[prarie earth]

So the President was in contact with Cheney after all and gave the order, so much for the libs having him incommunicado that day.

[mhking]

Please post the entire article when not covered by WP/LAT exclusion...

---

Not long after American Airlines Flight 11 slammed into the north tower of the World Trade Center, military officials in Washington initiated an "air-threat conference call." Through the course of the day, participants included Vice President Dick Cheney, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, and senior officials from the National Security Council (NSC), the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), and the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD). Pentagon officials familiar with the events say the conference call was broadcast over a loudspeaker inside the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, which Rumsfeld and Gen. Richard Myers, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were using as an emergency command post.

Back in May, members of the independent commission appointed to examine the September 11 attacks were informed that the conference call had been recorded. But Pentagon officials said that they had yet to transcribe the tapes. The commission's repeated requests over the summer finally resulted in the Pentagon's creating a classified transcript. It was forwarded to the White House on August 6, U.S. News has learned, so that administration officials could conduct an "executive-privilege review," required because of Cheney's participation in the call. The commission has been promised access to the roughly 200-page transcript, sources say. Staff Director Philip Zelikow says the transcript is just a small piece of a mammoth puzzle the commission must put together by next May from thousands of pages of government documents. "We already had the substance," Zelikow says. "This is further detail, further corroboration." Commissioners say they may have to obtain the tapes themselves because the transcript is not time coded, making the task of outlining the exact sequence of events that day cumbersome.

Among the other highly classified materials recently presented to the commission: thousands of pages of transcripts of interrogations of top-tier al Qaeda leaders captured abroad and lower-level operatives held at the U.S. military barracks in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

Commissioners hope the transcript of the September 11 conference call is revealing on several fronts. On the morning of the terrorist attacks, NORAD's satellites, operated to detect potential airborne attacks from outside U.S. borders, were unable to monitor the airspace inside the country. The command, buried in a mountain in Colorado Springs, Colo., was dependent on radars operated by the Federal Aviation Administration for information about the four fuel-heavy aircraft hijacked by the terrorists. NORAD even had to rely on FAA satellites to track military jets inside U.S. airspace, officials say. The transcript could help explain why it took the FAA 14 minutes to notify NORAD that American Airlines Flight 77--originally bound for Los Angeles from Washington's Dulles International Airport, but way off course over West Virginia--had been hijacked and was headed back toward Washington. Could the military, in those 14 minutes, have scrambled fighter jets and diverted the plane before it slammed into the Pentagon?

Shoot-down order. The transcript may also shed light on the military's response to President Bush's unprecedented order to shoot down any hijacked civilian airplane. Pentagon sources say Bush communicated the order to Cheney almost immediately after Flight 77 hit the Pentagon and the FAA, for the first time ever, ordered all domestic flights grounded. "There are unanswered questions," says Richard Ben-Veniste, a commission member and former federal prosecutor, as to whether the shoot-down order "had been rehearsed for, whether it had been prepared for, and what measures were in place to protect the Capitol," believed to be the hijackers' original target for Flight 77.

Some of the questions may be raised in the commission's second interim report, due out in about two weeks. The report will offer a substantive summary of the commission's top priorities and offer an updated report card on agency cooperation. In its first interim report in July, the commissioners publicly chastised the Pentagon, FBI, CIA, and other agencies for recalcitrance. "Certainly, cooperation has improved," says Timothy Roemer, a commissioner. "But we're still seeking very critical documents from NORAD, NSC, and CIA."

[boxerblues]

bttt for later

[Seeking the truth]

Never, never trust anything that comes out of the mouth of Richard Ben-Veniste.

He is a coolaid drinking Demonrat of the highest order!

[11th Earl of Mar]

If you are too lazy to post the whole article, don't bother posting at all.

[PPHSFL]

This was mentioned in Bill Sammon's book on the attacks.

[new cruelty]

bttt

[.cnI redruM]

Peter Jennings should be sued for implying Bush hid like a coward.

[Republican Red]

Sounds to me like they are trying to pin a "they knew it was going to happened" on President Bush.

This guy is trying to say that if the President and Vice PResident were so quick and decisive in their actions they must have had some heads-up and thus were prepared to act immediately.

What a fool. Democrats cannot accept the fact that President Bush is a born leader and reacted instinctively. Shame on them.

[mtbopfuyn]

Whatever Bush said to whomever whenever doesn't matter to me. We were all naive on 9/10 but should thank our lucky stars we had Bush and Cheney leading our country on 9/11. I never doubted for a second Bush was hiding out. Cheney and other leaders were in Washington DC and could very well have been a victims so of course they kept Bush a safe distance away. That doesn't mean he wasn't on the phone getting confirmation of the situation and making quick decisions. I doubt the military could have acted any faster but I don't believe for a minute the PA flight was shot down because too many people were on phones. I'm also of the opinion there are many actions taken by our government that day which should be kept secret.

Thanks be for Bush and Cheney. If we'd had Gore there would be no US of A today.

[Ciexyz]

Most interesting.

[cyncooper]

So the President was in contact with Cheney after all and gave the order, so much for the libs having him incommunicado that day.

This was well known almost immediately. Witness this article dated September 17, 2001.

'Shoot-down' order was given

Excerpt:

President Bush has confirmed that he ordered any airliners refusing to turn away from Washington be shot down in the aftermath of the attack on the Pentagon, and the World Trade Center in New York.

Asked whether he had struggled with the decision, Mr Bush said: "I gave our military the orders necessary to protect Americans, do whatever it would take to protect Americans."

~snip~

Vice President Dick Cheney confirmed that the order came after World Trade Center and Pentagon had been hit, and a fourth plane appeared to be on course for the capital.

[cyncooper]

I well remember Tom Brokaw's televised interview with President Bush. President Bush directly addressed his discussion with VP Cheney and the shoot down orders. To Brokaw's credit, it was an excellent interview.

Here is another reference:

September 11, 2001 Terrorist Attack/Timeline September 11

Excerpt:

10:39 AM: another hijacked jumbo jet is claimed to be headed for Washington, D.C. F-15s are scrambled and patrol the airspace above Washington, D.C. while other fighter jets sweep the airspace above New York City. They have orders, first issued by Vice President Cheney and later confirmed by President Bush, to shoot down any potentially dangerous planes that do not comply with orders given to them via radio.

[cyncooper]

More documentation of this well known order:

AMERICA ON ALERT (archive)

Scroll down to September 27, 2001:

Excerpt:

In an ominous reminder of the potential for more terror, the Pentagon confirmed that two Air Force generals have been authorized to order the military to shoot down any civilian airliner that appears to be threatening U.S. cities.

Bush issued a similar order himself in the hours after hijacked planes attacked American symbols of military might and capitalism Sept. 11.

[cyncooper]

More:

'Air force was ordered to shoot down stray jets'

Monday, September 17, 2001

US Vice-President Dick Cheney has admitted that he and President George W Bush ordered the air force to shoot down any passenger jets that were being used in attacks against US landmarks.

Mr Cheney said that on Tuesday, after the first two planes had smashed into the World Trade Centre in New York, fighter jets were ordered to shoot down any plane that failed to respond to orders to divert.

This admission follows confusion over the fourth hijacked plane, which crashed near Pittsburg before it could reach its target.

The US Government has denied that the plane was shot down.

[Steve0113]

Bump for dirt on the witch in post 51.