Spin-proof snapshots of America                           

9/11 now

Be George W. for a day. A big day.

Where were you on September 11th, 2001, when you first heard or saw?

Every person in America can answer that question.

Except the President.

Though it's astoundingly hard to believe, he has personally reported four conflicting stories about where he was and how he heard.

His staff added three more, for a total of SEVEN OFFICIAL VERSIONS OF HOW THE PRESIDENT HEARD.

Ready? Here they are:

1) Reporters traveling in his motorcade say both they and the President learned of the first attack while en route. Otherwise the President, who arrived at Booker Elementary between 8:55 (Washington Times) and 9:00am (New York Times) was not notified for nearly ten minutes after the story was on every major network in America.

2) US Navy Captain Deborah Lower, head of the White House Situation room, said she ran over to inform Bush as soon as his motorcade arrived, and was grateful the Secret Service recognized her. (AP, 11/26/01)

3 & 4) Press Secretary Ari Fleischer said it was chief of staff Andrew Card who first informed the President, as he arrived. President Bush himself later said the same thing (Washington Times, 10/7/02), though Bush's personal assistant Blake Gottesman (see Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism - From Inside the Bush White House, pp.41-42), says he was the one who actually passed on Card's message.

5) Even later, Bush said he was told by Karl Rove, who said preliminary reports suggested use of a small, twin engine plane. Dan Bartlett, White House Communications Director, says he was there and "[Bush] being a former pilot, had kind of the same reaction, going, was it bad weather? And I said no, apparently not."

6) No one disputes that before entering the school, Bush took a phone call from Condoleeza Rice, though there are differing accounts of whether or not he knew about the crash at this point. Rice says she recalls only the President finishing the call with, "What a terrible, it sounds like a terrible accident. Keep me informed."

7) Amazingly, two months later, Bush insisted he first heard about the attack on 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."

    Sound too far-fetched to believe? Must be a liberal lie?

    Here's a link to the official transcript, from the White House website.

    Of course, it IS far-fetched. There was no film footage of the first attack until the next day.

     More likely, he confused his memory with the footage of the second plane attack, which was available that same morning.

     Except that he was in a classroom at the time of the second attack -- by ALL accounts, including his own (and the television footage, linked below) --  when Andrew Card ran up to whisper in his ear.

    Just a flub? Why didn't his staff correct him? The next month, he repeated a similarly impossible story:

     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..."

     This, too, can be found at the official White House link.

Dr. Spade wishes to point out three important points:

1) Everyone in America, except the President, can remember quite clearly how they heard about, or saw, the attacks of 9/11.

2) This is no smear campaign.

     Look at the sources and quotations above. These are from the White House, from the President, from his closest staff.

3) The above versions are utter, contradictory nonsense.

     Someone isn't telling the truth.

The third point is the most interesting. Why would anyone lie about such things?

Dr. Spade does not believe in conspiracy theories. He does not believe there is a cover-up. He believes there is a much older, simpler, deeper phenomenon in play: Embarrassment.

Sound too far-fetched? Dr. Spade humbly asks for a better explanation of the official lunacy claimed above.

Why wouldn't Bush be embarrassed?

Embarrassment

• Bush did nothing to respond to the first attack.

     You could claim that he suspected the first attack was an accident, but only if you believe none of Bush's aides, not even Condoleezza Rice in Washington, DC, knew a thing about the hijackings that had been reported to NORAD 20 minutes earlier.

     You'd also have to believe that going to grade-school reading lesson was more important than addressing a disaster (whether an attack or not) at the World Trade Center.

•   He sat in Booker Elementary for seven minutes after the second attack, doing nothing.

     You could claim that he "didn't want to scare the children," as many conservatives have (including Andrew Card and Karl Rove), but that's an astoundingly weak argument.

     Children are used to having adults come in and out of their classrooms. Announcing that "The President must leave early, and thanks you for your time," would hardly have sent them running in a screaming panic.

     Andrew Card certainly believed it was possible, since he later told reporters that's what happened (see below for Card's wholly inaccurate account of the President promptly excusing himself).

     Finally, without knowing who launched these multiple attacks or why, there's no claiming that the President was safest staying in the exact same spot, one which had been publicly announced in advance. Staying there was the least safe thing for him (and therefore for the children, if you're still hung up on them). Booker Elementary was chosen in part for its proximity to the airport. He needed to get out of there. He needed to give an order.

•  When told of the second attack, Bush did not ask Andrew Card any questions. He did not give any orders. He still did not not know who (or which nation) was attacking, whether there would be more attacks, or what military plans were under way.

    America needed him! If one of the planes had to be shot down to save more lives on the ground, Bush was not available. To fire on a civilian plane, military pilots must have "permission from the White House because only the president has the authority to order a civilian aircraft shot down."

    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. (The order for a shootdown was not given until Dick Cheney and the President discussed it just after10am.)

•  It didn't get better when he did finish the reading lesson.

      Instead of rushing to action, Bush spoke to the classroom:

      "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."

      The New York Post (9/12/02) reported a student then asked a question and Bush responded. One reporter did ask, "Mr. President, are you aware of the reports of the plane crash in New York? Is there anything..." but he cut her off, and finished his photo-op in the classroom..

•   He still didn't leave the school!

     He gave this speech at 9:30. There's nothing wrong with the speech, but there is something very wrong in those circumstances about staying in the same place that had been in your published, public schedule. By this time, NORAD had confirmed the hijackings of both Flight 93 and Flight 77.

     Dismiss Dr. Spade if you wish, but please quote a security expert who thinks Booker Elementary, a stop on a published schedule, was the ideal place to protect the president in the event of multiple, devastating terrorist attacks.

What happened in the aftermath?

First and always most important, some serious re-writing of history.

Andrew Card told reporters that after he informed Bush about the second World Trade Center crash, "it was only a matter of seconds" before Bush "excused himself very politely to the teacher and to the students, and he left" the classroom.

The New York Post reported (9/12/02),

"A federal agent rushed into the room to inform the president of the United States. President Bush had been presiding over [teacher Daniels's] reading class last 9/11, when a Secret Service agent interrupted the lesson and asked, 'Where can we get to a television?'"

Daniels then claimed that Bush left the class even before the second crash: "The president bolted right out of here and told me: 'Take over.'" When the second crash occurred, she claims her students were watching TV in a nearby media room.

None of this happened, of course, as you well know. You can even watch it again on the television footage (link below).

So what can this tell us about the President and National Security?

• The President's actions will always be described by supporters as "decisive," "strong," and "clear."

   When it isn't true -- and clearly, sometimes it is not --  his supporters and staff will re-write his actions and words to make it seem otherwise.

• When faced with the biggest crisis of his life, the President was not "decisive," "strong" and "clear."

   Imagine if Al Gore, or John Kerry, had acted the same way. Worthy of praise? Decisive and strong?

Dr. Spade does not believe Bush didn't care about the attacks. He did. He loves America, as does Dr. Spade and nearly all Americans, and must have been outraged and shocked, as were Dr. Spade and nearly all Americans.

Dr. Spade does believe President Bush was scared and lost. He didn't leap to respond because he didn't know what response to make.

Does he look like a man of action, decisively planning our priorities, or does he look like a scared victim, without any sense of what to do, to ask, or to order, our Commander-in-Chief?

Watch the  video -- don't miss Andrew Card rushing in at the very start --

and be honest about what you see. Call a spade a spade.