The most argued-about calls of the day.
Barbara Olson, a lawyer and commentator, was aboard Flight 77. Her husband, Solicitor General Ted Olson, told the FBI on 11 September that someone in his office said she was on the phone; he spoke to her for about a minute; she said the plane had been hijacked, the hijackers had knives and box cutters, and the passengers had been moved to the back. The call was cut off, and she called again. [1]
A May 2004 Justice Department briefing to Commission staff said all calls from Flight 77 were made by airphone. Its list shows a 9:18:58 call from Barbara Olson to the Justice Department marked “No Connection,” and four calls to unknown numbers lasting between about a minute and a half and four and a half minutes. Interviews, including with the assistant who answered Ted Olson’s phone, led the briefers to conclude that all the unknown calls were from her. [2]
Skeptics argue that the government’s own list shows no connected call from Olson. The government’s answer is that the connected calls are the unknown ones. Neither side has produced the underlying phone-company records publicly.
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