Posted on 07/24/2004 11:35:43 AM PDT by Minutemen
The Secret Service anticipated keeping President Bush at Offutt Air Force Base for several days after the Sept. 11, 2001, attack if necessary, the 9/11 Commission's final report says.
Instead, the president left Offutt after less than two hours in Nebraska.
The report tells of hasty conferences among Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney, the Secret Service and other advisers about what Bush should do and where he should go as they tried to assess the damage and danger after the terrorist attacks.
"Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska was chosen because of its elaborate command and control facilities, and because it could accommodate overnight lodging for 50 persons," the report says.
"The Secret Service wanted a place where the president could spend several days, if necessary."
The report gives this account of Bush's brief stop:
The president was visiting Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., when he learned of the attacks. Air Force One took off from Florida, originally headed to Washington.
"The Secret Service, the President's advisers, and Vice President Cheney were strongly advising against" returning to Washington. Instead, the presidential plane headed to Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana to refuel while officials considered options.
Adding to the confusion was "a reported threat against Air Force One itself, a threat eventually run down to a misunderstood communication in the hectic White House Situation Room that morning."
After taping a message to broadcast to the nation, Bush and his traveling party returned to Air Force One.
"The next destination was discussed: Once again the Secret Service recommended against returning to Washington, and the Vice President agreed."
Air Force One arrived at Offutt at 1:50 p.m. CDT. About 25 minutes later, Bush met with principal advisers through a video teleconference.
The report said Bush "overruled his aides' reluctance to have him return to Washington, ordering Air Force One back to Andrews Air Force Base."
A helicopter flew the president to the White House, and he addressed the nation on live television at 8:30 p.m. EDT.
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Wonder if Richard Clarke was among those offering the advice during this time?????
Only in a country with liars like Michael Moore is it necessary to repeat this
old story...so that the general populace won't be deceieved.
1) Richard Clarke testified thoroughly to the comission before Viacom took over production of his book and changed it to be a Bush hit piece so his book release & public appearances contributed little & truly tainted him in as a fraud & liar the eyes of most commissioners.
2) The final report only consists of things the committee agreed on in total - thus inhibiting the ability of the partisan Ben Viniste to turn the report into a hit piece, the purpose for which his service was solicited, nor did it fall into the trap of hiding all of the long history of Clinton admin. negligence (the purpose for which it became apparent Jamie Gorelick was so solicited). This means the report in its ultimate form is largely a collection of the facts that everybody agreed on & could not be disputed thus - in many cases - leaving it to the reader to identify these kinds of tidbits & draw their own conclusions (the quandry for the media who aren't used to having to actually read something vs. merely having the story / spin fed to them).
3) The efforts by Sandy Berger to steal away the most sensitive of national security documents was partially thwarted; while we'll never know much of what he stole on his first trip(s) to the archives (as those documents were all presumably shredded & burned - errh - as his lawyer had him say - "inadvertently taken and accidentally discarded" - some of the most incriminating & damning tidbits (like the repeated denials of Richard Clarke's urgings to attack AlQaeda) were retained in the historical record. It's both strange & funny the degree to which Clinton laughed off the first reports of Berger repeatedly stuffing his pants & socks with all those documents & the whole DNC held him - the former NSA and chief foreign policy advisor to Kerry campaign - out as a complete idiot and bungler, like it's really comforting to know the people in the highest national security positions for our country were perpetually "sloppy".
Now, combining this with the Butler report out of England from last week (confirming Niger / Yellowcake) and the Senate Intel. report on Iraqi WMD before that, both eviscerating any believability involving Joe Wilson, it's possible the whole "Bush Lied" & F-911 thing might turn out to be a bad thing for Democrats in the long run - people here in the US are not typically as stupid as Michael Moore makes them out to be & now every premise of that movie has been fully factually dismissed by a host of bi-partisan comissions ... in fact, if anything, the truth of the matter(s) turned out to be "Wilson lied, Berger knew while Saddam is the only one to have truly gone to war for oil & Michael Moore profits by lying about war"
On an airport TV yesterday I saw the jerk from Politicaly Correct (can't think of his name now) saying President Bush "choked" and sat for 7 minutes reading to kids in the elementary school. Was that after hearing about the first or second plane crash into the tower. Personaly I don't think 7 minutes to think about this is a particularly long time. He didn't immediately duck into the basement to protect himself like a coward would do. I think he was waiting for more information before doing anything but you know the dims are going to spin it to mean he was paralyzed with fear.
What idiots like Bill Maher and Michael Moore either don't know or fail to say is that, even before Bush was informed of the second hijacked plane hitting the WTC, NORAD had already responded by putting two F-15 Eagles in the air, the FAA had already responded by warning all other commercial aircraft of the up-to-then known hijackings, and the Pentagon had already responded by moving its alert status up one notch from normal to Alpha.
I'm in NE because of the AF. I worked at Offutt. I know what its there for. When the Commander-in-Chief is arriving after a morning like that, its no wonder that traffic was at a virtual standstill as Americans watched and prayed.
This tears down any assumptions by the left that Cheney was in charge.
"I live in the area near Offutt. I can tell you that seeing Air Force One on final approach and landing that day will never leave my memory"
That whole day and week will never leave my memory. The anger, hate and rage I felt and still feel, is just below the surface, ready to boil over at another such event. Muslim terrorists will regret the day they were born if they ever cross my path.
I was touring Ireland on 9/11 and my busload of Americans sat petrified in fear for our country as we heard the terrible news somewhere between Blarney and Waterford. You can't imagine the wave of relief that washed over us as we heard our President speak strong, determined, yet comforting words to the nation that afternoon. I don't care where he was. I was just grateful to know that he was alive and in charge. First newscasts had spoken of car bombs at the State Department and threats to Chicago's Sears Tower.
The remainder of our trip was spent moving from hotel to hotel and standing transfixed in pubs as we watched events develop on TV. Shannon Airport was literally wall to wall people the day we left, but we managed to get out on the only plane to the US that departed on 9/15. (The problem was that there were no planes available because all air travel had been frozen here for a few days.)
I nearly fell to my knees to kiss the ground when we landed in Chicago, but the extremely rude customs agent quickly startled me out of my trance with a nasty comment and reminded me that America, my beloved country, was not perfect and not populated with perfect people!
And the least perfect part of this country is the treasonous DemocRat party and their bands of Bush bashers. What did they want him to do? Run screaming from the room and terrify the children? What idiots they are!
IMHO, President Bush was reacting and thinking, and knew that he was being televised and that the terrorists were watching him and his reaction. It would have given Bin Laden an even bigger victory if Pres. Bush had jumped up and ran out of there. Plus, Pres. Bush is not the only person in charge at the helm, you've got the joint chiefs, secy of defense, vice president, etc. Weren't their fighter jets on the way to intercept one of the airliners?
Does anyone know how Moore obtained the footage of the seven minutes?
good question!
That was re-assuring to see our President in charge that day!
The other instance I will never forget was when he was at Ground Zero a couple days later and he said:"I can hear you. The rest of the world hears you. And the people who knocked down these buildings will hear all of us soon." I felt that indeed we had a real leader in President Bush. (link to that story):
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/523792/posts
Isn't life grand?
I am in the process of reading the report. So far, I am very impressed by the readability and factual content of the report. I think the report bears little resemblence to the charade we were forced to endure. I think any RATIONAL person cannot come to any conclusion but that the Clinton administration dropped the ball and that GWB was no coward on 9/11. I hope every idiot Demo reads this report. I think the facts speak for themselves.
We all watched Petah Jennings get the ball rolling that day with his querolous "where's the president?" ~arch eyebrow-smirk mouth~
And once again, the story as was told by this WH at the beginning is verified to be true (over and over and over no matter how many times the dems recraft their lie).
Sarasota principal defends Bush from "Fahrenheit 9/11" portrayal
By Associated Press June 24, 2004
SARASOTA — Michael Moore's film "Fahrenheit 9/11" criticizes President Bush for listening to Sarasota second-graders read a story for nearly seven minutes after learning the nation was under attack on Sept. 11, 2001.
But Gwendolyn Tose'-Rigell, the principal at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, says Bush handled himself properly.
"I don't think anyone could have handled it better," Tose'-Rigell told the Sarasota Herald-Tribune in a story published Wednesday. "What would it have served if he had jumped out of his chair and ran out of the room?"
"Fahrenheit 9/11," which won the top honor at last month's Cannes Film Festival, portrays the White House as asleep at the wheel before the Sept. 11 attacks. Moore accuses Bush of fanning fears of future terrorism to win public support for the Iraq war.
Bush told the federal 9/11 Commission, which released its report last week, that he remained in the classroom because he felt it was "important to project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening." Moore says Bush failed to take charge.
Tose'-Rigell, who was at Bush's side, did not hear what White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered when he squeezed past her to tell the president of the attacks, but "I knew it was something serious."
"The president bit his lip and clenched his jaw," she said. "I didn't know what happened, whether it was something with his wife or children or something with the nation. I remember praying that God would watch over our school and protect our children."
She said the video doesn't convey all that was going on in the classroom, but Bush's presence had a calming effect and "helped us get through a very difficult day."
Tose'-Rigell said she plans to publish her account of the morning of Sept. 11 from pages she wrote in her journal following the attack. The principal said she didn't vote for Bush. "But that day I would have voted for him."
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