New Article: George W. Bush During the 9/11 Attacks

[Linda]

Proof Bush knew about 9/11 attack before leaving hotel for Booker Elementary School

'This ABC transcript contradicts the official timeline of Bush's movements on the morning of 9/11 dramatically. If this transcript is accurate, why would the Bush administration lie about what time he left his hotel?'


http://www.mypetgoat.tv/forums/viewtopic.php?t=307


8/25/05, by Stallion4 @ www.mypetgoat.tv
Proof Bush knew about 9/11 attack before leaving hotel for Booker Elementary School
8/27/05, by Stallion4 @ www.mypetgoat.tv

Below I've documented how Bush LIED about when he first learned "what was going on in New York" on the morning of 9/11:


Quote:
CBS NEWS - “I thought it was an accident,” says Mr. Bush. “I thought it was a pilot error. I thought that some foolish soul had gotten lost and - and made a terrible mistake.”

Mr. Bush was told about the first plane just before sitting down with a class of second graders. He was watching a reading drill when, just after nine, United Flight 175 exploded into the second tower. There was the sudden realization that what had seemed like a terrible mistake was a coordinated attack.

Back in the Florida classroom, press secretary Ari Fleischer got the news on his pager. The president’s chief-of-staff, Andy Card stepped in.

“A second plane hit the second tower; America is under attack,” Card told the president

CBS News:
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2002/09/11/60II/main521718.shtml


Now compare the CBS report to Bush's own words below:

Quote:
January 5, 2001, Remarks by the President in Town Hall Meeting, Ontario, California

Q: What was the first thing that went through your head when you heard that a plane crashed into the first building?

THE PRESIDENT ...I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff -- well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or -- anyway, I'm sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, "America is under attack."

Source: http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020105-3.html

audio clip: http://www.911blimp.net/sounds/BushAgainSayingHeSaw1stPlaneHitWTConTVt hatMorning.mp3


A month earlier he also stated that he saw the plane hit on TV:

Quote:
Town Hall Meeting, Aired December 4, 2001

QUESTION: ... how did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?

BUSH: Well... (APPLAUSE) Thank you, Jordan (ph).

Well, Jordan (ph), you're not going to believe what state I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida.

And my chief of staff, Andy Card – actually I was in a classroom talking about a reading program that works.

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."

But I was whisked off there – I didn't have much time to think about it, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my chief who was sitting over here walked in and said, "A second plane has hit the tower."

CNN Transcript: http://transcripts.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0112/04/se.04.html
Video clip: http://whatreallyhappened.com/IMAGES/bushsawfirstplane1.ram


This is impossible, because the video of the plane that hit the first tower wasn't broadcasted on television until hours after it hit.



Booker Elementary School Principal, Gwen Rigell reportedly has stated that there wasn't a TV anywhere near that classroom::

Quote:
I had the opportunity to talk with Principal Gwen Rigell of Booker Elementary school for about twenty minutes. ... I asked her if in fact the President had been watching the events of 9-11 unfold on TV before he went into that classroom and she told me "Absolutely not". There was no TV in the corridor or anywhere near that classroom

Sources: http://www.bluelemur.com/index.php?p=10
http://www.prisonplanet.com/bush_didnt_see_wtc_footage_before_he_enter ed_classroom.htm


Those were the comments of Steve Lemke, a sound engineer for a company called Digital Olive Productions in Sarasota, Florida. Lemke's story is supported by Sarasota Sheriff Bill Balkwill's recollection of events:

Quote:
(9:03 a.m.) According to Sarasota County Sheriff Bill Balkwill, just after Bush enters a Booker Elementary classroom, a Marine responsible for carrying Bush's phone walks up to Balkwill, who is standing in a nearby side room. While listening to someone talk to him in his earpiece, the Marine asks, "Can you get me to a television? We're not sure what's going on, but we need to see a television." Three Secret Service agents, a SWAT member, the Marine and Balkwill turn on the television in a nearby front office just as Flight 175 crashes into the WTC. "We're out of here," the Marine tells Balkwill. "Can you get everyone ready?" [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02]


The stories form Steve Lemke and Sheriff Bill Balkwill are supported by Booker Elementary School teacher, Sandra Daniels:

Quote:
New York Post, September 12th 2002
Teacher relives moment Bush- and her kids- got the news

"...at Emma E. Booker Elementary School, teacher Sandra Daniels recalled yesterday how she and her class learned of the terror attacks- when a Secret Service agent rushed into the room to inform the president of United States.

President Bush had been presiding over her reading class last 9/11, when a Secret Service agent interrupted the lesson and asked, "where can we get a television?".

"The President bolted right out of here and told me: "take over", Daniels told the Post yesterday...

The New York Post: http://www.nypost.com/09112002/56883.htm


So if there was not a TV anywhere near that classroom and the first images of a plane hitting the first tower weren't on television until hours after the attack, Bush is L-Y-I-N-G about the timeline. Why? Did he lie to cover-up what he said back at the hotel before leaving for the school?



Also worth noting, Sandra Daniels stated that a Secret Service agent "rushed into the room to inform the president" about the attack. This would contradict the story reported in the media that it was Andy Card who first informed POTUS of the attack by whispering into his ear that a second plane had crashed into the World Trade Center:

What Did Card Really Whisper to Bush on 9/11?
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/card_bush.html




It makes perfect sense that Card did not inform POTUS of the attack, because there was absoulutly no reaction from Bush to suggest the he was just informed by Andy Card that the United States of America was under attack after Card whispered into his ear. Bush just sat there as if nothing had happened!

Here's the ABC report from John Cochran stating that Bush knew what was "going on in New York" before leaving his hotel for the scheduled visit at Booker Elementary School:

Quote:
'ABC News' Special Report:
(8:53 AM ET) Tuesday 11 September 2001

[SNIP]

JENNINGS: ...Want to check in very quickly with the president of the United States. John Cochran with the president in Florida. John:

JOHN COCHRAN reporting:

Peter, as you know, the president's down in Florida talking about education. He got out of his hotel suite this morning, was about to leave, reporters saw the White House chief of staff, Andy Card, whisper into his ear. The reporter said to the president, 'Do you know what's going on in New York?' He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later. His first event is about half an hour at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida.

JENNINGS: Thanks, John. John Cochran with the president...

[SNIP]

ABC Transcript: http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/abc911.htm


According to this ABC report, Bush was aware of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center before he left his hotel. I repeat, according to the ABC report, Bush was aware of the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center before he left his hotel!

Keep in mind that Bush's scheduled appearance at the school had also been reported in the media before 9/11. I repeat, Bush's scheduled appearance at the school had also been reported in the media before 9/11.

The press release below was sent out to the media stating that he would be visiting the Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida at 9:30 am:



Federal News Advanced Schedule for 9/11
http://www.whatreallyhappened.com/federal.html


This is very important, because if terrorists wanted to take out Bush they could have easily known his whereabouts and could have hijacked a plane from one of the several airports located near that school (including one that was only five miles away) and crashed it into the school where Bush was to give a scheduled TV appearance:

From emperors-clothes.com
Quote:
The Secret Service, which employs more than 4,000 people, has several responsibilities. The most important is protecting the President. And surely, this means first of all keeping him out of unnecessary danger...
Quote:
"During the cold war, when security agents used to play war games involving terrorist threats to the White House, the one unsolvable problem was a commercial airliner loaded with explosives working its way into the landing pattern at Washington National Airport, then veering off for a suicide plunge into the White House." (TIME Magazine)

The Secret Service has long been aware that one of the trickiest security dangers is posed by a suicide attack from a hijacked commercial airplane from a nearby airport. On a day when planes were being hijacked from different airports and crashing into buildings, a top security precaution would be to keep the President away from a publicly announced appointment at a building near an airport.

The Booker School is fewer than 5 miles from the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.
http://www.emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-3.htm



The first plane reportedly hit at 8:46 am. The FAA notified the Northeast Air Defense Sector at least six minutes before the impact that one of their planes had been hijacked:

Quote:
"8:40 [the] FAA notifie[s] NEADS (the Northeast Air Defense Sector) of NORAD, the military's civil defense system, about Flight 11, [i.e., that it had been hijacked.]"
Newsday 23 September 2001


So NEADS was aware of a hijacking at 8:40 am. After the first plane hit the tower they must have known that the two were related considering that a major US target just had a plane inserted into the center of it.

The Secret Service would have been notified of this:

Quote:
Meet The Press, Sunday 16 September 2001



"Vice Pres. Cheney: ...As best we can tell, they [American Flight 77] came initially at the White House and...

"Mr. Russert: The plane actually circled the White House?

"Vice Pres. Cheney: Didn't circle it, but was headed on a track into it. The Secret Service has an arrangement with the F.A.A. They had open lines after the World Trade Center was... "

"Mr. Russert: Tracking it by radar.

"Vice Pres. Cheney: And when it entered the danger zone and looked like it was headed for the White House was when they grabbed me and evacuated me to the basement... (Etc.)"

Original transcript of MEET THE PRESS can be read at:
http://stacks.msnbc.com/news/629714.asp?cp1=1



If Bush left his hotel after the first plane hit, that would have given him, at most, 17 minutes until the second plane hit at 9:03 am to get into Sandra Daniels' classroom.

It was a nine mile drive from Bush's Hotel to the school. If you do a map quest search for driving directions the approx drive time is 20 minutes. That time is based on posted speed limits, lights, stop signs, etc:

Quote:
"The police shut down traffic in both directions, leaving roads utterly deserted for Bush's long motorcade, which barreled along at 40 mph, running red lights with impunity." [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, pp. 37-38]




When the motorcade arrived at the school, at approx 9 am as reported in the media, Bush probably shook a few hands and posed for a few photo ops before he entered the classroom. He also spent time in a "holding room" before entering the classroom:

Quote:
(excerpted from Paul Thompson's 911 Timeline Project at:
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/project.jsp?project=911_project

Just after Bush arrives at Booker Elementary School and is briefly told of the WTC crash, he is whisked into a holding room and updated on the situation via telephone by National Security Advisor Rice. [Christian Science Monitor, 9/17/01, Time, 9/12/01] Rice later claims, "He said, what a terrible, it sounds like a terrible accident. Keep me informed." [ABC News, 9/11/02] School principal Gwen Tose-Rigell is then summoned to a room to talk with the President: "He said a commercial plane has hit the World Trade Center, and we're going to go ahead and go on, we're going on to do the reading thing anyway." [AP, 8/19/02 (D)] One local reporter notes that at this point, "He could and arguably should have left Emma E. Booker Elementary School immediately, gotten onto Air Force One and left Sarasota without a moment's delay." [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/12/01 (B)]

source: http://www.ringnebula.com/Oil/bush_911am.htm


The official timeline of Bush's movements has him arriving at the school at 8:55 am. The second plane hit at 9:03 am. It's my opinion that Bush entered the classroom after the second plane had hit. Bush remained at the school to deliver his first televised speech that the U.S. was under attack at 9:29 am:



If the Secret Service was in direct contact with the FAA after the World Trade Center was attacked (8:46 am) as Dick Cheney alluded to in the Meet The Press interview, why was Bush allowed to enter that school and remain there literally like a sitting duck until shortly after 9:30 am?

Quote:
By the time Mr Bush had finished his TV address, it was 9.35 and outside the school the motorcade was revving up again, this time to take the President to Sarasota airport where Air Force One was waiting.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=%2Fnews%2F2001%2F12%2F1 6%2Fwbush16.xml



Was he allowed to stay there so long because they knew that "terrorists" were NOT attacking the country and Bush's life was NOT in danger from an attack at the school by "terrorists" from the ground or by air?

If the ABC report is true, which I believe it to be, do you think Bush was concerned because he 'let the cat out of the bag' back at the hotel? Concerned enough to make up a bs story that he first learned about "what was going on in New York" when he saw a plane hit the first tower on an imaginary television just before entering the classroom at Booker Elementary School?



Me thinks yes.




Proof Bush knew about 9/11 attack before leaving hotel for Booker Elementary School (Part 2)



This ABC transcript contradicts the official timeline of Bush's movements on the morning of 9/11 dramatically. If this transcript is accurate, why would the Bush administration lie about what time he left his hotel?


'ABC News' Special Report:
(8:53 AM ET) Tuesday 11 September 2001

[SNIP]

JENNINGS: ...Want to check in very quickly with the president of the United States. John Cochran with the president in Florida. John:

JOHN COCHRAN reporting:

Peter, as you know, the president's down in Florida talking about education. He got out of his hotel suite this morning, was about to leave, reporters saw the White House chief of staff, Andy Card, whisper into his ear. The reporter said to the president, 'Do you know what's going on in New York?' He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later. His first event is about half an hour at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida.

JENNINGS: Thanks, John. John Cochran with the president...

[SNIP]

ABC Transcript: http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/abc911.htm

NOTE: according to the transcript, John Cochran's report aired after the second plane hit. However, the reporter that Cochran mentions must have asked the question before that and sometime after the first plane hit the North Tower. If this transcript is true, the earliest Bush could have left his hotel for the school would have been 8:46 am when the first plane reportedly hit.



Related:

January 27, 2002 The Washington Post wrote:
Bush's motorcade left for the school at 8:30 a.m. As it was arriving, pagers and cell phones alerted White House aides that a plane had hit the North Tower of the World Trade Center.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A42754-2002Jan26


CooperativeResearch.org wrote:
President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11
Accounts of when Bush's motorcade left for the school vary from 8:30 to 8:39. [8:30, Washington Post, 1/27/02, 8:35, Sarasota Magazine, 9/19/01, 8:39, Washington Times, 10/7/02] One account has the Bush party leave the Colony suite at 8:30 and drive away at 8:39. Whenever he left, the motorcade traveled quickly: "The police shut down traffic in both directions, leaving roads utterly deserted for Bush's long motorcade, which barreled along at 40 mph, running red lights with impunity." [Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, pp. 37-38] At 40 mph, it would take about 14 minutes to travel the nine-mile distance to the school. Several accounts say the journey took about 20 minutes [New York Times, 9/16/01 (B), St. Petersburg Times, 9/8/02 (B), MSNBC, 10/29/02], which means that Bush arrived shortly before 9:00. [8:46, ABC News, 9/11/02, 8:55, Washington Times, 10/7/02, 8:55, Sarasota Magazine, 9/19/01, "just before 9:00," Telegraph, 12/16/01, "shortly before 9:00," Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02, "just before 9:00," New York Times, 9/16/01 (B), 9:00, Albuquerque Tribune, 9/10/02]
http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/essayaninterestingday .html

8/27/05, by Stallion4 @ www.mypetgoat.tv
Proof Bush knew about 9/11 attack before leaving hotel for Booker Elementary School (Part 2)

[Wokeman]

Michael Rivero
9/11 White House press briefing:
"The United States Secret Service immediately secured the President, the Vice President and the Speaker of the House, and they are all safe."

Okay, let's have a look at how the Secret Service reacted when President Bush was informed by Andrew Card that America was under attack:

The fictional Sherlock Holmes solved the crime in "Silver Blaze" by deducing it was the owner of the house who was the criminal. How did he know? Because the dog did not bark. The only person whocould have committed the crime without arousing the dog was someone the dog knew as a friend, the dog's owner.

Inspector Gregory: "Is there any other point to which you would wish to draw my attention?"

Holmes: "To the curious incident of the dog in the night-time."

"The dog did nothing in the night time"

"That was the curious incident," remarked Sherlock Holmes.

From "The Adventure of Silver Blaze" by Arthur Conan Doyle

Now let us turn our Sherlockian logic on 9-11.

Hijacked aircraft were wandering across the eastern half of the country. In theory no-one could have known how many planes had been hijacked. Two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center, Bush was at a publicised photo opportunity at Booker Elementary School, and there is an airport only four miles from this School.

Florida Straits:
Bush Presses Education Agenda in Sunshine State

W A S H I N G T O N, Sept. 10 — President Bush headed to Florida today to push for quick passage of his education reforms as the flagging economy commands increasing attention back in the nation's capital. [ABC News]


Federal News 9/11 schedule - click for full size
The Sarasota Herald Tribune announced Bush's visit to Booker Elementary on September 8th, giving the 9-11 planners three days to include Bush as a target for a diving jetliner. Nobody could have safely assumed he was not a target.

1913: Congress authorized permanent [Secret Service] protection of the President and the statutory authorization for President-elect protection. [secretsevice.gov]
The Booker Elementary video shows the Secret Service did not rush in to remove the President to a secure location, or at least to the safety of the armored Presidential Limousine. That's their job. That's what they do in the case of a real surprise attack withmany unknowns. They don't do anything else.

But the Secret Service did nothing. The dog did not bark.

Bush defenders try to explain Bush's inaction as his not wanting to upset the children. Michael Moore's "Fahrenheit 9-11" suggests Bush's inaction was due to his not being told to leave. But Michael Moore fails to follow that line of reasoning through to its logical conclusion; where were the people whose job it is to get the President to a place of safety in event of attack, the people who would have, SHOULD have, pulled Bush out of there, children and public appearances be damned!

The Secret Service did nothing. The dog did not bark.

If the events of 9-11 were truly a surprise to the United States Government then there is no way the Secret Service could have known there wasn't a hijacked or stolen plane heading towards Booker Elementary School that very second.

Three Secret Service agents, a SWAT member, the Marine and Balkwill turned on the television in a nearby front office as United Airlines Flight 175 out of Boston crashed into the south tower.
"We're out of here," the Marine told Balkwill. "Can you get everyone ready?" [Sarasota Herald Tribune]
The Secret Service did nothing. The dog did not bark.

The Secret Service should be in that video, but they are not. It is clear from their inaction that they KNEW FOR A FACT THAT THE PRESIDENT WAS NOT A TARGET OF ONE OF THE HIJACKED PLANES. The intended targets of the planes had to have been known.

The dog did not bark because the criminal was its master.

Quod Erat Demonstradum, the Bush administration was part of the 9-11 plot.

[THETRUTHWILLSETU3]

Maybe they knew there were no planes at all.

Is there any hard evidence that the actual named flights took off - weren't some of these flights not even scheduled that day?

[andyb]

TTWSY3,

You have a no plane thread fella, people will post in there if they are interested. Stop trying to cause arguments by going off topic please.

[Ally]

don't hear anyone else complaining, comment sounds relevant as Bush could be obfuscating perfectly.

[catfish]

Hmm yes this is a local thread for local people, they'll be no trouble here

[Mark Gobell]

I have, and continue to be a tad confused about the popular conclusions drawn from the Global Village Idiot being caught in the headlights in the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida

As far as I understand them the common themes are:

First, Bush is on record, twice in four weeks, claiming that he saw the first hit on WTC1, that was one bad pilot etc., on TV in the school corridoor before he went into the class, when we all know, or as far as we have been told at least, that the only video record of the first hit, is the Naudet film which was not shown until the following day. This has been interpreted as foreknowledge, because if he did in fact see the first hit then this means that someone was filming it live and he had been watching that film before going into the school and before the world saw the Naudet film.

Has Bush or anyone else tried to explain his claim to have seen it ? No. Not once publicly.

If it was just another Bushism, why did he say it more than once ? Why did his advisors advise him not to repeat the same mistake, if indeed it was a mistake some 4 weeks later.

Second, Bush was seen live on TV, sitting in the classroom when Andy Card whispered something into his ear. That we, have come to understand was news of the second hit on WTC2. Bush, instead of being told to, or, excusing hiimself and attending to the nation's problems, continued to sit there listening to the children and reading the pet goat etc.

This has been interpreted as proof that his secret service protection was "stood down" on that day as they did not evacuate Bush from a known public place, as is normal procedure, when it was obvious that the nation was according to Andy Card "under attack". As nobody could have known where the attacks were coming from or what, if any, was their next target, this goes toward foreknowledge because someone must have known that Bush at that Florida school was not going to be targetted.

What has never made any sense to me is this:

If, as some say Bush and The Pet Goat are proof that "he" knew, then why publicise the fact on TV ?

Why were we apparently shown a dithering, incapable president at the time when planes were known to be crashing into buildings ?

If Bush had foreknowledge, he wouldn't want evidence of that foreknowledge broadcast to the world would he ?

I would have thought that their would be an immense effort to have covered up the supposed fact that Bush was told what we are told he was told and the whole epsisode buried and forgotten about.

Instead, what we have had, is a definite, public effort to show the world that on the day America needed it's Commander in Chief, he was otherwise engaged and apparently more concerned with some school children than he was about terrorists.

If we consider both reports of Cheney being physcially man handled to the bunker by the secret service and reports of at least one of Bush's secret service in Florida proclaiming "we're out of here", then the logical assumption would be that someone, somewhere is telling porkies again.

Bush was clearly caught, stunned in the headlights of a planned PR media event that morning and knowing that he posesses the intellect of a rabbit, I doubt he has ever made a presidential decision of consequence in his life. Accordingly I have always seriously doubted whether it was Bush who made the decision that morning to remain on camera and linger at the Booker Elementary school.

Could it be that he was being set up do you think ?

One other crucial consideration:

If you or I were planning such a massive act of evil, would we be willing to trust the Global Village Idiot with the details ?

[TonyGosling]

It was Holmes' quality of constantly thinking outside the box whilst being firmly grounded in hard facts, however uncomfortable, that characterises the best of 911 skeptic research.

[Shoestring]

Dawdler in chief: The suspicious behavior of George W. Bush during the 9/11 attacks

By Matthew Everett
Online Journal Contributing Writer
Sep 11, 2007

"Sandy Kress, Bush's unpaid education advisor, was puzzled. Bush was always on time. But on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, he seemed to want to linger, talking about politics and mutual friends in Texas." [1] So wrote Ronald Kessler in his account of the Bush presidency, A Matter of Character. The time in question was around 8:30 a.m., a quarter of an hour after American Airlines Flight 11 had broken communication with air traffic controllers. The 9/11 attacks were now underway. While many odd things took place that morning, Kress's observation highlights another curious detail: On September 11, 2001, President Bush was running late.

This would be of little significance were it not for the fact that this behavior was completely out of character for the president. Bush is not known for dawdling. For example, earlier in 2001, CNN's congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl talked of "Bush's reputation for being punctual." [2] According to David Frum, a former speechwriter for the president: "Bush is famous for his punctuality." [3] Sandy Kress has called him "a very punctual person." [4] According to the Washington Post: "Bush's staff, his friends, his family, his wife" all describe him as "an intensely disciplined and focused individual," who "puts a premium on punctuality." [5] The London Times stated it more bluntly: "There has probably never been a president, there may not have been a human being, who observes punctuality with the sort of fanaticism that President George W. Bush brings to every aspect of his life." [6] That was not, however, the case the morning of September 11.

Early morning

As he began that day, there was little that appears unusual in the president's behavior. He'd arrived at the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort on Longboat Key, Florida, at 6:30 p.m. the previous evening, being in Florida as part of an effort to place a national spotlight on education. Bush went to bed early, as was his custom. [7] He'd gotten up just before 6 a.m. the morning of September 11. At 6:30, he went for his daily jog, going four-and-a-half miles around the Longboat Key Golf Club, accompanied by several Secret Service agents, and joined part of the way along by Bloomberg News White House correspondent Richard Keil. After returning to his hotel, the president ate breakfast, showered, and got dressed. Then, for the next hour, he met in his penthouse suite with a series of advisors, including -- at just after 8 a.m. -- receiving his daily CIA briefing. Reportedly, "The heightened threat of terrorism was mentioned this morning," during the briefing, "as it had been nearly every morning since George W. Bush took office." With his CIA briefer the president discussed the latest developments in the Middle East, particularly the Palestinian situation. [8] So far, so good.

Bush only appears to have begun acting out of character after 8:15, which happens to coincide with the time the attacks were beginning, when Flight 11 broke contact with air traffic control. [9] At that time, Bush met with Sandy Kress to go over the details of his planned 9 o'clock visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in nearby Sarasota, where he was set to take part in a reading program demonstration and then address parents and teachers. Also in the meeting were Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, and Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Bush was scheduled to leave the resort at 8:30 a.m. for the drive to the school. But, Kress has recalled, he "was just sitting back and wanting to talk for a bit." According to Kress: "I've never known him to be late. But I remember we finished the briefing on that fateful day, and we continued to talk for another ten minutes about people and politics in Texas. The time to leave came and passed." Kress added: "That struck me as unusual." [10] It appears that Bush was dawdling.

After finally leaving his penthouse suite, the president took the elevator down. Despite the fact that he was now running late, he stopped to have his photo taken with a hotel maintenance worker as he stepped out of the elevator. According to journalist and author Bill Sammon, Bush only then got into his limousine to head for Sarasota after "much shaking of hands and posing for pictures and saying pleasant things to local VIPs who had been invited to the Colony to see him off." For the second time, it appears that George W. Bush was dawdling. Sammon, who was traveling with the president that morning, reported that Bush set off for the school at 8:39 a.m. [11] The president "famous for his punctuality" was running nine minutes late.

Driving to school

As the president's motorcade headed toward Sarasota, Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Yet, supposedly, no one informed Bush of this until he arrived at the school, nearly 10 minutes later. Robert Plunket, a journalist with Sarasota Magazine who was waiting at the school that morning, later commented: "It mystifies me why they didn't call the president -- he's totally surrounded by state of the art communications equipment and nobody tells him." [12] Journalist and author James Bamford has said: "Despite having a secure STU-III phone next to him in the presidential limousine and an entire national security staff at the White House, it appears that the president of the United States knew less than tens of millions of other people in every part of the country who were watching the attack as it unfolded." [13]

In spite of the delay in setting out, the president's limousine arrived at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School at 8:55 a.m., in time for the 9 o'clock appointment. As Bush later remarked: "We're on time -- I like to stay on time; I like to be crisp." [14] As soon as the motorcade stopped, Captain Deborah Loewer, the director of the White House Situation Room, briefed the president. Loewer had been in a vehicle behind the president's and, unlike Bush, learned of the WTC crash during the journey, in a phone call from the Situation Room. "As soon as the motorcade stopped," Loewer has said, "I ran up to the president's limousine and I briefed the president and [chief of staff Andrew] Card of just that information. [Bush] asked me to keep him informed and I said, 'Yes, sir, Mr. President.'" [15]

Waiting at the school was a small greeting committee, which, among others, included two Republican congressmen, Adam Putnam and Dan Miller. A White House staffer had informed them that the president had an important call to take from Condoleezza Rice. According to Putnam, they had been told: "When he arrives, and he'll be here in a minute, he's going to walk past you. He's not being rude; he's just got to take this phone call." Yet in spite of apparently having already been informed of the crash at the WTC (by Loewer), Bush seemed far from eager to take the call. According to Putnam: "Well, he comes up and does not go past us. He stops and talks with us, having a good chat with the teacher of the year." (This was Edwina Oliver, who was also part of the greeting committee.) Andrew Card said: "Mr. President. You have a phone call from National Security Advisor Rice you need to take." According to Putnam, Bush "says OK. [But he] goes on talking with the teacher of the year. 'I'll be right there.' Card comes back to him, grabs him by the arm and says, 'Mr. President, you need to take this call right now.'" [16] For the third time that morning, George W. Bush was dawdling. Florida Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan, another member of the greeting committee, described: "The president stepped away from our group and spoke quietly into the phone for a minute or two. When he returned, he said he had just learned that a plane had collided with one of the towers of the World Trade Center. While this was terrible news, there was no hint of the magnitude of what was happening, so nobody was unduly alarmed." [17] Recalling the incident, Dan Miller said: "I don't think he was aware at the time, maybe, of the seriousness." [18]

Based on what he was initially told about the crash, the president has claimed he'd thought it was due to "pilot error." He'd said to Andrew Card that the pilot "must have had a heart attack." [19] Bush later recalled: "I was concerned about it, but there were no alarm bells." [20]

The photo op begins

At around 9:02 a.m., just before the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center, President Bush entered the second-grade classroom of teacher Sandra Kay Daniels, where 16 young children were waiting to read to him. After being introduced to them, the president sat down and the children commenced their reading demonstration. [21] Then, at around 9:05-9:07, Andrew Card entered the room and walked across to where Bush was sitting. He leaned down and whispered in the president's ear, reportedly telling him: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." [22]

After delivering this extraordinary news, Card stood up and immediately backed away, taking up a position next to Frank Brogan at the side of the room. According to Bill Sammon, based on his exclusive interviews with the president:

Bush wondered whether he should excuse himself and retreat to the holding room, where he might be able to find out what the hell was going on. But what kind of message would that send -- the president abruptly getting up and walking out on a bunch of inner-city second-graders at their moment in the national limelight? Bush might look rattled, or worse, panicked. The last thing the nation needed at this moment was a panicked president. Such an image might even play into the hands of the attackers. No, better to remain calm and sit tight for now. Bush sensed that his demeanor would be almost as important as his actions in these first crucial moments. [23]

So, rather than excusing himself from the classroom and assuming his critical responsibilities in helping to protect his country, "The president briefly turned somber before he resumed reading." [24] As James Bamford described:

Having just been told that the country was under attack, the commander in chief appeared uninterested in further details. He never asked if there had been any additional threats, where the attacks were coming from, how to best protect the country from further attacks, or what was the current status of NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command] or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nor did he call for an immediate return to Washington. Instead, in the middle of a modern-day Pearl Harbor, he simply turned back to the matter at hand: the day's photo op. Precious minutes were ticking by, and many more lives were still at risk. [25]

Now that it was clear that America was under attack and needed its president immediately, it is far more difficult to dismiss George W. Bush's continued dawdling as some kind of accident. As the Arlington Heights Daily Herald pointed out: "on that day, Bush's presence made even the planned reading event a perceived target." In fact, according to the Daily Herald: "Because the well-publicized event at the school assured Bush's location that day was no secret, the dense White House security urged school officials to send students home." [26] Apparently, they did not do this right away, as the president remained at the school for over half an hour after the second attack occurred.

If Bush himself was unwilling to excuse himself from the classroom, surely his Secret Service agents should have removed him from there. They were there, after all, for the purpose of protecting him. As the St. Petersburg Times reported: "Police and Secret Service agents were on the roof, on horseback and in every hallway" of the school for the president's visit. [27] In fact, according to the Tampa Tribune, the reason the classroom of Sandra Kay Daniels had been selected for the visit was "not because [she and her students] fulfilled some complicated formula; her classroom merely was situated next to the school's north door, making it easier to organize elaborate security." [28] Yet, now there was an urgent need for elaborate security arrangements to be implemented, the Secret Service was as complacent as the president. "For some reason, Secret Service agents did not bustle [the president] away," wrote Canada's Globe and Mail. [29]

According to author Philip Melanson, who was an expert on the Secret Service, as soon as the second plane hit the World Trade Center, the Secret Service should have whisked Bush out of the school. Melanson said: "With an unfolding terrorist attack, the procedure should have been to get the president to the closest secure location as quickly as possible, which clearly is not a school. You're safer in that presidential limo, which is bombproof and blastproof and bulletproof." [30]

Commander in chief

According to the U.S. Department of Defense: "Orders for military operations emanate from the National Command Authority -- i.e., the president and the secretary of defense. The president, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is the ultimate authority." [31] Which leads us to another reason why Bush should immediately have been evacuated. As Melanson continued: "In the presidential limo, the communications system is almost duplicative of the White House." Therefore, Bush could have done "almost anything from there, but he can't do much sitting in a school." [32]

So, with America under attack, the commander in chief of the armed forces remained motionless in a classroom. According to Bill Sammon, as he sat there, "The president's mind raced with more questions. How could this have happened? Who could have perpetrated such a diabolical crime? No, this was more than a crime. This was war, plain and simple. Someone had suddenly declared war against the United States of America, the mightiest nation on earth." Bush later told Sammon: "Victory clicked into my mind. The one thing that became certain is that we wouldn't let this stand. I mean, there was no question in my mind that we'd respond. I wasn't sure who the attacker was. But if somebody is going to attack America, I knew that my most immediate job was to protect America by finding him and getting them." [33] Yet if George W. Bush indeed realized it was his "immediate job" to "protect America," then his actions in the subsequent minutes are devastating.

Having just been informed that "America is under attack," the president remained in his seat while the children began to read a story called "The Pet Goat." Four minutes later, the children were finishing their reading demonstration: "The -- girl -- and -- the -- goat -- were -- playing -- in -- the -- back -- yard," they read aloud. "They -- did -- not -- see -- the -- car -- robber." And finally, their last line: "More -- to -- come." [34]

As Sammon pointed out: "Now that the lesson was over, Bush would finally be able to return to the holding room and get to work." Now he could get on with protecting his country. Or could he? "But there was no sense in rushing his exit. The press might interpret haste as distress." So, instead, "He decided to remain seated, as if he were in no hurry whatsoever to leave the second-grade classroom of Sandra Kay Daniels." For the fourth time that morning, George W. Bush dawdled.

"Hoo! These are great readers," he said. "Very impressive. Thank you all so very much for showing me your reading skills. I'll bet they practice, too. Don't you?" Bush continued: "Reading more than they watch TV . . . anybody do that? Read more than you watch TV?" As children raised their hands, he said: "Oh, that's great. Very good. Very important to practice." As Sammon described, Bush was "smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world." The "notoriously punctual president who just minutes earlier had been prodding Daniels to get down to brass tacks was now lollygagging as if he didn't want the session to end." He turned to Daniels and told her: "Thanks for having me." Then, to the children: "I'm very impressed with how you read this book." He "continued to linger in his seat."

White House assistant press secretary Gordon Johndroe then requested that members of the press leave the classroom. One reporter called out: "Mr. President, are you aware of reports of the plane crash in New York?" Bush replied: "I'll talk about it later." The president "stepped forward and shook hands with Daniels, slipping his left hand behind her in another photo-op pose. He was taking his good old time. . . . Bush lingered until the press was gone." He then turned to the school's principal, Gwendolyn Tosé-Rigell, taking her aside for a private conversation. He told her: "I'm so sorry, but a tragedy has occurred. I'm going to have to address some things. I really wish it would have been a different set of circumstances." [35]

And all this time, America was under attack.

The holding room

Even though the reading demonstration was over, the president still did not leave the school. Instead, at around 9:15 a.m., he relocated to a holding room next to the classroom. There he remained for about 15 minutes. During that time, he spoke on the phone with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and New York Governor George Pataki. He also worked on a speech to the nation that he would deliver from the school's library. [36]

The Secret Service later told the 9/11 Commission that, around this time, it had been "anxious to move the president to a safer location, but did not think it imperative for him to run out the door." [37] Bush himself recalled that, while he was in the holding room, "the Secret Service and the Mil Aide [military aide] was in the process of getting information about where the president ought to go. One thing for certain, I needed to get out of where I was." [38] Yet, according to Frank Brogan, who was with the president at that time, Bush in fact wanted to stay exactly where he was. Brogan has claimed: "The Secret Service tried to get the president to return to Air Force One immediately, but he refused, saying he was committed to staying on the ground long enough to write a statement about what was happening, read it to the nation and lead a moment of silence for the victims. I stood next to him as he wrote out a statement by hand on a legal pad, using a Sharpie pen." [39] If Brogan's claim is correct, one could argue that, for the fifth time that morning, George W. Bush was dawdling.

At 9:30 a.m., Bush went to the school's library and gave his brief statement to the 200 students, parents, and teachers who were assembled there. He said he had "ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act," and declared: "Terrorism against our nation will not stand." He then called for a moment of silence for the victims and their families. [40] The president delivered this statement at exactly the same time and in the same place as he had been scheduled to give a speech on education. [41] Apparently, the worst attack ever to occur on American soil was insufficient cause for him to alter his schedule.

Bush's motorcade finally left the school at about 9:35 a.m., bound for Sarasota Bradenton International Airport where the presidential jet, Air Force One, was waiting. [42] (Curiously, the motorcade initially set out in the wrong direction and had to perform a U-turn in order to head for the airport. [43])

Heading for the airport

Once the president was out of the school, the Secret Service started acting more in line with what one would expect under such an emergency. As Officer Kevin Dowd of the Sarasota Police described: "A Secret Service agent ran out from the school and said, 'we're under terrorist attack, we have to go now.'" The president's motorcade sped toward the airport. According to Dowd: "The run itself was extremely fast. Normally we run 40 to 50 miles an hour. On the way to the airport that day, from the school, we were running 70 to 80. The Secret Service agents all had weapon barrels that were visible, and they were pointing up at the ready position in case they needed to be used. And I thought that they were actually anticipating a terrorist attack on the president while we were in route." [44] Why did the Secret Service not display this same kind of urgency half an hour earlier? Surely the agent's exclamation, "we're under terrorist attack, we have to go now," would have applied equally at the time the second WTC tower was hit.

In fact, after Bush had entered the classroom of Sandra Kay Daniels, three Secret Service agents, a SWAT member, Sarasota County Sheriff Bill Balkwill, and the Marine responsible for carrying the president's phone had gathered around a television in a nearby office. Reportedly, after they saw the plane hitting the South Tower at 9:03, the Marine told Balkwill: "We're out of here. Can you get everyone ready?" [45] Yet no one had left the school.

Still suspicious

There is much that appears suspicious, even after George W. Bush left the school. For example, as he was being driven to the Sarasota Airport, Bush was reportedly unable to get a secure phone line through to Washington, and had to rely instead on using a borrowed cell phone. According to the CBC, even this cell phone didn't work. [46] And after Air Force One took off, for more than an hour no fighter jets escorted it. Philip Melanson has said: "I can't imagine by what glitch the protection was not provided to Air Force One as soon as it took off. I would have thought there'd be something in place whereby one phone call from the head of the security detail would get the fighters in the air immediately." [47] The list of oddities goes on and on. [48]

But as the series of events described in this article adequately shows, for more than an hour, while the attacks of 9/11 unfolded, the president's behavior was odd, out of character, and very suspicious. During the most important 90 minutes of his life, when his usual obsessive punctuality could have been an asset, Bush suddenly became a dawdler.

As many people now seem to accept, there is an urgent need to reinvestigate the 9/11 attacks. [49] Part of any new investigation should be to properly investigate the actions of George W. Bush on 9/11. "Coincidence" and "incompetence" are no longer sufficient explanations for his behavior that morning.

Notes

[1] Ronald Kessler, A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush. New York: Sentinel, 2004, p. 136.

[2] "President Bush Courts Democrats; DNC Prepares to Pick New Chairman." Inside Politics, CNN, February 2, 2001.

[3] David Frum, "The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush." American Experiment Quarterly, Summer 2003, p. 68.

[4] Sandy Kress, "I Flew With the President to Florida." Dallas Morning News, September 10, 2006.

[5] Lois Romano and George Lardner Jr., "Bush's Life-Changing Year." Washington Post, July 25, 1999.

[6] Gerard Baker, "The Bush Interview." The Times, June 30, 2005.

[7] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism -- from Inside the Bush White House. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2002, pp. 13 and 25; "President Visits Jacksonville Elementary School." Florida Times-Union, September 10, 2001.

[8] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, pp. 26-36; Christopher Andersen, George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 2002, pp. 1-2; Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota." St. Petersburg Times, September 8, 2002; Ronald Kessler, A Matter of Character, p. 136.

[9] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Authorized Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 4.

[10] "Bush Presses Education Agenda in Florida." ABC News, September 10, 2001; Ronald Kessler, A Matter of Character, pp. 136-137; Sandy Kress, "I Flew With the President to Florida."

[11] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, pp. 37-38.

[12] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11." St. Petersburg Times, July 4, 2004.

[13] James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies. New York: Doubleday, 2004, p. 17.

[14] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 41.

[15] Dave Lance, "Born to Lead." Dayton Daily News, August 17, 2003; Kali Price, "Naval Officer Speaks on 9/11." Springfield News-Sun, July 6, 2006.

[16] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 43; Jason Safdie, "Meet Adam Putnam, the Youngest Congressman in Office." GW Hatchet, April 8, 2002; Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota."

[17] Vanessa Frost, "737 Days After: FAU Remembers Sept. 11, 2001." UP Online, September 18, 2003.

[18] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[19] Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, "America's Chaotic Road to War." Washington Post, January 27, 2002.

[20] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 49.

[21] Ibid. pp. 43-47.

[22] Ibid. pp. 49-51; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 38. The 9/11 Commission said Card informed Bush of the second attack at 9:05; according to Bill Sammon, this happened at 9:07.

[23] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, pp. 84-85.

[24] "Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center." Associated Press, September 11, 2001.

[25] James Bamford, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency. New York: Anchor Books, 2002, p. 633.

[26] Mike Riopell, "Educator's History Lesson." Arlington Heights Daily Herald, September 11, 2006. According to this article, after the White House security staff urged the evacuation of the school, Wilma Hamilton, the superintendent of schools for Sarasota County, refused their advice. Despite the danger this left the children in, Hamilton claimed: "I couldn't see sending the children home," because "There'd be no one there. All they would have to look at were those images on television."

[27] Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota."

[28] Jennifer Barrs, "From a Whisper to a Tear." Tampa Tribune, September 1, 2002.

[29] John Ibbitson, "Action, not Overreaction, Prudent Course." Globe and Mail, September 12, 2001.

[30] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[31] Department of Defense Agency-Wide Audited Financial Statements. U.S. Department of Defense, February 15, 2001, p. 1-5.

[32] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[33] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 87.

[34] Ibid. pp. 84-88. Video footage showing Bush sitting in the classroom while the children read this story is online at The Memory Hole, June 26, 2003.

[35] Ibid. pp. 89-91.

[36] Ibid. pp. 92-94; Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota"; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 39. Note that some accounts, including Sammon's book and the 9/11 Commission Report, claim that Bush spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney around this time. However, according to Karl Rove, who was in the holding room at the time: "We got the director of the FBI [on the phone], but the vice president, we didn't get because at this moment, the vice president was being moved literally, grabbed by his belt, lifted off the floor and grabbed by a Secret Service agent and moved to the bunker because the plane was approaching the White House." See "Karl Rove: 9/11 Interview." NBC News, September 11, 2002.

[37] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 39.

[38] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 93.

[39] Vanessa Frost, "737 Days After: FAU Remembers Sept. 11, 2001."

[40] "Remarks by the President After Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center." White House, September 11, 2001; Vanessa Frost, "737 Days After: FAU Remembers Sept. 11, 2001."

[41] "Advance Schedule for Tuesday, September 11, 2001." Federal News Service, September 10, 2001; Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 43.

[42] Scot J. Paltrow, "Government Accounts of 9/11 Reveal Gaps, Inconsistencies." Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2004.

[43] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: Twelfth Public Hearing. 9/11 Commission, June 17, 2004; "The Secret History of 9/11: The U.S. Government Reacts." CBC, September 10, 2006.

[44] Clear the Skies. BBC, September 1, 2002.

[45] Tom Bayles, "The Day Before Everything Changed, President Bush Touched Locals' Lives." Sarasota Herald-Tribune, September 10, 2002.

[46] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: Twelfth Public Hearing; "The Secret History of 9/11: The U.S. Government Reacts."

[47] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[48] For a more extensive description and analysis of President Bush's actions on September 11, see Allan Wood and Paul Thompson, "An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11." Center for Cooperative Research, May 9, 2003.

[49] A Zogby poll conducted in May 2006 found that 42 percent of Americans agreed that "the U.S. government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks," and that "there has been a cover-up." See "A Word About Our Poll of American Thinking Toward the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks." Zogby International, May 24, 2006.

Matthew Everett writes for the Center for Cooperative Research, and has also written major articles about 9/11 for the Journal of Psychohistory.

Copyright © 1998-2007 Online Journal

Source: http://onlinejournal.com/artman/publish/article_2403.shtml

[eogz]

Don't know how relevant this is, but it does show some possible 'out of character' behaviour from George W.

The suspicious behavior of George W. Bush during the 9/11 attacks
By Matthew Everett

"Sandy Kress, Bush's unpaid education advisor, was puzzled. Bush was always on time. But on the morning of Tuesday, September 11, he seemed to want to linger, talking about politics and mutual friends in Texas." [1] So wrote Ronald Kessler in his account of the Bush presidency, A Matter of Character. The time in question was around 8:30 a.m., a quarter of an hour after American Airlines Flight 11 had broken communication with air traffic controllers. The 9/11 attacks were now underway. While many odd things took place that morning, Kress's observation highlights another curious detail: On September 11, 2001, President Bush was running late.

This would be of little significance were it not for the fact that this behavior was completely out of character for the president. Bush is not known for dawdling. For example, earlier in 2001, CNN's congressional correspondent Jonathan Karl talked of "Bush's reputation for being punctual." [2] According to David Frum, a former speechwriter for the president: "Bush is famous for his punctuality." [3] Sandy Kress has called him "a very punctual person." [4] According to the Washington Post: "Bush's staff, his friends, his family, his wife" all describe him as "an intensely disciplined and focused individual," who "puts a premium on punctuality." [5] The London Times stated it more bluntly: "There has probably never been a president, there may not have been a human being, who observes punctuality with the sort of fanaticism that President George W. Bush brings to every aspect of his life." [6] That was not, however, the case the morning of September 11.

Early morning

As he began that day, there was little that appears unusual in the president's behavior. He'd arrived at the Colony Beach and Tennis Resort on Longboat Key, Florida, at 6:30 p.m. the previous evening, being in Florida as part of an effort to place a national spotlight on education. Bush went to bed early, as was his custom. [7] He'd gotten up just before 6 a.m. the morning of September 11. At 6:30, he went for his daily jog, going four-and-a-half miles around the Longboat Key Golf Club, accompanied by several Secret Service agents, and joined part of the way along by Bloomberg News White House correspondent Richard Keil. After returning to his hotel, the president ate breakfast, showered, and got dressed. Then, for the next hour, he met in his penthouse suite with a series of advisors, including -- at just after 8 a.m. -- receiving his daily CIA briefing. Reportedly, "The heightened threat of terrorism was mentioned this morning," during the briefing, "as it had been nearly every morning since George W. Bush took office." With his CIA briefer the president discussed the latest developments in the Middle East, particularly the Palestinian situation. [8] So far, so good.

Bush only appears to have begun acting out of character after 8:15, which happens to coincide with the time the attacks were beginning, when Flight 11 broke contact with air traffic control. [9] At that time, Bush met with Sandy Kress to go over the details of his planned 9 o'clock visit to the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in nearby Sarasota, where he was set to take part in a reading program demonstration and then address parents and teachers. Also in the meeting were Bush's senior advisor Karl Rove, White House chief of staff Andrew Card, and Secretary of Education Rod Paige. Bush was scheduled to leave the resort at 8:30 a.m. for the drive to the school. But, Kress has recalled, he "was just sitting back and wanting to talk for a bit." According to Kress: "I've never known him to be late. But I remember we finished the briefing on that fateful day, and we continued to talk for another ten minutes about people and politics in Texas. The time to leave came and passed." Kress added: "That struck me as unusual." [10] It appears that Bush was dawdling.

After finally leaving his penthouse suite, the president took the elevator down. Despite the fact that he was now running late, he stopped to have his photo taken with a hotel maintenance worker as he stepped out of the elevator. According to journalist and author Bill Sammon, Bush only then got into his limousine to head for Sarasota after "much shaking of hands and posing for pictures and saying pleasant things to local VIPs who had been invited to the Colony to see him off." For the second time, it appears that George W. Bush was dawdling. Sammon, who was traveling with the president that morning, reported that Bush set off for the school at 8:39 a.m. [11] The president "famous for his punctuality" was running nine minutes late.

Driving to school

As the president's motorcade headed toward Sarasota, Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. Yet, supposedly, no one informed Bush of this until he arrived at the school, nearly 10 minutes later. Robert Plunket, a journalist with Sarasota Magazine who was waiting at the school that morning, later commented: "It mystifies me why they didn't call the president -- he's totally surrounded by state of the art communications equipment and nobody tells him." [12] Journalist and author James Bamford has said: "Despite having a secure STU-III phone next to him in the presidential limousine and an entire national security staff at the White House, it appears that the president of the United States knew less than tens of millions of other people in every part of the country who were watching the attack as it unfolded." [13]

In spite of the delay in setting out, the president's limousine arrived at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School at 8:55 a.m., in time for the 9 o'clock appointment. As Bush later remarked: "We're on time -- I like to stay on time; I like to be crisp." [14] As soon as the motorcade stopped, Captain Deborah Loewer, the director of the White House Situation Room, briefed the president. Loewer had been in a vehicle behind the president's and, unlike Bush, learned of the WTC crash during the journey, in a phone call from the Situation Room. "As soon as the motorcade stopped," Loewer has said, "I ran up to the president's limousine and I briefed the president and [chief of staff Andrew] Card of just that information. [Bush] asked me to keep him informed and I said, 'Yes, sir, Mr. President.'" [15]

Waiting at the school was a small greeting committee, which, among others, included two Republican congressmen, Adam Putnam and Dan Miller. A White House staffer had informed them that the president had an important call to take from Condoleezza Rice. According to Putnam, they had been told: "When he arrives, and he'll be here in a minute, he's going to walk past you. He's not being rude; he's just got to take this phone call." Yet in spite of apparently having already been informed of the crash at the WTC (by Loewer), Bush seemed far from eager to take the call. According to Putnam: "Well, he comes up and does not go past us. He stops and talks with us, having a good chat with the teacher of the year." (This was Edwina Oliver, who was also part of the greeting committee.) Andrew Card said: "Mr. President. You have a phone call from National Security Advisor Rice you need to take." According to Putnam, Bush "says OK. [But he] goes on talking with the teacher of the year. 'I'll be right there.' Card comes back to him, grabs him by the arm and says, 'Mr. President, you need to take this call right now.'" [16] For the third time that morning, George W. Bush was dawdling. Florida Lieutenant Governor Frank Brogan, another member of the greeting committee, described: "The president stepped away from our group and spoke quietly into the phone for a minute or two. When he returned, he said he had just learned that a plane had collided with one of the towers of the World Trade Center. While this was terrible news, there was no hint of the magnitude of what was happening, so nobody was unduly alarmed." [17] Recalling the incident, Dan Miller said: "I don't think he was aware at the time, maybe, of the seriousness." [18]

Based on what he was initially told about the crash, the president has claimed he'd thought it was due to "pilot error." He'd said to Andrew Card that the pilot "must have had a heart attack." [19] Bush later recalled: "I was concerned about it, but there were no alarm bells." [20]

The photo op begins

At around 9:02 a.m., just before the second aircraft hit the World Trade Center, President Bush entered the second-grade classroom of teacher Sandra Kay Daniels, where 16 young children were waiting to read to him. After being introduced to them, the president sat down and the children commenced their reading demonstration. [21] Then, at around 9:05-9:07, Andrew Card entered the room and walked across to where Bush was sitting. He leaned down and whispered in the president's ear, reportedly telling him: "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack." [22]

After delivering this extraordinary news, Card stood up and immediately backed away, taking up a position next to Frank Brogan at the side of the room. According to Bill Sammon, based on his exclusive interviews with the president:

Bush wondered whether he should excuse himself and retreat to the holding room, where he might be able to find out what the hell was going on. But what kind of message would that send -- the president abruptly getting up and walking out on a bunch of inner-city second-graders at their moment in the national limelight? Bush might look rattled, or worse, panicked. The last thing the nation needed at this moment was a panicked president. Such an image might even play into the hands of the attackers. No, better to remain calm and sit tight for now. Bush sensed that his demeanor would be almost as important as his actions in these first crucial moments. [23]

So, rather than excusing himself from the classroom and assuming his critical responsibilities in helping to protect his country, "The president briefly turned somber before he resumed reading." [24] As James Bamford described:

Having just been told that the country was under attack, the commander in chief appeared uninterested in further details. He never asked if there had been any additional threats, where the attacks were coming from, how to best protect the country from further attacks, or what was the current status of NORAD [the North American Aerospace Defense Command] or the Federal Emergency Management Agency. Nor did he call for an immediate return to Washington. Instead, in the middle of a modern-day Pearl Harbor, he simply turned back to the matter at hand: the day's photo op. Precious minutes were ticking by, and many more lives were still at risk. [25]

Now that it was clear that America was under attack and needed its president immediately, it is far more difficult to dismiss George W. Bush's continued dawdling as some kind of accident. As the Arlington Heights Daily Herald pointed out: "on that day, Bush's presence made even the planned reading event a perceived target." In fact, according to the Daily Herald: "Because the well-publicized event at the school assured Bush's location that day was no secret, the dense White House security urged school officials to send students home." [26] Apparently, they did not do this right away, as the president remained at the school for over half an hour after the second attack occurred.

If Bush himself was unwilling to excuse himself from the classroom, surely his Secret Service agents should have removed him from there. They were there, after all, for the purpose of protecting him. As the St. Petersburg Times reported: "Police and Secret Service agents were on the roof, on horseback and in every hallway" of the school for the president's visit. [27] In fact, according to the Tampa Tribune, the reason the classroom of Sandra Kay Daniels had been selected for the visit was "not because [she and her students] fulfilled some complicated formula; her classroom merely was situated next to the school's north door, making it easier to organize elaborate security." [28] Yet, now there was an urgent need for elaborate security arrangements to be implemented, the Secret Service was as complacent as the president. "For some reason, Secret Service agents did not bustle [the president] away," wrote Canada's Globe and Mail. [29]

According to author Philip Melanson, who was an expert on the Secret Service, as soon as the second plane hit the World Trade Center, the Secret Service should have whisked Bush out of the school. Melanson said: "With an unfolding terrorist attack, the procedure should have been to get the president to the closest secure location as quickly as possible, which clearly is not a school. You're safer in that presidential limo, which is bombproof and blastproof and bulletproof." [30]

Commander in chief

According to the U.S. Department of Defense: "Orders for military operations emanate from the National Command Authority -- i.e., the president and the secretary of defense. The president, as commander in chief of the armed forces, is the ultimate authority." [31] Which leads us to another reason why Bush should immediately have been evacuated. As Melanson continued: "In the presidential limo, the communications system is almost duplicative of the White House." Therefore, Bush could have done "almost anything from there, but he can't do much sitting in a school." [32]

So, with America under attack, the commander in chief of the armed forces remained motionless in a classroom. According to Bill Sammon, as he sat there, "The president's mind raced with more questions. How could this have happened? Who could have perpetrated such a diabolical crime? No, this was more than a crime. This was war, plain and simple. Someone had suddenly declared war against the United States of America, the mightiest nation on earth." Bush later told Sammon: "Victory clicked into my mind. The one thing that became certain is that we wouldn't let this stand. I mean, there was no question in my mind that we'd respond. I wasn't sure who the attacker was. But if somebody is going to attack America, I knew that my most immediate job was to protect America by finding him and getting them." [33] Yet if George W. Bush indeed realized it was his "immediate job" to "protect America," then his actions in the subsequent minutes are devastating.

Having just been informed that "America is under attack," the president remained in his seat while the children began to read a story called "The Pet Goat." Four minutes later, the children were finishing their reading demonstration: "The -- girl -- and -- the -- goat -- were -- playing -- in -- the -- back -- yard," they read aloud. "They -- did -- not -- see -- the -- car -- robber." And finally, their last line: "More -- to -- come." [34]

As Sammon pointed out: "Now that the lesson was over, Bush would finally be able to return to the holding room and get to work." Now he could get on with protecting his country. Or could he? "But there was no sense in rushing his exit. The press might interpret haste as distress." So, instead, "He decided to remain seated, as if he were in no hurry whatsoever to leave the second-grade classroom of Sandra Kay Daniels." For the fourth time that morning, George W. Bush dawdled.

"Hoo! These are great readers," he said. "Very impressive. Thank you all so very much for showing me your reading skills. I'll bet they practice, too. Don't you?" Bush continued: "Reading more than they watch TV . . . anybody do that? Read more than you watch TV?" As children raised their hands, he said: "Oh, that's great. Very good. Very important to practice." As Sammon described, Bush was "smiling as if he didn't have a care in the world." The "notoriously punctual president who just minutes earlier had been prodding Daniels to get down to brass tacks was now lollygagging as if he didn't want the session to end." He turned to Daniels and told her: "Thanks for having me." Then, to the children: "I'm very impressed with how you read this book." He "continued to linger in his seat."

White House assistant press secretary Gordon Johndroe then requested that members of the press leave the classroom. One reporter called out: "Mr. President, are you aware of reports of the plane crash in New York?" Bush replied: "I'll talk about it later." The president "stepped forward and shook hands with Daniels, slipping his left hand behind her in another photo-op pose. He was taking his good old time. . . . Bush lingered until the press was gone." He then turned to the school's principal, Gwendolyn Tosé-Rigell, taking her aside for a private conversation. He told her: "I'm so sorry, but a tragedy has occurred. I'm going to have to address some things. I really wish it would have been a different set of circumstances." [35]

And all this time, America was under attack.

The holding room

Even though the reading demonstration was over, the president still did not leave the school. Instead, at around 9:15 a.m., he relocated to a holding room next to the classroom. There he remained for about 15 minutes. During that time, he spoke on the phone with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice, FBI Director Robert Mueller, and New York Governor George Pataki. He also worked on a speech to the nation that he would deliver from the school's library. [36]

The Secret Service later told the 9/11 Commission that, around this time, it had been "anxious to move the president to a safer location, but did not think it imperative for him to run out the door." [37] Bush himself recalled that, while he was in the holding room, "the Secret Service and the Mil Aide [military aide] was in the process of getting information about where the president ought to go. One thing for certain, I needed to get out of where I was." [38] Yet, according to Frank Brogan, who was with the president at that time, Bush in fact wanted to stay exactly where he was. Brogan has claimed: "The Secret Service tried to get the president to return to Air Force One immediately, but he refused, saying he was committed to staying on the ground long enough to write a statement about what was happening, read it to the nation and lead a moment of silence for the victims. I stood next to him as he wrote out a statement by hand on a legal pad, using a Sharpie pen." [39] If Brogan's claim is correct, one could argue that, for the fifth time that morning, George W. Bush was dawdling.

At 9:30 a.m., Bush went to the school's library and gave his brief statement to the 200 students, parents, and teachers who were assembled there. He said he had "ordered that the full resources of the federal government go to help the victims and their families, and to conduct a full-scale investigation to hunt down and to find those folks who committed this act," and declared: "Terrorism against our nation will not stand." He then called for a moment of silence for the victims and their families. [40] The president delivered this statement at exactly the same time and in the same place as he had been scheduled to give a speech on education. [41] Apparently, the worst attack ever to occur on American soil was insufficient cause for him to alter his schedule.

Bush's motorcade finally left the school at about 9:35 a.m., bound for Sarasota Bradenton International Airport where the presidential jet, Air Force One, was waiting. [42] (Curiously, the motorcade initially set out in the wrong direction and had to perform a U-turn in order to head for the airport. [43])

Heading for the airport

Once the president was out of the school, the Secret Service started acting more in line with what one would expect under such an emergency. As Officer Kevin Dowd of the Sarasota Police described: "A Secret Service agent ran out from the school and said, 'we're under terrorist attack, we have to go now.'" The president's motorcade sped toward the airport. According to Dowd: "The run itself was extremely fast. Normally we run 40 to 50 miles an hour. On the way to the airport that day, from the school, we were running 70 to 80. The Secret Service agents all had weapon barrels that were visible, and they were pointing up at the ready position in case they needed to be used. And I thought that they were actually anticipating a terrorist attack on the president while we were in route." [44] Why did the Secret Service not display this same kind of urgency half an hour earlier? Surely the agent's exclamation, "we're under terrorist attack, we have to go now," would have applied equally at the time the second WTC tower was hit.

In fact, after Bush had entered the classroom of Sandra Kay Daniels, three Secret Service agents, a SWAT member, Sarasota County Sheriff Bill Balkwill, and the Marine responsible for carrying the president's phone had gathered around a television in a nearby office. Reportedly, after they saw the plane hitting the South Tower at 9:03, the Marine told Balkwill: "We're out of here. Can you get everyone ready?" [45] Yet no one had left the school.

Still suspicious

There is much that appears suspicious, even after George W. Bush left the school. For example, as he was being driven to the Sarasota Airport, Bush was reportedly unable to get a secure phone line through to Washington, and had to rely instead on using a borrowed cell phone. According to the CBC, even this cell phone didn't work. [46] And after Air Force One took off, for more than an hour no fighter jets escorted it. Philip Melanson has said: "I can't imagine by what glitch the protection was not provided to Air Force One as soon as it took off. I would have thought there'd be something in place whereby one phone call from the head of the security detail would get the fighters in the air immediately." [47] The list of oddities goes on and on. [48]

But as the series of events described in this article adequately shows, for more than an hour, while the attacks of 9/11 unfolded, the president's behavior was odd, out of character, and very suspicious. During the most important 90 minutes of his life, when his usual obsessive punctuality could have been an asset, Bush suddenly became a dawdler.

As many people now seem to accept, there is an urgent need to reinvestigate the 9/11 attacks. [49] Part of any new investigation should be to properly investigate the actions of George W. Bush on 9/11. "Coincidence" and "incompetence" are no longer sufficient explanations for his behavior that morning.

Notes

[1] Ronald Kessler, A Matter of Character: Inside the White House of George W. Bush. New York: Sentinel, 2004, p. 136.

[2] "President Bush Courts Democrats; DNC Prepares to Pick New Chairman." Inside Politics, CNN, February 2, 2001.

[3] David Frum, "The Right Man: The Surprise Presidency of George W. Bush." American Experiment Quarterly, Summer 2003, p. 68.

[4] Sandy Kress, "I Flew With the President to Florida." Dallas Morning News, September 10, 2006.

[5] Lois Romano and George Lardner Jr., "Bush's Life-Changing Year." Washington Post, July 25, 1999.

[6] Gerard Baker, "The Bush Interview." The Times, June 30, 2005.

[7] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism -- from Inside the Bush White House. Washington, DC: Regnery Publishing, Inc., 2002, pp. 13 and 25; "President Visits Jacksonville Elementary School." Florida Times-Union, September 10, 2001.

[8] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, pp. 26-36; Christopher Andersen, George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 2002, pp. 1-2; Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota." St. Petersburg Times, September 8, 2002; Ronald Kessler, A Matter of Character, p. 136.

[9] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States, Authorized Edition. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 4.

[10] "Bush Presses Education Agenda in Florida." ABC News, September 10, 2001; Ronald Kessler, A Matter of Character, pp. 136-137; Sandy Kress, "I Flew With the President to Florida."

[11] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, pp. 37-38.

[12] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11." St. Petersburg Times, July 4, 2004.

[13] James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies. New York: Doubleday, 2004, p. 17.

[14] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 41.

[15] Dave Lance, "Born to Lead." Dayton Daily News, August 17, 2003; Kali Price, "Naval Officer Speaks on 9/11." Springfield News-Sun, July 6, 2006.

[16] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 43; Jason Safdie, "Meet Adam Putnam, the Youngest Congressman in Office." GW Hatchet, April 8, 2002; Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota."

[17] Vanessa Frost, "737 Days After: FAU Remembers Sept. 11, 2001." UP Online, September 18, 2003.

[18] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[19] Dan Balz and Bob Woodward, "America's Chaotic Road to War." Washington Post, January 27, 2002.

[20] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 49.

[21] Ibid. pp. 43-47.

[22] Ibid. pp. 49-51; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 38. The 9/11 Commission said Card informed Bush of the second attack at 9:05; according to Bill Sammon, this happened at 9:07.

[23] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, pp. 84-85.

[24] "Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center." Associated Press, September 11, 2001.

[25] James Bamford, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency. New York: Anchor Books, 2002, p. 633.

[26] Mike Riopell, "Educator's History Lesson." Arlington Heights Daily Herald, September 11, 2006. According to this article, after the White House security staff urged the evacuation of the school, Wilma Hamilton, the superintendent of schools for Sarasota County, refused their advice. Despite the danger this left the children in, Hamilton claimed: "I couldn't see sending the children home," because "There'd be no one there. All they would have to look at were those images on television."

[27] Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota."

[28] Jennifer Barrs, "From a Whisper to a Tear." Tampa Tribune, September 1, 2002.

[29] John Ibbitson, "Action, not Overreaction, Prudent Course." Globe and Mail, September 12, 2001.

[30] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[31] Department of Defense Agency-Wide Audited Financial Statements. U.S. Department of Defense, February 15, 2001, p. 1-5.

[32] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[33] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 87.

[34] Ibid. pp. 84-88. Video footage showing Bush sitting in the classroom while the children read this story is online at The Memory Hole, June 26, 2003.

[35] Ibid. pp. 89-91.

[36] Ibid. pp. 92-94; Bill Adair and Stephen Hegarty, "The Drama in Sarasota"; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 39. Note that some accounts, including Sammon's book and the 9/11 Commission Report, claim that Bush spoke with Vice President Dick Cheney around this time. However, according to Karl Rove, who was in the holding room at the time: "We got the director of the FBI [on the phone], but the vice president, we didn't get because at this moment, the vice president was being moved literally, grabbed by his belt, lifted off the floor and grabbed by a Secret Service agent and moved to the bunker because the plane was approaching the White House." See "Karl Rove: 9/11 Interview." NBC News, September 11, 2002.

[37] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 39.

[38] Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 93.

[39] Vanessa Frost, "737 Days After: FAU Remembers Sept. 11, 2001."

[40] "Remarks by the President After Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center." White House, September 11, 2001; Vanessa Frost, "737 Days After: FAU Remembers Sept. 11, 2001."

[41] "Advance Schedule for Tuesday, September 11, 2001." Federal News Service, September 10, 2001; Bill Sammon, Fighting Back, p. 43.

[42] Scot J. Paltrow, "Government Accounts of 9/11 Reveal Gaps, Inconsistencies." Wall Street Journal, March 22, 2004.

[43] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: Twelfth Public Hearing. 9/11 Commission, June 17, 2004; "The Secret History of 9/11: The U.S. Government Reacts." CBC, September 10, 2006.

[44] Clear the Skies. BBC, September 1, 2002.

[45] Tom Bayles, "The Day Before Everything Changed, President Bush Touched Locals' Lives." Sarasota Herald-Tribune, September 10, 2002.

[46] National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States: Twelfth Public Hearing; "The Secret History of 9/11: The U.S. Government Reacts."

[47] Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11."

[48] For a more extensive description and analysis of President Bush's actions on September 11, see Allan Wood and Paul Thompson, "An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11." Center for Cooperative Research, May 9, 2003.

[49] A Zogby poll conducted in May 2006 found that 42 percent of Americans agreed that "the U.S. government and its 9/11 Commission concealed or refused to investigate critical evidence that contradicts their official explanation of the September 11th attacks," and that "there has been a cover-up." See "A Word About Our Poll of American Thinking Toward the 9/11 Terrorist Attacks." Zogby International, May 24, 2006.

Matthew Everett writes for the Center for Cooperative Research, and has also written major articles about 9/11 for the Journal of Psychohistory.

[TonyGosling]

Did Bush preside over a satanic ritual on the morning of 9/11?
http://www.mtl911truth.org/?p=1024

@MelStar111 - It would not be unusual for a teacher to have a special, well-rehearsed lesson when a high profile person came to visit the class, especially if it were on camera. My French teacher had a special plan just when the chairwoman of the department came in ! Now, she must know by NOW, that she was put up to this. Clearly, Bush's handlers gave the teacher this lesson to recite. I believe the purpose was to really scare Bush himself with their power.


Link

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHnzjkSAAWM