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9/11/01: Where Was George? (Alterman 'Bush-hating' alert)
The Nation ^ | 09/18/03 | Eric Alterman

Posted on 09/20/2003 12:39:19 PM PDT by Pokey78

September 11 is often said to be the defining moment in the Bush presidency, even of modern history. How strange, therefore, that Bush's behavior that morning--along with that of his Administration--is almost never examined in any detail. This is all the more incredible when one considers the fact that 9/11 is among the most exhaustively chronicled days in human history and Bush among its most heavily covered individuals. No less odd has been the media's willingness to let the many inconsistencies in White House stories pass unexamined. They seem content instead to let Showtime tell the story, Leni Riefenstahl-style.

That fateful morning, Bush was visiting the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota. The moment he learned of the attacks is a matter of deep dispute. CIA chief George Tenet was informed of the first crash almost immediately and is reported to have remarked to his breakfast companion, former Senator David Boren, "You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it." But the President's aides maintain that he was not told about the attack for more than fifteen minutes, well after viewers saw the first building engulfed in smoke on CNN, and even after he interrupted his schedule to take a call from Condoleezza Rice upon leaving his limousine, after the first crash took place.

The various accounts offered by the White House are almost all inconsistent with one another. On December 4, 2001, Bush was asked, "How did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?" Bush replied, "I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower--the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there. I didn't have much time to think about it." Bush repeated the same story on January 5, 2002, stating, "First of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error, and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake...."

This is false. Nobody saw the jetliner crash into the first tower on television until a videotape surfaced a day later. What's more, Bush's memory not only contradicts every media report of that morning, it also contradicts what he said on the day of the attack. In his speech to the nation that evening, Bush said, "Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans." Again, this statement has never been satisfactorily explained. No one besides Bush has ever spoken of these "emergency plans," and the mere idea of their implementation is contradicted by Bush's claim that at the time, he believed the crash to have been a case of pilot error.

Other contradictions abound. Bush told an interviewer that Chief of Staff Andrew Card had been the first person to let him know of the crash. Card was saying, Bush explained, "'Here's what you're going to be doing: You're going to meet so-and-so, such-and-such.' Then Andy Card said, 'By the way, an aircraft flew into the World Trade Center.'" Ari Fleischer repeated this story, claiming that Card had told Bush about the crash "as the President finished shaking hands in a hallway of school officials." But other sources, including Bob Woodward's allegedly authoritative account, have Karl Rove telling Bush the news.

What we do know is that Bush continued to read to the children and pose for the cameras long after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD), the National Military Command Center, the Pentagon, the White House, the Secret Service and Canada's Strategic Command were all aware that three jetliners had been hijacked. The President's entourage hung around a full fifty minutes after CNN broadcast the news of the first crash. Half an hour after the first plane hit, Bush told the children, "Hoo! These are great readers. Very impressive! Thank you all so very much for showing me your reading skills. I bet they practice, too. Don't you? Reading more than they watch TV? Anybody do that? Read more than you watch TV? [Hands go up] Oh that's great! Very good. Very important to practice! Thanks for having me. I'm very impressed."

White House staff members claimed that Bush remained with the children so as not to "upset" or "alarm" them. This is a truly bewildering excuse. If the country was under attack, Bush might be forgiven for upsetting a few schoolkids. If the President's life was in danger, then so was the life of every little child in that room. At the time, fighter jets had been dispatched to defend New York City. But according to one of the fighter pilots, it would have done no good to catch up to one of the hijacked planes before it landed in a murderous explosion at the next population center. The only person with the authority to order the plane to be shot down, noted the pilot, was the President, who was still reading to schoolchildren.

The panic motif runs through the rest of the President's actions that day. While the presidential motorcade did finally head for the airport, Bush is alleged to have spoken on the phone to Cheney and ordered all flights nationwide grounded. Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta has also tried to take credit for the order, but according to Slate, this too is false, though "FAA officials had begged [the reporter] to maintain the fiction." In fact, according to USA Today, it was FAA administrator Ben Sliney who issued the order. Amazingly, Air Force One took off with no military protection. It remained unprotected in the sky for more than an hour, though Florida is filled with Air Force bases just minutes away with planes that are supposed to be on twenty-four-hour alert.

Bush's aides later offered, and retracted, the excuse that he spent the day flying around the country because of threats to Air Force One believed to have been received at the White House. What nobody has ever explained is this: If you think Air Force One is to be attacked, why go up in Air Force One?

I don't have the answers to these questions. But why is no one asking them?


TOPICS: Editorial; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alterman; barf; bushhate; ericalterman; hurl; idiot; puke; revisionism; revisionisthistory; spew; technicoloryawn; vomit
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To: KC_Conspirator
The left just can't resist inserting any sort of reference which suggests, however subtly, that Bush is equilavent to Hitler. Riefenstahl's passing seems timed just to remind them to start drawing comparisons
61 posted on 09/20/2003 6:01:00 PM PDT by RightWingAtheist (Quick: guess which show and episode I'm quoting)
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To: jd777
I don't think this is the point if no one saw the first crash until later? Isn't it enough the frigging loonies bombed the building killing people? Or does this matter to him that innocent lives were taken?
62 posted on 09/20/2003 6:04:01 PM PDT by freekitty
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To: RDangerfield
No one has been able to explain why the president told such a falsehood.

Where did Bush say he saw the first plane hit? Obviously, he saw the second plane hit.

63 posted on 09/20/2003 6:24:35 PM PDT by Bob J
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To: Theyknow
The questions.
64 posted on 09/20/2003 6:26:52 PM PDT by Bob J
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To: Pokey78
I think the best way to deal with people like Alderman is to take apart their theories piece by piece and fact by fact. It's the only way to correct history, if, in fact, Alderman is wrong. Getting hysterical won't solve anything.

Then, after you do that,

DEPORT HILLARY!

65 posted on 09/20/2003 6:31:40 PM PDT by paulklenk
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To: Bob J
Bob J.: Where did Bush say he saw the first plane hit? Obviously, he saw the second plane hit.
I'm sorry, but you're wrong. You can read his words verbatim from both the press conferences. He referred to the first plane hitting the first tower each time he told the story. He repeated the story a second time.

Dec. 4, 2001: "And I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on, and I use to fly myself, and I said, "There's one terrible pilot." And I said, "It must have been a horrible accident."
It obviously had to be the first plane, because the second plane didn't hit the building until he was inside, speaking to the class.

Jan. 5, 2002: "First of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error, and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake...."
--Raoul

66 posted on 09/20/2003 6:42:18 PM PDT by RDangerfield
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To: jd777
The real question is why did he sit there reading a story about "a pet goat" to those children after hearing about the second crash? Why didn't he immediately excuse himself and see what was going on? Wouldn't you? That really bothers me more.

I believe it boils down to what everyone knew in the immediate moments of the first plane hitting the building. Also, the president's role in leading our nation may not be as "hands on", as people would like to believe. I am sure the president was aware and concerned, but his excusing himself from the room, disappointing the students and rushing off to... WHERE?

Where would he rush off to? What could he do? He knew a plane hit the World Trade Center. Yes, so did lots of people. Did this mean that every other American could have DONE SOMETHING?

The president should have... oh, hopped on Air Force One and fly to....? Where, again? Where should he have flown to? We all know the details about how he hopscotched across the country, because Air Force One was targeted, and the Secret Service wouldn't allow him to return to the White House.

You may like to envision the president being in control... and he WAS. His making a grand statement, and rushing out the door would have signified that he WASN'T in control, that he was only hastily reacting to the chain of events. Is that how you would want to think of your president?

Or, should he have gone on television immediately, bit his lip, and asked the world to pray for America, because we have been wounded?

The allusion that the president was just enjoying the storytime, not thinking of the plane accident, or a myriad of other items on his mind that morning, is ridiculous. No one truly knows the behind the scene machinations that the White House and the Bush Administration were going through, step by step. We only have bits and pieces of the entire package, told by different eye witnesses to all of the events.

And, I do believe, that the film footage you see of the president, when Andy Card whispers in his ear is to tell him, the SECOND plane had hit the WTC. At that moment, everything changes, because this is an attack, not a random accident, like the first one was hoped to be.

It is easy to sit here and critique the president and say what he SHOULD have done in those initial moments of September 11th. But tell me, even if he did do what everyone likes to think what they themselves would do, if placed in this situation... tell me how this changes anything else that happened on that day? Or how it is relevent, and proves that he was ineffectual in his role as president?

67 posted on 09/20/2003 7:28:17 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife ("Life isn't fair. It's fairer than death, is all.")
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To: RDangerfield
Tempest in a tea pot.
68 posted on 09/20/2003 8:11:18 PM PDT by Bob J
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To: Pokey78
HEY ERIC!

I know you read here at FR. You can't help yourself. We can now officially add you to the nut bag LW fuitloop conspiracy kook club.

69 posted on 09/20/2003 8:29:54 PM PDT by finnman69 (!)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
No its not true. There were many eye witnesses of the plance crash and several called newsstations and were put on the air priot to the second plane impact.
70 posted on 09/20/2003 8:33:42 PM PDT by finnman69 (!)
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
If someone says "I saw the airplane crash into the building" it could easily mean he saw the building after an airplane crashed into it...Most people (normal people) talk this way
71 posted on 09/20/2003 8:40:26 PM PDT by woofie
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
If someone says "I saw the airplane crash into the building" it could easily mean he saw the building after an airplane crashed into it...Most people (normal people) talk this way
72 posted on 09/20/2003 8:40:27 PM PDT by woofie
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To: finnman69
You are right, of course.

What I meant to ask was whether or not the videotape of the first plane hitting the building was available on the Se[tember 11th?

The reason why I brought up the question, was not to needle the president, but because my own recollection of that day is that on videotape, I saw the first plane hit the first tower. I assume this isn't true, and it is just my mind filling in the holes of my memory... the blankspots at the time, with what is known today.
73 posted on 09/20/2003 8:41:55 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife ("Life isn't fair. It's fairer than death, is all.")
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To: finnman69
You are right, of course.

What I meant to ask was whether or not the videotape of the first plane hitting the building was available on the Se[tember 11th?

The reason why I brought up the question, was not to needle the president, but because my own recollection of that day is that on videotape, I saw the first plane hit the first tower. I assume this isn't true, and it is just my mind filling in the holes of my memory... the blankspots at the time, with what is known today.
74 posted on 09/20/2003 8:41:55 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife ("Life isn't fair. It's fairer than death, is all.")
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To: finnman69
You are right, of course.

What I meant to ask was whether or not the videotape of the first plane hitting the building was available on the Se[tember 11th?

The reason why I brought up the question, was not to needle the president, but because my own recollection of that day is that on videotape, I saw the first plane hit the first tower. I assume this isn't true, and it is just my mind filling in the holes of my memory... the blankspots at the time, with what is known today.
75 posted on 09/20/2003 8:41:56 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife ("Life isn't fair. It's fairer than death, is all.")
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
Wow... it stuttered three times!

SORRY!

Time to back slowly away from the keyboard and call it a night.

:)
76 posted on 09/20/2003 8:42:52 PM PDT by Pan_Yans Wife ("Life isn't fair. It's fairer than death, is all.")
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
The various accounts offered by the White House are almost all inconsistent with one another. On December 4, 2001, Bush was asked, "How did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?" Bush replied, "I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower--the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there. I didn't have much time to think about it." Bush repeated the same story on January 5, 2002, stating, "First of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error, and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake...."

This is false. Nobody saw the jetliner crash into the first tower on television until a videotape surfaced a day later. What's more, Bush's memory not only contradicts every media report of that morning, it also contradicts what he said on the day of the attack. In his speech to the nation that evening, Bush said, "Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response plans."

If someone says "I saw the airplane crash into the building" it could easily mean he saw the building after an airplane crashed into it...Most people (normal people) talk this way...If one saw a car wreck ...they might say "I saw a wreck" when all they saw was the aftermath not the actual cars hitting...

Also If you say "after the first attack" that is not necessarily after the first building is attacked ...it is after both buildings were attacked ...The two towers (plural) made up "the first attack"...especially since it was unclear what had happened till both buildings were hit.....The second was the pentagon, the third crashed in Pennsylvania.

In short the author is full of it

77 posted on 09/20/2003 9:12:32 PM PDT by woofie
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To: Pan_Yans Wife
Pan_Yans Wife: What I meant to ask was whether or not the videotape of the first plane hitting the building was available on the Se[tember 11th?
I understand your confusion. All those events blurred for all of us on that horrible day. The answer is that the videotape of the plane hitting the first tower, shot by the French newsman, was given to the media much later that afternoon after he got back to the fire station where he started. It was shown on TV many hours after the original crash at 8:48 that morning. So Bush could not have seen it live before he walked into the classroom. No one saw the videotape on TV at 8:48. Many people did see the crash in person, however, and called in to local TV stations who then alerted the networks.

Many people have wondered why the president claimed that he saw the crash before he went into the classroom. As I posted in the links 59 and 66 above, his verbatim words are available from the actual White House transcripts of his new conferences. He told the story originally on Dec. 4, 2001, and then repeated it on Jan. 5, 2002. He clearly said that he viewed it live, as you will see from the transcript: "First of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building."

Perhaps he just confused it in his mind later on. The strange thing is that someone on his staff did not tell him after that first press conference that he had misspoke. Or especially after he repeated it. But there is obviously no grand conspiracy here. He was just obviously confused. Too bad the yes-men around him didn't speak up and that he didn't clarify his obvious mistake.
--Raoul

78 posted on 09/20/2003 11:51:08 PM PDT by RDangerfield
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To: RDangerfield

BookMark.

Dear Lord, please, share Your strength and guidance.
Tatt


79 posted on 02/01/2013 9:45:09 AM PST by thesearethetimes... ("Courage, is fear that has said its prayers." Dorothy Bernard)
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