Bush time line on 9/11/01 An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11 By Allan Wood and Paul Thompson

"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02]

At approximately 8:48 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2001, the
first pictures of the burning World Trade Center were broadcast on live
television. The news anchors, reporters, and viewers had little idea what
had happened in lower Manhattan, but there were some people who did
know.

Both images taken at 9:03 a.m.: Bush takes part in a meaningless
photo-op, knowing full well the US is already under attack. [left, from
Booker video, right from Getty Images]

By that time, 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 all knew that three commercial airplanes had been
hijacked.

They knew that one plane had been flown deliberately into the World Trade
Center's North Tower; a second plane was wildly off course and also
heading toward Manhattan; and a third plane had abruptly turned around
over Ohio and was flying back toward Washington, DC.

So why, at 9:03 a.m. - fifteen minutes after it was clear the United States
was under terrorist attack - did President Bush sit down with a classroom of
second-graders and begin a 20-minute pre-planned photo op? No one
knows the answer to that question. In fact, no one has even asked Bush
about it.

Bush's actions on September 11 have been the subject of lively debate,
mostly on the internet. Details reported that day and in the week after the
attacks - both the media reports and accounts given by Bush himself -
have changed radically over the past 18 months.

Culling hundreds of reports from newspapers, magazines, and the internet
has only made finding the "truth" of what happened and when it happened
more confusing. In the changed political climate after 9/11, few have dared
raise challenging questions about Bush's actions.

A journalist who said Bush was "flying around the country like a scared child,
seeking refuge in his mother's bed after having a nightmare" and another
who said Bush "skedaddled" were fired. [Washington Post, 9/29/01 (B)] We
should have a concise record of where President Bush was throughout the
day the US was attacked, but we do not.

What follows is an attempt to give the most complete account of Bush's
actions - from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska to Washington, DC.

Preparations

Bush's appearance at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota,
Florida, on September 11, 2001 had been in the planning stages since
August, but was only publicly announced on the morning of September 7.

Later that same day, 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi
traveled to Sarasota and enjoyed drinks and dinner at a Holiday Inn only
two miles down the sandy beach from where Bush was scheduled to stay
during his Sarasota visit.

On the night of September 10th, Bush stayed at the Colony Beach Resort - "
an upscale and relatively pristine tropical island enclave located
directly on the Gulf of Mexico, a spindly coral island ... off Sarasota,
Florida."

The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort, where Bush stayed the
night before 9/11

Zainlabdeen Omer, a Sudanese native living in Sarasota, told the local
police that night that someone he knew who had made violent threats
against Bush was in town and Omer was worried about Bush's safety. The
man was identified only as "Ghandi." A police report states the Secret
Service was informed immediately.

After a private dinner with various Florida politicians (including his brother
Jeb) and Republican donors, Bush went to bed around 10:00 p.m. Surface-
to-air missiles were placed on the roof of the resort, and an Airborne
Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane circled high overhead.

It's not clear if this type of protection was standard for the president or
whether security was increased because of possible threats.

Bush Is Briefed as the Hijackings Begin

On 9/11, after his jog, Bush showered, then sat down for his daily
intelligence briefing around 8 a.m. "The President's briefing appears to
have included some reference to the heightened terrorist risk reported
throughout the summer, but contained nothing specific, severe or imminent
enough to necessitate a call to [National Security Advisor] Condoleezza
Rice."

While Bush was being briefed, the planes that would be hijacked began
taking off. American Airlines Flight 11 was first, leaving Boston's Logan
Airport at 7:59 a.m. The others soon followed, except for United Flight 93,
scheduled to leave at 8:01, but which was delayed on the runway for about
40 minutes.

At approximately 8:13, Flight 11 was instructed by air traffic controllers at
the FAA's Boston Center, in Nashua, New Hampshire, to climb to 35,000
feet. The plane did not obey the order and its transponder was turned off.

Air traffic control manager Glenn Michael said, "we considered it at that time
to be a possible hijacking.", emphasis added According to FAA regulations,
that was the correct decision: "Consider that an aircraft emergency exists ...
when ... there is unexpected loss of radar contact and radio
communications with any ... aircraft."

If air traffic controllers believed Flight 11 had been hijacked at 8:13,
NORAD should have been informed immediately, so military planes could
be scrambled to investigate.

However, NORAD and the FAA both claimed NORAD was not informed until
8:40 - 27 minutes later.; one NORAD employee said it took place at 8:31.
Indeed, before contacting NORAD, Boston air traffic controllers watched
Flight 11 make an unexpected 100-degree turn and head south toward New
York City, told other controllers of the hijacking at 8:25, continued to hear
highly suspicious dialogue from the cockpit (such as, "Nobody move,
please, we are going back to the airport.

Don't try to make any stupid moves") and even asked the pilots of Flight
175 to scan the skies for the errant plane.

Is NORAD's claim credible? If so, the air traffic controllers (including Mr.
Michael) should have been fired and subject to possible criminal charges for
their inaction. To date, however, there has been no word of any person
being disciplined at any institution at any level for what happened on 9/11.

If NORAD's claim is false, and it was indeed informed within the time frame
outlined in FAA regulations that Flight 11 may have been hijacked, that
would mean NORAD did absolutely nothing for almost thirty minutes while a
hijacked commercial airliner flew off course through some of the most
congested airspace in the world.

Presumably, that would warrant some very serious charges. Again, no one
associated with NORAD or the FAA has been punished.

According to phone calls made by fight attendants Betty Ong and Amy
Sweeney, the hijackers had stabbed and killed at least one passenger and
two flight attendants by about 8:21. (One hijacker may have been riding in
the cockpit and begun the hijacking earlier.)

After 8:21, both women apparently remained on the phone with American
Airlines' headquarters for 25 minutes, until their plane crashed into the
World Trade Center's North Tower. These calls make NORAD's supposed
ignorance of a crisis even more dubious.

Bush Leaves for Booker Elementary

Bush's motorcade arrives at Booker Elementary.

The first event on Bush's schedule was what is known as a "soft event" – a
photo-op with children at Emma Booker Elementary School - promoting his
proposed education bill. After spending about 20 minutes with the children,
Bush was scheduled to give a short press conference at about 9:30.

Accounts of when Bush's motorcade left for the school vary from 8:30 to
8:39. 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."

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,
which means that Bush arrived shortly before 9:00.

When Did Bush First Learn of the Attacks?

Why does it matter when Bush left the resort and arrived at the school?
Because, this is the crucial time when Bush was first told of the attacks.
or should have been told.

Official accounts, including the words of Bush himself, say Bush was first
told of what was happening in New York City after he arrived at the school.
However, this statement does not stand up to scrutiny. There are at least
four reports that Bush was told of the first crash before he arrived at the
school.

Two accounts explicitly state Bush was told while in the motorcade. "The
President was on Highway 301, just north of Main Street ... [when] he
received the news that a plane had crashed in New York City."

In this map, the yellow star is roughly where Bush's motorcade is when
Flight 11 crashes at 8:46, and the orange star is where he is when told
about the crash a few minutes later.

The first media reports of Flight 11's crash into the World Trade Center
began around 8:48, two minutes after the crash happened. CNN broke into
its regular programming at that time, though other networks, such as ABC,
took a few more minutes to begin reporting. So within minutes, millions
were aware of the story, yet Bush supposedly remained unaware for about
another ten minutes.

Claims of Bush's ignorance become harder to believe when one learns that
others in his motorcade were immediately told of the attack. For instance,
Kia Baskerville, a CBS News producer traveling with Bush that morning,
received a message about a plane crash "as the presidential motorcade
headed to President Bush's first event."

Baskerville said, "Fifteen minutes later I was standing in a second grade
classroom [waiting for Bush's entrance]" - which means she got the news at
about 8:47 - right as the story was first being reported. A news
photographer in the motorcade overheard a radio transmission that Press
Secretary Ari Fleischer would be needed on arrival at the school to discuss
reports of some sort of crash.

Another account notes Fleischer got the news that the crash had
occurred "just minutes before," but notes that Bush was not in the same car
as Fleischer. Senior presidential communications officer Thomas Herman
said, "Just as we were arriving at the school, I received a notification from
our operations center than [sic] an airliner had struck one of the towers...."

Meanwhile, CIA Director George Tenet was told of the crash a few minutes
after it happened. A messenger gave him the news as he was eating
breakfast with former Senator David Boren in a Washington restaurant
three blocks from the White House.

Boren says Tenet was told that the World Trade Center had been attacked
by an airplane: "I was struck by the fact that [the messenger] used the
word attacked."

An aide then handed a cell phone to Tenet, and Tenet made some calls,
showing that at least some at the highest levels of the Bush administration
were talking about an attack at this time. Tenet then said to Boren, "You
know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it."

Some people at the school also heard of the news before Bush arrived.
Around 8:50, Tampa Bay's Channel 8 reporter Jackie Barron was on the
phone with her mother, who mentioned the first news reports. At almost the
same time, Brian Goff, a Fox reporter from Tampa, heard the same thing
on his cell phone.

Associated Press reporter Sonia Ross was also told of the crash by phone
from a colleague. Florida Congressman Dan Miller, waiting in front of the
school as part of the official greeting party, was told by an aide about the
crash at 8:55, before Bush arrived.

Given all this, how could Bush have remained ignorant? Could he have
been out of the loop because he was in a car? No. The previous night,
Colony Resort manager Katie Klauber Moulon toured the presidential
limousine and marveled "at all the phones and electronic equipment."

Karl Rove, Bush's "chief political strategist," who presumably was riding with
Bush, used a wireless e-mail device on 9/11 as well. There seems to have
been ample opportunity and the means to alert Bush.

Another Warning

If Bush wasn't told while in his limousine, he certainly was told immediately
after he got out of it. US Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, the director of the
White House Situation Room, was traveling in the motorcade when she
received a message from an assistant back in Washington about the first
crash.

White House Situation Room Director Deborah Loewer.

Loewer said that as soon as the car arrived at Booker, she ran quickly over
to Bush. "It's a very good thing the Secret Service knows who I am," Loewer
later said. She told Bush that an aircraft had "impacted the World Trade
Center. This is all we know."

Meanwhile, More Hijackings

Even though Flight 175 left about the same time as Flight 11, it appears to
have been hijacked much later.

At 8:41, its pilot was still talking to ground control, but
at 8:42 it sharply veered off course, a flight controller noted
that its transponder had been turned off and communication cut.

One minute later, at 8:43, NORAD was notified the plane had been
hijacked. The hijackers turned the transponder back on but used a
different signal code. This allowed flight controllers to "easily" track
the plane as it flew toward New York City.

Flight 77's intended and actual routes. Note the
strange loop off course about halfway along the route to the west, which
was the first sign the plane was hijacked. Such a large diversion is
extremely uncommon, and should have triggered an immediate fighter
response.

At about 8:46, Flight 77 began to go severely off course. According to
regulations, a fighter is required to be dispatched if a plane strays from its
official course by more than two miles or 15 degrees.

As the adjacent map shows, Flight 77 returned to its proper course for a
time, but its last radio contact occurred at 8:50. Supposedly, NORAD was
not officially notified that Flight 77 has been hijacked until 9:24, but the
New York Times reported that by around 8:50, military officials at the
Pentagon were already discussing what to do about Flight 77. Note the
difference in notification times: 27 minutes for Flight 11, 1 minute for Flight
175 and 38 minutes for Flight 77.

Flight 93 wasn't hijacked until about 9:16, but by about 8:50, it was clear
that at least three planes had been hijacked. Vice President Dick Cheney,
speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, said, "The Secret Service has an
arrangement with the FAA.

They had open lines after the World Trade Center was ..."Cheney never
finished his sentence (interesting in itself - did he say too much?), but it
seems safe to say that his next word would have been "hit." Cheney's
statement makes it clear the Secret Service knew the extent of the
situation well before 9:00 am.

An Accident?

Intelligence agencies were suffering "warning fatigue" from so many
warnings of an al-Qaeda attack, some specifically mentioning the use of
hijacked airplanes as missiles. Bush himself was given an intelligence
briefing a month earlier entitled "Bin Laden to Strike in US," and it
contained a warning from the British government that the US should expect
multiple airline hijackings from al-Qaeda.

So with the clear knowledge that three planes had been hijacked, with one
of them already crashed into the World Trade Center, who would have
possibly assumed that Flight 11's crash was an accident? Yet that is
precisely what the official story claims.

There are a number of different "official" accounts, but all of them stress
that Bush wasn't told until after he arrived inside the school (contrary to the
account of Captain Loewer) and that it was assumed to be an accident
(contradicting Tenet being told that it was an attack).

In some accounts, "President Bush had emerged from his car and was
shaking hands with local officials standing outside the school when Chief
of Staff Andrew Card sidled up to him with the news."

Karl Rove, Andrew Card, and Dan Bartlett.

Bush later recalled that it was Card who first notified him: "'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.'"

At a press conference later that day, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer also
claimed it was Andy Card who first informed him, "as the President finished
shaking hands in a hallway of school officials."

In other accounts, it was advisor Karl Rove who first told Bush. According to
photographer Eric Draper, who was standing nearby, Rove rushed up, took
Bush aside in a corridor inside the school and said the cause of the crash
was unclear. Bush replied, "What a horrible accident!"

Bush also suggested the pilot may have had a heart attack. Dan Bartlett,
White House Communications Director, says he was there when Bush was
told: "[Bush] being a former pilot, had kind of the same reaction, going,
was it bad weather?

And I said no, apparently not." A reporter who was standing nearby later
said, "From the demeanor of the President, grinning at the children, it
appeared that the enormity of what he had been told was taking a while to
sink in."

One account explicitly says that Rove told Bush the World Trade Center had
been hit by a large commercial airliner. However, Bush later remembered
Rove saying it appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine
plane.

In yet another account, Blake Gottesman, Bush's personal assistant, while
giving the president some final instructions as they walked to the school,
remarked, "Andy Card says, 'By the way, an aircraft flew into the World
Trade Center.'"

Told Again, Yet Still Clueless

Booker principal Gwen Tose-Rigell was waiting for Bush outside the
school. "The limousine stops and the president comes out. He walks toward
me. I'm standing there in a lineup; there are about five people.

He walks over and says he has to make a phone call, and he'll be right
back." The phone call was with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
From a room with secure communications, Rice updated Bush on the
situation.

The fact that Bush immediately said he had to make an important call
strongly suggests he was told about the situation while in the motorcade.
But some accounts have Andrew Card saying to Bush as he gets out of his
limousine, "Mr. President, you really need to take this phone call," thereby
implying that Card knows what's going on, but Bush doesn't.

As National Security Advisor, Rice had to have had as much information as
anyone. By the time she spoke to Bush, she must have known that three
planes had been hijacked and that the country was under attack.

We know very little about the conversation - only that Rice later
claimed, "[Bush] said, what a terrible, it sounds like a terrible accident.
Keep me informed." One reporter noted: "Bush did not appear preoccupied
[after the phone call] … There was no sign that Rice had just told [him]
about the first attack [on the World Trade Center]."

Tose-Rigell was then summoned to a room to talk with Bush: "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."

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 ... But he didn't."
The only possible excuse is that Bush was completely clueless as to what
was happening.

Sure enough, at a press conference on the evening of 9/11, Press Secretary
Ari Fleischer was asked by a reporter, "And then this morning, when Andy
Card told him about the first accident, was Andy Card or Condi Rice or any
of those aware of the hijackings?

What did they know when they --" Fleischer cut in and replied, "No, at that
point they were not." So supposedly, 15 minutes after the first crash, none
of Bush's aides, not even Rice back in Washington, DC, knew a thing about
the hijackings that had been reported to NORAD 20 minutes earlier? This
simply is not plausible.

Bush's Confused Recollection

Bush's own recollection of the first crash only complicates the picture. Less
than two months after the attacks, Bush made the preposterous claim that
he had watched the first attack as it happened on live television.

This is the seventh different account of how Bush learned about the first
crash (in his limousine, from Loewer, from Card, from Rove, from
Gottesman, from Rice, from television). 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."

There was no film footage of the first attack until at least the following day,
and Bush didn't have access to a television until 15 or so minutes later.
The Boston Herald later noted, "Think about that. Bush's remark implies he
saw the first plane hit the tower. But we all know that video of the first plane
hitting did not surface until the next day.

Could Bush have meant he saw the second plane hit - which many
Americans witnessed? No, because he said that he was in the classroom
when Card whispered in his ear that a second plane hit." Bush's recollection
has many precise details. Is he simply confused?

It's doubly strange why his advisors didn't correct him or - at the very least -
stop him from repeating the same story only four weeks later. On January
5, 2002, Bush stated: "Well, I was sitting in a schoolhouse in Florida ... 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 set 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..."

Unfortunately, Bush has never been asked - not even once - to explain
these statements. His memory not only contradicts every single media
report, it also contradicts what he said that evening.

In his speech to the nation that evening, Bush said: "Immediately following
the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response
plans."

It's not known what these emergency plans were, because neither Bush nor
anyone in his administration mentioned this immediate response again.
Implementing "emergency response plans" seems to completely contradict
Bush's "by the way" recollection of a small airplane accident.

Inside the Classroom and the Second Plane Crash

Shortly after his call with National Security Advisor Rice, Bush entered
Sandra Kay Daniels's second-grade class for a photo-op to promote Bush's
education policies.

The event was to begin precisely at 9:00, but the call pushed it back to
about 9:03. Numerous reporters who were traveling with the president, as
well as members of the local media, watched from the back of the room.

Altogether there were about 150 people in the room, only 16 of them
students. Bush was introduced to the children and then posed for a number
of pictures. Daniels then led the students through some reading exercises
(video footage shows this lasted about three minutes).

Bush later related what he was thinking at the time: "I was concentrating on
the program at this point, thinking about what I was going to say [about
the plane crash]. Obviously, I felt it was an accident. I was concerned about
it, but there were no alarm bells."

At 9:03, Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
News of this traveled extremely rapidly. In fact, some of Bush's Secret
Service agents watched the second crash live on television in an adjacent
room.

Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, in the same room as Bush but not near him,
immediately received the news on his pager. Other pagers were going off
as well.

Chief of Staff Andrew Card was in a nearby room
when he heard the news. He waited until there was a pause in the reading
drill to walk in and tell Bush.

The children were getting their books from under their seats to read a story
together when Card came in. Card whispered to Bush: "A second plane hit
the second tower. America is under attack."

Andrew Card tells Bush the second tower has been hit.

Another account has Card saying: "A second plane has hit the World Trade
Center. America is under attack." Accounts vary as to when Card gave Bush
the news.

Some say 9:05, and some say 9:07. ABC News reporter Ann Compton, who
was in the room, said she was surprised by the interruption and "wrote [the
time] down in my reporter's notebook, by my watch, 9:07 a.m."

The Reaction - Or Lack of One

Descriptions vary greatly as to how Bush responded to the news. It is said
he "blanched", "the color drained from the president's face", he "wore a
bemused smile", "because visibly tense and serious", and so on.

Another picture of Andrew Card telling Bush the second tower has been hit.

Bush later recalled his own reaction: "I am very aware of the cameras. I'm
trying to absorb that knowledge. I have nobody to talk to. I'm sitting in the
midst of a classroom with little kids, listening to a children's story and I
realize I'm the Commander in Chief and the country has just come under
attack."

Asked again what he thought after he heard the news, Bush said, "We're at
war and somebody has dared attack us and we're going to do something
about it. I realized I was in a unique setting to receive a message that
somebody attacked us … [I]t became evident that we were, you know, that
the world had changed."

So what did the Commander in Chief do with the knowledge that the United
States was under attack?

He did nothing.

Bush did not say one word. He did not ask Card any questions. He did not
give any orders. He did not know who (or which country) was attacking,
whether there would be more attacks, what military plans had been taken,
what military actions should be taken - indeed, he knew virtually nothing
about what was going on outside the room.

He just sat there. Bush later recalled: "There was no time for discussion or
anything." Even stranger, as one newspaper put it, although the nation was
under terrorist attack, "for some reason, Secret Service agents [did] not
bustle him away."

Military pilots must have "permission from the White House because only
the president has the authority to order a civilian aircraft shot down." But if
retaliatory strikes needed to the authorized, Bush was not available. If one
of the planes had to be shot down to save more lives on the ground, Bush
was not available.

Although several fighters had been dispatched to defend New York City, the
pilot of one of the planes flying to catch Flight 175 later noted that it
wouldn't have mattered if he caught up with it, because only Bush could
order a shootdown, and Bush could not be reached in the classroom.

Secret Service agents and other security personnel had set up a television
in a nearby classroom. They turned on the TV just as Flight 175 crashed
into the World Trade Center. According to Sarasota County Sheriff Bill
Balkwill, who was in the room, a Marine responsible for carrying Bush's
phone immediately said to Balkwill, "We're out of here. Can you get
everyone ready?" But he must have been overruled by someone, because
Bush did not leave.

Bush not long after being told of the second plane crash

Meanwhile, Secret Service agents burst into Vice President Cheney's White
House office. They carried him under his arms - nearly lifting him off the
ground - and propelled him down the steps into the White House basement
and through a long tunnel toward an underground bunker.

Accounts of when this happened vary greatly, from 9:06 to after 9:30.
Cheney's own account is vague and contradictory.

The one eyewitness account, by White House photographer David Bohrer,
said it happened just after 9:00.

It's easy to see why the White House would have wanted this event placed
at a later time (after Bush's initial statement to the nation rather than after
the second crash) to avoid the obvious question: if Cheney was
immediately evacuated, why wasn't Bush?

The Photo-Op Goes On

After Card told Bush about the second plane and quickly left, the classroom
was silent for about 30 seconds or so. The children were about to take turns
reading from a story called The Pet Goat. Bush picked up the book and
began to read with the children.

In unison, the children read out loud, "The - Pet - Goat. A - girl - got - a -
pet - goat. But - the - goat - did - some - things - that - made - the -
girl's - dad - mad." Bush mostly listened, but occasionally asked the
children a few questions to encourage them.

At one point he said, "Really good readers, whew! ... These must be sixth-
graders!"

Who was really in control? Certainly not Bush. In the back of the room,
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer caught Bush's eye and held up a pad of paper
for him to see, with "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET" written on it in big block
letters.

Some person or people had overruled the security who wanted Bush
evacuated immediately, even as Vice President Cheney was taken from his
White House office to a safe location. Bush's security overruled Bush on
security matters later in the day on Air Force One, but who overruled them
that morning?

When Did Bush Leave the Classroom?

Bush with his Pet Goat book in Sandra Kay Daniels's
elementary school classroom.

Nearly every news account fails to mention when Bush left the classroom
after being told America was under attack.

Three mention 9:12 a.m. Remaining in the classroom for approximately
five to seven minutes is inexcusable, but the video of Bush in the
classroom suggests he stayed longer than that. The video contains several
edits and ends before Bush leaves the room, so it also doesn't tell us
exactly how long he stayed.

One newspaper suggested he remained "for eight or nine minutes" -
sometime between 9:13 and 9:16, since Card's arrival is uncertain.

When Bush finally did leave, he didn't act like a man in a hurry. In fact, he
was described as "openly stretching out the moment."

When the lesson was over, Bush said to the children: "Hoo! These are great
readers. Very impressive! Thank you all so 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. Very impressed."

Bush still continued to talk, advising the children to stay in school and be
good citizens. One student asked Bush a question, and he gave a quick
response on his education policy.

The only source to describe what happened next is Fighting Back by Bill
Sammon. Publishers Weekly described Sammon's book as an "inside
account of the Bush administration's reaction to 9-11 [and] a breathless,
highly complimentary portrait of the president [showing] the great merit
and unwavering moral vision of his inner circle."

Sammon's conservative perspective makes his account of Bush's behavior
at the end of the photo-op all the more surprising. Bush is described as
smiling and chatting with the children "as if he didn't have a care in the
world" and "in the most relaxed manner imaginable."

White House aide Gordon Johndroe, then came in as he usually does at the
end of press conferences, and said, "Thank you, press. If you could step
out the door we came in, please."

A reporter then asked, "Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of the
plane crash in New York? Is there anything...", But Bush interrupted, and no
doubt recalling his order, "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET," Bush responded, "I'll
talk about it later." But still the president did not leave. "

He stepped forward and shook hands with [classroom teacher] 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."

Think about that: rather than rush out of the room at the first chance, Bush
actually stayed until after all the dozens of reporters had left! Having just
been told of a Pearl Harbor-type attack on US soil, Bush was
indeed "openly stretching out the moment."

But he still wasn't done. Bush then turned to principal Tose-Rigell, who was
waiting to take him to the library for his speech on education. He explained
to her about the terror attacks and why he had to leave. Finally, he went to
an empty classroom next door where his staff was based.

Given that Bush's program was supposed to end at 9:20, he left the
classroom only a couple of minutes earlier than planned, if even that.

Why Stay?

The reason given why Bush didn't leave as soon as Card told him the news
is: "Without all the facts at hand, George Bush had no intention of
upsetting the schoolchildren who had come to read for him." Advisor Karl
Rove said, "The President thought for a second or two about getting up and
walking out of the room. But the drill was coming to a close and he didn't
want to alarm the children."

This excuse is patently absurd, given the security risks and importance of
Bush being informed and making decisions as Commander in Chief. Nor
was the drill coming to a close: one drill had ended and another was about
to begin - it was a perfect time to simply say, "Excuse me" and leave the
room.

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport is only 3½ miles away; in fact,
Booker was chosen as the location for the photo-op partly because of its
proximity to the airport. Hijackers could have crashed a plane into Bush's
publicized location and his security would have been completely helpless to
stop it.

Remember, Bush's schedule had been announced on September 7 and two
of the 9/11 hijackers came to Sarasota that same day. Furthermore, the
Secret Service was aware of the strange request for an interview a few hours
earlier and the previous night's report of a person in town who had made
violent threats against Bush.

Indeed, a few days after 9/11, Sarasota's main newspaper
reported, "Sarasota barely skirted its own disaster. As it turns out, terrorists
targeted the president and Air Force One on Tuesday, maybe even while
they were on the ground in Sarasota and certainly not long after. The Secret
Service learned of the threat just minutes after Bush left Booker
Elementary."

Bush Lingers On

Once he was out of the classroom, did Bush immediately leave Booker? No.
He stayed in the adjacent room with his staff, calling Vice President Cheney
and National Security Advisor Rice, and preparing a speech.

Bush in a holding room before giving his speech. Communications director
Dan Bartlett points to the TV, and the clock reads 9:25.

Incredibly, even as uncertain information began to surface, suggesting that
more planes had been hijacked (eventually 11 planes would be suspected),
Bush was allowed to make his remarks at 9:30 - exactly the time and place
stated on his advance schedule.

Why hasn't Bush's security staff been criticized for their completely
inexplicable decision to stay at the school? And why didn't Bush's concern
for the children extend to not making them and the rest of the 200 or so
people at the school terrorist targets?

At 9:16, NORAD was notified that Flight 93 had been hijacked,
and at 9:24 it was notified that Flight 77 had also been
hijacked and was heading toward Washington (though, as discussed above,
the hijacking was known long before this).

President Bush speaks at 9:29 in the library of Booker Elementary School.

No media report has suggested that the possible shooting down of hijacked
airplanes was discussed at this time, however. It appears the discussion
was not broached until after 9:55. At about 9:26, it was either FAA head
Jane Garvey or FAA administrator Ben Sliney (and not Bush) who decided to
halt all airplane takeoffs in the US.

Additionally, no evidence has appeared suggesting Bush had a role in
ordering any fighters into the skies.

Finally, to the Airport

By 9:35, Bush's motorcade was ready to take him to the Sarasota airport
where Air Force One was waiting. At 9:37, Flight 77 crashed into the
Pentagon. Bush was informed as his motorcade got near the airport.
(Apparently Bush could be reached by phone in his limousine at this time.)

The motorcade arrived around 9:43 and pulled up close to Air Force One.
Security conducted an extra-thorough search of all the baggage for the
other passengers, delaying takeoff until 9:55.

Bush talks on a cell phone on the way to the Sarasota airport.
Andrew Card is in front of him.

A year later, Chief of Staff Andrew Card recalled that, "As we were heading
to Air Force One... [we] learned, what turned out to be a mistake, but we
learned that the Air Force One package could in fact be a target."

This echoes the report mentioned above that "terrorists targeted the
president and Air Force One... maybe even while they were on the ground in
Sarasota ..." This only increases the strangeness that Bush wasn't
immediately evacuated at 9:03 as some of his security had recommended.

Bush spoke by telephone to Cheney as the motorcade raced to the airport.
Supposedly, during this call Bush issued an order to ground all flights within
the country. The FAA did shut down the nationwide air traffic system at
around 9:45. But other reports state that it was FAA administrator Ben
Sliney who made the decision without consulting anyone.

For some time it was claimed that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta
had made the decision, but it was later revealed that Mineta didn't even
know of the order until 15 minutes later. Apparently, "FAA officials had
begged [the reporter] to maintain the fiction."

The idea that Bush made the decision is even less plausible. In fact, there
is no evidence at all to suggest that Bush had by this point made even one
decision relevant to his security or that of the country.

Air Force One Takes Off Without Fighter Escort

Where is the security covering Bush as he leaves Sarasota? Is a good
public relations photo more important than security, minutes after the
Secret Service was told Bush could be attacked as he left Sarasota

Air Force One took off at either 9:55 or 9:57 a.m. Communications Director
Dan Bartlett remembered, "It was like a rocket. For a good ten minutes,
the plane was going almost straight up."

But, incredibly, Air Force One took off without any military fighter protection.
This defies all explanation. Recall that at 9:03 a.m., one of Bush's security
people said, "We're out of here. Can you get everyone ready?" Certainly,
long before Bush left the elementary school at 9:35 a.m., arrangements
would have been made to get fighters to Sarasota as soon as possible.

Not only would it have been advisable to protect Air Force One, but it would
have been only sensible as another way to protect Bush on the ground from
terrorist attack even before he left the school. In Florida, there were two
bases said to have fighters on 24-hour alert, capable of getting airborne in
approximately five minutes.

Homestead Air Station, 185 miles from Sarasota, and Tyndall Air Station,
235 miles from Sarasota; both had the highest readiness status on 9/11.
Presumably, as happened at other bases across the country, just after
9:03, base commanders throughout Florida would have immediately begun
preparations to get their fighters ready.

Fighters left bases on the same alert status and traveled similar distances
to reach Washington, DC, well before 10:00, so why were the fighters
delayed in Florida?

Military planes should have been over Sarasota by the time Bush left
Booker at 9:35 a.m. Yet, as will be described below, more than one hour
after Air Force One took off, there were still no fighters protecting it!

An administration official claimed, "The object seemed to be simply to get
the President airborne and out of the way." But without fighter cover this
makes little sense, because the sky was arguably more dangerous than the
ground.

At the time, there were still over 3,000 planes in the air over the US,
including about half of the planes in the region of Florida where Bush was.
Recall, too, that the Secret Service learned of a threat to Bush and Air Force
One "just minutes after Bush left Booker Elementary."

Karl Rove, also on Air Force One, confirmed that a dangerous threat was
known before the plane took off: "They also made it clear they wanted to
get us up quickly, and they wanted to get us to a high altitude, because
there had been a specific threat made to Air Force One.... A declaration that
Air Force One was a target, and said in a way that they called it credible."

Shoot Down Authorized - Too Late

Once he was airborne, Bush talked to Cheney again and Cheney
recommended that Bush "order our aircraft to shoot down these airliners
that have been hijacked." "I said, 'You bet,'" Bush later recalled.

Cheney, right and sitting, talks to Bush. Condoleezza Rice, center and
sitting, and others, look on.

'We had a little discussion, but not much.' However, even though only Bush
had the authority to order a passenger plane shot down, the order was
apparently given before Bush discussed it with Cheney.

One flight commander recalled, "After the Pentagon was hit, we were told
there were more [airliners] coming. Not 'might be'; they were coming." A
call from someone in the White House declared the Washington area "a
free-fire zone," meaning, according to one of the responding fighter
pilots, "we were given authority to use force, if the situation required it."

Extraordinary times can demand extraordinary measures, so having
someone other than Bush give this order could be understandable. But
Bush was available and talking to people like Cheney after 9:30 a.m.

Around this time, officials feared that as many as 11 airliners had been
hijacked, so why weren't Bush and Cheney even considering this course of
action until about 10:00 a.m.? Was Bush being kept out of the loop in
reality, or only in the media reports?

Is the lateness of this discussion merely political spin to reduce speculation
that Flight 93 had been shot down? Flight 93 was still in the air after the
Bush authorization, and fighters were given orders to shoot it down if
necessary. NORAD knew at 9:16 a.m. that Flight 93 was hijacked, but
supposedly fighters weren't scrambled until minutes before it crashed at
10:06 a.m.

Going Nowhere as Threats Increase

Shortly after takeoff, Cheney apparently informed Bush of "a credible
threat" to Air Force One. US Representative Adam Putnam "had barely
settled into his seat on Air Force One ... when he got the news that
terrorists apparently had set their sights on the plane."

The Secret Service had received an anonymous call: "Air Force One is next."
The caller allegedly knew the agency's code words relating to Air Force One
procedures. Pilot Colonel Mark Tillman was told of the threat and he asked
that an armed guard be stationed at the cockpit door.

The Associated Press reported that the threat came "within the same hour"
as the Pentagon crash (i.e., before 10:00 a.m., roughly when the plane
took off). Details suggest this threat was not the same as the earlier one,
but it's hard to know for sure.

In his comments at Booker, Bush said he was immediately flying back to
Washington, but soon after takeoff, he, Cheney and the Secret Service
began arguing whether it was safe to fly back to the capital. Andrew Card
told Bush, "We've got to let the dust settle before we go back."

The plane apparently stayed over Sarasota until the argument was settled.
Accounts differ, but until about 10:35 a.m., Air Force One "appeared to be
going nowhere. The journalists on board – all of whom were barred from
communicating with their offices – sensed that the plane was flying in big,
slow circles."

Cheney apparently called Bush again at 10:32 a.m., and told him of
another threat to Air Force One. Within minutes, the argument was over,
and the plane turned away from Washington and flew to Louisiana instead.

Bush recalled: "I wanted to come back to Washington, but the
circumstances were such that it was just impossible for the Secret Service or
the national security team to clear the way for Air Force One to come back."
Given that the rocket-like takeoff was due to a threat, this must have been
another threat, possibly even a third threat.

Around 10:55 a.m., there was yet another threat to Air Force One. The
pilot, Colonel Mark Tillman, said he was warned that a suspect airliner was
dead ahead. "Coming out of Sarasota there was one call that said there
was an airliner off our nose that they did not have contact with."

Colonel Mark Tillman in the cockpit of Air Force One.

Tillman took evasive action, pulling his plane even higher above normal
traffic. Reporters on board noticed the rise in elevation. The report was
apparently a false alarm, but it shows the folly of having Bush fly without a
fighter escort.

Were There Threats to Air Force One?

The threat or threats to Air Force One were announced on September 12,
after mounting criticism that Bush was out of sight in Louisiana and
Nebraska during most of the day and did not return to Washington until 10
hours after the attacks. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there
was "real and credible information that the White House and Air Force One
were targets."

On September 13, New York Times columnist William Safire wrote - and
Bush's political strategist Karl Rove confirmed - that there was an "inside"
threat that "may have broken the secret codes [showing a knowledge of
presidential procedures]." Had terrorists hacked their way into sensitive
White House computers? Was there a mole in the White House?

No. It turned out the entire story was made up. The press expressed
considerable skepticism about the story. For instance, one Florida
newspaper thought Fleischer's disclosure was "an apparent effort to explain
why the president was flown to Air Force bases" before returning to
Washington. When asked on September 15 about the "credible evidence,"
Fleischer said, "we exhausted that topic about two days ago."

On September 26, CBS News reported: "Finally, there is this postscript to
the puzzle of how someone presumed to be a terrorist was able to call in a
threat against Air Force One using a secret code name for the president's
plane. Well, as it turns out, that simply never happened. Sources say White
House staffers apparently misunderstood comments made by their security
detail."

One former official who served in George Bush Sr.'s administration told
Human Events Online, which bills itself as "the national conservative
weekly," that he was "deeply disappointed by [Bush's] zigzagging across
the country." At the end of the month, Slate magazine awarded
its "Whopper of the Week" to Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, and Dick Cheney.

No one knew exactly where the bogus story originated from, but "what can
be safely said is that it served the White House's immediate purposes,
even though it was completely untrue." What were those purposes? A well-
informed, anonymous Washington official said, "It did two things for
[Cheney].

It reinforced his argument that the President should stay out of town, and it
gave George W. an excellent reason for doing so." When Bush was asked
in May 2002 why he had flown to two Air Force bases before returning to
Washington, Bush said, "I was trying to get out of harm's way."

The most obviously bogus threat - the mole knowing secret codes - came
from Cheney in a pivotal moment in his argument with Bush over where
Bush should go. But were the other threats, for instance, the one made
before Air Force One even took off, or the airline suspected of crashing into
Air Force One, also bogus?

When Does the Fighter Escort Finally Arrive?

The approximate route of Bush's journey on Air Force One is shown in
yellow. Keep in mind the plane flew in circles somewhere over Florida for
about 40 minutes before heading west. Why did the first planes scrambled
to defend the plane come from Ellington, Texas, and not any of the three
likely Florida bases?

Much like the time when Bush left the Booker classroom, the time when
fighters finally reached Air Force One is rarely mentioned, and when it is,
the facts are highly debatable.

According to one account, around 10:00 a.m. Air Force One was "joined by
an escort of F-16 fighters from a base near Jacksonville, Florida." But one
month later, it was reported that in Cheney's 10:32 phone call, he told
Bush that it would take another 40 to 90 minutes [as late as noon] to get
protective fighters up to escort Air Force One.

Another account said, "Air Force One headed toward Jacksonville [at 10:41]
to meet jets scrambled to give the presidential jet its own air cover," but it
isn't said when the plane actually met up with the fighters.

We know that when Air Force One took evasive action around 10:55, there
was no fighter escort. NORAD commander Major General Larry Arnold later
said, "We scrambled available airplanes from Tyndall [note this is near
Tallahassee, not Jacksonville, Florida] and then from Ellington in Houston,
Texas," but he doesn't say when. In another account, the first two F-16s to
arrive are piloted by Shane Brotherton and Randy Roberts, from the Texas
Air National Guard, not from any Florida base.

All that's known for sure is that by 11:30 there were six fighters protecting
Air Force One.

It would appear that fighters arrived some time between 11:00 and 11:30.
These fighters were supposed to be on 24-hour alert, ready to get into the
air in about five minutes. If we assume the fighters flew at a speed of
1,100 mph, the same speed Major Gen. Arnold said fighters used to reach
New York City earlier in the day when traveling a comparable distance, the
fighters should have reached Sarasota in about 10 minutes.

President Bush (center, stooped down) and staff look out the windows of Air
Force One to see their newly arrived fighter escorts.

Yet they took around two hours to reach Air Force One from when they were
likely first needed, shortly after 9:00. This clearly goes beyond mere
incompetence, yet no newspaper article has ever raised the issue.

Was Cheney able to prevent the fighters from reaching Air Force One,
perhaps to convince Bush not to return to Washington? If so, why? Did
Cheney assume (or know) that Bush was in no real danger? Like so many
other questions surrounding 9/11, we do not know.

Barksdale Air Force Base

Air Force One at Barksdale Air Force Base.

Air Force One landed at Barksdale Air Force base near Shreveport,
Louisiana at about 11:45 a.m. "The official reason for landing at Barksdale
was that Bush felt it necessary to make a further statement, but it isn't
unreasonable to assume that – as there was no agreement as to what the
President's movements should be it was felt he might as well be on the
ground as in the air."

Ironically, the landing came only a short time after Bush's plane was finally
protected by fighters.

There was quite a difference in the protection afforded Bush at Barksdale
and what was in Sarasota. Bush was left unprotected at a known location in
Sarasota for nearly 30 minutes.

At Barksdale, a location that was at the time unknown, Congressman Dan
Miller "was amazed at the armored equipment and soldiers with automatic
weapons that immediately surrounded the plane." Bush was driven to base
headquarters in a Humvee escorted by armed outriders. Reporters and
others remained under strict orders not to give out their location.

Bush was taken to a secret and secure place on the base. Shortly after
12:30 p.m., Bush taped a short speech, which he wrote on a napkin.

The tape was broadcast on television at around 1:20 p.m. He also "spent
the next hour and a half talking on the phone," again arguing with Cheney
and others over where he should go next. The Secret Service felt the
situation in Washington was still unsafe.

Bush walking inside Barksdale Air Force Base

Bush told Karl Rove: "I want to go back home as soon as possible." Rove
answered: "Our people are saying it's unstable still." Bush was told he
could get to the US Strategic Command center in Offutt, Nebraska, quicker
than he could fly to Washington, so he agreed to go to Nebraska.

Just after 1:00 p.m., Bush supposedly "received an intelligence report from
the base commander that a high-speed object was headed for his ranch in
Crawford, Texas." It turned out to be another false alarm.

This may well be another bogus report designed to explain why Bush didn't
return to Washington at this time, since US airspace was declared clear
except for some military and emergency flights at 12:16 p.m. By 12:30,
the FAA reported that only about 50 of these flights were still flying in US
airspace, and none were reporting problems, so how could an unknown
plane have been headed toward Bush's ranch 30 minutes after that?

Offutt Air Force Base

Air Force One left Barksdale for Offutt Air Force Base around 1:30 p.m. The
Air Force One entourage was pared down to a few essential staffers such as
Ari Fleischer, Andrew Card, Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett, and Gordon Johndroe,
plus about five reporters. During the flight, Bush remained in "continuous
contact" with the White House Situation Room and Vice President Cheney.

Air Force One landed at Offutt shortly before 3:00 p.m. At 3:06, Bush
passed through security to the US Strategic Command Underground
Command Center and was taken into an underground bunker designed to
withstand a nuclear blast.

Bush, center, with Andrew Card to his left, takes part in a video conference
from inside Offutt Air Force Base.

There, he held a teleconference call with Vice President Cheney, National
Security Advisor Rice, Defense Secretary Rumsfeld, Deputy Secretary of
State Richard Armitage, CIA Director Tenet, Transportation Secretary
Norman Mineta, and others.

The meeting lasted about an hour. Rice recalled that during the meeting,
Tenet told Bush, "Sir, I believe it's al-Qaeda. We're doing the assessment
but it looks like, it feels like, it smells like al-Qaeda."

By this time, people were anticipating and expecting another reassuring
public statement from Bush. The White House staff was preparing for Bush
to address the nation from the Offutt bunker, but Bush decided instead to
return to Washington.

As a side note, Warren Buffett, one of the richest people in the world, was
hosting an unpublicized charity benefit inside the high security Offutt
military base at 8:00 a.m.

With him were business leaders and several executives from the World
Trade Center, including Anne Tatlock of Fiduciary Trust Co. International,
who likely would have died had it not been for the meeting. They watched a
lot of the television coverage that morning, but it's unknown if any of these
people were still at Offutt by the time Bush arrived in the afternoon.

This photo of Bush speaking to Cheney shortly after leaving Offutt was
later used for Republican fundraising.

Back in Washington

Air Force One left Offutt around 4:30 p.m. and landed at Andrews Air Force
Base at 6:34 p.m., escorted by two F-15 fighters and one F-16. Bush then
took the Marine One helicopter to the White House, arriving shortly before
7:00 p.m.

Bush gave a nationally televised speech at 8:30 p.m. , speaking for about
five minutes. In what would later be called the Bush Doctrine, he
stated, "We will make no distinction between the terrorists who committed
these acts and those who harbor them."

Around 9:00 p.m., Bush met with his full National Security Council, followed
roughly half an hour later by a meeting with a smaller group of key
advisors. Bush and his advisors had already decided bin Laden was behind
the attacks.

CIA Director Tenet told Bush that al-Qaeda and the Taliban in Afghanistan
were essentially one and the same.

Before going to sleep around 11:30 p.m., Bush wrote in his diary, "The
Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.... We think it's Osama
bin Laden."

The many accounts of what happened to Bush on 9/11 are riddled with
disinformation of false threats, omitted details, fudged timing, and more.
But around September 11, 2002, the heavily publicizedBush time line on 9/11/01

An Interesting Day:

President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11

By Allan Wood and Paul Thompson

"It was an interesting day." - President Bush, recalling 9/11 [White House, 1/5/02]

At approximately 8:48 a.m. on the morning of September 11, 2001, the
first pictures of the burning World Trade Center were broadcast on live
television. The news anchors, reporters, and viewers had little idea what
had happened in lower Manhattan, but there were some people who did
know.

Both images taken at 9:03 a.m.: Bush takes part in a meaningless
photo-op, knowing full well the US is already under attack. [left, from
Booker video, right from Getty Images]

By that time, 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 all knew that three commercial airplanes had been
hijacked.

They knew that one plane had been flown deliberately into the World Trade
Center's North Tower; a second plane was wildly off course and also
heading toward Manhattan; and a third plane had abruptly turned around
over Ohio and was flying back toward Washington, DC.

So why, at 9:03 a.m. - fifteen minutes after it was clear the United States
was under terrorist attack - did President Bush sit down with a classroom of
second-graders and begin a 20-minute pre-planned photo op? No one
knows the answer to that question. In fact, no one has even asked Bush
about it.

Bush's actions on September 11 have been the subject of lively debate,
mostly on the internet. Details reported that day and in the week after the
attacks - both the media reports and accounts given by Bush himself -
have changed radically over the past 18 months.

Culling hundreds of reports from newspapers, magazines, and the internet
has only made finding the "truth" of what happened and when it happened
more confusing. In the changed political climate after 9/11, few have dared
raise challenging questions about Bush's actions.

A journalist who said Bush was "flying around the country like a scared child,
seeking refuge in his mother's bed after having a nightmare" and another
who said Bush "skedaddled" were fired. [Washington Post, 9/29/01 (B)] We
should have a concise record of where President Bush was throughout the
day the US was attacked, but we do not.

What follows is an attempt to give the most complete account of Bush's
actions - from Florida to Louisiana to Nebraska to Washington, DC.

Preparations

Bush's appearance at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota,
Florida, on September 11, 2001 had been in the planning stages since
August, but was only publicly announced on the morning of September 7.

Later that same day, 9/11 hijackers Mohamed Atta and Marwan Alshehhi
traveled to Sarasota and enjoyed drinks and dinner at a Holiday Inn only
two miles down the sandy beach from where Bush was scheduled to stay
during his Sarasota visit.

On the night of September 10th, Bush stayed at the Colony Beach Resort - "
an upscale and relatively pristine tropical island enclave located
directly on the Gulf of Mexico, a spindly coral island ... off Sarasota,
Florida."

The Colony Beach and Tennis Resort, where Bush stayed the
night before 9/11

Zainlabdeen Omer, a Sudanese native living in Sarasota, told the local
police that night that someone he knew who had made violent threats
against Bush was in town and Omer was worried about Bush's safety. The
man was identified only as "Ghandi." A police report states the Secret
Service was informed immediately.

After a private dinner with various Florida politicians (including his brother
Jeb) and Republican donors, Bush went to bed around 10:00 p.m. Surface-
to-air missiles were placed on the roof of the resort, and an Airborne
Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane circled high overhead.

It's not clear if this type of protection was standard for the president or
whether security was increased because of possible threats.

Bush Is Briefed as the Hijackings Begin

On 9/11, after his jog, Bush showered, then sat down for his daily
intelligence briefing around 8 a.m. "The President's briefing appears to
have included some reference to the heightened terrorist risk reported
throughout the summer, but contained nothing specific, severe or imminent
enough to necessitate a call to [National Security Advisor] Condoleezza
Rice."

While Bush was being briefed, the planes that would be hijacked began
taking off. American Airlines Flight 11 was first, leaving Boston's Logan
Airport at 7:59 a.m. The others soon followed, except for United Flight 93,
scheduled to leave at 8:01, but which was delayed on the runway for about
40 minutes.

At approximately 8:13, Flight 11 was instructed by air traffic controllers at
the FAA's Boston Center, in Nashua, New Hampshire, to climb to 35,000
feet. The plane did not obey the order and its transponder was turned off.

Air traffic control manager Glenn Michael said, "we considered it at that time
to be a possible hijacking.", emphasis added According to FAA regulations,
that was the correct decision: "Consider that an aircraft emergency exists ...
when ... there is unexpected loss of radar contact and radio
communications with any ... aircraft."

If air traffic controllers believed Flight 11 had been hijacked at 8:13,
NORAD should have been informed immediately, so military planes could
be scrambled to investigate.

However, NORAD and the FAA both claimed NORAD was not informed until
8:40 - 27 minutes later.; one NORAD employee said it took place at 8:31.
Indeed, before contacting NORAD, Boston air traffic controllers watched
Flight 11 make an unexpected 100-degree turn and head south toward New
York City, told other controllers of the hijacking at 8:25, continued to hear
highly suspicious dialogue from the cockpit (such as, "Nobody move,
please, we are going back to the airport.

Don't try to make any stupid moves") and even asked the pilots of Flight
175 to scan the skies for the errant plane.

Is NORAD's claim credible? If so, the air traffic controllers (including Mr.
Michael) should have been fired and subject to possible criminal charges for
their inaction. To date, however, there has been no word of any person
being disciplined at any institution at any level for what happened on 9/11.

If NORAD's claim is false, and it was indeed informed within the time frame
outlined in FAA regulations that Flight 11 may have been hijacked, that
would mean NORAD did absolutely nothing for almost thirty minutes while a
hijacked commercial airliner flew off course through some of the most
congested airspace in the world.

Presumably, that would warrant some very serious charges. Again, no one
associated with NORAD or the FAA has been punished.

According to phone calls made by fight attendants Betty Ong and Amy
Sweeney, the hijackers had stabbed and killed at least one passenger and
two flight attendants by about 8:21. (One hijacker may have been riding in
the cockpit and begun the hijacking earlier.)

After 8:21, both women apparently remained on the phone with American
Airlines' headquarters for 25 minutes, until their plane crashed into the
World Trade Center's North Tower. These calls make NORAD's supposed
ignorance of a crisis even more dubious.

Bush Leaves for Booker Elementary

Bush's motorcade arrives at Booker Elementary.

The first event on Bush's schedule was what is known as a "soft event" – a
photo-op with children at Emma Booker Elementary School - promoting his
proposed education bill. After spending about 20 minutes with the children,
Bush was scheduled to give a short press conference at about 9:30.

Accounts of when Bush's motorcade left for the school vary from 8:30 to
8:39. 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."

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,
which means that Bush arrived shortly before 9:00.

When Did Bush First Learn of the Attacks?

Why does it matter when Bush left the resort and arrived at the school?
Because, this is the crucial time when Bush was first told of the attacks.
or should have been told.

Official accounts, including the words of Bush himself, say Bush was first
told of what was happening in New York City after he arrived at the school.
However, this statement does not stand up to scrutiny. There are at least
four reports that Bush was told of the first crash before he arrived at the
school.

Two accounts explicitly state Bush was told while in the motorcade. "The
President was on Highway 301, just north of Main Street ... [when] he
received the news that a plane had crashed in New York City."

In this map, the yellow star is roughly where Bush's motorcade is when
Flight 11 crashes at 8:46, and the orange star is where he is when told
about the crash a few minutes later.

The first media reports of Flight 11's crash into the World Trade Center
began around 8:48, two minutes after the crash happened. CNN broke into
its regular programming at that time, though other networks, such as ABC,
took a few more minutes to begin reporting. So within minutes, millions
were aware of the story, yet Bush supposedly remained unaware for about
another ten minutes.

Claims of Bush's ignorance become harder to believe when one learns that
others in his motorcade were immediately told of the attack. For instance,
Kia Baskerville, a CBS News producer traveling with Bush that morning,
received a message about a plane crash "as the presidential motorcade
headed to President Bush's first event."

Baskerville said, "Fifteen minutes later I was standing in a second grade
classroom [waiting for Bush's entrance]" - which means she got the news at
about 8:47 - right as the story was first being reported. A news
photographer in the motorcade overheard a radio transmission that Press
Secretary Ari Fleischer would be needed on arrival at the school to discuss
reports of some sort of crash.

Another account notes Fleischer got the news that the crash had
occurred "just minutes before," but notes that Bush was not in the same car
as Fleischer. Senior presidential communications officer Thomas Herman
said, "Just as we were arriving at the school, I received a notification from
our operations center than [sic] an airliner had struck one of the towers...."

Meanwhile, CIA Director George Tenet was told of the crash a few minutes
after it happened. A messenger gave him the news as he was eating
breakfast with former Senator David Boren in a Washington restaurant
three blocks from the White House.

Boren says Tenet was told that the World Trade Center had been attacked
by an airplane: "I was struck by the fact that [the messenger] used the
word attacked."

An aide then handed a cell phone to Tenet, and Tenet made some calls,
showing that at least some at the highest levels of the Bush administration
were talking about an attack at this time. Tenet then said to Boren, "You
know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it."

Some people at the school also heard of the news before Bush arrived.
Around 8:50, Tampa Bay's Channel 8 reporter Jackie Barron was on the
phone with her mother, who mentioned the first news reports. At almost the
same time, Brian Goff, a Fox reporter from Tampa, heard the same thing
on his cell phone.

Associated Press reporter Sonia Ross was also told of the crash by phone
from a colleague. Florida Congressman Dan Miller, waiting in front of the
school as part of the official greeting party, was told by an aide about the
crash at 8:55, before Bush arrived.

Given all this, how could Bush have remained ignorant? Could he have
been out of the loop because he was in a car? No. The previous night,
Colony Resort manager Katie Klauber Moulon toured the presidential
limousine and marveled "at all the phones and electronic equipment."

Karl Rove, Bush's "chief political strategist," who presumably was riding with
Bush, used a wireless e-mail device on 9/11 as well. There seems to have
been ample opportunity and the means to alert Bush.

Another Warning

If Bush wasn't told while in his limousine, he certainly was told immediately
after he got out of it. US Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, the director of the
White House Situation Room, was traveling in the motorcade when she
received a message from an assistant back in Washington about the first
crash.

White House Situation Room Director Deborah Loewer.

Loewer said that as soon as the car arrived at Booker, she ran quickly over
to Bush. "It's a very good thing the Secret Service knows who I am," Loewer
later said. She told Bush that an aircraft had "impacted the World Trade
Center. This is all we know."

Meanwhile, More Hijackings

Even though Flight 175 left about the same time as Flight 11, it appears to
have been hijacked much later.

At 8:41, its pilot was still talking to ground control, but
at 8:42 it sharply veered off course, a flight controller noted
that its transponder had been turned off and communication cut.

One minute later, at 8:43, NORAD was notified the plane had been
hijacked. The hijackers turned the transponder back on but used a
different signal code. This allowed flight controllers to "easily" track
the plane as it flew toward New York City.

Flight 77's intended and actual routes. Note the
strange loop off course about halfway along the route to the west, which
was the first sign the plane was hijacked. Such a large diversion is
extremely uncommon, and should have triggered an immediate fighter
response.

At about 8:46, Flight 77 began to go severely off course. According to
regulations, a fighter is required to be dispatched if a plane strays from its
official course by more than two miles or 15 degrees.

As the adjacent map shows, Flight 77 returned to its proper course for a
time, but its last radio contact occurred at 8:50. Supposedly, NORAD was
not officially notified that Flight 77 has been hijacked until 9:24, but the
New York Times reported that by around 8:50, military officials at the
Pentagon were already discussing what to do about Flight 77. Note the
difference in notification times: 27 minutes for Flight 11, 1 minute for Flight
175 and 38 minutes for Flight 77.

Flight 93 wasn't hijacked until about 9:16, but by about 8:50, it was clear
that at least three planes had been hijacked. Vice President Dick Cheney,
speaking on NBC's Meet the Press, said, "The Secret Service has an
arrangement with the FAA.

They had open lines after the World Trade Center was ..."Cheney never
finished his sentence (interesting in itself - did he say too much?), but it
seems safe to say that his next word would have been "hit." Cheney's
statement makes it clear the Secret Service knew the extent of the
situation well before 9:00 am.

An Accident?

Intelligence agencies were suffering "warning fatigue" from so many
warnings of an al-Qaeda attack, some specifically mentioning the use of
hijacked airplanes as missiles. Bush himself was given an intelligence
briefing a month earlier entitled "Bin Laden to Strike in US," and it
contained a warning from the British government that the US should expect
multiple airline hijackings from al-Qaeda.

So with the clear knowledge that three planes had been hijacked, with one
of them already crashed into the World Trade Center, who would have
possibly assumed that Flight 11's crash was an accident? Yet that is
precisely what the official story claims.

There are a number of different "official" accounts, but all of them stress
that Bush wasn't told until after he arrived inside the school (contrary to the
account of Captain Loewer) and that it was assumed to be an accident
(contradicting Tenet being told that it was an attack).

In some accounts, "President Bush had emerged from his car and was
shaking hands with local officials standing outside the school when Chief
of Staff Andrew Card sidled up to him with the news."

Karl Rove, Andrew Card, and Dan Bartlett.

Bush later recalled that it was Card who first notified him: "'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.'"

At a press conference later that day, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer also
claimed it was Andy Card who first informed him, "as the President finished
shaking hands in a hallway of school officials."

In other accounts, it was advisor Karl Rove who first told Bush. According to
photographer Eric Draper, who was standing nearby, Rove rushed up, took
Bush aside in a corridor inside the school and said the cause of the crash
was unclear. Bush replied, "What a horrible accident!"

Bush also suggested the pilot may have had a heart attack. Dan Bartlett,
White House Communications Director, says he was there when Bush was
told: "[Bush] being a former pilot, had kind of the same reaction, going,
was it bad weather?

And I said no, apparently not." A reporter who was standing nearby later
said, "From the demeanor of the President, grinning at the children, it
appeared that the enormity of what he had been told was taking a while to
sink in."

One account explicitly says that Rove told Bush the World Trade Center had
been hit by a large commercial airliner. However, Bush later remembered
Rove saying it appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine
plane.

In yet another account, Blake Gottesman, Bush's personal assistant, while
giving the president some final instructions as they walked to the school,
remarked, "Andy Card says, 'By the way, an aircraft flew into the World
Trade Center.'"

Told Again, Yet Still Clueless

Booker principal Gwen Tose-Rigell was waiting for Bush outside the
school. "The limousine stops and the president comes out. He walks toward
me. I'm standing there in a lineup; there are about five people.

He walks over and says he has to make a phone call, and he'll be right
back." The phone call was with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice.
From a room with secure communications, Rice updated Bush on the
situation.

The fact that Bush immediately said he had to make an important call
strongly suggests he was told about the situation while in the motorcade.
But some accounts have Andrew Card saying to Bush as he gets out of his
limousine, "Mr. President, you really need to take this phone call," thereby
implying that Card knows what's going on, but Bush doesn't.

As National Security Advisor, Rice had to have had as much information as
anyone. By the time she spoke to Bush, she must have known that three
planes had been hijacked and that the country was under attack.

We know very little about the conversation - only that Rice later
claimed, "[Bush] said, what a terrible, it sounds like a terrible accident.
Keep me informed." One reporter noted: "Bush did not appear preoccupied
[after the phone call] … There was no sign that Rice had just told [him]
about the first attack [on the World Trade Center]."

Tose-Rigell was then summoned to a room to talk with Bush: "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."

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 ... But he didn't."
The only possible excuse is that Bush was completely clueless as to what
was happening.

Sure enough, at a press conference on the evening of 9/11, Press Secretary
Ari Fleischer was asked by a reporter, "And then this morning, when Andy
Card told him about the first accident, was Andy Card or Condi Rice or any
of those aware of the hijackings?

What did they know when they --" Fleischer cut in and replied, "No, at that
point they were not." So supposedly, 15 minutes after the first crash, none
of Bush's aides, not even Rice back in Washington, DC, knew a thing about
the hijackings that had been reported to NORAD 20 minutes earlier? This
simply is not plausible.

Bush's Confused Recollection

Bush's own recollection of the first crash only complicates the picture. Less
than two months after the attacks, Bush made the preposterous claim that
he had watched the first attack as it happened on live television.

This is the seventh different account of how Bush learned about the first
crash (in his limousine, from Loewer, from Card, from Rove, from
Gottesman, from Rice, from television). 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."

There was no film footage of the first attack until at least the following day,
and Bush didn't have access to a television until 15 or so minutes later.
The Boston Herald later noted, "Think about that. Bush's remark implies he
saw the first plane hit the tower. But we all know that video of the first plane
hitting did not surface until the next day.

Could Bush have meant he saw the second plane hit - which many
Americans witnessed? No, because he said that he was in the classroom
when Card whispered in his ear that a second plane hit." Bush's recollection
has many precise details. Is he simply confused?

It's doubly strange why his advisors didn't correct him or - at the very least -
stop him from repeating the same story only four weeks later. On January
5, 2002, Bush stated: "Well, I was sitting in a schoolhouse in Florida ... 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 set 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..."

Unfortunately, Bush has never been asked - not even once - to explain
these statements. His memory not only contradicts every single media
report, it also contradicts what he said that evening.

In his speech to the nation that evening, Bush said: "Immediately following
the first attack, I implemented our government's emergency response
plans."

It's not known what these emergency plans were, because neither Bush nor
anyone in his administration mentioned this immediate response again.
Implementing "emergency response plans" seems to completely contradict
Bush's "by the way" recollection of a small airplane accident.

Inside the Classroom and the Second Plane Crash

Shortly after his call with National Security Advisor Rice, Bush entered
Sandra Kay Daniels's second-grade class for a photo-op to promote Bush's
education policies.

The event was to begin precisely at 9:00, but the call pushed it back to
about 9:03. Numerous reporters who were traveling with the president, as
well as members of the local media, watched from the back of the room.

Altogether there were about 150 people in the room, only 16 of them
students. Bush was introduced to the children and then posed for a number
of pictures. Daniels then led the students through some reading exercises
(video footage shows this lasted about three minutes).

Bush later related what he was thinking at the time: "I was concentrating on
the program at this point, thinking about what I was going to say [about
the plane crash]. Obviously, I felt it was an accident. I was concerned about
it, but there were no alarm bells."

At 9:03, Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
News of this traveled extremely rapidly. In fact, some of Bush's Secret
Service agents watched the second crash live on television in an adjacent
room.

Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, in the same room as Bush but not near him,
immediately received the news on his pager. Other pagers were going off
as well.

Chief of Staff Andrew Card was in a nearby room
when he heard the news. He waited until there was a pause in the reading
drill to walk in and tell Bush.

The children were getting their books from under their seats to read a story
together when Card came in. Card whispered to Bush: "A second plane hit
the second tower. America is under attack."

Andrew Card tells Bush the second tower has been hit.

Another account has Card saying: "A second plane has hit the World Trade
Center. America is under attack." Accounts vary as to when Card gave Bush
the news.

Some say 9:05, and some say 9:07. ABC News reporter Ann Compton, who
was in the room, said she was surprised by the interruption and "wrote [the
time] down in my reporter's notebook, by my watch, 9:07 a.m."

The Reaction - Or Lack of One

Descriptions vary greatly as to how Bush responded to the news. It is said
he "blanched", "the color drained from the president's face", he "wore a
bemused smile", "because visibly tense and serious", and so on.

Another picture of Andrew Card telling Bush the second tower has been hit.

Bush later recalled his own reaction: "I am very aware of the cameras. I'm
trying to absorb that knowledge. I have nobody to talk to. I'm sitting in the
midst of a classroom with little kids, listening to a children's story and I
realize I'm the Commander in Chief and the country has just come under
attack."

Asked again what he thought after he heard the news, Bush said, "We're at
war and somebody has dared attack us and we're going to do something
about it. I realized I was in a unique setting to receive a message that
somebody attacked us … [I]t became evident that we were, you know, that
the world had changed."

So what did the Commander in Chief do with the knowledge that the United
States was under attack?

He did nothing.

Bush did not say one word. He did not ask Card any questions. He did not
give any orders. He did not know who (or which country) was attacking,
whether there would be more attacks, what military plans had been taken,
what military actions should be taken - indeed, he knew virtually nothing
about what was going on outside the room.

He just sat there. Bush later recalled: "There was no time for discussion or
anything." Even stranger, as one newspaper put it, although the nation was
under terrorist attack, "for some reason, Secret Service agents [did] not
bustle him away."

Military pilots must have "permission from the White House because only
the president has the authority to order a civilian aircraft shot down." But if
retaliatory strikes needed to the authorized, Bush was not available. If one
of the planes had to be shot down to save more lives on the ground, Bush
was not available.

Although several fighters had been dispatched to defend New York City, the
pilot of one of the planes flying to catch Flight 175 later noted that it
wouldn't have mattered if he caught up with it, because only Bush could
order a shootdown, and Bush could not be reached in the classroom.

Secret Service agents and other security personnel had set up a television
in a nearby classroom. They turned on the TV just as Flight 175 crashed
into the World Trade Center. According to Sarasota County Sheriff Bill
Balkwill, who was in the room, a Marine responsible for carrying Bush's
phone immediately said to Balkwill, "We're out of here. Can you get
everyone ready?" But he must have been overruled by someone, because
Bush did not leave.

Bush not long after being told of the second plane crash

Meanwhile, Secret Service agents burst into Vice President Cheney's White
House office. They carried him under his arms - nearly lifting him off the
ground - and propelled him down the steps into the White House basement
and through a long tunnel toward an underground bunker.

Accounts of when this happened vary greatly, from 9:06 to after 9:30.
Cheney's own account is vague and contradictory.

The one eyewitness account, by White House photographer David Bohrer,
said it happened just after 9:00.

It's easy to see why the White House would have wanted this event placed
at a later time (after Bush's initial statement to the nation rather than after
the second crash) to avoid the obvious question: if Cheney was
immediately evacuated, why wasn't Bush?

The Photo-Op Goes On

After Card told Bush about the second plane and quickly left, the classroom
was silent for about 30 seconds or so. The children were about to take turns
reading from a story called The Pet Goat. Bush picked up the book and
began to read with the children.

In unison, the children read out loud, "The - Pet - Goat. A - girl - got - a -
pet - goat. But - the - goat - did - some - things - that - made - the -
girl's - dad - mad." Bush mostly listened, but occasionally asked the
children a few questions to encourage them.

At one point he said, "Really good readers, whew! ... These must be sixth-
graders!"

Who was really in control? Certainly not Bush. In the back of the room,
Press Secretary Ari Fleischer caught Bush's eye and held up a pad of paper
for him to see, with "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET" written on it in big block
letters.

Some person or people had overruled the security who wanted Bush
evacuated immediately, even as Vice President Cheney was taken from his
White House office to a safe location. Bush's security overruled Bush on
security matters later in the day on Air Force One, but who overruled them
that morning?

When Did Bush Leave the Classroom?

Bush with his Pet Goat book in Sandra Kay Daniels's
elementary school classroom.

Nearly every news account fails to mention when Bush left the classroom
after being told America was under attack.

Three mention 9:12 a.m. Remaining in the classroom for approximately
five to seven minutes is inexcusable, but the video of Bush in the
classroom suggests he stayed longer than that. The video contains several
edits and ends before Bush leaves the room, so it also doesn't tell us
exactly how long he stayed.

One newspaper suggested he remained "for eight or nine minutes" -
sometime between 9:13 and 9:16, since Card's arrival is uncertain.

When Bush finally did leave, he didn't act like a man in a hurry. In fact, he
was described as "openly stretching out the moment."

When the lesson was over, Bush said to the children: "Hoo! These are great
readers. Very impressive! Thank you all so 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. Very impressed."

Bush still continued to talk, advising the children to stay in school and be
good citizens. One student asked Bush a question, and he gave a quick
response on his education policy.

The only source to describe what happened next is Fighting Back by Bill
Sammon. Publishers Weekly described Sammon's book as an "inside
account of the Bush administration's reaction to 9-11 [and] a breathless,
highly complimentary portrait of the president [showing] the great merit
and unwavering moral vision of his inner circle."

Sammon's conservative perspective makes his account of Bush's behavior
at the end of the photo-op all the more surprising. Bush is described as
smiling and chatting with the children "as if he didn't have a care in the
world" and "in the most relaxed manner imaginable."

White House aide Gordon Johndroe, then came in as he usually does at the
end of press conferences, and said, "Thank you, press. If you could step
out the door we came in, please."

A reporter then asked, "Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of the
plane crash in New York? Is there anything...", But Bush interrupted, and no
doubt recalling his order, "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET," Bush responded, "I'll
talk about it later." But still the president did not leave. "

He stepped forward and shook hands with [classroom teacher] 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."

Think about that: rather than rush out of the room at the first chance, Bush
actually stayed until after all the dozens of reporters had left! Having just
been told of a Pearl Harbor-type attack on US soil, Bush was
indeed "openly stretching out the moment."

But he still wasn't done. Bush then turned to principal Tose-Rigell, who was
waiting to take him to the library for his speech on education. He explained
to her about the terror attacks and why he had to leave. Finally, he went to
an empty classroom next door where his staff was based.

Given that Bush's program was supposed to end at 9:20, he left the
classroom only a couple of minutes earlier than planned, if even that.

Why Stay?

The reason given why Bush didn't leave as soon as Card told him the news
is: "Without all the facts at hand, George Bush had no intention of
upsetting the schoolchildren who had come to read for him." Advisor Karl
Rove said, "The President thought for a second or two about getting up and
walking out of the room. But the drill was coming to a close and he didn't
want to alarm the children."

This excuse is patently absurd, given the security risks and importance of
Bush being informed and making decisions as Commander in Chief. Nor
was the drill coming to a close: one drill had ended and another was about
to begin - it was a perfect time to simply say, "Excuse me" and leave the
room.

Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport is only 3½ miles away; in fact,
Booker was chosen as the location for the photo-op partly because of its
proximity to the airport. Hijackers could have crashed a plane into Bush's
publicized location and his security would have been completely helpless to
stop it.

Remember, Bush's schedule had been announced on September 7 and two
of the 9/11 hijackers came to Sarasota that same day. Furthermore, the
Secret Service was aware of the strange request for an interview a few hours
earlier and the previous night's report of a person in town who had made
violent threats against Bush.

Indeed, a few days after 9/11, Sarasota's main newspaper
reported, "Sarasota barely skirted its own disaster. As it turns out, terrorists
targeted the president and Air Force One on Tuesday, maybe even while
they were on the ground in Sarasota and certainly not long after. The Secret
Service learned of the threat just minutes after Bush left Booker
Elementary."

Bush Lingers On

Once he was out of the classroom, did Bush immediately leave Booker? No.
He stayed in the adjacent room with his staff, calling Vice President Cheney
and National Security Advisor Rice, and preparing a speech.

Bush in a holding room before giving his speech. Communications director
Dan Bartlett points to the TV, and the clock reads 9:25.

Incredibly, even as uncertain information began to surface, suggesting that
more planes had been hijacked (eventually 11 planes would be suspected),
Bush was allowed to make his remarks at 9:30 - exactly the time and place
stated on his advance schedule.

Why hasn't Bush's security staff been criticized for their completely
inexplicable decision to stay at the school? And why didn't Bush's concern
for the children extend to not making them and the rest of the 200 or so
people at the school terrorist targets?

At 9:16, NORAD was notified that Flight 93 had been hijacked,
and at 9:24 it was notified that Flight 77 had also been
hijacked and was heading toward Washington (though, as discussed above,
the hijacking was known long before this).

President Bush speaks at 9:29 in the library of Booker Elementary School.

No media report has suggested that the possible shooting down of hijacked
airplanes was discussed at this time, however. It appears the discussion
was not broached until after 9:55. At about 9:26, it was either FAA head
Jane Garvey or FAA administrator Ben Sliney (and not Bush) who decided to
halt all airplane takeoffs in the US.

Additionally, no evidence has appeared suggesting Bush had a role in
ordering any fighters into the skies.

Finally, to the Airport

By 9:35, Bush's motorcade was ready to take him to the Sarasota airport
where Air Force One was waiting. At 9:37, Flight 77 crashed into the
Pentagon. Bush was informed as his motorcade got near the airport.
(Apparently Bush could be reached by phone in his limousine at this time.)

The motorcade arrived around 9:43 and pulled up close to Air Force One.
Security conducted an extra-thorough search of all the baggage for the
other passengers, delaying takeoff until 9:55.

Bush talks on a cell phone on the way to the Sarasota airport.
Andrew Card is in front of him.

A year later, Chief of Staff Andrew Card recalled that, "As we were heading
to Air Force One... [we] learned, what turned out to be a mistake, but we
learned that the Air Force One package could in fact be a target."

This echoes the report mentioned above that "terrorists targeted the
president and Air Force One... maybe even while they were on the ground in
Sarasota ..." This only increases the strangeness that Bush wasn't
immediately evacuated at 9:03 as some of his security had recommended.

Bush spoke by telephone to Cheney as the motorcade raced to the airport.
Supposedly, during this call Bush issued an order to ground all flights within
the country. The FAA did shut down the nationwide air traffic system at
around 9:45. But other reports state that it was FAA administrator Ben
Sliney who made the decision without consulting anyone.

For some time it was claimed that Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta
had made the decision, but it was later revealed that Mineta didn't even
know of the order until 15 minutes later. Apparently, "FAA officials had
begged [the reporter] to maintain the fiction."

The idea that Bush made the decision is even less plausible. In fact, there
is no evidence at all to suggest that Bush had by this point made even one
decision relevant to his security or that of the country.

Air Force One Takes Off Without Fighter Escort

Where is the security covering Bush as he leaves Sarasota? Is a good
public relations photo more important than security, minutes after the
Secret Service was told Bush could be attacked as he left Sarasota

Air Force One took off at either 9:55 or 9:57 a.m. Communications Director
Dan Bartlett remembered, "It was like a rocket. For a good ten minutes,
the plane was going almost straight up."

But, incredibly, Air Force One took off without any military fighter protection.
This defies all explanation. Recall that at 9:03 a.m., one of Bush's security
people said, "We're out of here. Can you get everyone ready?" Certainly,
long before Bush left the elementary school at 9:35 a.m., arrangements
would have been made to get fighters to Sarasota as soon as possible.

Not only would it have been advisable to protect Air Force One, but it would
have been only sensible as another way to protect Bush on the ground from
terrorist attack even before he left the school. In Florida, there were two
bases said to have fighters on 24-hour alert, capable of getting airborne in
approximately five minutes.

Homestead Air Station, 185 miles from Sarasota, and Tyndall Air Station,
235 miles from Sarasota; both had the highest readiness status on 9/11.
Presumably, as happened at other bases across the country, just after
9:03, base commanders throughout Florida would have immediately begun
preparations to get their fighters ready.

Fighters left bases on the same alert status and traveled similar distances
to reach Washington, DC, well before 10:00, so why were the fighters
delayed in Florida?

Military planes should have been over Sarasota by the time Bush left
Booker at 9:35 a.m. Yet, as will be described below, more than one hour
after Air Force One took off, there were still no fighters protecting it!

An administration official claimed, "The object seemed to be simply to get
the President airborne and out of the way." But without fighter cover this
makes little sense, because the sky was arguably more dangerous than the
ground.

At the time, there were still over 3,000 planes in the air over the US,
including about half of the planes in the region of Florida where Bush was.
Recall, too, that the Secret Service learned of a threat to Bush and Air Force
One "just minutes after Bush left Booker Elementary."

Karl Rove, also on Air Force One, confirmed that a dangerous threat was
known before the plane took off: "They also made it clear they wanted to
get us up quickly, and they wanted to get us to a high altitude, because
there had been a specific threat made to Air Force One.... A declaration that
Air Force One was a target, and said in a way that they called it credible."

Shoot Down Authorized - Too Late

Once he was airborne, Bush talked to Cheney again and Cheney
recommended that Bush "order our aircraft to shoot down these airliners
that have been hijacked." "I said, 'You bet,'" Bush later recalled.

Cheney, right and sitting, talks to Bush. Condoleezza Rice, center and
sitting, and others, look on.

'We had a little discussion, but not much.' However, even though only Bush
had the authority to order a passenger plane shot down, the order was
apparently given before Bush discussed it with Cheney.

One flight commander recalled, "After the Pentagon was hit, we were told
there were more [airliners] coming. Not 'might be'; they were coming." A
call from someone in the White House declared the Washington area "a
free-fire zone," meaning, according to one of the responding fighter
pilots, "we were given authority to use force, if the situation required it."

Extraordinary times can demand extraordinary measures, so having
someone other than Bush give this order could be understandable. But
Bush was available and talking to people like Cheney after 9:30 a.m.

Around this time, officials feared that as many as 11 airliners had been
hijacked, so why weren't Bush and Cheney even considering this course of
action until about 10:00 a.m.? Was Bush being kept out of the loop in
reality, or only in the media reports?

Is the lateness of this discussion merely political spin to reduce speculation
that Flight 93 had been shot down? Flight 93 was still in the air after the
Bush authorization, and fighters were given orders to shoot it down if
necessary. NORAD knew at 9:16 a.m. that Flight 93 was hijacked, but
supposedly fighters weren't scrambled until minutes before it crashed at
10:06 a.m.

Going Nowhere as Threats Increase

Shortly after takeoff, Cheney apparently informed Bush of "a credible
threat" to Air Force One. US Representative Adam Putnam "had barely
settled into his seat on Air Force One ... when he got the news that
terrorists apparently had set their sights on the plane."

The Secret Service had received an anonymous call: "Air Force One is next."
The caller allegedly knew the agency's code words relating to Air Force One
procedures. Pilot Colonel Mark Tillman was told of the threat and he asked
that an armed guard be stationed at the cockpit door.

The Associated Press reported that the threat came "within the same hour"
as the Pentagon crash (i.e., before 10:00 a.m., roughly when the plane
took off). Details suggest this threat was not the same as the earlier one,
but it's hard to know for sure.

In his comments at Booker, Bush said he was immediately flying back to
Washington, but soon after takeoff, he, Cheney and the Secret Service
began arguing whether it was safe to fly back to the capital. Andrew Card
told Bush, "We've got to let the dust settle before we go back."

The plane apparently stayed over Sarasota until the argument was settled.
Accounts differ, but until about 10:35 a.m., Air Force One "appeared to be
going nowhere. The journalists on board – all of whom were barred from
communicating with their offices – sensed that the plane was flying in big,
slow circles."

Cheney apparently called Bush again at 10:32 a.m., and told him of
another threat to Air Force One. Within minutes, the argument was over,
and the plane turned away from Washington and flew to Louisiana instead.

Bush recalled: "I wanted to come back to Washington, but the
circumstances were such that it was just impossible for the Secret Service or
the national security team to clear the way for Air Force One to come back."
Given that the rocket-like takeoff was due to a threat, this must have been
another threat, possibly even a third threat.

Around 10:55 a.m., there was yet another threat to Air Force One. The
pilot, Colonel Mark Tillman, said he was warned that a suspect airliner was
dead ahead. "Coming out of Sarasota there was one call that said there
was an airliner off our nose that they did not have contact with."

Colonel Mark Tillman in the cockpit of Air Force One.

Tillman took evasive action, pulling his plane even higher above normal
traffic. Reporters on board noticed the rise in elevation. The report was
apparently a false alarm, but it shows the folly of having Bush fly without a
fighter escort.

Were There Threats to Air Force One?

The threat or threats to Air Force One were announced on September 12,
after mounting criticism that Bush was out of sight in Louisiana and
Nebraska during most of the day and did not return to Washington until 10
hours after the attacks. White House spokesman Ari Fleischer said there
was "real and credible information that the White House and Air Force One
were targets."

On September 13, New York Times columnist William Safire wrote - and
Bush's political strategist Karl Rove confirmed - that there was an "inside"
threat that "may have broken the secret codes [showing a knowledge of
presidential procedures]." Had terrorists hacked their way into sensitive
White House computers? Was there a mole in the White House?

No. It turned out the entire story was made up. The press expressed
considerable skepticism about the story. For instance, one Florida
newspaper thought Fleischer's disclosure was "an apparent effort to explain
why the president was flown to Air Force bases" before returning to
Washington. When asked on September 15 about the "credible evidence,"
Fleischer said, "we exhausted that topic about two days ago."

On September 26, CBS News reported: "Finally, there is this postscript to
the puzzle of how someone presumed to be a terrorist was able to call in a
threat against Air Force One using a secret code name for the president's
plane. Well, as it turns out, that simply never happened. Sources say White
House staffers apparently misunderstood comments made by their security
detail."

One former official who served in George Bush Sr.'s administration told
Human Events Online, which bills itself as "the national conservative
weekly," that he was "deeply disappointed by [Bush's] zigzagging across
the country." At the end of the month, Slate magazine awarded
its "Whopper of the Week" to Karl Rove, Ari Fleischer, and Dick Cheney.

No one knew exactly where the bogus story originated from, but "what can
be safely said is that it served the White House's immediate purposes,
even though it was completely untrue." What were those purposes? A well-
informed, anonymous Washington official said, "It did two things for
[Cheney].

It reinforced his argument that the President should stay out of town, and it
gave George W. an excellent reason for doing so." When Bush was asked
in May 2002 why he had flown to two Air Force bases before returning to
Washington, Bush said, "I was trying to get out of harm's way."

The most obviously bogus threat - the mole knowing secret codes - came
from Cheney in a pivotal moment in his argument with Bush over where
Bush should go. But were the other threats, for instance, the one made
before Air Force One even took off, or the airline suspected of crashing into
Air Force One, also bogus?

When Does the Fighter Escort Finally Arrive?

The approximate route of Bush's journey on Air Force One is shown in
yellow. Keep in mind the plane flew in circles somewhere over Florida for
about 40 minutes before heading west. Why did the first planes scrambled
to defend the plane come from Ellington, Texas, and not any of the three
likely Florida bases?

Much like the time when Bush left the Booker classroom, the time w