"'I mean it was like a cruise missile with wings, went right there and slammed into the Pentagon,' eyewitness Mike Walter said of the plane that hit the military complex. 'Huge explosion, great ball of fire, smoke started billowing out, and then it was just chaos on the highway as people either tried to move around the traffic and go down either forward or backwards,' he said."

- "Witnesses and Leaders on Terrorist Attacks
http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/attack.in.their.words/
11 Sep 2001

A check of the original transcript ( 4.58 pm) shows that Walter does refer to seeing an American Airlines jet. His only quote with regard to the collision was the section quoted above. He doesn't actually say that he saw it slam into the Pentagon, but that might be what he meant. We can't tell from this quote, but we should be able to find plenty of media references to his testimony, because by an extraordinary coincidence, Mike Walter also happens to work for "USA today."

Bloomberg news reported on Sept 11 at 3.26 pm and again at 4.23 pm (so this interview is the earliest record of a Mike Walter statement, preceding the CNN quote by about 80 minutes)

Mike Walter, of USA Today, watched the plane descend as he was stuck in traffic. "I said 'that plane is really flying low,"' he said in an interview. " It disappeared and I heard the explosion and saw a ball of fire. It was an American Airlines plane. You saw a big silver plane and those double A's."

So in his first interview he clearly states that he did not see the collision.

The press association reported

Eyewitness Mike Walter, a journalist, said he had seen the flight crash as he drove to work.

"It was like a Cruise missile with wings," he said.

"I saw parts of the plane. The debris was on the overpass. I saw these military units run out with stretchers and set up a triage."

As we have already established, Walter has not actually made any statement to the effect that he saw the plane hit the Pentagon. This report has nothing to change that, but paraphrases in such a way that this misleading impression is conveyed.

On sept 12, the Baltimore Sun referred to Walter and but only quoted "I saw a big ball of fire". The same day the Boston Globe reported

Mike Walter, a reporter with USA Today, was stuck in traffic during his commute to work, listening to the radio reports of the World Trade Center catastrophe when he saw the American Airlines jetliner fly over too low and too fast. Still it took him several moments to realize what was about to happen. "At first it didn't register," he said. "I see planes coming into National [airport] all the time. But it was so low."

He watched the plane pass over a hill separating him from the Pentagon and disappear. Then the boom and the flames climbing into the air.

Again, an explicit statement that he did not see the collision, although this time stated by commentary, not Walter himself.

Also on Sept 12, The Milwaukee Sentinel Journal quoted "It was typical morning rush hour, and no one was moving. I said
to myself, that plane is really low. Then it disappeared and I heard the explosion and saw the fireball."

The Washington Times of Sept 12 picked up the CNN quote, almost word for word (without sourcing it) but added that Walter was on his way to work at "USA today's television operation". So where is USA today's TV report, featuring Mike Walter?

So all the interviews which Walter gave on Sept 11 clearly indicated that he did not see the collision. What did he say on Sept 12?

On Sept 12 6.00am ET, Bryant Gumbel from CBS interviewed Walter. Mr. MIKE WALTER (Witness): Good morning, Bryant. GUMBEL: I know we spoke earlier, but obviously, some folks are just joining us. Take us through what you saw yesterday morning.

Mr. WALTER: Well, as--as we pointed out earlier, Bryant, I was on an elevated area of Highway 27 and I had a very good view. I was stuck in traffic. We weren't moving and--and I could see over in the distance the American Airlines jet as it kind of banked around, pivoted and then took a steep dive right into the Pentagon. There was no doubt in my
mind watching this that whoever was at the controls knew exactly what he was doing. It was full impact, a huge fireball, thick column of smoke and, you know, pandemonium after that. I mean, bedlam. Everyone was trying to escape the area; people very, very frightened.

GUMBEL: Did you see it hit the Pentagon? Was the plane coming in horizontally or did it, in fact, go on its wing as--as it impacted the building?

Mr. WALTER: You know, the--the--the--there were trees there that kind of obstructed it, so I kind of--I saw it go in. I'm not sure if it turned at an angle. I've heard some people say that's what it did. All I know is it--it created a huge explosion and massive fireball and--and you knew instantaneously that--that everybody on that plane was dead. It was completely eviscerated.

And from the same show
GUMBEL: Tell me, if you could, about the manner in which the--the plane struck the building. I ask that because, in the pictures we have seen, it appears to be a gash in the side of the Pentagon as if the plane went in vertically as opposed to horizontally. Can you tell me anything about that?

Mr. WALTER: Well, as I said, you know, there were trees obstructing my view, so I saw it as it went--and then the--then the trees, and then I saw the--the fireball and the smoke. Some people have said that the plane actually sent on its side and in that way. But I can't tell you, Bryant. I just know that what I saw was this massive fireball, a huge explosion and--and a--the thick column of smoke and then an absolute bedlam on those roads as people were trying to get away. I mean, some people were going on the emergency lanes, and they were going forward while others were trying to back up. But one woman in front of me was in a panic and waving everyone back, saying, 'Back up. Back up. They've just hit the Pentagon.' It was--it was total chaos.

Walter spoke to NBC at 7.00 ET the same day Mr. MIKE WALTER (Eyewitness): It kind of disappeared over this embankment here for a moment and then a huge explosion, flames flying into the air, and--and just chaos on the road.

So, on Tuesday afternoon, Walter was explicitly stating that he did not see the collision. It seems that he had a think about it overnight, and at 6.00 on Wednesday morning, confidently told Bryant Gumbel that he had, but was so flustered by the simple question of whether he actually saw it hit the Pentagon, and what angle the plane was on, that he immediately backed off preferring to concentrate on the fireball and the panic, and by the time he spoke to NBC an hour later, had retreated to his earlier story that he didn't see the collision.

This is why eyewitnesses must be identifiable and available for questioning. It also demonstrates why extensive interviews carry more weight than short quotes which can't be subject to critical scrutiny. Who would have guessed the tangled mess of Walter's statements, if they had only seen this quoted ?

I had a very good view. I was stuck in traffic. We weren't moving and--and I could see over in the distance the American Airlines jet as it kind of banked around, pivoted and then took a steep dive right into the Pentagon. There was no doubt in my mind watching this that whoever was at the controls knew exactly what he was doing. It was full impact...

And let's take a closer look at this statement, made to Gumbel.

"I was on an elevated area of Highway 27 and I had a very good view. I was stuck in traffic."

An hour later he contradicted this with "It kind of disappeared over this embankment here for a moment "

But if the 6.00 statement was true, then lots of other people, stuck in the same traffic, should also have had a very good view. So presumably there should be plenty of other eyewitnesses who saw it " as it kind of banked around, pivoted and then took a steep dive right into the Pentagon." Keep this in mind as the search continues.

I searched about 100 more media reports of Mike Walter, and couldn't find anything different. Incredibly, I couldn't find a single interview with him or reference to him on USA today. This account is too confused and contradictory to have any credibility, and he explicitly stated several times, including his earliest statement, that he did not see the collision. On the one occasion when he changed this, he backed off under questioning. Mike Walter does not qualify as an eyewitness to a large passenger jet hitting the Pentagon.

"'I saw the tail of a large airliner. ... It plowed right into the Pentagon, " said an Associated Press Radio reporter who witnessed the crash. 'There is billowing black smoke.'" America's Morning of Terror
http://www.channelonenews.com/articles/terrorism/wrapup/ " ChannelOne.com, 2001 Yet another media worker who (allegedly) witnessed it. Extraordinary! The original source gives no details. Simply a statement that that's what
an AP radio reporter said. But in a Yahoo search, I found the same comment attributed to AP radio reporter Dave Winslow.

http://netscape.com/ex/shak/news/stories/0901/20010911collapse.html

So surely Winslow must have given some interviews. Must have done a radio report for AP. Apparently not. I couldn't find any electronic AP reports that had anything to do with Winslow.

This raised even more questions. It refers to Winslow witnessing the crash, without actually quoting him.

AP Radio Reporter Dave Winslow witnessed the explosion at the Pentagon and confirmed that it was a plane that caused the destruction. As a result, AP members were first to know that it was an American Airlines jet that had gone down.

So where is the Winslow's broadcast? And how did they know that it was a AA jet? Winslow doesn't mention that in the quote, and there doesn't appear to be any other media record of him. What did he say that confirmed it was a AA jet? Did he mention it off the record to colleagues in the office? Why not let Winslow speak for himself? Given the experience with Mike Walter's account, I would like to be asking Winslow some questions. Such as "What do mean you saw the tail of a large plane? Where was the rest of it? Did you see any other part of it? Do you mean that the tail plowed into the Pentagon? Or are you assuming that some other part of the jet that you didn't see hit the Pentagon? Did you see the tail before or after the collision?" "Did you actually see the collision?" etc.

and again trots out the identical quote of the elusive Dave Winslow. So, did Winslow make the quote directly to Fournier? Exactly how, when and who is the original source of this quote? Doesn't Winslow have anything other to say than these 19 words? There are a few slight variations on Fournier's article scattered around the net at different pages, but all of them repeat the Winslow quote identically, with no elaboration or sourcing. BBC News also reported the quote, but added an intriguing twist to it at

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/americas/newsid_1537000/1537500.stm

It said that Democrat Consultant Paul Begala saw an explosion at the Pentagon.

Associated Press reporter Dave Winslow told Mr. Begala he saw "the tail of a large airliner... It ploughed right into the Pentagon".

So the quote is second hand, or possibly third hand. BBC reports this without specifying where it got Begala's story from, and without any identified journalist taking responsibility for the story. So this is a case of "Somebody told the BBC that Begala told them that Dave Winslow told him." I haven't found any record of any BBC reporters at the scene to interview eyewitnesses. But then, I haven't found any record of any press at the scene to conduct interviews. We have names of witnesses, 18 of them, on the urban legends site, but no information about how any of these names were sourced (discounting those press members who were actually witnesses themselves). So where did the BBC get the information that Begala had been spoken to by Winslow? Is this the original source of the quote? Second or third hand hearsay? Did Begala also directly contact Fournier and tell him of Winslow's quote, (which would make it second hand to Fournier) and
Fournier fail to mention this? Or did Winslow dish up the identical words to both of them independently, complete with the ... between" airliner" and "it"? The fact that both the BBC report and the Fournier article put the dots in the identical place, means that one has lifted it from the other's web posted or faxed report. Both reports are dated Sept 11. The BBC report is 18.54 GMT which is approximately 3.00 pm on the East Coast of the USA. The AP report does not give a time so we can't be sure who published it first. But we can run through some possibilities. If the BBC posted it first, then
Fournier has used a 3rd hand quote, and presented it as first hand, without acknowledging the source which presented it 2nd hand. If Fournier's quote was first, then the BBC has invented the part about Begala. But why would they ficticously represent a direct quote as being second hand? It's more likely to be the other way around. Unless they contacted  Fournier and asked him about the source of the quote, and he told them off the record that it was second hand from Begala - something which was omitted from his article.

The ... between the words "airliner" and "It" might seem to imply that Winslow actually said more than this, and that the quote has been edited. But curiously, the same words are repeated verbatim in every media reference to Winslow that I could find. A few had dispensed with the ... giving it the appearance of an unedited quote. One had replaced it with -
also creating this impression. Obviously, once this enigmatic quote was out there, other media just picked it up and repeated it, without question. It multiplied itself throughout the media like a computer virus, without anybody actually tracking down Winslow and asking him to verify, or elaborate. If Winslow actually saw the collision, surely there must be more to his account than this.

A search for "Dave Winslow" found 13 newspaper reports, all for Sept 11 or 12 and all with the identical quote, similarly unverified and unquestioned, with no elaboration, although some omitted "there is billowing black smoke." No-one claims to have interviewed Winslow and I couldn't find any transcript of a broadcast by him. Determined to get to the bottom of this, I did a search with unrestricted dates for every possible type of media, for anything to do with Dave Winslow at any time. I found 36 matches, 16 of them repeating identically the aforementioned quote. None of these made any reference whatsoever to Winslow apart from the quote. The rest were nothing to do with Dave Winslow, the AP reporter. They concerned Dave Winslow the musician, Dave Winslow the police officer, Dave Winslow the air force pilot, Dave Winslow the insurance spokesman etc. Not a single match for AP reporter Dave Winslow in any context except his alleged quote. In any kind of media at any time. I searched over 100 Yahoo matches with the Keywords "Dave Winslow AP " with the same result. Has Dave Winslow ever filed a radio report? Has he ever interviewed anyone? Does he exist? I have found no evidence that he does. If anyone (including Mr. Winslow himself) can come forward with evidence other than that quote, that an AP radio reporter named Dave Winslow exists, I will willingly retract the statement, but up until then, I am treating this account as a fabrication. At very best, it is almost certainly second hand, and in it's present form is too enigmatic to have much meaning. It definitely does not qualify as a verifiable eyewitness account of a large jet hitting the Pentagon.

A pilot who saw the impact, Tim Timmerman, said it had been an American Airways 757. "'It added power on its way in,' he said. 'The nose hit, and the wings came forward and it went up in a fireball.'"

- "Pentagon Eyewitness Accounts
http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,550486,00.html
." The Guardian, 12 Sep 2001

This is quoted accurately from the Guardian, but the Guardian quote is lifted from an interview Timmerman did with CNN, in which he stated quite explicitly that the plane did not appear to crash into the Pentagon. Such a selective quote is a misrepresentation of the Timmerman interview. He said that it crashed on a helipad, near the Pentagon, and that he didn't think it hit the building. And if you compare the transcript, with the Guardian quote, you'll see that although the quote is similar in essence, The Guardian actually changed the wording slightly. If quotation marks are to be used then the quote should be repeated verbatim, not tampered with. During this research, I found this to be a common practice.

Here's the full transcript of Timmerman's interview. CNN Breaking news Sept 11 13.46


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