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; 15)3)45-1+ &: An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11 Continued from Page 31 An Accident? Intelligence agencies were suffering “warning fatigue” from so many warnings of an al-Qaeda attack [Independent, 9/7/02], some specifically mentioning the use of hijacked airplanes as missiles (see this essay). 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. [Sunday Herald, 5/19/02] So with the clear knowledge that three planes had been hijacked, with one of them already crashed into the World [Washington Post, 1/27/02, MSNBC, 9/02] [AP, 8/19/02 (D)] Trade Center, who would have possibly In yet another account, Blake One local reporter notes that at this assumed that Flight 11’s crash was an accident? Gottesman, Bush’s personal assistant, while point, “He could and arguably should have left Yet that is precisely what the official story giving the president some final instructions as Emma E. Booker Elementary School claims. There are a number of different they walked to the school, remarked, “Andy immediately, gotten onto Air Force One and left “official” accounts, but all of them stress that Card says, ‘By the way, an aircraft flew into the Sarasota without a moment’s delay… But he Bush wasn’t told until after he arrived inside the World Trade Center.’ ” [Fighting Back: The War didn’t.” [Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/12/01 (B)] school (contrary to the account of Captain on Terrorism—From Inside the Bush White The only possible excuse is that Bush was Loewer) and that it was assumed to be an House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, pp. 41-42] completely clueless as to what was happening. accident (contradicting Tenet being told that it Sure enough, at a press conference on the was an attack). Told Again, Yet Still Clueless evening of 9/11, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer In some accounts, “President Bush had was asked by a reporter, “And then this emerged from his car and was shaking hands Booker principal Gwen Tose-Rigell was morning, when Andy Card told him about the with local officials standing outside the school waiting for Bush outside the school. “The first accident, was Andy Card or Condi Rice or when Chief of Staff Andrew Card sidled up to limousine stops and the president comes out. He any of those aware of the hijackings? What did him with the news.” [CBS, 11/1/02] Bush later walks toward me. I’m standing there in a lineup; they know when they—-” Fleischer cut in and recalled that it was Card who first notified him: there are about five people. He walks over and replied, “No, at that point they were not.” “‘Here’s what you’re going to be doing; you’re says he has to make a phone call, and he’ll be [Knoxville News Sentinel, 9/11/01] So going to meet so-and-so, such-and-such.’ Then right back.” [MSNBC, 09/02, Telegraph, supposedly, 15 minutes after the first crash, Andy Card said, ‘By the way, an aircraft flew 12/16/01] The phone call was with National none of Bush’s aides, not even Rice back in into the World Trade Center.’ ” [Washington Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. From a Washington, DC, knew a thing about the Times, 10/7/02] At a press conference later that room with secure communications, Rice hijackings that had been reported to NORAD 20 day, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer also claimed updated Bush on the situation. [Christian minutes earlier? This simply is not plausible. it was Andy Card who first informed him, “as Science Monitor, 9/17/01, Time, 9/12/01] The the President finished shaking hands in a fact that Bush immediately said he had to make Continued on Page 33 hallway of school officials.” [Knoxville News an important call strongly suggests he was told Sentinel, 9/11/01] about the situation while in the motorcade. But In other accounts, it was advisor Karl some accounts have Andrew Card saying to Rove who first told Bush. According to Bush as he gets out of his limousine, “Mr. photographer Eric Draper, who was standing President, you really need to take this phone nearby, Rove rushed up, took Bush aside in a call,” thereby implying that Card knows what’s corridor inside the school and said the cause of going on, but Bush doesn’t. [St. Petersburg the crash was unclear. Bush replied, “What a Times, 9/8/02 (B)] horrible accident!” Bush also suggested the As National Security Advisor, Rice had pilot may have had a heart attack. [Daily Mail, to have had as much information as anyone. By 9/8/02] Dan Bartlett, White House the time she spoke to Bush, she must have Communications Director, says he was there known that three planes had been hijacked and when Bush was told: “ [Bush] being a former that the country was under attack. We know pilot, had kind of the same reaction, going, was very little about the conversation—only that it bad weather? And I said no, apparently not.” Rice later claimed, “ [Bush] said, what a [ABC News, 9/11/02] A reporter who was terrible, it sounds like a terrible accident. Keep standing nearby later said, “From the demeanor me informed.” [ABC News, 9/11/02] One of the President, grinning at the children, it reporter noted: “Bush did not appear appeared that the enormity of what he had been preoccupied [after the phone call] … There told was taking a while to sink in.” [Daily Mail, was no sign that Rice had just told [him] about 9/8/02] One account explicitly says that Rove the first attack [on the World Trade Center].” told Bush the World Trade Center had been hit [Cox News, 9/12/01 (B)] Tose-Rigell was then by a large commercial airliner. [Telegraph, summoned to a room to talk with Bush: “He 12/16/01] However, Bush later remembered said a commercial plane has hit the World Trade Rove saying it appeared to be an accident Center, and we’re going to go ahead and go on, involving a small, twin-engine plane. we’re going on to do the reading thing anyway.”