Flight 93 Movie -- Standing up for heroes (vanity)

The liberal and other media and critics are sadly contributing to a subtle effort to discourage the public from seeing the new film that tells the story of the heroes of Flight 93 on September 11, 2001.

This group of innocent travelers and their bravery are a testament to all we hold dear as Americans .. they were ordained as warriors in the WOT, and they gave no less courage, devotion to duty or honorable service to this country than any official soldier in our military.

Once they discovered through telephone conversations with their loved ones the vile plan that was afoot, they must've found within themselves a monumental moment of unspeakable terror and, as more information about the WTC was discovered, the idea that they could possibly make a difference on this doomed flight. Somehow, they collectively found the bravery to get beyond indescribable fear .. and find enough clarity to hatch a plan to prevent a further act of terror on the White House or the Capitol, with possibly thousands more lives lost.

Please don't be swayed by the spin that this is too disturbing a film to see .. it is precisely because the events of that day are so horrible to recall that we must not forget what 40 ordinary people did in the name of their love for America and all she stands for .. and for us all... by their precious act of courage and patriotism in the face of death. They deserve no less than that we remember what they gave for this country.

And we must never forget the enemy who yet longs to see this country destroyed, piece by piece, American by American, and defend America against the political clamoring to hide the truth.

10% of the proceeds from the first 3 days' showing of this film (which opens on April 28) will be donated to the Flight 93 memorial -- a $30 million remembrance in process by the families at that field in Shanksville, PA.

The film is from Paul Greengrass, the British director of "Bloody Sunday' and 'The Bourne Supremacy.'

He said the support of the people who lost loved ones on Flight 93 was the key to making the film.

"Like everybody, the events surrounding Flight 93 and the events of 9/11 had a massive effect on me, and it became pretty clear to me after that that I would always want to make a film about terrorism that would encompass and explore the events of 9/11," Greengrass said in a Universal electronic press kit.

"But then it's about whether it's the right time or it's about whether the families of those people aboard want me to tell. What we found when we went to see each one of those families was that they all want this film to be made."

"May all who visit this place remember the collective acts of courage and sacrifice of the passengers and crew, revere this hallowed ground as the final resting place of those heroes, and reflect on the power of individuals who choose to make a difference."

From Rush's site

CALLER: So I would ask this question, though, I would ask this question. If Bush wasted eight minutes, Bill Clinton from 1993, the first warning, wasted eight years. Eight minutes versus eight years of sitting on his hands.

RUSH: No dispute. No dispute whatsoever. At the end of the movie there are also, against a black screen, there are four or five frames of text, each going up individually. One of the frames says -- I'll have to paraphrase it -- one of the frames says that President Bush ordered anti-aircraft military jets into the sky after the last plane crashed or had hit its target, conveying that by the time we got around to getting in gear, everything was over.

CALLER: Yeah. Yeah.

RUSH: But we didn't know it was over because they were still tracking a bunch of planes that they thought could have been hijacked.

CALLER: Right. That day, everybody thought that this was the beginning. We could have been attacked for the next week in this method. Nobody knew. Hey, Rush, I think the media will handle this movie in two ways. Either they will ignore it, or they will give it the Passion of Christ treatment, which is, "Oh, my gosh. It's so gory; it's so violent; you don't want to see this. This is not a movie to bring anybody to. It's just too violent."

RUSH: Well, clearly there's going to be some of the latter because what's going to happen is that -- and, by the way, every family member of a passenger on United 93 gave the approval and some of them have seen the movie, and they like it. They said it's very tough for them to watch, but every family member who had said on Flight 93 (sic) has encouraged the making of the movie.

But what's going to happen is, because you know they're out there, the drive-by media will find some people on the Upper West Side of Manhattan or somewhere who say, "It's too soon! It's too soon," and the debate will be all over again, "Is it too soon for America to be confronted with this?" rather than a substantive debate or analysis or critique of the movie. That's why I say that you cannot watch this without having a political reaction to it based on the political context that we're in today, whatever your particular views are.

That's why I say that the way Bush is portrayed is not being reachable, and Cheney, either, it will confirm the kooks and their Michael Moore movie and so forth. But believe me, those who go see this are going to have no sympathy for the terrorists. They're going to know they're the ones that did it and they're not going to like 'em.

I should tell you that we're trying to arrange an interview with the writer and director of United 93, Paul Greengrass for the next issue of the Limbaugh Letter. But about the business that the military couldn't find Bush, it's actually the air traffic guys who are asking. The military is who the air traffic guys are told that can't find Bush. Now, stop and think of this for a second. "Can't find the president." That's not possible.

Now, stick with me on this. We know Bush was in the classroom in Tampa, somewhere here in Florida because there was a camera in there, and we've seen the pictures of when Bush was told, while he was reading from a book to these school kids, about one of the first two attacks on the World Trade Center -- and, remember, the first tower that was hit, everybody thought it was a small plane, and it was just an accident, the first plane.

And it was the air traffic control guys watching CNN, who said, "Wait a minute. Look at the size of that hole. That can't be a small plane." They'd already lost a couple planes from there radar because these hijackers had turned off the transponders, desperately trying to find them and they had the indication that one of them had been hijacked and they had a little smidgen of tape from a cockpit voice recorder one of the first two planes hijacked, one of the hijackers saying, "We have more planes," and that perked 'em up.

Then you cut to the Eastern, Northeast Air Defense Command up in Rome, New York, and they're going through a training exercise, somebody comes in and says, "Hey, we might have a hijacking."

So they go into real world mode and they appear to be fumbling around a bit trying to catch up with what happened.

But this notion that the president "can't be found" is just not believable to me. I'm not saying that they couldn't find him, but the notion that he can't be found is just not believable, and we do know that Bush, they kept him out of Washington because they didn't know at what the rest of the day held. They finally got every airplane in US airspace down on the ground at noon (which is no mean feat, by the way), and they diverted every international flight coming in, and a bunch of those from every border north, south, east, west, diverted them, did not let anything in, starting at about I think it's 10:30.

Well, no, I got ordered down about nine thirty and was given an hour to get down, and they got everybody down like 12:06 or noon, something like that.

Now, at some point Bush leaves the school, and we know now that Bush went to Air Force One and went airborne and was managing things from there. So he was a moving target. They didn't take him back to Washington till the end of the day.

We had newscasters that day casting aspersions on Bush as a coward, remember this, for not going back -- and we had certain newscasters saying some people are just better in crises like this than others. "Some presidents are better than others," and that was a swipe at Bush, an attempt to praise Bill Clinton and all that, we knew what it was at the time. But the notion the president couldn't be found? They may not have been able to find him, but I'm thinking it's more like they didn't want him to be found.

He was in touch with somebody. He has to be. Air Force One is every bit the communications center that anything in the White House is. He's got people with him. So somebody was in touch with him.

It just may be that these people couldn't find, him but the military supposedly couldn't reach him. I mention this and harp on it only because that will be a small portion of this movie (interruption) and it's been confirmed? Oh, okay. Good. Greengrass has confirmed he'll make himself available. That's cool. That's cool. But the left is going to take from this what they want, and so will you. But the idea it's too soon to see this is ridiculous.

Everybody ought to see this as soon as they can just to remind them of the reality of the world we live in, and face, and why we're doing what we're doing now -- and these people on this airplane, these heroes that prevented that fourth plane, United 93 from hitting its target, they died fighting for the same thing, and, you know, 10% of the movie's take will be donated to a memorial in that field in Pennsylvania, Swanksville, to honor them, but it also will illustrate that just as uniformed military personnel these passengers on United 93 gave their lives for the cause. It's interesting.

They were asking anybody in the passenger list, "Do you know how to fly this thing?" And there was one man who thought he might be able to, according to movie. That's one of the things I wanted to ask Mr. Greengrass.

There are some things you had to put in there because you can't possibly know everything that went on up there, but quite a bit is known, that 30-minute cockpit recorder that they played at the Moussaoui trial -- which, by the way, I asked if Mr. Greengrass had seen or heard that cockpit voice recording they played this week. He had not. The families had, but they were not allowed to discuss it with anybody, so he did not have the benefit, the writer and director of the movie, of having heard the actual cockpit voice recording. It was only released in the Moussaoui trial this week.

United 93: Have We Learned Anything?" - (Rush reviews the movie)

Flight 93 National Memorial

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