According to the 9/11 Commission, on September 11, 2001: “Vice-President [Dick] Cheney issued the shoot-down order from the bunker underneath the White House shortly after 10:00 a.m. He told us that he discussed the order beforehand in a phone conversation with President Bush–who was aboard Air Force One–shortly after he entered the bunker at around […]
9/11/2001
On September 11, 2001, “as hijacked United Flight 93 also seemed headed toward Washington, [Vice President Dick] Cheney recommended and [President] Bush ordered that if the passenger plane approached the city it could, in an emergency situation, be shot down.” – Der Spiegel, Inside 9-11, Page 127 […]
9/11/2001
After hearing about the first crash at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, ” ‘The President [Bush]was surprised,’ said [White House Press Secretary Ari] Fleischer. ‘He thought it had to be an accident.’ Yet, despite having a secure STU-III phone next to him in the presidential limousine and an entire national security staff […]
9/11/2001
Then-CIA Director George Tenet wrote: “Although in our collective gut we [CIA] knew al-Qa’ida was behind the [September 11, 2001] attacks, we needed proof, so CTC [Counterterrorist Center] requested passenger lists from the planes that had been turned into weapons that morning…’Some of these guys on one of the planes are the ones we’ve been […]
9/11/2001
On the morning of September 11, 2001, after learning of the attacks and assuming Osama bin Laden’s responsibility, CIA director George Tenet “also had another reaction, one that raised the real possibility that the CIA and the FBI had not done all that could have been done to prevent the terrorist attack. ‘I wonder,’ Tenet […]
9/11/2001
Regarding September 11, 2001, counterterrorism czar Richard Clarke said: “…until today I had not ever briefed the President [Bush] on terrorism, only [Vice President Dick] Cheney, [National Security Advisor Condoleezza] Rice, and [Secretary of State Colin] Powell. We had finally had our first Principals meeting on terrorism only a week earlier [on September 4]. The […]
9/11/2001
“At Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, President Bush convened the first meeting of the National Security Council for the terrorist crisis at 3:30 p.m. [on September 11, 2001]. [CIA director George] Tenet reported with near certainty that bin Laden was behind the attacks. Passenger manifests showed three known al Qaeda operatives had been on […]
9/11/2001
On board Air Force One at 10:05 a.m. on September 11, 2001: “President Bush talked with Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice over the phone. ‘We are going to take care of this. When we find out who did this, they are not going to like me as president. Somebody […]
9/11/2001
Shortly after hearing of the attacks on the morning of 9/11, President Bush said, via phone conversation to Vice President Dick Cheney: ” ‘Sounds like we have a minor war going on here, I heard about the Pentagon. We’re at war…somebody’s going to pay.’ ” – 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, Page 39 […]
9/11/2001
At 9:42 a.m. on September 11, 2001, the Air Traffic Control Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, “learned from news reports that a plane had struck the Pentagon. The Command Center’s national operations manager, Ben Sliney, ordered all FAA [Federal Aviation Administration] facilities to instruct all aircraft to land at the nearest airport. This was an […]