Inside NORAD's Cheyenne Mountain Combat Center
The author states that NORAD &quot;... dropped the ball on 9&#x2F;11..&quot;<p>Let&#x27;s be clear, NORAD did not drop the ball on 9&#x2F;11.  You can certainly make the argument that the FBI, CIA, and NSA (and other US intelligence services) dropped the ball on 9&#x2F;11, but NORAD did not.  NORAD&#x27;s primary goal has never been to stop terrorism&#x2F;hijacking from occurring on passenger planes within the United States, but rather to warn of enemy planes and missiles from _entering_ the US. (this did change somewhat after 9&#x2F;11, but that&#x27;s after the fact...)<p>Frankly, I stopped reading the article after this line, because clearly the author doesn&#x27;t know what they&#x27;re talking about.<p>But if you&#x27;re interested in this sort of thing, I&#x27;d recommend starting here:  Strategic Air Command: <a href="https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Strategic_Air_Command" rel="nofollow">https:&#x2F;&#x2F;en.wikipedia.org&#x2F;wiki&#x2F;Strategic_Air_Command</a><p>I just finished reading Command and Control by Eric Schlosser, it&#x27;s a pretty decent primer on early US nuclear deterrence and such things as SAC and NORAD.  (though there are better books specifically about SAC&#x2F;NORAD, this is an overarching general&#x2F;popular history.)