"Air Force One is next" caller said

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Chicago Sun Times Sept 13, 2001

'Air Force One is next,' caller said

BY RON FOURNIER ASSOCIATED PRESS

WASHINGTON--Hopscotching across half the country while America was under attack, President Bush vented his frustration with Secret Service officials who told him of an anonymous call saying: "Air Force One is next."

"I'm not going to let some tinhorn terrorist keep the president of the United States away from the nation's capital," he said during the six-hour flight that took him from Florida to Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to the White House. "The American people want to see their president and they want to see him now."

White House counselor Karl Rove read the quote from several pages of notes he took on a legal pad while Bush dealt with attacks in Washington and New York.

Rove and other White House officials have slowly revealed details of the journey to counter critics who have questioned whether Bush overreacted by touching down at two Air Force bases before returning to Washington.

Bush's top political strategist said some people raised questions with him, but their doubts were dispelled "when they were told there was specific and credible evidence of a threat" against the White House, Air Force One and the president himself.

Bush was in Florida, visiting a second-grade class, when White House chief of staff Andrew Card told him two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Bush stepped outside the classroom to get briefed on the events, then spoke publicly to condemn the terrorist strike.

Soon after, a plane slammed into the Pentagon. Bush and his entourage were rushed aboard Air Force One.

The hijacked plane "was on a flight path directly for the White House and it hit the Pentagon instead," White House press secretary Ari Fleischer said. National security officials monitoring intercepted communications speculated that the hijackers had trouble controlling the plane and spotting the White House for all the trees on the South Lawn, and so headed for the wide-open Pentagon instead, according to a Secret Service official briefed on the situation.

Within the hour, the Secret Service received an anonymous call: "Air Force One is next." According to a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, the caller knew the agency's code words relating to Air Force One procedures and whereabouts.

"We want to get the plane up and we want to get it up very high," the head of the Secret Service detail told Bush, according to Rove's notes. They wanted to head toward the Florida panhandle to pick up fighter jets scrambling to give Air Force One air cover.

Bush told Card, "I want to move on to Washington."

Vice President Dick Cheney, holed up in a secure bunker beneath the White House, told Bush the threat should be taken seriously and he should not return to Washington just yet.

Bush was told there were six planes unaccounted for, all potential missiles. "The situation is not stable," the head of Bush's detail told the president.

After landing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Bush scheduled a national security meeting at 4 p.m.--several hours away.

"I want to go back home as soon as possible," Bush said, according to Rove, who was with the president all day Tuesday.

Replied the agent: "Our people are saying it's unstable still."

The president was told he could get to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska more quickly than to Washington, thus allowing him to conduct the national security meeting at a secure location and address the public for a second time.

Off he went.

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), September 13, 2001

Answers

Lars,

This is part of what I was referring to over at my place re: the "media." The fact is, the Big Three networks are ticked at Bush right now because he didn't invite them to the first big White House shindig.

Most of us were able to confirm to our satisfaction by late Tuesday that the President had acted as he did because the Secret Service insisted that he was in danger. Further, I believe that NBC *knew* every bit of what you just posted, but as of last night, they were STILL huffing that "the White House has provided no information to corroborate this claim."

In fact, the White House DID make the info available. Some White House staffers were willing to give details on condition of anonimity, but the Big Three apparently didn't want to agree to that condition, and instead, whined petulantly about how the report wasn't "corroborated."

It is a shame that these people can't focus on the real enemy.

BTW ... the fact that the Secret Service possibly overreacted isn't the point, either. Hindsight is 20/20! Especially in the hours right after the attack on the WTC, there was a lot of confusion.

I agree with what they did: better safe than sorry.

-- Stephen M. Poole (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), September 13, 2001.


"The fact is, the Big Three networks are ticked at Bush right now because he didn't invite them to the first big White House shindig."

Stephen, thanks. Doc wasn't invited either. Oh the humanity, no wonder the poor guy refers to Bush as the "pussy-in-chief".

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), September 13, 2001.


Were the terrorists supposed to ram it in mid-air with another plane? That wouldn't seem to likely to me.

-- The Toner (the.toner@home.com), September 14, 2001.

Toner,

Arm-chair quarterbacking and more proof that hindsight is 20-20.

Easy to say after the fact that he "overreacted." Not so easy to do at the time, when there was still a great deal of confusion about just what was going on.

I have no doubt whatsoever that if Bush had known then what he does now, he probably WOULD have gone straight to Washington over the objections Cheney, Secret Service and all.

But he DIDN'T know.

-- Stephen M. Poole (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), September 14, 2001.


I wasn't really intending that as an arm-chair quarterback critism. Knowing that there was one or more additional flights out there I would have to assume that the White House was still a potential target and not the safest place to take GW. I'm just saying that it's highly unlikely that someone would seriously think that they could either find out where in the air it would be travelling (and to assume that there would be no fighter escort).

-- The Toner (the.toner@home.com), September 14, 2001.


or to catch it on the ground with him in it...

-- The Toner (the.toner@home.com), September 14, 2001.

Toner,

It's not that hard. Planes are VISIBLE, after all, and they follow known flight paths (primarily to prevent just such collisions).

Hijacked planes aren't the only threat. Just to give you an idea, the Afghans were provided Stinger missiles (by us, taste the irony) during their war with Russia. It is entirely reasonable to assume that some of these made it into the hands of Bin Ladin's crowd. (Or, given his money, that he purchased other weapons elsewhere.)

So, a guy comes ashore one night on the US's (mostly-unguarded) coastline in a little fishing boat (which looks like zillions of other fishing boats) carrying a couple of Stinger missiles, park in the bushes a few miles from Andrews AFB and waits for Sir Bush to arrive.

Again, the point is, he didn't know.

The criticism of Bush is coming mostly from people who just plain didn't like him to start with. Hey, that's fine; that's their opinion. But I recognize it for what it is.

I also accept that fact that for the next few years, no matter what he does, there are going to be Armchair Quarterbacks who, gifted with the benefit of that 20-20 hindsight, will critique everything he does to a fare-thee-well.

The freedom to do that is what we're supposedly fighting to preserve, after all. :)

-- Stephen M. Poole (smpoole7@bellsouth.net), September 14, 2001.


http://www.thedailybrew.com/ Spinning
September 13, 2001
2001 The Daily Brew

Just yesterday I pledged my "complete and unwavering support" for President Bush as he deals with this, the most serious attack on America in my lifetime.  I felt this was my patriotic duty, and whatever my misgivings about the man, I was determined to rise to the occasion for my country.  It took less than a day for the squatter to again bitterly disappoint me.  Within hours of the attack, the Bush administration has proven again that it is either incapable of telling the truth, or that Bush is simply not in command.

This morning's New York Times reports that Bush was "stung" by suggestions that he had hurt himself politically by delaying his return to Washington on Tuesday.  Instead, Ari Fleischer suggested that Bush had done so because of "hard evidence" that Bush was a target of the terrorists.  The Times quotes Fleischer as saying there was "real and credible information" that the White House, not the Pentagon, had been the original target of American Airlines Flight 77, which was hijacked about 45 minutes after leaving Dulles International Airport in Virginia.

Hold on a second.  At the moment that Fleisher made this stunning assertion, the identity of the terrorists was unknown.  Indeed, their identities are still unknown.  The only "real and credible" information about them is that they are dead.   How could Ari possibly expect us to believe that he had "real and credible" information about the aborted plans of unidentified dead terrorists?  It is preposterous on its face.

The Times goes on to quote Karl Rove in an interview this morning that Mr. Bush had twice on Tuesday — in the morning and in the early afternoon— argued strenuously that he should return immediately to the capital.  Rove reported that the Secret Service insisted that the situation here was "too dangerous, too unstable" for the president to come to Washington.

Before I go any further, I should say I wouldn't blame Bush for not returning to Washington.  In fact, I think we would be alot better off if he had never come here in the first place.  But given Mr. Rove's explanation, there are only two possiblilities, and I cannot decide which is worse.  

On the one hand, Rove could be lying, trying to protect his boss from the perception that at the moment of the crisis, Smirk turned his tail and ran.  That, of course, would be entirely consistant with his history of first avoiding the Vietnam War by using his political connections to join the Texas Air National Guard, and then deserting his unit while his Nation was at war.  So it makes sense for Rove to lie about it.  The second possibility is that Rove is telling the truth, in which case Bush "argued strenuously" that he should return to Washington, but was apparently overruled.  I can only wonder, overruled by whom?   If Bush really wanted to return to Washington, all he needed to do was give the order.  He didn't need to "argue strenuously" with anyone.  He is the Commander in Chief, isn't he?

So we can only conclude that Bush stayed clear of the trouble but then lied about it, or that he is really wanted to return to Washington, but someone else in the administration is really calling the shots.  

Karen Hughes perhaps?  


-- (patriotsquestion@serfs.ignore), September 14, 2001.


From this link.

"The most puzzling aspect of the events concerns the credibility of the "Air Force One is next" message. It was clearly viewed as a threat, not a friendly warning – but if so, why would the terrorists send it? It is also unclear how they got the codeword information and transponder know-how.

The worry now must be that knowledge of codewords, presidential whereabouts and secret procedures indicates the terrorists may have a mole in the White House – or the Secret Service, FBI, FAA or CIA.

If so, America's war on terror may well have to start in its own front room."

-- Lars (lars@indy.net), September 14, 2001.


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