_______________________________________________________________ | | AN INTERESTING DAY: GEORGE BUSH JR. ON 9/11 | http://uscrisis.lege.net/911/aninterestingday/ | | | This is a text only mirror of | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.html | as of 19 Sep 2003. | | | ``In the changed political climate after 9/11, few have | dared raise challenging questions about Bush's actions. A | journalist who said Bush was "flying around the country like | a scared child, seeking refuge in his mother's bed after | having a nightmare" and another who said Bush "skedaddled" | were fired. [Washington Post, 9/29/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/wpost092901b.html | ]] We should have a concise record of where President Bush | was throughout the day the US was attacked, but we do not.'' | [ An Interesting Day: George Bush Jr. on 9/11, by Allan Wood | and Paul Thompson, May 9, 2003 | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.html | , text only mirror at | http://uscrisis.lege.net/911/aninterestingday/ ] | | | AN INTERESTING DAY: GEORGE BUSH JR. ON 9/11 | "It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling | 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020105-3.html | ]] | | By Allan Wood and Paul Thompson | May 9, 2003 | | | At approximately 8:48 a.m. on the morning of September 11, | 2001, the first pictures of the burning World Trade Center | were broadcast on live television. The news anchors, | reporters, and viewers had little idea what had happened in | lower Manhattan, but there were some people who did know. By | that time, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the | North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the | National Military Command Center, the Pentagon, the White | House, the Secret Service, and Canada's Strategic Command | all knew that three commercial airplanes had been hijacked. | They knew that one plane had been flown deliberately into | the World Trade Center's North Tower; a second plane was | wildly off course and also heading toward Manhattan; and a | third plane had abruptly turned around over Ohio and was | flying back toward Washington, DC. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Both images taken at 9:03 a.m.: Bush takes part | in a meaningless photo-op, knowing full well the US is | already under attack. [left, from Booker video, right from | Getty Images] | | | So why, at 9:03 a.m. - fifteen minutes after it was clear | the United States was under terrorist attack - did President | Bush sit down with a classroom of second-graders and begin a | 20-minute pre-planned photo op? No one knows the answer to | that question. In fact, no one has even asked Bush about it. | | Bush's actions on September 11 have been the subject of | lively debate, mostly on the internet. Details reported that | day and in the week after the attacks - both the media | reports and accounts given by Bush himself - have changed | radically over the past 18 months. Culling hundreds of | reports from newspapers, magazines, and the internet has | only made finding the "truth" of what happened and when it | happened more confusing. In the changed political climate | after 9/11, few have dared raise challenging questions about | Bush's actions. A journalist who said Bush was "flying | around the country like a scared child, seeking refuge in | his mother's bed after having a nightmare" and another who | said Bush "skedaddled" were fired. [Washington Post, 9/29/01 | (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/wpost092901b.html | ]] We should have a concise record of where President Bush | was throughout the day the US was attacked, but we do not. | | What follows is an attempt to give the most complete account | of Bush's actions - from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska to | Washington, DC. | | | Preparations | | Bush's appearance at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in | Sarasota, Florida, on September 11, 2001 had been in the | planning stages since August [Booker web site [ | http://www.sarasota.k12.fl.us/emma/9.11.01/essay.williams.html | ]], but was only publicly announced on the morning of | September 7. [White House, 9/7/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/printi20010907-1.html | ]] Later that same day, 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and | Marwan Alshehhi traveled to Sarasota and enjoyed drinks and | dinner at a Holiday Inn only two miles down the sandy beach | from where Bush was scheduled to stay during his Sarasota | visit. [Longboat Observer, 11/21/01 [ | http://www.longboatobserver.com/showarticle.asp?ai=2172 ], | Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | | On the night of September 10th, Bush stayed at the Colony | Beach Resort - "an upscale and relatively pristine tropical | island enclave located directly on the Gulf of Mexico, a | spindly coral island ... off Sarasota, Florida." [AP, | 07/29/01 [ http://www.madcowprod.com/index30a.html ]] | Zainlabdeen Omer, a Sudanese native living in Sarasota, told | the local police that night that someone he knew who had | made violent threats against Bush was in town and Omer was | worried about Bush's safety. The man was identified only as | "Ghandi." A police report states the Secret Service was | informed immediately. [Hopsicker, 7/22/02 [ | http://www.madcowprod.com/index29.html ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort, where Bush | stayed the night before 9/11. [Colony Resort web site] | | | After a private dinner with various Florida politicians | (including his brother Jeb) and Republican donors, Bush went | to bed around 10:00 p.m. [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ], Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | Surface-to-air missiles were placed on the roof of the | resort [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sarasotaheraldtribune091002.html | ]], and an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane | circled high overhead. [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism | - From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, | p. 25] It's not clear if this type of protection was | standard for the president or whether security was increased | because of possible threats. | | | An Assassination Attempt? | | Bush awoke a little before 6:00 a.m. on September 11, pulled | on shorts and an old T-shirt and laced up his running shoes. | [CBS, 11/1/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/29/earlyshow/leisure/books/main527361.shtml | ]] At 6:30 a.m., Bush, a reporter friend, and his Secret | Service crew took a four-mile jog in the half-light of dawn | around a nearby golf course. [Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ], | Washington Post, 09/11/01 [ | http://www.stltoday.com/stltoday/news/special/skyterror.nsf/other/8B8F4C8DD63893E186256AC400609220?OpenDocument | ]] | | At about the same time Bush was getting ready for his jog, a | van carrying several Middle Eastern men pulled up to the | Colony's guard station. The men said they were a television | news crew with a scheduled "poolside" interview with the | president. They asked for a certain Secret Service agent by | name. The message was relayed to a Secret Service agent | inside the resort, who hadn't heard of the agent mentioned | or of plans for an interview. He told the men to contact the | president's public relations office in Washington, DC, and | had the van turned away. [Longboat Observer, 9/26/01 [ | http://www.longboatobserver.com/showarticle.asp?ai=1874 ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: General Ahmed Shah Massoud. | | | The Secret Service may have foiled an assassination attempt. | Two days earlier, Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of | Afghanistan's Northern Alliance, had been murdered by a | similar ruse. Two North African men, posing as journalists | from "Arabic News International," had been requesting an | interview with Massoud since late August. Ahmad Jamsheed, | Massoud's secretary, said that by the night of September 8, | "they were so worried and excitable, they were begging us." | An interview was arranged for the following day. As it | began, a bomb hidden in the video camera exploded, killing | the two journalists. Massoud was rushed by helicopter to a | hospital in Tajikistan, but was pronounced dead on arrival | (although his death was not acknowledged until September | 15). [International Policy Institute for Counter-Terrorism, | 10/30/01 [ http://www.ict.org.il/spotlight/det.cfm?id=699 ], | Newsday, 10/26/01 [ | http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/world/ny-warpesh262431921oct26,0,6345600.story | ]] The assassination is widely believed to have been timed | to remove the Taliban's most popular and respected opponent | in anticipation of the backlash that would occur after the | 9/11 attacks. [BBC, 9/10/01 [ | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1535249.stm ], | BBC, 9/10/01 (B) [ | http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/south_asia/1534629.stm ], | Time, 8/4/02 [ | http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101020812/story.html ], St. | Petersburg Times, 9/9/02 [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/09/911/The_man_who_would_hav.shtml | ]] The Northern Alliance blamed al-Qaeda and the ISI, | Pakistan's secret service, for the attacks. [Radio Free | Europe, 9/10/01 [ | http://www.rferl.org/nca/features/2001/09/10092001133121.asp | ], Newsday, 9/15/01 [ | http://www.newsday.com/ny-woafgh152367620sep15.story ], | Reuters, 10/4/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/reuters100401.html | ]] | | Nearly three hours after the incident at the Colony, another | Longboat Key resident reported a run-in with possibly the | same men. At about 8:50 (when reports of the first World | Trade Center crash were first broadcast), while standing on | the Sarasota bay front waiting for the presidential | motorcade to pass by, this man saw two Middle Eastern men in | a dilapidated van "screaming out the windows 'Down with | Bush' and raising their fists in the air." The FBI | questioned the man, but it's not known if this was the same | van that had visited the Colony. [Longboat Observer, 9/26/01 | [ http://www.longboatobserver.com/showarticle.asp?ai=1874 ]] | | Later on the morning of September 11, the Secret Service | searched a Sarasota apartment looking for further | corroboration of Zainlabdeen Omer's report of an | assassination threat. Three Sudanese men were questioned for | about ten hours. The Secret Service also raided a beauty | supply store in Sarasota, whose owner, identified as | "Hakim," told the agents that "Ghandi" was a member of the | Sudanese People's Liberation Army, a group fighting against | the fundamentalist Muslim government in Sudan. [Hopsicker, | 7/22/02 [ http://www.madcowprod.com/index29.html ]] | | Monica Yadav of Sarasota's ABC News 40 reported that a few | days after the Secret Service visit, the beauty supply store | was closed up and Hakim was long gone. Yadav also learned | that Zainlabdeen Omer had suddenly quit his jobs and vacated | his apartment. "All I know is he can't leave town," a friend | of Omer's told Yadav. "Omer got in a lot of trouble with the | law." The Special Agent in charge of the Presidential detail | in Sarasota told Yadav that Bush was never in any danger and | the various warnings and possible terrorist connections were | all "just a coincidence." [Hopsicker, 7/22/02 [ | http://www.madcowprod.com/index29.html ]] Yet, as we will | see below, there are more details of a threat against Bush | before he left Sarasota. | | | Bush Is Briefed as the Hijackings Begin | | After his jog, Bush showered, then sat down for his daily | intelligence briefing around 8 a.m. "The President's | briefing appears to have included some reference to the | heightened terrorist risk reported throughout the summer, | but contained nothing specific, severe or imminent enough to | necessitate a call to [National Security Advisor] | Condoleezza Rice." [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] | | While Bush was being briefed, the planes that would be | hijacked began taking off. American Airlines Flight 11 was | first, leaving Boston's Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. The | others soon followed, except for United Flight 93, scheduled | to leave at 8:01, but which was delayed on the runway for | about 40 minutes. [Boston Globe, 11/23/01 [ | http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm | ]] (For more information on the four flights, see Flight 11 | [ http://cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/flight11.html | ], Flight 175 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/flight175.html | ], Flight 77 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/flight77.html | ], Flight 93 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/flight93.html | ].) | | At approximately 8:13, Flight 11 was instructed by air | traffic controllers at the FAA's Boston Center, in Nashua, | New Hampshire, to climb to 35,000 feet. The plane did not | obey the order and its transponder was turned off. Air | traffic control manager Glenn Michael said, "we considered | it at that time to be a possible hijacking." [AP, 8/12/02 [ | http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/attacks_faa.htm ], | emphasis added] According to FAA regulations, that was the | correct decision: "Consider that an aircraft emergency | exists ... when ... there is unexpected loss of radar | contact and radio communications with any ... aircraft." | [FAA Air Traffic Control Regulations, Chapter 10, Section | 2-5 [ http://www1.faa.gov/ATpubs/ATC/Chp10/atc1002.html ] ] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Air traffic controller Matt McCluskey stands in | the Boston tower where the Flight 11 hijack was first | detected. [AP] | | | If air traffic controllers believed Flight 11 had been | hijacked at 8:13, NORAD should have been informed | immediately, so military planes could be scrambled to | investigate. However, NORAD and the FAA both claimed NORAD | was not informed until 8:40 - 27 minutes later. [NORAD, | 9/18/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/norad091801.html | ], AP, 8/12/02 [ | http://www.boston.com/news/daily/12/attacks_faa.htm ], AP, | 8/19/02 [ | http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/america_at_war/article/0,1426,MCA_945_1340414,00.html | ], Newsday, 9/10/02 [ | http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liair102918021sep10.story | ]; one NORAD employee said it took place at 8:31, ABC News, | 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] Indeed, before contacting NORAD, Boston air traffic | controllers watched Flight 11 make an unexpected 100-degree | turn and head south toward New York City [Christian Science | Monitor, 9/13/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/csmonitor091301.html | ]], told other controllers of the hijacking at 8:25 | [Guardian, 10/17/01 [ | http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,575518,00.html | ]], continued to hear highly suspicious dialogue from the | cockpit (such as, "Nobody move, please, we are going back to | the airport. Don't try to make any stupid moves") [Guardian, | 10/17/01 [ | http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,575518,00.html | ], New York Times, 10/16/01 [ | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/national/16FLIGHT11-TEXT.html | ]], and even asked the pilots of Flight 175 to scan the | skies for the errant plane. [Guardian, 10/17/01 [ | http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,575518,00.html | ], Boston Globe, 11/23/01 [ | http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm | ]] | | Is NORAD's claim credible? If so, the air traffic | controllers (including Mr. Michael) should have been fired | and subject to possible criminal charges for their inaction. | To date, however, there has been no word of any person being | disciplined at any institution at any level for what | happened on 9/11. | | If NORAD's claim is false, and it was indeed informed within | the time frame outlined in FAA regulations that Flight 11 | may have been hijacked, that would mean NORAD did absolutely | nothing for almost thirty minutes while a hijacked | commercial airliner flew off course through some of the most | congested airspace in the world. Presumably, that would | warrant some very serious charges. Again, no one associated | with NORAD or the FAA has been punished. | | According to phone calls made by fight attendants Betty Ong | and Amy Sweeney, the hijackers had stabbed and killed at | least one passenger and two flight attendants by about 8:21. | [ABC News, 7/18/02 [ | http://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/DailyNews/primetime_flightattendants_020718.html | ], Boston Globe, 11/23/01 [ | http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm | ], AP, 10/5/01 [ | http://multimedia.belointeractive.com/attack/investigation/1005hijackercar.html | ], Los Angeles Times, 9/20/01 [ | http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-092001hijack.story | ]] (One hijacker may have been riding in the cockpit and | begun the hijacking earlier.) After 8:21, both women | apparently remained on the phone with American Airlines' | headquarters for 25 minutes, until their plane crashed into | the World Trade Center's North Tower. [ABC News, 7/18/02 [ | http://abcnews.go.com/sections/primetime/DailyNews/primetime_flightattendants_020718.html | ], AP, 10/5/01 [ | http://multimedia.belointeractive.com/attack/investigation/1005hijackercar.html | ]] These calls make NORAD's supposed ignorance of a crisis | even more dubious. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush's motorcade arrives at Booker Elementary. | [A still from Booker video] | | | Bush Leaves for Booker Elementary | | Around the same time the Flight 11 hijackers were stabbing | passenger Daniel Lewin - at 8:20 a.m. - Bush's briefing | ended and he said good-bye to the Colony's general manager. | [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] The first event on Bush's schedule was what is known as a | "soft event" -- a photo-op with children at Emma Booker | Elementary School - promoting his proposed education bill. | [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/11/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/sarasotaheraldtribune091101.html | ]] After spending about 20 minutes with the children, Bush | was scheduled to give a short press conference at about | 9:30. [White House, 9/7/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/printi20010907-1.html | ], Federal News Service, 9/10/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/federalnewsservice091001.html | ]] | | Accounts of when Bush's motorcade left for the school vary | from 8:30 to 8:39. [8:30, Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ], | 8:35, Sarasota Magazine, 9/19/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/Pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ], 8:39, Washington Times, 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ]] | One account has the Bush party leave the Colony suite at | 8:30 and drive away at 8:39. Whenever he left, the motorcade | traveled quickly: "The police shut down traffic in both | directions, leaving roads utterly deserted for Bush's long | motorcade, which barreled along at 40 mph, running red | lights with impunity." [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism | - From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, | pp. 37-38] At 40 mph, it would take about 14 minutes to | travel the nine-mile distance to the school. Several | accounts say the journey took about 20 minutes [New York | Times, 9/16/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091601b.html | ], St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/02 (B) [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ], MSNBC, 10/29/02 [ | http://www.msnbc.com/news/827074.asp?0cl=c2 ]], which means | that Bush arrived shortly before 9:00. [8:46, ABC News, | 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ], 8:55, Washington Times, 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ], | 8:55, Sarasota Magazine, 9/19/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/Pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ], "just before 9:00," Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/16/wbush16.xml | ], "shortly before 9:00," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sarasotaheraldtribune091002.html | ], "just before 9:00," New York Times, 9/16/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091601b.html | ], 9:00, Albuquerque Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/albuquerquetribune091002.html | ]] | | | When Did Bush First Learn of the Attacks? | | Why does it matter when Bush left the resort and arrived at | the school? Because this is the crucial time when Bush was | first told, or should have been told, of the attacks. | Official accounts, including the words of Bush himself, say | Bush was first told of what was happening in New York City | after he arrived at the school. [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] However, this statement does not stand up to scrutiny. | There are at least four reports that Bush was told of the | first crash before he arrived at the school. | | Two accounts explicitly state Bush was told while in the | motorcade. "The President was on Highway 301, just north of | Main Street ... [when] he received the news that a plane had | crashed in New York City." [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] (See adjacent map for the location where he is told.) | Another account states, "Bush was driving to the school in a | motorcade when the phone rang. An airline accident appeared | to have happened. He pressed on with his visit." [Observer, | 9/16/01 [ | http://www.observer.co.uk/Print/0,3858,4258186,00.html ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: In this map, the yellow star is roughly where | Bush's motorcade is when Flight 11 crashes at 8:46, and the | orange star is where he is when told about the crash a few | minutes later. [Made with Yahoo Maps] | | | The first media reports of Flight 11's crash into the World | Trade Center began around 8:48, two minutes after the crash | happened. [New York Times, 9/15/01 [ | http://college4.nytimes.com/guests/articles/2001/09/15/868107.xml | ]] CNN broke into its regular programming at that time [CNN, | 9/11/01 [ http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0109/11/bn.01.html | ]], though other networks, such as ABC, took a few more | minutes to begin reporting. [ABC, 9/14/02 [ | http://abcnews.go.com/onair/DailyNews/sept11_moments_1.html | ]] So within minutes, millions were aware of the story, yet | Bush supposedly remained unaware for about another ten | minutes. | | Claims of Bush's ignorance become harder to believe when one | learns that others in his motorcade were immediately told of | the attack. For instance, Kia Baskerville, a CBS News | producer traveling with Bush that morning, received a | message about a plane crash "as the presidential motorcade | headed to President Bush's first event." Baskerville said, | "Fifteen minutes later I was standing in a second grade | classroom [waiting for Bush's entrance]" - which means she | got the news at about 8:47 - right as the story was first | being reported. [CBS, 8/19/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/08/19/september11/printable519119.shtml | ]] A news photographer in the motorcade overheard a radio | transmission that Press Secretary Ari Fleischer would be | needed on arrival at the school to discuss reports of some | sort of crash. [Christian Science Monitor, 9/17/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/csmonitor091701.html | ]] Another account notes Fleischer got the news that the | crash had occurred "just minutes before," but notes that | Bush was not in the same car as Fleischer. [CBS, 11/1/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/29/earlyshow/leisure/books/main527361.shtml | ]] Senior presidential communications officer Thomas Herman | said, "Just as we were arriving at the school, I received a | notification from our operations center than [sic] an | airliner had struck one of the towers...." [Marist College | Magazine, Fall 2002 [ | http://www.marist.edu/magazine/fall02/securing.html ]] | | Meanwhile, CIA Director George Tenet was told of the crash | a few minutes after it happened. A messenger gave him the | news as he was eating breakfast with former Senator David | Boren in a Washington restaurant three blocks from the White | House. Boren says Tenet was told that the World Trade Center | had been attacked by an airplane: "I was struck by the fact | that [the messenger] used the word attacked." An aide then | handed a cell phone to Tenet, and Tenet made some calls, | showing that at least some at the highest levels of the Bush | administration were talking about an attack at this time. | Tenet then said to Boren, "You know, this has bin Laden's | fingerprints all over it." [ABC, 9/14/02 [ | http://abcnews.go.com/onair/DailyNews/sept11_moments_1.html | ]] | | Some people at the school also heard of the news before Bush | arrived. Around 8:50, Tampa Bay's Channel 8 reporter Jackie | Barron was on the phone with her mother, who mentioned the | first news reports. At almost the same time, Brian Goff, a | Fox reporter from Tampa, heard the same thing on his cell | phone. [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] Associated Press reporter Sonia Ross was also told of the | crash by phone from a colleague. [AP, 9/12/01 (D) [ | http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/091201/gov_0912010092.shtml | ]] Florida Congressman Dan Miller, waiting in front of the | school as part of the official greeting party, was told by | an aide about the crash at 8:55, before Bush arrived. | [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] | | Given all this, how could Bush have remained ignorant? Could | he have been out of the loop because he was in a car? No. | The previous night, Colony Resort manager Katie Klauber | Moulon toured the presidential limousine and marveled "at | all the phones and electronic equipment." [Sarasota | Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] Karl Rove, Bush's "chief political strategist," who | presumably was riding with Bush, used a wireless e-mail | device on 9/11 as well. [Newsweek, 10/14/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/newsweek101402.html | ]] There seems to have been ample opportunity and the means | to alert Bush. | | | IMAGE TEXT: White House Situation Room Director Deborah | Loewer. | | | Another Warning | | If Bush wasn't told while in his limousine, he certainly was | told immediately after he got out of it. US Navy Captain | Deborah Loewer, the director of the White House Situation | Room, was traveling in the motorcade when she received a | message from an assistant back in Washington about the first | crash. Loewer said that as soon as the car arrived at | Booker, she ran quickly over to Bush. "It's a very good | thing the Secret Service knows who I am," Loewer later said. | She told Bush that an aircraft had "impacted the World Trade | Center. This is all we know." [Catholic Telegraph, 12/7/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/catholictelegraph120701.html | ], AP, 11/26/01 [ | http://www.directsourceradio.com/links/1126200112ON.html ]] | | | | IMAGE TEXT: Flight 77's intended and actual routes. [USA | Today] Note the strange loop off course about halfway along | the route to the west, which was the first sign the plane | was hijacked. Such a large diversion is extremely uncommon, | and should have triggered an immediate fighter response. | | | Meanwhile, More Hijackings | | Even though Flight 175 left about the same time as Flight | 11, it appears to have been hijacked much later. At 8:41, | its pilot was still talking to ground control [New York | Times, 10/16/01 [ | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/national/16FLIGHT175-TEXT.html | ]], but at 8:42 it sharply veered off course, and a flight | controller noted that its transponder had been turned off | and communication cut. [Boston Globe, 11/23/01 [ | http://www.boston.com/news/packages/underattack/news/planes_reconstruction.htm | ], New York Times, 10/16/01 [ | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/10/16/national/16FLIGHT175-TEXT.html | ]] One minute later, at 8:43, NORAD was notified the plane | had been hijacked. [NORAD, 9/18/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/norad091801.html | ]] The hijackers turned the transponder back on but used a | different signal code. This allowed flight controllers to | "easily" track the plane as it flew toward New York City. | [Washington Post, 9/17/01 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=nation/specials/attacked&contentId=A41095-2001Sep16 | ]] At about 8:46, Flight 77 began to go severely off course. | According to regulations, a fighter is required to be | dispatched if a plane strays from its official course by | more than two miles or 15 degrees [MSNBC, 9/12/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/msnbc091201.html | ]]. As the adjacent map shows, Flight 77 returned to its | proper course for a time, but its last radio contact | occurred at 8:50. [Guardian, 10/17/01 [ | http://www.guardian.co.uk/wtccrash/story/0,1300,575518,00.html | ]] Supposedly, NORAD was not officially notified that Flight | 77 has been hijacked until 9:24 [NORAD, 9/18/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/norad091801.html | ]], but the New York Times reported that by around 8:50, | military officials at the Pentagon were already discussing | what to do about Flight 77. [New York Times, 9/15/01 [ | http://college4.nytimes.com/guests/articles/2001/09/15/868107.xml | ]] Note the difference in notification times: 27 minutes for | Flight 11, 1 minute for Flight 175 and 38 minutes for Flight | 77. | | Flight 93 wasn't hijacked until about 9:16, but by about | 8:50, it was clear that at least three planes had been | hijacked. Vice President Dick Cheney, speaking on NBC's Meet | the Press, said, "The Secret Service has an arrangement with | the FAA. They had open lines after the World Trade Center | was ..." [Meet the Press, 9/16/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/meetthepress091601.html | ]] Cheney never finished his sentence (interesting in itself | - did he say too much?), but it seems safe to say that his | next word would have been "hit." Cheney's statement makes it | clear the Secret Service knew the extent of the situation | well before 9:00 am. | | | An Accident? | | Intelligence agencies were suffering "warning fatigue" from | so many warnings of an al-Qaeda attack [Independent, 9/7/02 | [ | http://news.independent.co.uk/world/politics/story.jsp?story=331115 | ]], some specifically mentioning the use of hijacked | airplanes as missiles (see this essay [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essaytheytriedtowarnus.html | ] ). Bush himself was given an intelligence briefing a month | earlier entitled "Bin Laden to Strike in US," and it | contained a warning from the British government that the US | should expect multiple airline hijackings from al-Qaeda. | [Sunday Herald, 5/19/02 [ http://www.sundayherald.com/24822 | ]] So with the clear knowledge that three planes had been | hijacked, with one of them already crashed into the World | Trade Center, who would have possibly assumed that Flight | 11's crash was an accident? Yet that is precisely what the | official story claims. There are a number of different | "official" accounts, but all of them stress that Bush wasn't | told until after he arrived inside the school (contrary to | the account of Captain Loewer) and that it was assumed to be | an accident (contradicting Tenet being told that it was an | attack). | | | IMAGE TEXT: Karl Rove [Reuters], Andrew Card [AP], and Dan | Bartlett. | | | In some accounts, "President Bush had emerged from his car | and was shaking hands with local officials standing outside | the school when Chief of Staff Andrew Card sidled up to him | with the news." [CBS, 11/1/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/29/earlyshow/leisure/books/main527361.shtml | ]] Bush later recalled that it was Card who first notified | him: "'Here's what you're going to be doing; you're going to | meet so-and-so, such-and-such.' Then Andy Card said, 'By the | way, an aircraft flew into the World Trade Center.'" | [Washington Times, 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ]] | At a press conference later that day, Press Secretary Ari | Fleischer also claimed it was Andy Card who first informed | him, "as the President finished shaking hands in a hallway | of school officials." [Knoxville News Sentinel, 9/11/01 [ | http://web.knoxnews.com/web/kns/news/breaking/attack/texts/0911_0813pm.shtml | ]] | | In other accounts, it was advisor Karl Rove who first told | Bush. According to photographer Eric Draper, who was | standing nearby, Rove rushed up, took Bush aside in a | corridor inside the school and said the cause of the crash | was unclear. Bush replied, "What a horrible accident!" Bush | also suggested the pilot may have had a heart attack. [Daily | Mail, 9/8/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/dailymail090802.html | ]] Dan Bartlett, White House Communications Director, says | he was there when Bush was told: "[Bush] being a former | pilot, had kind of the same reaction, going, was it bad | weather? And I said no, apparently not." [ABC News, 9/11/02 | [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] A reporter who was standing nearby later said, "From the | demeanor of the President, grinning at the children, it | appeared that the enormity of what he had been told was | taking a while to sink in." [Daily Mail, 9/8/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/dailymail090802.html | ]] One account explicitly says that Rove told Bush the World | Trade Center had been hit by a large commercial airliner. | [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] However, Bush later remembered Rove saying it appeared to | be an accident involving a small, twin-engine plane. | [Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ], | MSNBC, 9/02 [ http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/801474.asp?cp1=1 | ]] | | In yet another account, Blake Gottesman, Bush's personal | assistant, while giving the president some final | instructions as they walked to the school, remarked, "Andy | Card says, 'By the way, an aircraft flew into the World | Trade Center.'" [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From | Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, pp. | 41-42] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Condoleezza Rice. [AP] | | | Told Again, Yet Still Clueless | | Booker principal Gwen Tose-Rigell was waiting for Bush | outside the school. "The limousine stops and the president | comes out. He walks toward me. I'm standing there in a | lineup; there are about five people. He walks over and says | he has to make a phone call, and he'll be right back." | [MSNBC, 09/02 [ | http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/801474.asp?cp1=1 ], Telegraph, | 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] The phone call was with National Security Advisor | Condoleezza Rice. From a room with secure communications, | Rice updated Bush on the situation. [Christian Science | Monitor, 9/17/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/csmonitor091701.html | ], Time, 9/12/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/time091201.html | ]] The fact that Bush immediately said he had to make an | important call strongly suggests he was told about the | situation while in the motorcade. But some accounts have | Andrew Card saying to Bush as he gets out of his limousine, | "Mr. President, you really need to take this phone call," | thereby implying that Card knows what's going on, but Bush | doesn't. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/02 (B) [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ]] | | As National Security Advisor, Rice had to have had as much | information as anyone. By the time she spoke to Bush, she | must have known that three planes had been hijacked and that | the country was under attack. We know very little about the | conversation - only that Rice later claimed, "[Bush] said, | what a terrible, it sounds like a terrible accident. Keep me | informed." [ABC News, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] One reporter noted: "Bush did not appear preoccupied | [after the phone call] . . . There was no sign that Rice | had just told [him] about the first attack [on the World | Trade Center]." [Cox News, 9/12/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/coxnews091201b.html | ]] Tose-Rigell was then summoned to a room to talk with | Bush: "He said a commercial plane has hit the World Trade | Center, and we're going to go ahead and go on, we're going | on to do the reading thing anyway." [AP, 8/19/02 (D) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/ap081902d.html | ]] | | One local reporter notes that at this point, "He could and | arguably should have left Emma E. Booker Elementary School | immediately, gotten onto Air Force One and left Sarasota | without a moment's delay ... But he didn't." [Sarasota | Herald-Tribune, 9/12/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/sarasotaheraldtribune091201b.html | ]] The only possible excuse is that Bush was completely | clueless as to what was happening. Sure enough, at a press | conference on the evening of 9/11, Press Secretary Ari | Fleischer was asked by a reporter, "And then this morning, | when Andy Card told him about the first accident, was Andy | Card or Condi Rice or any of those aware of the hijackings? | What did they know when they --" Fleischer cut in and | replied, "No, at that point they were not." [Knoxville News | Sentinel, 9/11/01 [ | http://web.knoxnews.com/web/kns/news/breaking/attack/texts/0911_0813pm.shtml | ]] So supposedly, 15 minutes after the first crash, none of | Bush's aides, not even Rice back in Washington, DC, knew a | thing about the hijackings that had been reported to NORAD | 20 minutes earlier? This simply is not plausible. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Booker Elementary School. [MSNBC] | | | Bush's Confused Recollection | | Bush's own recollection of the first crash only complicates | the picture. Less than two months after the attacks, Bush | made the preposterous claim that he had watched the first | attack as it happened on live television. This is the | seventh different account of how Bush learned about the | first crash (in his limousine, from Loewer, from Card, from | Rove, from Gottesman, from Rice, from television). On | December 4, 2001, Bush was asked: "How did you feel when you | heard about the terrorist attack?" Bush replied, "I was | sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an | airplane hit the tower - the TV was obviously on. And I used | to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible | pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I | was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think | about it." [White House, 12/4/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011204-17.html | ]] | | There was no film footage of the first attack until at least | the following day, and Bush didn't have access to a | television until 15 or so minutes later. [Washington Times, | 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ]] | The Boston Herald later noted, "Think about that. Bush's | remark implies he saw the first plane hit the tower. But we | all know that video of the first plane hitting did not | surface until the next day. Could Bush have meant he saw the | second plane hit - which many Americans witnessed? No, | because he said that he was in the classroom when Card | whispered in his ear that a second plane hit." [Boston | Herald, 10/22/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/bostonherald102202.html | ]] Bush's recollection has many precise details. Is he | simply confused? It's doubly strange why his advisors didn't | correct him or - at the very least - stop him from repeating | the same story only four weeks later. [White House, 1/5/02 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020105-3.html | ], CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] On January 5, 2002, Bush stated: "Well, I was sitting in | a schoolhouse in Florida ... and my Chief of Staff -- well, | first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen | this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set | on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was | amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And | something was wrong with the plane..." [White House, 1/5/02 | [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020105-3.html | ]] | | Unfortunately, Bush has never been asked - not even once - | to explain these statements. His memory not only contradicts | every single media report, it also contradicts what he said | that evening. In his speech to the nation that evening, Bush | said: "Immediately following the first attack, I implemented | our government's emergency response plans." [White House, | 9/11/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/whitehouse091101.html | ]] It's not known what these emergency plans were, because | neither Bush nor anyone in his administration mentioned this | immediate response again. Implementing "emergency response | plans" seems to completely contradict Bush's "by the way" | recollection of a small airplane accident. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush meets teacher Sandra Kay Daniels. [A still | from Booker video] | | | Inside the Classroom and the Second Plane Crash | | Shortly after his call with National Security Advisor Rice, | Bush entered Sandra Kay Daniels's second-grade class for a | photo-op to promote Bush's education policies. [Daily Mail, | 9/8/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/dailymail090802.html | ]] The event was to begin precisely at 9:00, but the call | pushed it back to about 9:03. [Washington Times, 10/8/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021008-21577384.htm ], | Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Daily Mail, 9/8/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/dailymail090802.html | ]] Numerous reporters who were traveling with the president, | as well as members of the local media, watched from the back | of the room. [AP, 8/19/02 (D) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/ap081902d.html | ]] Altogether there were about 150 people in the room, only | 16 of them students. Bush was introduced to the children and | then posed for a number of pictures. Daniels then led the | students through some reading exercises (video footage shows | this lasted about three minutes). [Salon, 9/12/01 (B) [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/%20 | ]] Bush later related what he was thinking at the time: "I | was concentrating on the program at this point, thinking | about what I was going to say [about the plane crash]. | Obviously, I felt it was an accident. I was concerned about | it, but there were no alarm bells." [Washington Times, | 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ]] | | At 9:03, Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the | World Trade Center. News of this traveled extremely rapidly. | In fact, some of Bush's Secret Service agents watched the | second crash live on television in an adjacent room. | [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sarasotaheraldtribune091002.html | ]] Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, in the same room as Bush | but not near him, immediately received the news on his | pager. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] Other pagers were going off as well. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Andrew Card tells Bush the second tower has | been hit. [White House via AP] See a video of Bush's | reaction here: [ABC, 9/14/02 [ | http://abcnews.go.com/onair/DailyNews/sept11_moments_1.html | ]] | | | Chief of Staff Andrew Card was in a nearby room when he | heard the news. He waited until there was a pause in the | reading drill to walk in and tell Bush. [Washington Times, | 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ], | Washington Times, 10/8/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021008-21577384.htm ]] | The children were getting their books from under their seats | to read a story together when Card came in. [Daily Mail, | 9/8/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/dailymail090802.html | ]] Card whispered to Bush: "A second plane hit the second | tower. America is under attack." [San Francisco Chronicle, | 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sfchronicle091102.html | ]] Another account has Card saying: "A second plane has hit | the World Trade Center. America is under attack." | [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] Accounts vary as to when Card gave Bush the news. Some | say 9:05 [Salon 9/11/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/print.html | ], New York Times, 9/16/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091601b.html | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Albuquerque Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/albuquerquetribune091002.html | ]], and some say 9:07. [Washington Post, 9/11/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/wpost091101.htm | ], Washington Times, 10/8/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021008-21577384.htm ]] | ABC News reporter Ann Compton, who was in the room, said she | was surprised by the interruption and "wrote [the time] down | in my reporter's notebook, by my watch, 9:07 a.m." [ABC | News, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Another picture of Andrew Card telling Bush the | second tower has been hit. [White House via AP] | | | The Reaction - Or Lack of One | | Descriptions vary greatly as to how Bush responded to the | news. It is said he "blanched" [Richmond Times-Dispatch, | 10/1/02], "the color drained from the president's face" [AP, | 9/12/01 (D) [ | http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/091201/gov_0912010092.shtml | ]], he "wore a bemused smile" [Orlando Sentinel, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecbush121091201sep12,0,2812270.story?coll=orl-home-headlines | ]], "became visibly tense and serious" [Time, 9/12/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/time091201.html | ]], and so on. Watch the video and draw your own conclusions | (the 11-minute video can be viewed at the Center for | Cooperative Research [ | http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/bushbookerelementaryschool.html | ], Buzzflash [ | http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/2002/06/12_Bookerlinks.html | ], Global Free Press [ | http://globalfreepress.com/911/mov/scsb.bush.mov ], The | Emperor's New Clothes [ | http://emperor.vwh.net/bushvideo/scsb.bush.mov ], or Liberty | DYNU [ http://liberty.dynu.com:8080/bcbs.bush.mov ] ). Bush | later recalled his own reaction: "I am very aware of the | cameras. I'm trying to absorb that knowledge. I have nobody | to talk to. I'm sitting in the midst of a classroom with | little kids, listening to a children's story and I realize | I'm the Commander in Chief and the country has just come | under attack." [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], CBS, 11/1/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/10/29/earlyshow/leisure/books/main527361.shtml | ]] Asked again what he thought after he heard the news, Bush | said, "We're at war and somebody has dared attack us and | we're going to do something about it. I realized I was in a | unique setting to receive a message that somebody attacked | us . . . [I]t became evident that we were, you know, that | the world had changed." [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] | | So what did the Commander in Chief do with the knowledge | that the United States was under attack? | | He did nothing. | | Bush did not say one word. He did not ask Card any | questions. He did not give any orders. He did not know who | (or which country) was attacking, whether there would be | more attacks, what military plans had been taken, what | military actions should be taken - indeed, he knew virtually | nothing about what was going on outside the room. He just | sat there. Bush later recalled: "There was no time for | discussion or anything." [Fighting Back: The War on | Terrorism - From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill | Sammon, 10/02, pp. 83-84] Even stranger, as one newspaper | put it, although the nation was under terrorist attack, "for | some reason, Secret Service agents [did] not bustle him | away." [Globe and Mail, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.globeandmail.com/special/attack/pages/where_article11.html | ]] | | Military pilots must have "permission from the White House | because only the president has the authority to order a | civilian aircraft shot down." [CNN, 10/26/99 [ | http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/26/shootdown/ ]] But if | retaliatory strikes needed to be authorized, Bush was not | available. If one of the planes had to be shot down to save | more lives on the ground, Bush was not available. Although | several fighters had been dispatched to defend New York | City, the pilot of one of the planes flying to catch Flight | 175 later noted that it wouldn't have mattered if he caught | up with it, because only Bush could order a shootdown, and | Bush could not be reached in the classroom. [Cape Cod Times, | 8/21/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/capecodtimes082102.html | ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush not long after being told of the second | plane crash. [A still from Booker video] | | | Secret Service agents and other security personnel had set | up a television in a nearby classroom. They turned on the TV | just as Flight 175 crashed into the World Trade Center. | According to Sarasota County Sheriff Bill Balkwill, who was | in the room, a Marine responsible for carrying Bush's phone | immediately said to Balkwill, "We're out of here. Can you | get everyone ready?" [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sarasotaheraldtribune091002.html | ]] But he must have been overruled by someone, because Bush | did not leave. | | Meanwhile, Secret Service agents burst into Vice President | Cheney's White House office. They carried him under his arms | - nearly lifting him off the ground - and propelled him down | the steps into the White House basement and through a long | tunnel toward an underground bunker. Accounts of when this | happened vary greatly, from 9:06 [New York Times, 9/16/01 | (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091601b.html | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/16/wbush16.xml | ]] to after 9:30. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ], Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | Cheney's own account is vague and contradictory. [Meet the | Press, 9/16/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/meetthepress091601.html | ]] The one eyewitness account, by White House photographer | David Bohrer, said it happened just after 9:00. [ABC, | 9/14/02 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091402.html | ]] It's easy to see why the White House would have wanted | this event placed at a later time (after Bush's initial | statement to the nation rather than after the second crash) | to avoid the obvious question: if Cheney was immediately | evacuated, why wasn't Bush? | | | The Photo-Op Goes On | | After Card told Bush about the second plane and quickly | left, the classroom was silent for about 30 seconds or so. | [Tampa Tribune, 9/1/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/tampatribune090102.html | ]] The children were about to take turns reading from a | story called The Pet Goat. [AFP, 9/7/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/afp090702.html | ]] Bush picked up the book and began to read with the | children. [Tampa Tribune, 9/1/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/tampatribune090102.html | ]] In unison, the children read out loud, "The - Pet - Goat. | A - girl - got - a - pet - goat. But - the - goat - did - | some - things - that - made - the - girl's - dad - mad." | Bush mostly listened, but occasionally asked the children a | few questions to encourage them. [Washington Times, 10/7/02 | [ http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ]] | At one point he said, "Really good readers, whew! ... These | must be sixth-graders!" [Time, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,174655-1,00.html | ]] | | Who was really in control? Certainly not Bush. In the back | of the room, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer caught Bush's eye | and held up a pad of paper for him to see, with "DON'T SAY | ANYTHING YET" written on it in big block letters. | [Washington Times, 10/7/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021007-85016651.htm ]] | Some person or people had overruled the security who wanted | Bush evacuated immediately, even as Vice President Cheney | was taken from his White House office to a safe location. | Bush's security overruled Bush on security matters later in | the day on Air Force One, but who overruled them that | morning? | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush with his Pet Goat book in Sandra Kay | Daniels's elementary school classroom. [Eric Draper] | | | When Did Bush Leave the Classroom? | | Nearly every news account fails to mention when Bush left | the classroom after being told America was under attack. | Three mention 9:12 a.m. [New York Times, 9/16/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091601b.html | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Daily Mail, 9/8/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/dailymail090802.html | ]] Remaining in the classroom for approximately five to | seven minutes is inexcusable, but the video of Bush in the | classroom suggests he stayed longer than that. The video | contains several edits and ends before Bush leaves the room, | so it also doesn't tell us exactly how long he stayed. One | newspaper suggested he remained "for eight or nine minutes" | - sometime between 9:13 and 9:16, since Card's arrival is | uncertain. [Tampa Tribune, 9/1/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/tampatribune090102.html | ]] | | When Bush finally did leave, he didn't act like a man in a | hurry. In fact, he was described as "openly stretching out | the moment." [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From | Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, p. 89] | When the lesson was over, Bush said to the children: "Hoo! | These are great readers. Very impressive! Thank you all so | much for showing me your reading skills. I bet they practice | too. Don't you? Reading more than they watch TV? Anybody do | that? Read more than you watch TV? [Hands go up] Oh that's | great! Very good. Very important to practice! Thanks for | having me. Very impressed." [Transcribed from Booker video, | Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From Inside the Bush | White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, pp. 89-90] Bush still | continued to talk, advising the children to stay in school | and be good citizens. [Tampa Tribune, 9/1/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/tampatribune090102.html | ], St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/02 (B) [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ]] One student asked Bush a question, and he gave a quick | response on his education policy. [New York Post, 9/12/02 [ | http://www.nypost.com/09112002/56883.htm ]] | | The only source to describe what happened next is Fighting | Back by Bill Sammon. Publishers Weekly described Sammon's | book as an "inside account of the Bush administration's | reaction to 9-11 [and] a breathless, highly complimentary | portrait of the president [showing] the great merit and | unwavering moral vision of his inner circle." [Publisher's | Weekly, 10/15/02 [ | http://publishersweekly.reviewsnews.com/index.asp?layout=article&articleid=CA251932#fighting | ]] Sammon's conservative perspective makes his account of | Bush's behavior at the end of the photo-op all the more | surprising. Bush is described as smiling and chatting with | the children "as if he didn't have a care in the world" and | "in the most relaxed manner imaginable." White House aide | Gordon Johndroe, then came in as he usually does at the end | of press conferences, and said, "Thank you, press. If you | could step out the door we came in, please." A reporter then | asked, "Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of the | plane crash in New York? Is there anything...", But Bush | interrupted, and no doubt recalling his order, "DON'T SAY | ANYTHING YET," Bush responded, "I'll talk about it later." | But still the president did not leave. "He stepped forward | and shook hands with [classroom teacher] Daniels, slipping | his left hand behind her in another photo-op pose. He was | taking his good old time. ... Bush lingered until the press | was gone." [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From | Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, p. 90] | | Think about that: rather than rush out of the room at the | first chance, Bush actually stayed until after all the | dozens of reporters had left! Having just been told of a | Pearl Harbor-type attack on US soil, Bush was indeed "openly | stretching out the moment." But he still wasn't done. Bush | then turned to principal Tose-Rigell, who was waiting to | take him to the library for his speech on education. He | explained to her about the terror attacks and why he had to | leave. [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From Inside | the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, p. 90] Finally, | he went to an empty classroom next door where his staff was | based. [ABC News, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] Given that Bush's program was supposed to end at 9:20, he | left the classroom only a couple of minutes earlier than | planned, if even that. [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/16/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/sarasotaheraldtribune091601.html | ]] | | | Why Stay? | | The reason given why Bush didn't leave as soon as Card told | him the news is: "Without all the facts at hand, George Bush | had no intention of upsetting the schoolchildren who had | come to read for him." [MSNBC, 10/29/02 [ | http://www.msnbc.com/news/827074.asp?0cl=c2 ]] Advisor Karl | Rove said, "The President thought for a second or two about | getting up and walking out of the room. But the drill was | coming to a close and he didn't want to alarm the children." | [ABC, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] This excuse is patently absurd, given the security risks | and importance of Bush being informed and making decisions | as Commander in Chief. Nor was the drill coming to a close: | one drill had ended and another was about to begin - it was | a perfect time to simply say, "Excuse me" and leave the | room. Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport is only 3½ | miles away; in fact, Booker was chosen as the location for | the photo-op partly because of its proximity to the airport. | [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/12/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sarasotaheraldtribune091202.html | ]] Hijackers could have crashed a plane into Bush's | publicized location and his security would have been | completely helpless to stop it. Remember, Bush's schedule | had been announced on September 7 and two of the 9/11 | hijackers came to Sarasota that same day. [White House, | 9/7/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010907-1.html | ], Longboat Observer, 11/21/01 [ | http://www.longboatobserver.com/showarticle.asp?ai=2172 ], | Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | Furthermore, the Secret Service was aware of the strange | request for an interview a few hours earlier and the | previous night's report of a person in town who had made | violent threats against Bush. | | Indeed, a few days after 9/11, Sarasota's main newspaper | reported, "Sarasota barely skirted its own disaster. As it | turns out, terrorists targeted the president and Air Force | One on Tuesday, maybe even while they were on the ground in | Sarasota and certainly not long after. The Secret Service | learned of the threat just minutes after Bush left Booker | Elementary." [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/16/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/sarasotaheraldtribune091601.html | ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush in a holding room before giving his | speech. Communications director Dan Bartlett points to the | TV, and the clock reads 9:25. [White House] | | | Bush Lingers On | | Once he was out of the classroom, did Bush immediately leave | Booker? No. He stayed in the adjacent room with his staff, | calling Vice President Cheney and National Security Advisor | Rice, and preparing a speech. [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], St. Petersburg Times 9/8/02 [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ]] Incredibly, even as uncertain information began to | surface, suggesting that more planes had been hijacked | (eventually 11 planes would be suspected) [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]], Bush was allowed to make his remarks at 9:30 - exactly | the time and place stated on his advance schedule. [Federal | News Service, 9/10/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/federalnewsservice091001.html | ], see the transcript of his speech here [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911.html | ]] Why hasn't Bush's security staff been criticized for | their completely inexplicable decision to stay at the | school? And why didn't Bush's concern for the children | extend to not making them and the rest of the 200 or so | people at the school terrorist targets? | | | IMAGE TEXT: President Bush speaks at 9:29 in the library of | Booker Elementary School. [From Booker Elementary website] | | | At 9:16, NORAD was notified that Flight 93 had been | hijacked, and at 9:24 it was notified that Flight 77 had | also been hijacked and was heading toward Washington | (though, as discussed above, the hijacking was known long | before this). [NORAD, 9/18/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/norad091801.html | ]] No media report has suggested that the possible shooting | down of hijacked airplanes was discussed at this time, | however. It appears the discussion was not broached until | after 9:55. [Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ], | CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] At about 9:26, it was either FAA head Jane Garvey or FAA | administrator Ben Sliney (and not Bush) who decided to halt | all airplane takeoffs in the US. [Time, 9/14/01 [ | http://www.time.com/time/nation/article/0,8599,174912,00.html | ], USA Today, 8/13/02 [ | http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-08-12-clearskies_x.htm | ]] Additionally, no evidence has appeared suggesting Bush | had a role in ordering any fighters into the skies. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush talks on a cell phone on the way to the | Sarasota airport. Andrew Card is in front of him. [AP] | | | Finally, to the Airport | | By 9:35, Bush's motorcade was ready to take him to the | Sarasota airport where Air Force One was waiting. | [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] At 9:37, Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon. Bush was | informed as his motorcade got near the airport. (Apparently | Bush could be reached by phone in his limousine at this | time.) [Washington Times, 10/8/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021008-21577384.htm ], | Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/16/wbush16.xml | ]] The motorcade arrived around 9:43 and pulled up close to | Air Force One. Security conducted an extra-thorough search | of all the baggage for the other passengers, delaying | takeoff until 9:55. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/02 (B) [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ]] | | A year later, Chief of Staff Andrew Card recalled that, "As | we were heading to Air Force One... [we] learned, what | turned out to be a mistake, but we learned that the Air | Force One package could in fact be a target." [MSNBC, 9/9/02 | [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/msnbc090902.html | ]] This echoes the report mentioned above that "terrorists | targeted the president and Air Force One... maybe even while | they were on the ground in Sarasota ..." [Sarasota | Herald-Tribune, 9/16/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/sarasotaheraldtribune091601.html | ]] This only increases the strangeness that Bush wasn't | immediately evacuated at 9:03 as some of his security had | recommended. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Dogs thoroughly check luggage underneath Air | Force One. [AP] | | | Bush spoke by telephone to Cheney as the motorcade raced to | the airport. [St. Petersburg Times 9/8/02 [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ]] Supposedly, during this call Bush issued an order to | ground all flights within the country. [Sarasota Magazine, | 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] The FAA did shut down the nationwide air traffic system | at around 9:45. [MSNBC, 9/22/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/msnbc092201.html | ], CNN, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ], New | York Times, 9/12/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/nyt091201.html | ], Newsday, 9/10/02 [ | http://www.newsday.com/news/local/longisland/ny-liair102918021sep10.story | ], Washington Post, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/articles/timeline.html | ]] But other reports state that it was FAA administrator Ben | Sliney who made the decision without consulting anyone. [USA | Today, 8/13/02 [ | http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-08-12-clearskies_x.htm | ], USA Today, 8/13/02 (B) [ | http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-08-12-hijacker-daytwo_x.htm | ]] For some time it was claimed that Transportation | Secretary Norman Mineta had made the decision, but it was | later revealed that Mineta didn't even know of the order | until 15 minutes later. Apparently, "FAA officials had | begged [the reporter] to maintain the fiction." [Slate, | 4/2/02 [ http://slate.msn.com/id/2063935/ ]] The idea that | Bush made the decision is even less plausible. In fact, | there is no evidence at all to suggest that Bush had by this | point made even one decision relevant to his security or | that of the country. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Where is the security covering Bush as he | leaves Sarasota? Is a good public relations photo more | important than security, minutes after the Secret Service | was told Bush could be attacked as he left Sarasota? [AP] | | | Air Force One Takes Off Without Fighter Escort | | Air Force One took off at either 9:55 or 9:57 a.m. [CNN, | 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ], New | York Times, 9/12/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/nyt091201.html | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ], Washington Post, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/articles/timeline.html | ], Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ], | AP, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/091201/gov_0912010092.shtml | ]] Communications Director Dan Bartlett remembered, "It was | like a rocket. For a good ten minutes, the plane was going | almost straight up." [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] | | But, incredibly, Air Force One took off without any military | fighter protection. This defies all explanation. Recall that | at 9:03 a.m., one of Bush's security people said, "We're out | of here. Can you get everyone ready?" [Sarasota | Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/sarasotaheraldtribune091002.html | ]] Certainly, long before Bush left the elementary school at | 9:35 a.m., arrangements would have been made to get fighters | to Sarasota as soon as possible. Not only would it have been | advisable to protect Air Force One, but it would have been | only sensible as another way to protect Bush on the ground | from terrorist attack even before he left the school. In | Florida, there were two bases said to have fighters on | 24-hour alert, capable of getting airborne in approximately | five minutes. Homestead Air Station, 185 miles from | Sarasota, and Tyndall Air Station, 235 miles from Sarasota; | both had the highest readiness status on 9/11. Presumably, | as happened at other bases across the country, just after | 9:03, base commanders throughout Florida would have | immediately begun preparations to get their fighters ready. | [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 6/3/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/aviationweekspacetechnology060302.html | ]] Fighters left bases on the same alert status and traveled | similar distances to reach Washington, DC, well before | 10:00, so why were the fighters delayed in Florida? | [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/02 [ | http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst.jsp?view=story&id=news/aw090971.xml | ]] | | Military planes should have been over Sarasota by the time | Bush left Booker at 9:35 a.m. Yet, as will be described | below, more than one hour after Air Force One took off, | there were still no fighters protecting it! | | | IMAGE TEXT: Air Force One departs Sarasota. [AP] | | | An administration official claimed, "The object seemed to be | simply to get the President airborne and out of the way." | [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] But without fighter cover this makes little sense, | because the sky was arguably more dangerous than the ground. | At the time, there were still over 3,000 planes in the air | over the US [USA Today, 8/13/02 (B) [ | http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-08-12-hijacker-daytwo_x.htm | ]], including about half of the planes in the region of | Florida where Bush was. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/7/02 [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/07/911/In_chaos__TIA_tower_c.shtml | ]] Recall, too, that the Secret Service learned of a threat | to Bush and Air Force One "just minutes after Bush left | Booker Elementary." Karl Rove, also on Air Force One, | confirmed that a dangerous threat was known before the plane | took off: "They also made it clear they wanted to get us up | quickly, and they wanted to get us to a high altitude, | because there had been a specific threat made to Air Force | One.... A declaration that Air Force One was a target, and | said in a way that they called it credible." [New Yorker, | 10/1/01 [ | http://www.newyorker.com/fact/content/?011001fa_FACT1 ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Cheney, right and sitting, talks to Bush. | Condoleezza Rice, center and sitting, and others, look on. | [White House] | | | Shoot Down Authorized - Too Late | | Once he was airborne, Bush talked to Cheney again and Cheney | recommended that Bush "order our aircraft to shoot down | these airliners that have been hijacked." [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] "I said, 'You bet,'" Bush later recalled. 'We had a | little discussion, but not much.'" [Newsday, 9/23/01 [ | http://www.newsday.com/ny-uspent232380681sep23.story ], USA | Today, 9/16/01 [ | http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2001/09/16/pentagon-timeline.htm | ], Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | However, even though only Bush had the authority to order a | passenger plane shot down [CNN, 10/26/99 [ | http://www.cnn.com/US/9910/26/shootdown/ ]], the order was | apparently given before Bush discussed it with Cheney. One | flight commander recalled, "After the Pentagon was hit, we | were told there were more [airliners] coming. Not 'might | be'; they were coming." A call from someone in the White | House declared the Washington area "a free-fire zone," | meaning, according to one of the responding fighter pilots, | "we were given authority to use force, if the situation | required it." [Aviation Week and Space Technology, 9/9/02 [ | http://www.aviationnow.com/avnow/news/channel_awst.jsp?view=story&id=news/aw090971.xml | ]] | | Extraordinary times can demand extraordinary measures, so | having someone other than Bush give this order could be | understandable. But Bush was available and talking to people | like Cheney after 9:30 a.m. Around this time, officials | feared that as many as 11 airliners had been hijacked [CBS, | 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]], so why weren't Bush and Cheney even considering this | course of action until about 10:00 a.m.? Was Bush being kept | out of the loop in reality, or only in the media reports? | | Is the lateness of this discussion merely political spin to | reduce speculation that Flight 93 had been shot down? Flight | 93 was still in the air after the Bush authorization, and | fighters were given orders to shoot it down if necessary. | [ABC News, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ]] NORAD knew at 9:16 a.m. that Flight 93 was hijacked | [NORAD, 9/18/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/norad091801.html | ]], but supposedly fighters weren't scrambled until minutes | before it crashed at 10:06 a.m. | | | Going Nowhere as Threats Increase | | Shortly after takeoff, Cheney apparently informed Bush of "a | credible threat" to Air Force One. [AP, 9/13/01 (D) [ | http://www.nandotimes.com/special_reports/terrorism/attack/story/78392p-1097917c.html | ]] US Representative Adam Putnam "had barely settled into | his seat on Air Force One ... when he got the news that | terrorists apparently had set their sights on the plane." | [Orlando Sentinel, 9/14/01 [ | http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/nationworld/orl-asecbushplane14091401sep14,0,452006.story | ]] The Secret Service had received an anonymous call: "Air | Force One is next." The caller allegedly knew the agency's | code words relating to Air Force One procedures. Pilot | Colonel Mark Tillman was told of the threat and he asked | that an armed guard be stationed at the cockpit door. The | Associated Press reported that the threat came "within the | same hour" as the Pentagon crash (i.e., before 10:00 a.m., | roughly when the plane took off). [AP, 9/13/01 (D) [ | http://www.nandotimes.com/special_reports/terrorism/attack/story/78392p-1097917c.html | ]] Details suggest this threat was not the same as the | earlier one, but it's hard to know for sure. | | In his comments at Booker, Bush said he was immediately | flying back to Washington, but soon after takeoff, he, | Cheney and the Secret Service began arguing whether it was | safe to fly back to the capital. [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] Andrew Card told Bush, "We've got to let the dust settle | before we go back." [St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/02 [ | http://www.sptimes.com/2002/09/08/911/The_drama_in_Sarasota.shtml | ]] The plane apparently stayed over Sarasota until the | argument was settled. Accounts differ, but until about 10:35 | a.m. [CBS, 9/11/02 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/cbs091102b.html | ], Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 | ]], Air Force One "appeared to be going nowhere. The | journalists on board -- all of whom were barred from | communicating with their offices -- sensed that the plane | was flying in big, slow circles." [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] | | Cheney apparently called Bush again at 10:32 a.m., and told | him of another threat to Air Force One. Within minutes, the | argument was over, and the plane turned away from Washington | and flew to Louisiana instead. [Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | Bush recalled: "I wanted to come back to Washington, but the | circumstances were such that it was just impossible for the | Secret Service or the national security team to clear the | way for Air Force One to come back." [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] Given that the rocket-like takeoff was due to a threat, | this must have been another threat, possibly even a third | threat. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Colonel Mark Tillman in the cockpit of Air | Force One. [CBS] | | | Around 10:55 a.m., there was yet another threat to Air Force | One. The pilot, Colonel Mark Tillman, said he was warned | that a suspect airliner was dead ahead. "Coming out of | Sarasota there was one call that said there was an airliner | off our nose that they did not have contact with." Tillman | took evasive action, pulling his plane even higher above | normal traffic. [CBS, 9/11/02 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/cbs091102b.html | ]] Reporters on board noticed the rise in elevation. [Dallas | Morning News, 8/28/02 [ | http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dallas/nation/9-11/stories/082802dn911bookexceprt.d52f7b93.html | ], Salon, 9/12/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/ | ]] The report was apparently a false alarm, but it shows the | folly of having Bush fly without a fighter escort. | | | Were There Threats to Air Force One? | | The threat or threats to Air Force One were announced on | September 12, after mounting criticism that Bush was out of | sight in Louisiana and Nebraska during most of the day and | did not return to Washington until 10 hours after the | attacks. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there was | "real and credible information that the White House and Air | Force One were targets." [White House, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010912-8.html | ]] On September 13, New York Times columnist William Safire | wrote - and Bush's political strategist Karl Rove confirmed | - that there was an "inside" threat that "may have broken | the secret codes [showing a knowledge of presidential | procedures]." [New York Times, 9/13/01 [ | http://www.nytimes.com/2001/09/13/opinion/13SAFI.html ]] Had | terrorists hacked their way into sensitive White House | computers? Was there a mole in the White House? | | No. It turned out the entire story was made up. [Washington | Post, 9/27/01 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A32319-2001Sep26 | ]] The press expressed considerable skepticism about the | story. For instance, one Florida newspaper thought | Fleischer's disclosure was "an apparent effort to explain | why the president was flown to Air Force bases" before | returning to Washington. [St. Petersburg Times, 9/13/01 [ | http://www.sptimes.com/News/091301/Worldandnation/Threat_kept_Bush_on_t.shtml | ]] When asked on September 15 about the "credible evidence," | Fleischer said, "we exhausted that topic about two days | ago." [White House, 9/15/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010915-5.html | ]] On September 26, CBS News reported: "Finally, there is | this postscript to the puzzle of how someone presumed to be | a terrorist was able to call in a threat against Air Force | One using a secret code name for the president's plane. | Well, as it turns out, that simply never happened. Sources | say White House staffers apparently misunderstood comments | made by their security detail." [CBS, 9/26/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/cbs092601.htm | ]] One former official who served in George Bush Sr.'s | administration told Human Events Online, which bills itself | as "the national conservative weekly," that he was "deeply | disappointed by [Bush's] zigzagging across the country." | [Human Events Online, 9/17/01 [ | http://www.humaneventsonline.com/articles/09-17-01/robinson.html | ]] At the end of the month, Slate magazine awarded its | "Whopper of the Week" to Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, and Dick | Cheney. [Slate, 9/28/01 [ http://slate.msn.com/id/1008371/ | ]] | | No one knew exactly where the bogus story originated from, | but "what can be safely said is that it served the White | House's immediate purposes, even though it was completely | untrue." [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] What were those purposes? A well-informed, anonymous | Washington official said, "It did two things for [Cheney]. | It reinforced his argument that the President should stay | out of town, and it gave George W. an excellent reason for | doing so." [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] When Bush was asked in May 2002 why he had flown to two | Air Force bases before returning to Washington, Bush said, | "I was trying to get out of harm's way." [White House, | 5/21/02 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/05/20020521-10.html | ]] | | The most obviously bogus threat - the mole knowing secret | codes - came from Cheney in a pivotal moment in his argument | with Bush over where Bush should go. But were the other | threats, for instance, the one made before Air Force One | even took off, or the airline suspected of crashing into Air | Force One, also bogus? | | | IMAGE TEXT: The approximate route of Bush's journey on Air | Force One is shown in yellow. Keep in mind the plane flew in | circles somewhere over Florida for about 40 minutes before | heading west. Why did the first planes scrambled to defend | the plane come from Ellington, Texas, and not any of the | three likely Florida bases? | | | When Does the Fighter Escort Finally Arrive? | | Much like the time when Bush left the Booker classroom, the | time when fighters finally reached Air Force One is rarely | mentioned, and when it is, the facts are highly debatable. | According to one account, around 10:00 a.m. Air Force One | was "joined by an escort of F-16 fighters from a base near | Jacksonville, Florida." [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/12/16/wbush16.xml | ]] But one month later, it was reported that in Cheney's | 10:32 phone call, he told Bush that it would take another 40 | to 90 minutes [as late as noon] to get protective fighters | up to escort Air Force One. [Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | Another account said, "Air Force One headed toward | Jacksonville [at 10:41] to meet jets scrambled to give the | presidential jet its own air cover," but it isn't said when | the plane actually met up with the fighters. [New York | Times, 9/16/01 (B) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091601b.html | ]] We know that when Air Force One took evasive action | around 10:55, there was no fighter escort. NORAD commander | Major General Larry Arnold later said, "We scrambled | available airplanes from Tyndall [note this is near | Tallahassee, not Jacksonville, Florida] and then from | Ellington in Houston, Texas," but he doesn't say when. [Code | One Magazine, 1/02 [ | http://www.codeonemagazine.com/archives/2002/articles/jan_02/defense/ | ]] In another account, the first two F-16s to arrive are | piloted by Shane Brotherton and Randy Roberts, from the | Texas Air National Guard, not from any Florida base. [CBS, | 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] All that's known for sure is that by 11:30 there were six | fighters protecting Air Force One. [Sarasota Magazine, | 9/19/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/Pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: President Bush (center, stooped down) and staff | look out the windows of Air Force One to see their newly | arrived fighter escorts. [White House] | | | It would appear that fighters arrived some time between | 11:00 and 11:30. These fighters were supposed to be on | 24-hour alert, ready to get into the air in about five | minutes. If we assume the fighters flew at a speed of 1,100 | mph, the same speed Major Gen. Arnold said fighters used to | reach New York City earlier in the day when traveling a | comparable distance [MSNBC, 9/23/01 (C) [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/msnbc092301c.html | ], Slate, 1/16/02 [ http://slate.msn.com/id/2060825/ ]], the | fighters should have reached Sarasota in about 10 minutes. | Yet they took around two hours to reach Air Force One from | when they were likely first needed, shortly after 9:00. | | This clearly goes beyond mere incompetence, yet no newspaper | article has ever raised the issue. Was Cheney able to | prevent the fighters from reaching Air Force One, perhaps to | convince Bush not to return to Washington? If so, why? Did | Cheney assume (or know) that Bush was in no real danger? | Like so many other questions surrounding 9/11, we do not | know. | | | IMAGE TEXT: Air Force One at Barksdale Air Force Base. [AP] | | | Barksdale Air Force Base | | Air Force One landed at Barksdale Air Force base near | Shreveport, Louisiana at about 11:45 a.m. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] "The official reason for landing at Barksdale was that | Bush felt it necessary to make a further statement, but it | isn't unreasonable to assume that -- as there was no | agreement as to what the President's movements should be it | was felt he might as well be on the ground as in the air." | [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] Ironically, the landing came only a short time after | Bush's plane was finally protected by fighters. | | There was quite a difference in the protection afforded Bush | at Barksdale and what was in Sarasota. Bush was left | unprotected at a known location in Sarasota for nearly 30 | minutes. At Barksdale, a location that was at the time | unknown, Congressman Dan Miller "was amazed at the armored | equipment and soldiers with automatic weapons that | immediately surrounded the plane." [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 | [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] Bush was driven to base headquarters in a Humvee escorted | by armed outriders. Reporters and others remained under | strict orders not to give out their location. [Telegraph, | 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush walking inside Barksdale Air Force Base. | [White House] | | | Bush was taken to a secret and secure place on the base. | [Louisiana Life, Autumn 2002 [ | http://publications.neworleans.com/lalife/22.3.12-Louisianianat.html | ]] Shortly after 12:30 p.m., Bush taped a short speech, | which he wrote on a napkin. [Louisiana Life, Autumn 2002 [ | http://publications.neworleans.com/lalife/22.3.12-Louisianianat.html | ], Salon, 9/12/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/ | ], Washington Times, 10/8/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021008-21577384.htm ]] | The tape was broadcast on television at around 1:20 p.m. | [Salon 9/11/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/print.html | ]] He also "spent the next hour and a half talking on the | phone," again arguing with Cheney and others over where he | should go next. [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01 [ | http://www.sarasotamagazine.com/pages/hotstories/hotstories.asp?136 | ]] The Secret Service felt the situation in Washington was | still unsafe. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] Bush told Karl Rove: "I want to go back home as soon as | possible." Rove answered: "Our people are saying it's | unstable still." [AP, 9/13/01 (D) [ | http://www.nandotimes.com/special_reports/terrorism/attack/story/78392p-1097917c.html | ]] Bush was told he could get to the US Strategic Command | center in Offutt, Nebraska, quicker than he could fly to | Washington, so he agreed to go to Nebraska. [Telegraph, | 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], AP, 9/13/01 (D) [ | http://www.nandotimes.com/special_reports/terrorism/attack/story/78392p-1097917c.html | ]] | | Just after 1:00 p.m., Bush supposedly "received an | intelligence report from the base commander that a | high-speed object was headed for his ranch in Crawford, | Texas." It turned out to be another false alarm. [Fighting | Back: The War on Terrorism - From Inside the Bush White | House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, p.117] This may well be | another bogus report designed to explain why Bush didn't | return to Washington at this time, since US airspace was | declared clear except for some military and emergency | flights at 12:16 p.m. [USA Today, 8/12/02 (C) [ | http://www.usatoday.com/news/sept11/2002-08-12-atc_x.htm ]] | By 12:30, the FAA reported that only about 50 of these | flights were still flying in US airspace, and none were | reporting problems [CNN, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ], New | York Times, 9/12/01 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2001/nyt091201.html | ]], so how could an unknown plane have been headed toward | Bush's ranch 30 minutes after that? | | | Offutt Air Force Base | | Air Force One left Barksdale for Offutt Air Force Base | around 1:30 p.m. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Salon, 9/11/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/print.html | ], Washington Post, 9/11/01 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/articles/bush091101.htm | ], MSNBC, 9/22/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/msnbc092201.html | ], CNN, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ]] The | Air Force One entourage was pared down to a few essential | staffers such as Ari Fleischer, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, Dan | Bartlett, and Gordon Johndroe [White House, 9/11/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911-6.html | ]], plus about five reporters. [AP, 9/12/01 (D) [ | http://www.brainerddispatch.com/stories/091201/gov_0912010092.shtml%20 | ]] During the flight, Bush remained in "continuous contact" | with the White House Situation Room and Vice President | Cheney. [CNN, 9/11/01 (B) [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/white.house/%20 ]] | | Air Force One landed at Offutt shortly before 3:00 p.m. | [Washington Post, 9/11/01 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/nation/articles/bush091101.htm | ]] At 3:06, Bush passed through security to the US Strategic | Command Underground Command Center [Salon, 9/11/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/print.html | ], CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] and was taken into an underground bunker designed to | withstand a nuclear blast. [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush, center, with Andrew Card to his left, | takes part in a video conference from inside Offutt Air | Force Base. [White House] | | | There, he held a teleconference call with Vice President | Cheney, National Security Advisor Rice, Defense Secretary | Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage, CIA | Director Tenet, Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, and | others. [ABC News, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/abcnews091102.html | ], Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Washington Times, 10/8/02 [ | http://www.washtimes.com/national/20021008-21577384.htm ]] | The meeting lasted about an hour. [Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], Salon, 9/11/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/print.html | ], AP, 8/19/02 [ | http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/america_at_war/article/0,1426,MCA_945_1340414,00.html | ]] Rice recalled that during the meeting, Tenet told Bush, | "Sir, I believe it's al-Qaeda. We're doing the assessment | but it looks like, it feels like, it smells like al-Qaeda." | [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] | | By this time, people were anticipating and expecting another | reassuring public statement from Bush. [Orlando Sentinel, | 9/12/01 [ | http://www.orlandosentinel.com/news/local/orl-asecbush121091201sep12,0,2812270.story?coll=orl-home-headlines | ]] The White House staff was preparing for Bush to address | the nation from the Offutt bunker, but Bush decided instead | to return to Washington. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml | ]] | | As a side note, Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in | the world, was hosting an unpublicized charity benefit | inside the high security Offutt military base at 8:00 a.m. | With him were business leaders and several executives from | the World Trade Center, including Anne Tatlock of Fiduciary | Trust Co. International, who likely would have died had it | not been for the meeting. [San Francisco Business Times, | 2/1/02 [ | http://www.bizjournals.com/sanfrancisco/stories/2002/02/04/story3.html | ]] They watched a lot of the television coverage that | morning, but it's unknown if any of these people were still | at Offutt by the time Bush arrived in the afternoon. | | | IMAGE TEXT: This photo of Bush speaking to Cheney shortly | after leaving Offutt was later used for Republican | fundraising. [White House] | | | Back in Washington | | Air Force One left Offutt around 4:30 p.m. [MSNBC, 9/22/01 [ | http://cooperativeresearch.org/completetimeline/2001/msnbc092201.html | ], CNN, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ], | Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ]] and landed at Andrews Air Force Base at 6:34 p.m., | escorted by two F-15 fighters and one F-16. [CNN, 9/11/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ]] Bush | then took the Marine One helicopter to the White House | [Salon 9/11/01 [ | http://archive.salon.com/politics/feature/2001/09/11/bush/print.html | ]], arriving shortly before 7:00 p.m. [CNN, 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ], | Telegraph, 12/16/01 [ | http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F16%2Fwbush16.xml | ], AP, 8/19/02 [ | http://www.gomemphis.com/mca/america_at_war/article/0,1426,MCA_945_1340414,00.html | ]] | | Bush gave a nationally televised speech at 8:30 p.m. [CNN, | 9/12/01 [ | http://www.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/chronology.attack/ ], White | House, 9/11/01 [ | http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/20010911-16.html | ]], speaking for about five minutes. [US News, 9/14/01 [ | http://www.usnews.com/usnews/news/terror/articles/010914/misc/bush.htm | ]] In what would later be called the Bush Doctrine, he | stated, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists | who committed these acts and those who harbor them." | [Washington Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush addresses the nation. [White House] | | | Around 9:00 p.m., Bush met with his full National Security | Council, followed roughly half an hour later by a meeting | with a smaller group of key advisors. Bush and his advisors | had already decided bin Laden was behind the attacks. CIA | Director Tenet told Bush that al-Qaeda and the Taliban in | Afghanistan were essentially one and the same. [Washington | Post, 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | | Before going to sleep around 11:30 p.m., Bush wrote in his | diary, "The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place | today.... We think it's Osama bin Laden." [Washington Post, | 1/27/02 [ | http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26 ]] | | | Rewriting History | | The many accounts of what happened to Bush on 9/11 are | riddled with disinformation of false threats, omitted | details, fudged timing, and more. But around September 11, | 2002, the heavily publicized first anniversary of the | attacks, there was an obvious attempt to further rewrite the | story. | | Chief of Staff Andrew Card claimed that after he told Bush | about the second World Trade Center crash, "it was only a | matter of seconds" before Bush "excused himself very | politely to the teacher and to the students, and he left" | the classroom. Card also stated that Bush "quickly excused | himself to a holding room." [San Francisco Chronicle, | 9/11/02 [ | http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2002/09/11/MN911voice03.DTL | ]] In a different account, Card said, "Not that many seconds | later the president excused himself from the classroom." | [MSNBC, 9/9/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/msnbc090902.html | ]] The Booker school video shows these statements are lies - | unless "a matter of seconds" means over 700 seconds! | | Sandra Kay Daniels, the teacher whose second-grade classroom | Bush visited on 9/11, told the Los Angeles Times that after | Card informed Bush of the second crash, Bush got up and | left. "He said, 'Ms. Daniels, I have to leave now.' ... | Looking at his face, you knew something was wrong. I said a | little prayer for him. He shook my hand and left." Daniels | also said, "I knew something was up when President Bush | didn't pick up the book and participate in the lesson." [Los | Angeles Times, 9/11/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/latimes091102.html | ]] However, the Booker video clearly shows that Bush did | follow along after being told of the second plane. [Video: | Center for Cooperative Research [ | http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/bushbookerelementaryschool.html | ], Buzzflash [ | http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/2002/06/12_Bookerlinks.html | ], Global Free Press [ | http://globalfreepress.com/911/mov/scsb.bush.mov ], The | Emperor's New Clothes [ | http://emperor.vwh.net/bushvideo/scsb.bush.mov ], or Liberty | DYNU [ http://liberty.dynu.com:8080/bcbs.bush.mov ]] | | The New York Post reported, "A federal agent rushed into the | room to inform the president of the United States. President | Bush had been presiding over [Daniels's] reading class last | 9/11, when a Secret Service agent interrupted the lesson and | asked, 'Where can we get to a television?'" Daniels then | claimed that Bush left the class even before the second | crash: "The president bolted right out of here and told me: | 'Take over.'" When the second crash occurred, she claims her | students were watching TV in a nearby media room. [New York | Post, 9/12/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/nypost091202.html | ]] This article is riddled with errors. As mentioned | previously, the Secret Service was already watching the | second plane crash live on television in an adjacent room at | 9:03 - long before this supposedly happened. Nor did Bush | "bolt" out of the room; in fact, even pro-Bush author Bill | Sammon called Bush "the dawdler in chief" for taking so long | to leave the room. [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - | From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, p. | 90] | | | IMAGE TEXT: Bush shows a CBS reporter around Air Force One | as part of his 9/11 anniversary interview. [AP/CBS] | | | Bush himself took part in the historical revisionism. In an | extensive video interview shown on CBS's "60 Minutes," he | again repeated his bizarre belief that he was watching | television when the first crash took place. CBS also revived | the false story that terrorists had broken Air Force One's | secret codes, even though it was CBS who debunked that same | story nearly a year earlier. [CBS, 9/11/02 [ | http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml%20 | ]] | | | Vital Questions Remain Unanswered | | Needless to say, in the anniversary hoopla, Bush and other | leaders were described as "resolute," "brave," "strong," and | so forth. Even the minor level of media criticism just after | 9/11 that led to several reporters losing their jobs was | absent. The topic of Bush's behavior on 9/11 has been barely | mentioned in the media since. | | There are many questions that deserve answers. So many | pieces of the puzzle do not fit. Simply by reading the | mainstream media reports, we can see that mere incompetence | doesn't explain what happened to Bush on that day. For | instance, it makes no sense that Bush would listen to a | story about a goat long after being told the US was under | attack, and even after the Secret Service decided to | immediately evacuate him from the school. It defies | explanation that Air Force One's fighter escort took two | hours to appear. And it is mind-boggling that there are | seven different versions of how Bush learned about the first | crash. | | It's doubtful that the Independent Commission [ | http://www.9-11commission.gov/ ] investigation will look | critically at what Bush did on 9/11 and why he did it. | Despite the contradictory reports, no one in the mainstream | media has yet demanded clarification of the many obvious | inconsistencies and problems of the official version. Anyone | even asking questions has been quickly insulted as | anti-American, accused of bashing the president in a time of | war, or branded a conspiracy nut. Only a few 9/11 victims' | relatives have been able to raise these issues publicly. For | instance, Kristen Breitweiser told Phil Donahue: "It was | clear that we were under attack. Why didn't the Secret | Service whisk [Bush] out of that school? ... [H]e is the | commander-in-chief of the United States of America, our | country was clearly under attack, it was after the second | building was hit. I want to know why he sat there for 25 | minutes." [Donahue, 8/13/02 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/2002/donahue081302.html | ]] But so far, few have listened to their concerns. | | Because the media has failed in its role to ask these | questions, much less attempt to answer them, it is now the | responsibility of ordinary Americans - of you, of me, and | the people we know - to gather the information, look for | answers, and sound the alarm. | | | Allan Wood has assisted with the research for, and editing | of, the 9/11 Timeline. He is also a member of | 911CitizensWatch.org [ http://www.911citizenswatch.org/ ]. | Any questions, comments, or additional information regarding | this article can be sent to his email: aninterestingday | @hotmail.com (remove the space). Thanks to Melissa Kavonic | for assisting in the proofreading of the article. | | | Other Sections of the Timeline: | | The Complete Timeline parts 1 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelinecomplete1.html | ] and 2 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelinecomplete2.html | ] (excluding Day of 9/11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/dayof911.html ] | ) | | The Abridged Timeline [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelineshort.html | ] (a good place to start) | | Introduction and credits [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/index.html ], help | needed [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/helpneeded.html | ], and links [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/links.html ] | | The latest update [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/updatelatest.html ] | | | Articles | | The Two Ziad Jarrahs [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essayjarrah.html ] | | Sept. 11's Smoking Gun: The Many Faces of Saeed Sheikh [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essaysaeed.html ] | | Alhazmi & Almihdhar: The Hijackers Who Should Have Been | Caught [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essaykhalidandnawaf.html ] | | They Tried to Warn Us [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essaytheytriedtowarnus.html ] | | Is There More to the Capture of Khalid Shaikh Mohammed Than | Meets the Eye? [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essayksmcapture.html ] | | An Interesting Day: George Bush Jr. on 9/11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday.html ] | | The Failure to Defend the Skies on 9/11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/essayairdefense.html ] | | | Summaries | | 9/11 Paymaster Saeed Sheikh [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/saeedsheikh.html ] | | 9/11 Mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammed [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/khalidshaikhmohammed.html ] | | ISI Director Mahmood Ahmed [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/mahmoodahmed.html ] | | Nabil al-Marabh [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/nabilalmarabh.html ] | | Would Be Hijacker Zacarias Moussaoui [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/moussaoui.html ] | | Hijackers Nawaf Alhazmi and Khalid Almihdhar [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/alhazmiandalmihdhar.html ] | | Escape from Afghanistan [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/escapeafghanistan.html ] | | Foreign Intelligence Warnings [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/foreignwarnings.html ] | | Randy Glass [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/randyglass.html ] | | | The 9/11 timeline will be released as a book! Sign up [ | http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index-old1.htm ] to be | notified when it's available. | | Also see forums to discuss 9/11 [ | http://www.911pi.com/main.htm ] and this timeline [ | http://www.911pi.com/timeline.htm ] | | | Subdivisions | | Part 1: 1979 - 2000 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelinebefore2001.html ] | | Part 2: Jan. 2001 - 9/11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelinebefore911.html ] | | Part 3: Day of 9/11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/dayof911.html ] | | Part 4: 9/11 - Dec. 2001 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelineafter911.html ] | | Part 5: Jan. 2002 - present [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/timelineafter2001.html ] | | | Day of 9/11 | | Flight 11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/flight11.html ] | | Flight 175 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/flight175.html ] | | Flight 77 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/flight77.html ] | | Flight 93 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/flight93.html ] | | Bush on 9/11 [ | http://unansweredquestions.org/timeline/main/bushon911.html ] | | | (In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this | material is distributed without profit to those who have | expressed a prior interest in receiving the included | information for research and educational purposes.) | | | Additional reading: | | New Seismic Data Refutes Official WTC Explanation | http://uscrisis.lege.net/911/ | | Mariani vs. Bush Federal Lawsuit | http://uscrisis.lege.net/911/mariani/ | | Why don't we have answers to these 9/11 questions? | http://uscrisis.lege.net/911/williambunch/ | | Resources | http://propaganda.lege.net/resources/ | |______________________________________________________________