Posted on 09/12/2001 9:15:07 PM PDT by Pokey78
WASHINGTON -- At 9:03 a.m. Tuesday, as Vice President Dick Cheney was staring at the TV screen, the second hijacked airliner exploded against the Twin Towers. At that moment his Secret Service detail grabbed him and hurried him down to "PEOC."
The President's Emergency Operations Center is an underground facility hardened to withstand blast overpressure from a nuclear detonation. On the way to the tubular structure, Cheney was told that another plane, or a helicopter loaded with explosives, was headed for the White House.
Cheney promptly called the president in Florida, who had just boarded Air Force One, and urged him not to come back to Washington immediately.
In the PEOC, the vice president was joined by Condoleezza Rice, the national security adviser, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, among others. They were told that six commercial aircraft were unaccounted for, all of which were potential missiles. One had supposedly crashed in Kentucky (not true), and another in Pennsylvania (that report of a crash was valid; its passengers or crew, apparently struggling with the hijackers, may have saved the White House).
According to a high White House official speaking to me on background, the airliner that had taken off at Dulles — AA Flight 77 — "did a 360" (meaning it changed direction from the White House) and at 9:45 slammed into the Pentagon.
About that time, accounts began coming into PEOC that four international flights were headed toward Washington over the Atlantic and another from Korea. It could not be immediately determined that they were not hostile and part of the terrorist scheme. U.S. fighter aircraft and an Awacs control aircraft were scrambled aloft.
A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the agents with the president that "Air Force One is next." According to the high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of procedures that made the threat credible.
(I have a second, on-the-record source about that: Karl Rove, the president's senior adviser, tells me: "When the president said 'I don't want some tinhorn terrorists keeping me out of Washington,' the Secret Service informed him that the threat contained language that was evidence that the terrorists had knowledge of his procedures and whereabouts. In light of the specific and credible threat, it was decided to get airborne with a fighter escort.")
After the president put down at an Air Force base in Louisiana and made a tape for broadcast (presumably no satellite was available for a live feed), he was, in Rove's term, "pretty antsy" about not being at the center of command.
Bush made clear to Cheney, says my source who was in the bunker, his intense desire to return to Washington immediately. The Secret Service objected strongly. The vice president, a former secretary of defense, suggested Air Force One go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, headquarters of the Strategic Air Command, with a communications facility where the president could convene the National Security Council.
"It would have been irresponsible of him to come back, pounding his chest," says my source, "when hostile aircraft may have been headed our way. Any suggestion that he should have done so is ludicrous."
Confession: I made just that suggestion in yesterday's column, which stimulated two set-it-straight calls. Why didn't the V.P. make an appearance during that long afternoon in Bush's stead? The official reason is that Cheney was busy in the basement; the real reason, I think, is that he was unduly concerned it would appear presumptuous.
The most worrisome aspect of these revelations has to do with the credibility of the "Air Force One is next" message. It is described clearly as a threat, not a friendly warning — but if so, why would the terrorists send the message? More to the point, how did they get the code-word information and transponder know-how that established their mala fides?
That knowledge of code words, presidential whereabouts and possession of secret procedures indicates that the terrorists may have a mole in the White House — that, or informants in the Secret Service, F.B.I., F.A.A. or C.I.A. If so, the first thing our war on terror needs is an Angleton-type counterspy.
It's nice to know that all the CTs are not here on FR! This is just what our enemy likes, instilling a lack of trust in our own ranks.
I don't think most Americans cared where Bush was as long as he was safe, quite frankly.
That's easy. They got it from the Chinese (perhaps via Pakistan)who got it straight from the Clinton White House, along with all our other secrets.
Maybe they really have kept the planes grounded to keep Clinton out of the country! ;^)
I am still waiting for word from friends. The people I know that I know are alive in the city have left. I walk alone in the empty streets with a surgical mask on. I see humvees with big black guns on their roofs. I am scared.
Pray for us...
Quite clearly, someone from the Clinton White House.
More than likely, a depressed, vengeful Algore?
Maybe. But if the above is true, someone tried to assasinate the president. Why not wage a PR campaign against him as well?
Have you noticed the extraordinarily large number of ex-Clinton officials who have been interviewed by the networks? I saw a very interesting exchange tonight between Warren Christopher and Sandy Berger. Christopher said he wasn't buying the Osama story--it seemed too pat. Berger went out of his way to say Bin Laden could do this on his own. Last night, I saw the same thing happen in an interview with Tom Clancy and Berger.
I am beginning to believe we have traitors inside our government who wanted to see this happen. And I seriously doubt those traitors care very much about Osama Bin Laden. He is just a means to an end.
I'm not sure how vast. But certainly not the Bolsheviks who cried when Slick Willie's team left. Every one of them from Brokaw to Jennings to Rather to Russert to Dashle to McAuliffe to Gephart, etc., etc. cannot even disguise their visceral hatred of Dubya.
Toupsie, you have our prayers. I can't imagine the horroe you are living through at this time. Just know that there are untold thousands of us thinking of you and all who are witness (first hand) to the insanity of the last days. I pray for you to have the strength you will need to get through the coming days, weeks and months. God bless all of you.
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