"MR. LEHMAN: To follow up on that, General Arnold, did you have authority to shoot down 93 when it was heading towards Washington? And where did you get it?
GEN. ARNOLD: A lot of discussion on that. Our intent on United 93 -- the simple answer is, to my knowledge, I did not have authority to shoot that aircraft down. We were informed after the airplane had already hit the ground. That's the simple answer.
MS. GORELICK: I'm sorry, could you say that again? You were informed of what after it hit the ground?
GEN. ARNOLD: We were informed of presidential authority some five minutes after that aircraft had hit the ground, according to our records.
MR. LEHMAN: So you were given it after the fact, presidential authority to shoot it down?
GEN. ARNOLD: To my knowledge. Now, I can tell you that in our discussion with the NORAD staff at that particular time that we -- you know, we intended to intercept that aircraft at some point in time, attempted to deviate that aircraft away from the Washington, D.C. area. There was discussion at that particular time whether or not that aircraft would be shot down. But we, I did not know of presidential shoot down authority until after that aircraft had crashed. "
"MR. BEN-VENISTE: You say it was received subsequent to the crash of 93?
GEN. ARNOLD: Yes, that's correct.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: From what source was that received?
GEN. ARNOLD: It was passed down to us from the NORAD, from Cheyenne Mountain, that they had received shootdown authority. And then, you know, the timeframe escapes me at the moment, but you know for example over the Washington, D.C. area it was declared a no-fly zone by clear -- just by the fact that any aircraft was present, if we could not determine if that aircraft was friendly, then we were cleared to shoot that aircraft down.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: When was the declaration of no-fly zone authorized?
GEN. ARNOLD: I don't know. It was shortly during that timeframe.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: So are you saying that that declaration gave you shootdown authority?
GEN. ARNOLD: It gave us -- that particular declaration that I am referring to is a class bravo airspace within the Washington, D.C. area that was shut down to aviation, except for military or for law enforcement emergency response aircraft at that particular time.
MR. BEN-VENISTE: To help me understand, does it mean once that condition exists, that unless you were able to determine that this was a friendly aircraft, which under the circumstances I suppose means under the control of the terrorists at that time making it an unfriendly aircraft, that you had authority --