Posted on 09/11/2001 11:59:11 PM PDT by kattracks
MADISON, Wis. (AP) - Former President George Bush, on his way to a speech in Minnesota, was grounded in Wisconsin Tuesday when federal officials cleared the skies after the East Coast terrorist attacks, his son Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said.
"I think that's where he still is, like a lot of people across the country, until air service begins again," Jeb Bush said Tuesday in a news conference in Tallahassee, Fla.
Officials with the FBI in Wisconsin and the State Patrol would not comment. A Secret Service spokesman in Milwaukee did not return several telephone calls from The Associated Press.
Laura Spears, a spokeswoman for George Bush, said: "We cannot comment because of the security issues involved."
President George Bush, the father of President George W. Bush, led the country into the Persian Gulf War in 1991, an event that friends and followers say turned Osama bin Laden against the United States.
A U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity said there were unspecified indications that bin Laden's organization was responsible for the deadly attacks on New York City's World Trade Center and the Pentagon, and he has been cited as the main suspect.
George Bush was on his way to deliver a speech to St. Paul Companies in St. Paul, Minn.
David Monfried, a spokesman for the insurance company, said the private meeting with employees had been canceled. There were no plans to reschedule. He also declined to say where the former president was because of security concerns.
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