGLY: Just get me
on that plane and I'll get you auto-pilot access.
FROHIKE: How are you
going to do that?
LANGLY: Airline
telemetry systems use processors similar to those found in CB radios.
FROHIKE: I'm in.
We've got ourselves a convoy.
BYERS: What's your
progress.
LANGLY: I've hacked
into the flight control system output.
FROHIKE: With a
little bit of help.
LANGLY: It's what
the brains of the plane is telling the little black box.
FROHIKE: Course, heading, attitude, hold, yaw, axis, stabilization . . . what? What the
heck's that?
LANGLY: Is that what it looks like?
FROHIKE: I think it is what it looks like.
BYERS: What does "what" look like?
LANGLY: Modem protocol. Remote access.
Somebody on the ground's flying your plane.
DOD OPERATOR: Bogey,
sir.
HELM: Keep your
course.
BYERS: We need to
know our flight plan.
FROHIKE: I'm mapping
the data now.
LANGLY: Byers. Your flight's going to make an
unscheduled stop. In exactly 22 minutes.
BYERS: World Trade
Center. They're going to crash it into the World Trade Center.
BYERS SNR: I'll tell
the flight crew.
BYERS: Langly, can
you override the flight control system?
LANGLY: Working on
it.
PILOT: What is this?
BYERS SNR: My name is Bert Byers. I work for the government. I believe this plane has been
commandeered.
PILOT: Sir,
passengers are not allowed in the cockpit. I need you to return to your seat
now.
BYERS SNR: You don't
have control of this plane and I don't know what we can do to get it back.
Turn off your auto-pilot. There may be a chance we can override it.
PILOT: Sir, I'll be
happy to contact your superiors in the government -
PILOT: Sir! Dammit!
CO-PILOT: He's right!
LANGLY: Dammit!
Frozen again. They've encrypted the manual override commands.
FROHIKE: Well,
decrypt them then.
LANGLY: I don't have
enough power ...
LANGLY: ... my CPUs
are pegged.
BYERS: Langly,
what's happening?
LANGLY: I'll try
decrypting in background mode.
BYERS: How long will
that take?
LANGLY: On my calcs
per sec? I estimate . . . seven to ten days.
SCENE 18
PILOT: All right,
try cutting electrical power.
BYERS SNR: They've
thought of that. They've thought of everything.
PILOT: Ladies and
gentlemen, this is your captain speaking. We are experiencing some, uh,
technical difficulties up here. At this time we would like you all to return
to your seats.
BYERS SNR: And kiss
your asses goodbye.
BYERS: Langly, we're
getting close.
LANGLY: I know. I
know.
PILOT: New York
Center? This is Atlantic National flight 265 heavy. We are declaring an
emergency. We have 110 souls on board, 16,000 pounds of fuel, and no
dangerous goods or cargo to report.
LANGLY: Come on,
Frohike.
BYERS SNR: Your
friends have failed, haven't they?
BYERS: There's still
hope.
BYERS SNR: I hope my
next funeral is as nice as my last one.
BYERS: If we can't get the FBI we'll go
public. With your testimony, we can break this
conspiracy wide open. Bring Overlord down. The whole
operation.
BYERS: Dad. What is
it?
BYERS SNR: God, I
see myself in you. The same youthful enthusiasm, idealism. I was so
angry at you for so long because I didn't want you to waste your life
tilting at windmills. But I can see now, you've got something I never had.
You're a brave man, John.
BYERS: You're not going to testify. You're
going to let them cover this up.
BYERS SNR: They
almost killed me twice. They won't fail a third time. My silence will keep
me alive. And you. I know you
and your friends are fighting for the American dream. Just don't expect to
win.
(End)
Interview with The Lone
Gunmen co-producer Frank Spotnitz about the 'Pilot' episode after
9/11...
Gunmen Foreshadowed 9/11
"Fans of the short-lived X-Files spinoff series The Lone Gunmen may recall
that the pilot episode ended with an eerie foreshadowing of the Sept. 11
terrorist attack on New York's World Trade Center. Though the show aired six
months before the attack, its final scene featured a commercial airliner
aiming at the [World Trade] center, veering away at the last minute, TV Guide Online
reported.
But for some reason, the show's images escaped notice in the months
following the real-life attacks—something that mystifies one of the show's
writers, longtime X-Files producer Frank Spotnitz. It wasn't until the
industry newsletter "The Myers Report" ran a story about the show this week
that it caught the notice of TV Guide.
"I know! That's what I've been wondering," Spotnitz told TV Guide. He, Vince
Gilligan and John Shiban wrote the episode. "I thought, 'Nobody noticed!' I
guess so few people saw the show. But it's strange, too, because that was
the pilot, and the ratings were actually quite good for [that episode],
and
yet we didn't hear anything."
Myers Report columnist Ed Martin wrote that "this seems to be collective
amnesia of the highest order. The final act of the Gunmen pilot, which
seemingly made no impact last year, now contains some of the most deeply
disturbing images ever created for an entertainment program," according to
TV Guide.
"I woke up on Sept. 11 and saw it on TV, and the first thing I thought of
was The Lone Gunmen," Spotnitz told TV Guide. "But then in the weeks and
months that followed, almost no one noticed the connection. What's
disturbing about it to me is, you think as a fiction writer that if you can
imagine this scenario, then the people in power in the government who are
there to imagine disaster scenarios can imagine it, too." - Sci Fi Wire
(6/21/01)
-
Alex Jones interviews X-Files/Lone Gunmen star Dean Haglund who believes
9/11 was an inside job! (Quicktime:
Broadband /
Dial-up; Windows:
Broadband /
Dial-up)
Actor Dean Haglund On
the CIA, Hollywood and 9/11 -
Prison Planet
-Quote by Noam Chomsky taken from Towers of Deception: The Media Cover-up of 9-11, by Barry Zwicker, New Society Publishers, Gabriola Island, BC, Canada, 2006, p. 180. Zwicker's source is listed as Understanding Power: The Indispensible Chomsky, Peter R. Mitchell and John Schoeffel, eds., The New Press, 2002, p. 26.
Fair Use Notice: This site may contain copyrighted material the use of which has not always been specifically authorized by the copyright owner. Users may make such material available in an effort to advance awareness and understanding of issues relating to civil rights, economics, individual rights, international affairs, liberty, science and technology, etc. We believe this constitutes a "fair use" of any such copyrighted material as provided for in section 107 of the US Copyright Law. In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, the material on this site is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.
For more information please visit:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml .