Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) runs to get on stage to greet the guests at the Congressional Picnic with President Bush (news - web sites) on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, June 15, 2004 (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
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Posted on 06/17/2004 8:54:12 AM PDT by NormsRevenge
WASHINGTON - Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) repeatedly authorized U.S. fighters to shoot down hijacked airliners as the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks unfolded but his orders did not reach military pilots until the last of the four planes had already crashed, the commission investigating the terrorist attacks said Thursday.
Cheney at one point believed incorrectly that his orders had resulted in the shoot-down of a couple aircraft.
The commission's report documented a day of confusion and miscommunication at the White House, Pentagon (news - web sites), the Federal Aviation Administration (news - web sites) and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD).
President Bush (news - web sites), at an elementary school in Florida to talk about education, was initially told that a small, twin-engine plane had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. He thought it was a case of pilot error. At the White House, Cheney was wondering "how the hell a plane could hit the World Trade Center" when he saw on television the second aircraft strike the South Tower.
When it became clear that the nation was under attack, Bush decided to continue his remarks to a classroom of second graders. "The president told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis." Fifty minutes later, he was on Air Force One as it climbed into the sky with no certain destination. The objective was to get into the air as fast as possible and decide where to go, the commission said.
Cheney, in an underground bunker at the White House, held a series of telephone calls with Bush. He asked Bush to decide the rules of engagement for combat planes being scrambled over Washington. Bush said he authorized that hijacked planes be shot down.
I'm glad that's a decision I didn't have to make.
Vice President Dick Cheney (news - web sites) runs to get on stage to greet the guests at the Congressional Picnic with President Bush (news - web sites) on the South Lawn of the White House, Tuesday, June 15, 2004 (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
This isn't news. This was reported right after 9/11.
No, it's not.
Dick Cheney proved himself worthy to be President on 9/11/2001.
"Repeatedly" or "reportedly"? There's a difference, and the headline doesn't agree with the article.
Maybe it's my wary eye when viewing the press, but does anyone else see the slant here?
The story starts off making it sound like VP Cheney is in charge and doesn't say until the end that President Bush authorized the shoot down order. President Bush authorizes, VP Cheney conveys the order. Why wouldn't the article write it that way.
Then they mention the fact that the President didn't stop with the kids. They try to make it sound as if he thought it unimportant, or to bolster the leftist tinfoil theory that he knew it was going to happen all along.
Finally we have the account of the President getting in the air with no destination. They are implying that the President ran and hid instead of doing his job, thus showing his guilt for the attacks. How immature does one have to be to think the President would be allowed to remain in dangers way? It wouldn't have mattered who was President, he would have been taken up to be safe.
I really dislike the left.
Are misleading headlines common for AP stories?
Yes, they are.
What I wrote on another thread last night about President Bush: I love how these wackos like to always bring up that President Bush waited while reading to the children. Perhaps he should have run off screaming, "We're all gonna die! We're all gonna die!" I always assume that (1) he didn't want to panic the children and (2) he probably was supposed to stay put for that time, since at that point no one really knew what was going on.
He did his job, one of the most difficult imagineable.
...for class.
It's a masterpiece of sloppiness, or worse. Add the inappropriately colloquial, "shoot-down of a couple aircraft."
You are absolutely right. When the first plane hit it could have been an accident. Only after the second attack did it become clear that we were under attack.
How would a "president Gore" have handled the whole thing? I shudder to think about it.
I continue to keep everyone in this administration in my prayers....
How did they come to the conclusion that Cheney mistakenly believed a couple of planes had been shot down? I dislike articles that report such statements without mentioning their sources.
Yep. They fault him for not (over)reacting in the same way they would. I want a leader who's calm and cool under pressure, not some basket case or political weasel whose first thought in an attack is to use some fake tears or anger to boost his public opinion polls.
Just watching X42 continue on in denial and his veep having hysterical meltdowns on a regular basis has me thanking g-d every day that this country has been blessed to have President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
He would have given a speech that reassured everyone. Bwhahahahhahahahahahahahhahahahahahah!!!!
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