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911 Title: Bush’s Unanswered 9/11 Questions The National Geographic channel is trumpeting an exclusive interview with former President George W. Bush that is to be at the centerpiece of its coverage of the 10th anniversary of 9/11. In the former president's two-hour interview, National Geographic says, he will tell "his first-person story ... what facts he weighed when Andrew Card first whispered in his ear; the impact of his situation in a classroom full of children and the press corps; his first efforts to communicate with the nation at large; the flow of information from the military, intelligence agencies and news outlets ... he provides intimate detail on what he grappled with as both Commander in Chief charged with protecting his fellow citizens, and as a family man concerned for his loved ones." Bush's interview is welcome, for his should in theory be amongst the most meaningful recollections of the events of September 2001. It is unfortunate that he was not willing to submit in 2004 to questioning about those memories by the 9/11 Commission on his own and under oath. The president did reluctantly agree to talk with commission members, but only in the form of a private interview, without recorders or stenographers present, and only if accompanied by Vice President Cheney. The result, the version of events on 9/11 that the two men evidently agreed upon, shed little light on lingering questions as to how America's highest leadership really performed on the morning of the attack. Click here to find out more! One sensitive question to which the commission sought an answer was: who issued authority to the military that, should a civilian airliner not change course and land as instructed on 9/11, it should be shot down? It would have been unthinkable for the U.S. military to down a civilian airliner without a clear order from the president as commander in chief. Were Bush to be out of touch—as he was repeatedly when communications failed aboard Air Force One—the authority to issue such an order belonged to Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. (On the day, as it turned out, Rumsfeld could not be reached at a crucial stage of the crisis.) The chain of command in such a situation, relevant law decreed, ran from the president to the defense secretary and on through the chairman of the Joint Chiefs to individual commanders. The vice president was not even in the chain of command. George W. Bush President George W. Bush speaks to his national security team during on September 12, 2001., Eric Draper / The White House-Getty Images The military understood that. In an exercise before 9/11, one that postulated a suicide mission involving a jet aimed at Washington, the generals had concluded that a putative shootdown could occur only in response to an "executive" order. Air Force Gen. Larry Arnold, who supervised military efforts on 9/11, was to tell the commission that the defense secretary's authorization was necessary even to shoot down a derelict balloon. Only the president, he opined, had the authority to order the downing of a civilian airliner. On Aug. 28, when Americans sit down to listen to the president's latest account of his actions that morning, they should do so with an awareness of his—and Cheney's—past remarks on the subject. Based on what they have claimed previously, the American people will hardly be able to rely on the "candid observations" promised in the NatGeo press release. On the Sunday after September 11, in an interview with Meet the Press, Vice President Cheney said the potentially fateful decision had been made—with his own wholehearted agreement—by the president himself. There had indeed been moments, Cheney said, when he thought a shootdown might be necessary. In November 2001, speaking with Newsweek's Evan Thomas, Cheney said Bush took the decision during one of their phone calls around 10 a.m. that morning. "I recommended to the president that we authorize ..." Cheney recalled, "I said, 'We've got to give the pilots rules of engagement, and I recommend we authorize them to shoot.' We talked about it briefly, and he said, 'OK, I'll sign up to that.' He made the decision." Bush himself, speaking subsequently with The Washington Post's Bob Woodward, said Cheney had indeed suggested that he issue the order. His response, as he remembered it then, had been barely more than monosyllabic. Just, "You bet."
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#1. To: Brian S (#0)
I could understand a president stating "yes" to such a proposition but to use the glib "you bet" about killing Americans - even to save other American lives - just shows you what an asshole Bush was and is. No solemnity at all. PS: I do think the plane in question was shot down over PA and the subsequent story about the passengers overwhelming the hijackers was a piece of fabricated propaganda done for patriotic boosterism reasons.
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