Air force drills show security weaknesses

(EXCERPT) Associated Press

POSTED AT 10:24 AM EST Thursday, Jan. 15, 2004

Washington — U.S. and Canadian military aircraft have scrambled nearly
1,700 times to intercept or divert suspicious aircraft since Sept. 11,
2001, but routine drills illustrate how terrorists could penetrate
airspace around the U.S. capital, a Canadian officer said.

“We do these tests to push the system, find holes and when we
find holes we correct them,” said Canadian army Major Douglas
Martin of the North American Aerospace Defence Command.

“Every time we do a test, or an evaluation or exercise, we're
getting better at defending the national capital region,” he
said.

Officials said exercises conducted in early- and mid-December are the
latest to show that the best prevention against another terrorist
attack in the skies is thorough pre-emptive intelligence and screening
rather than a last-minute intercept or shooting down of a hijacked
commercial airliner.

Those officials talked about the classified results of the drills on
condition of anonymity. They said U.S. military officials have
concluded that it would be very difficult to intercept a hijacked
plane wit...

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Otis Willie
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The American War Library
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