Example of Misinformation and Disinformation
This ought to be funny - but it isn't. It's very dangerous propaganda in that is carefully designed to STOP someone who is new (and therefore less knowledgeable) to discontinue his or her search for the truth behind 9/11.
There are people who are paid (presumably by the real perps) to make and distribute misinformation and disinformation to confuse you about the truth of 9/11. If you read the original scientific papers and watch the scientific DVD's available (Dr. Steven Jones, Richard Gage A.I.A., etc.), the issues of "chain of evidence" are fully addressed. One example, nine scientists in three countries announced the presence of highly energetic explosive residues in the dust from 9/11 - but the video neglects to mention that.
The cozy - but sarcastic & simplistic tone of the video below is typical of misinformation and disinformation. Outlandish lies and faulty logic are used - and evidence that "doesn't fit" is ignored in the hopes that you won't notice. If you're caught unaware - garbage like this could fool you into looking no further into the truth behind 9/11....and that would be tragic.
Unfortunately, many hours are wasted on debunking this sort of garbage....it's a sad waste of our time to deal with it.
The "disinformation" propaganda is aimed at the "newcomer" who doesn't know much and who is reading about the truth behind 9/11 for the first time. They depend on the psychological fact that "most people don't want to know that those buildings came down as a result of controlled demolition." The point is to grab the fearful and/or intellectually lazy person and convince him to look no further.
Sadly it makes our job of telling the truth of 9/11 much more difficult. See Popular Mechanics - the disinformation article that just won't quit.
See "DISINFORMATION TACTICS: The Methods Used to Keep You in the Dark"
here.
And check out the "25 RULES OF DISINFORMATION" here and see how many you can spot.
ED NOTE: The above two links can help make you "Disinformation-Proof" - or at least more "Disinformation-Aware" as you search for the TRUTH behind 9/11.
George W. Bush's Inaction On 9/11
A short production of news clips detailing George W. Bush's 9/11 inaction, including his post-attack foot dragging on establishing an independent investigation into the worst attack ever on United States soil.
Bush was clearly negligent in his duty on 9/11, not only as President, but also as our Commander in Chief. His inaction alone is reason enough to re-open the 9/11 investigation. Throw in the fact that Donald Rumsfeld was not at his post directing a defense for this country, and that Dick Cheney tracked the Pentagon attack "vehicle" from over 50 miles out and still did not shoot the object down, and you have negligence and dereliction of duty at the highest levels of the U.S. government.
Don't just ask for a new investigation. Ask for a real 9/11 investigation.
SOURCE: Posted on 911blogger.com by NewsFocus
Physics Made Easy - Understanding What Brought Those Towers Down on 9/11
Video: 9/11 Experiments: The Arbitrator of Competing Hypotheses (A Good Teaching Tool)
That's really all one needs to know to debunk the 9/11 deniers. That is the truth which shall set us free.
"It doesn't matter how beautiful your theory is, it doesn't matter how smart you are. If it doesn't agree with experiment, it's wrong."
That's really all one needs to know to debunk the 9/11 deniers. That is the truth which shall set us free.
CAUGHT RED-HANDED: Pentagon-scripted TV News Interviews
The News and The Truth are not the same thing.
-Walt Lippman
-Walt Lippman
April 26, 2008 — The New York Times has exposed a secret Pentagon campaign to infiltrate the media with pro-war propaganda. The scheme reaches all the way to the Bush White House, where top officials recruited dozens of "military analysts" to spread favorable views of the war via the news.
Many of these propaganda pundits didn't reveal that they were working from Pentagon scripts or lobbying for companies seeking to cash in on major military contracts.
Matt Thompson of Free Press.net, a group that advocates for media reform reports this is a violation of every conceivable standard of journalism — and possibly of federal law.
The Bush Administration, caught red-handed - makes the scripting the "official 9/11 story" easier to understand.
9/10/2001: Rumsfeld says $2.3 TRILLION Missing from Pentagon
Yup, the day BEFORE 9/11 $2.3 Trillion Dollars went missing. And drat, that part of the Pentagon containing the records that could have tracked that money just happened to get "hit" on 9/11. Oops.
More...
And still more...
More...
And still more...
Homeland Security's Michael Chertoff Gets Pounded With 9/11 Questions By C-SPAN Callers
September 18, 2009, Washington Journal
Editor Note: I saw this original broadcast and it was a sweet moment. All of C-Span's programs are now available in their video archives.
Editor Note: I saw this original broadcast and it was a sweet moment. All of C-Span's programs are now available in their video archives.
US Senator Barbara Boxer: Wellstone Assassination was "a Warning"
Left to right, Senator Paul Wellstone (D-MN), Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY), Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Senator Jack Reed (D-RI), Senator Carl Levin (D-MI), Senator Jon Corzine (D-NJ) and Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA).
by Kevin Barrett, TruthJihad.com
Tuesday 5/4/2010
Scholar-activist Four Arrows, co-author of American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone, today revealed for the first time a reported conversation in which U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) confirmed that the Wellstone plane crash was an assassination, not an accident.
As Four Arrows recounted on today's edition of The Kevin Barrett Show (beginning somewhere around the 20 minute mark): a trusted friend of his, during a conversation with Sen. Boxer, was surprised when the Senator asked "are you a friend of Four Arrows?" The friend said yes. Boxer said "tell him he doesn't know how right he is. (The Wellstone assassination) was meant as a warning to all of us." Sen. Boxer went on to say that if asked, she would deny the statement.
Sen. Boxer, who other sources report has confidentially admitted that she knows 9/11 was an inside job, has publicly confirmed that she does not trust the 9/11 Commission version of events, specifically the official narrative of the alleged 9/11 hijackers. The following exchange took place between Senator Boxer and myself on Wisconsin Public Radio's program "Conversations with Kathleen Dunn" on December 5th, 2005 (click here for archive -- note that the text below is a summary, not a transcript):
Barrett: Senator Boxer, I’d like to thank you and Senator Feingold for hanging in there after 9/11...(Boxer: “You’re welcome.”) Now as you may know, Congressman Kurt Weldon has been screaming from the rooftops that we need a new 9/11 Able Danger investigation focusing on what US intelligence agencies knew about Mohammad Atta and when they knew it. Newsweek and other mainstream publications have written that Mohammad Atta was trained at the Foreign Officer’s school Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. And Daniel Hopsicker’s book Welcome to Terrorland makes it clear that Hoffman Aviation in Venice Florida, where the so-called hijackers trained, was actually a CIA drug import facility—it was a flight school in name only. Now Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer has blown the whistle—he says he and his colleagues in military intelligence identified Atta as a terrorist in 2000, but they were gagged and ordered to “forget they had ever heard of Atta.” Are you among the 245 senators and representatives who have signed Congressman Weldon’s letter demanding a Congressional investigation into what US authorities knew about Atta prior to the 9/11 attacks?
Senator Boxer: That isn’t what the 9/11 Commission Report said—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. I haven’t seen Congressman Weldon’s letter yet, but...we need to pursue the truth about 9/11 wherever it leads. The truth should be the only priority. And we need the truth. My main focus now, though, is to end the war in Iraq.
According to Four Arrows, Sen. Boxer and other high-visibility people know that if they cross certain lines, they and/or their families will be assassinated. He offered this as a possible explanation of the reluctance of various well-known people, including Noam Chomsky, to speak the truth about 9/11.
Near the end of the show, Four Arrows suggested a "white armband" campaign for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, proposing that on that day, all those who do not believe the official version of events should wear a white handkerchief tied around their arm.
Listen to my interview with Four Arrows by visiting the Kevin Barrett Show archives and clicking on the link for the Tuesday, May 4th show. (You'll have to mute the live stream first.) More information on the show, including links to Four Arrows' work, here.
Tuesday 5/4/2010
Scholar-activist Four Arrows, co-author of American Assassination: The Strange Death of Senator Paul Wellstone, today revealed for the first time a reported conversation in which U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer (D-CA) confirmed that the Wellstone plane crash was an assassination, not an accident.
As Four Arrows recounted on today's edition of The Kevin Barrett Show (beginning somewhere around the 20 minute mark): a trusted friend of his, during a conversation with Sen. Boxer, was surprised when the Senator asked "are you a friend of Four Arrows?" The friend said yes. Boxer said "tell him he doesn't know how right he is. (The Wellstone assassination) was meant as a warning to all of us." Sen. Boxer went on to say that if asked, she would deny the statement.
Sen. Boxer, who other sources report has confidentially admitted that she knows 9/11 was an inside job, has publicly confirmed that she does not trust the 9/11 Commission version of events, specifically the official narrative of the alleged 9/11 hijackers. The following exchange took place between Senator Boxer and myself on Wisconsin Public Radio's program "Conversations with Kathleen Dunn" on December 5th, 2005 (click here for archive -- note that the text below is a summary, not a transcript):
Barrett: Senator Boxer, I’d like to thank you and Senator Feingold for hanging in there after 9/11...(Boxer: “You’re welcome.”) Now as you may know, Congressman Kurt Weldon has been screaming from the rooftops that we need a new 9/11 Able Danger investigation focusing on what US intelligence agencies knew about Mohammad Atta and when they knew it. Newsweek and other mainstream publications have written that Mohammad Atta was trained at the Foreign Officer’s school Maxwell Air Force Base in Alabama. And Daniel Hopsicker’s book Welcome to Terrorland makes it clear that Hoffman Aviation in Venice Florida, where the so-called hijackers trained, was actually a CIA drug import facility—it was a flight school in name only. Now Lt. Colonel Anthony Shaffer has blown the whistle—he says he and his colleagues in military intelligence identified Atta as a terrorist in 2000, but they were gagged and ordered to “forget they had ever heard of Atta.” Are you among the 245 senators and representatives who have signed Congressman Weldon’s letter demanding a Congressional investigation into what US authorities knew about Atta prior to the 9/11 attacks?
Senator Boxer: That isn’t what the 9/11 Commission Report said—but that doesn’t mean it isn’t true. I haven’t seen Congressman Weldon’s letter yet, but...we need to pursue the truth about 9/11 wherever it leads. The truth should be the only priority. And we need the truth. My main focus now, though, is to end the war in Iraq.
According to Four Arrows, Sen. Boxer and other high-visibility people know that if they cross certain lines, they and/or their families will be assassinated. He offered this as a possible explanation of the reluctance of various well-known people, including Noam Chomsky, to speak the truth about 9/11.
Near the end of the show, Four Arrows suggested a "white armband" campaign for the 10th anniversary of 9/11, proposing that on that day, all those who do not believe the official version of events should wear a white handkerchief tied around their arm.
Listen to my interview with Four Arrows by visiting the Kevin Barrett Show archives and clicking on the link for the Tuesday, May 4th show. (You'll have to mute the live stream first.) More information on the show, including links to Four Arrows' work, here.
In His Own Words: BYU and Prof. Steven Jones Revisited
The following is from Prof. Steven E Jones in his own words.
A few days ago I was asked by a Professor at the University of Massachusetts what happened to me at BYU, in my own words. My response follows:
"0. In September 2005, I presented a colloquium at Brigham Young University (BYU) in a large auditorium, presenting the physical evidence I had accumulated by then that the “official story” of the 9/11 disaster was highly suspicious. I had invited professors from across campus and many came, from numerous disciplines including physics, math, psychology, engineering. I asked them to take the “kid gloves off” and tell me where I was in error. In particular, we watched the rapid, nearly-symmetrical collapse of WTC 7 and discussed this at length. After two hours, we had to leave because a class had the room scheduled. But before they left, I asked the audience (about 70 in all) if they agreed with me that an investigation into 9/11 events was warranted. By show of hands, all agreed with this proposition, except one, a geology professor. The next day, he saw me on campus and said that he had changed his mind and that he now supported a full investigation into 9/11. A number of those in attendance provided helpful, critical comments for my nascent paper published later in a volume by Profs. David Ray Griffin and Peter Dale Scott, and available on-line here:
http://journalof911studies.com/volume/200609/Why_Indeed_Did_the_WTC_Buil...
In February 2006, I presented a 2-hour colloquium at Utah Valley State College (which soon became Utah Valley University). That seminar was taped and aired on BYU’s TV station, KBYU. Later in 2006, I was invited to speak on my 9/11 research at a colloquium sponsored by the BYU Mathematics Department – the reception to my 9/11 research was cordial and supportive at this colloquium.
1. BYU put me on administrative leave on Sept. 6, 2006, for my research on 9/11 -- but while clearly stating that "The university doesn't have an opinion regarding the theory."
Quote:
http://www.heraldextra.com/content/view/193556/4/
“Jones was placed on administrative leave for publishing a theory that explosives
were involved in the towers' collapse through channels university officials deemed inappropriate,"
BYU spokesperson Carri Jenkins said.
"The university doesn't have an opinion regarding the theory," she said.
This was an important distinction -- BYU was specifically NOT denigrating my "theory" that explosives were involved in the World Trade Center towers' collapse, as you see from the statement to the press by the BYU spokesperson. It was never clear to me why the channels I chose were "inappropriate" (one was the Utah Academy of Arts and Sciences, April 2006 which was reviewed and approved by a fellow BYU Physics Professor), but the point is that BYU did NOT take a position on my 9/11 work and they made that point very clear.
2. BYU allowed me to continue my research on 9/11 after I was placed on admin leave, particularly regarding the dust generated during the collapse of the Towers, and even encouraged that research. It was important to the work that I was allowed to use the electron microscopes at BYU for this research. Dr. Jeffrey Farrer, director of the Transmission Electron Microscopy Laboratory at BYU was (and still is) permitted to work with me.
3. Based on that research at BYU, a group of scientists wrote the paper now published in the Open Chemical Physics Journal, "Active Thermitic Material Discovered in Dust from the 9/11 World Trade Center Catastrophe," April 2009. BYU reviewed the paper prior to publication and found it to represent sound science, and approved it for publication in the Open Chemical Physics Journal. Specifically the chair of the BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy approved publication and told me personally this was sound scientific research and that he was now persuaded that explosives/pyrotechnics were involved in the destruction of the World Trade Center on 9/11.
4. There were two authors from BYU listed on that paper, Dr. Farrer (as second author) and Daniel Farnsworth. Their affiliation with the BYU Department of Physics and Astronomy was listed in the paper, with the approval of BYU.
http://www.bentham-open.org/pages/content.php?TOCPJ/2009/00000002/000000...
Deseret News article on the paper:
http://www.deseretnews.com/article/705295677/Trace-explosives-in-911-dus...
5. About the same time as this paper was published, I was made an Emeritus Professor of Physics at BYU.
6. BYU explained that they had been under considerable pressure to let me go, which is to their credit to admit this. We know from press releases that Dick Cheney's office contacted BYU; and this resulted in Cheney's coming to BYU to give a commencement address just three months after my "early retirement" from BYU. BYU -- also to its credit -- allowed TWO on-campus demonstrations against the policies of Dick Cheney. I understand that outside of Utah, it was these on-campus protests against Cheney that received favorable attention. (How many protests has BYU allowed through the years? Very few!)
7. BYU provided a nice (not large) pension as I accepted their offer of early retirement, gave me a (shared) office that I still use. They allowed me to keep my research web page, which links to three formally-published peer-reviewed papers regarding 9/11 in technical journals, here: http://www.physics.byu.edu/research/energy/
In view of these contributions to 9/11 research, my friend and fellow 9/11-researcher Kevin Ryan said "Hurray for BYU!" And I have to agree.
Reply from Professor Niels Harrit, Department of Chemistry, University of Copenhagen, Denmark (March 13, 2010)
Steven: I am glad that you can see beyond your own (and ours!) annoyance and point to the positive aspects of BYUs handling of their situation.
Let me hasten to join Kevin and cheer for BYU – loud and clear.
We have to acknowledge the political space they live and operate in, and BYU deserves the credits you point out.
One senses a high level of decency at BYU.
Kind of the same thing I feel in the mainstream press these days. The young journalists try to squeeze some information in and take the discussion as far as they can before they run their head into the editors hammer.
Regards
Niels
Steven E. Jones
Emeritus Professor of Physics"
[end of quote]
Original Source here.
9/11 DVD Project - Created to Educate!
From the 9/11DVD Project website:
"This Project exists to advance and promote the truth about what happened on 9/11/01 in order to force our government to investigate the matter fully and openly using the subpoena and discovery powers of the judiciary to bring the true guilty parties to justice."
"We have found through experience that videos are a great way to spar
"When possible we are now filling orders with "multi-pak" DVDs that contain not only the title that you have ordered but other related documentaries in order to use up all of the available room on the disc. We can get up to over 8 hours of good quality video on a disc at no increase in cost to us or to you. You get all that you order and much much more at no increase in expense."
"We strongly suggest that you get the original higher quality disc from the original producer in order to support the patriotic efforts of the brave and creative Americans. Where it is possible, we have established links to the producers web sites along with the description of their works elsewhere on this site."
"We are all working together to discover the Truth about 9/11 by forcing OUR government to initiate a real, in depth, CRIMINAL investigation into the crimes of that day. Our goal at the DVD Project is to supply you with the "info-ammo" that you need to awaken those around you to the Truth about 9/11 and related issues. Thank you for caring."
"To phone in your order for DVDs you can call (870) 866-3664 or e-mail us at order911dvds@yahoo.com. We are frequently adding to our list of offerings and look forward to supplying you with the tools that you need to enlighten yourself and those around you."
Peace and 9/11 Truth,
Tom Tvedten MD
Please check out Dr Tvedten's website for descriptions of the following DVD's:
1. Loose Change - Second Edition
2. Everybody’s Gotta Learn Sometime -First Ed..
3. What’s the Truth?
4. Who Killed John O’Neill?
5. Terror Storm
6. Confronting the Evidence
7. BYU Professor Steven Jones presents a case for controlled demolition of WTC 1, 2 & 7 February 6, 2006 at Utah Valley State College
8. 9/11 Revisited
9. Freechannel 911 -- compilation DVD (NEW March 2007 version)
10. Evidence to the Contrary: A presentation of 9/11 Truth -- compilation DVD
11. 9/11 Made in the USA
12. The Great Illusion - DVD
13. 9/11 Mysteries (only available on a multi-pack DVD)
14. 9/11: The Road To Tyranny
15. 9/11 and the Neo-Con Agenda
16. David Ray Griffin's '9-11 and the American Empire'
17. Combo DVD: TerrorStorm & 911: the Road to Tyranny (edited)
18. Combo DVD: TerrorStorm & 911 Mysteries
19. 9/11: Painful Deceptions (NOW available)
20. Zeitgeist
21. freechannel 9/11 Truth Music DVD
22. Endgame
23. What I've Learned About U.S. Foreign Policy
24. In Lies We Trust
Audio CDs
a. The Great Illusion - two audio CDs
b. Controlled Media - audio cd
c. 9/11 Synchronicity # 5 - audio cd
Click here for information on how to order.
Steven E. Jones: Lifting the Fog Lecture
This is the recording of a live webcast of Steven Jones' presentation from the Lifting the Fog Conference held on the campus of UC Berkeley in 2006
Firefighters, Architects, & Engineers Team Up at California Event
Two nights, two Bay Area cities. Live Video Feed on May 8
9/11 Myths Exposed: Firefighters, Architects and Engineers Re–investigate the Destruction of the Three World Trade Center Skyscrapers
On September 11th, 2001 the greatest destruction and loss of life associated with the terrorist attacks took place in New York City. After almost nine years and numerous government investigations, many public misconceptions persist about the events of that tragic day, especially regarding the unprecedented destruction of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
During this live multimedia presentation Seattle firefighter Erik Lawyer and SF Bay Area architect Richard Gage, AIA, will examine the myths surrounding the events at the World Trade Center. Using well–documented forensic evidence, news footage and eyewitness accounts, they seek to correct the public record.
Some of the myths they will address:
• Only two towers collapsed that day
• Jet fuel fires melted the structural steel
• The fires were hot enough to weaken the structural steel
• The floors of each building collapsed like “pancakes”
• The government investigations were thorough, complete and followed standard fire investigation procedures
• The government investigators tested for evidence of exotic accelerants and/or explosives
• The third building to collapse completely, WTC 7, suffered significant structural damage from the collapse of the Twin Towers
The presentation will provide a factual rebuttal of these and other myths regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Erik Lawyer is a 14–year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department and the founder of Firefighters for 9/11 Truth, an organization with over 100 firefighters calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the WTC buildings.
Richard Gage, AIA, has practiced architecture for over 20 years and is the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization with over 1,000 architects and engineers calling for a new 9/11 WTC investigation.
Tom Sullivan — former employee of Controlled Demolition, Inc
Laila Selk — retired firefighter
Jason Abney — retired firefighter
Kamal Obeid, S.E. — structural engineer
Ron Brookman, S.E. — structural engineer
Michele Little — 9/11 victim family member
Peter B. Collins — talk show host
FREE ADMISSION FOR FIREFIGHTERS: First 50 firefighters at May 7 event and ALL firefighters at May 8 event may attend without cost.
Friday, May 7, 2010, Marin County Civic Center • San Rafael, CA
Saturday, May 8, 2010, The Historic BAL Theatre • San Leandro, CA
On September 11th, 2001 the greatest destruction and loss of life associated with the terrorist attacks took place in New York City. After almost nine years and numerous government investigations, many public misconceptions persist about the events of that tragic day, especially regarding the unprecedented destruction of the World Trade Center in Lower Manhattan.
During this live multimedia presentation Seattle firefighter Erik Lawyer and SF Bay Area architect Richard Gage, AIA, will examine the myths surrounding the events at the World Trade Center. Using well–documented forensic evidence, news footage and eyewitness accounts, they seek to correct the public record.
Some of the myths they will address:
• Only two towers collapsed that day
• Jet fuel fires melted the structural steel
• The fires were hot enough to weaken the structural steel
• The floors of each building collapsed like “pancakes”
• The government investigations were thorough, complete and followed standard fire investigation procedures
• The government investigators tested for evidence of exotic accelerants and/or explosives
• The third building to collapse completely, WTC 7, suffered significant structural damage from the collapse of the Twin Towers
The presentation will provide a factual rebuttal of these and other myths regarding the destruction of the World Trade Center.
Erik Lawyer is a 14–year veteran of the Seattle Fire Department and the founder of Firefighters for 9/11 Truth, an organization with over 100 firefighters calling for a new investigation into the destruction of the WTC buildings.
Richard Gage, AIA, has practiced architecture for over 20 years and is the founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, an organization with over 1,000 architects and engineers calling for a new 9/11 WTC investigation.
Tom Sullivan — former employee of Controlled Demolition, Inc
Laila Selk — retired firefighter
Jason Abney — retired firefighter
Kamal Obeid, S.E. — structural engineer
Ron Brookman, S.E. — structural engineer
Michele Little — 9/11 victim family member
Peter B. Collins — talk show host
FREE ADMISSION FOR FIREFIGHTERS: First 50 firefighters at May 7 event and ALL firefighters at May 8 event may attend without cost.
Friday, May 7, 2010, Marin County Civic Center • San Rafael, CA
Saturday, May 8, 2010, The Historic BAL Theatre • San Leandro, CA
Journalists and Other Media Professionals for 9/11 Truth
Thanks to Mike Casner for finding this cartoon. Caz runs the Journalists and Other Media Professionals for 9/11 Truth.
PETITION: Please sign everyone, regardless of media affiliation or lack there-of. Just like ae911truth, we have two categories, media-journalists, or not. I am a co-founder of this group. We were inspired by David Ray Griffin to found this group and he has been helpful in sending leads to us. Please have a look. - Caz
PETITION: Please sign everyone, regardless of media affiliation or lack there-of. Just like ae911truth, we have two categories, media-journalists, or not. I am a co-founder of this group. We were inspired by David Ray Griffin to found this group and he has been helpful in sending leads to us. Please have a look. - Caz
The importance of the media as a prime mover is encapsulated in the quotes below.
We invite you to browse this website, read the materials, and, hopefully, sign the petition of support for a new 9/11 investigation. With your time and effort a new investigation will be increasingly likely.
“[Edmund] Burke said that there were three Estates in Parliament [Kings, Lords and Commons], but in the Reporters Gallery yonder, there sat a fourth Estate more important far than they all.” –Thomas Carlyle, “Heros and Hero Worship in History” (1841)
“Journalists, as the purveyors of information, are the watchdogs of democracy. Without an informed people, there can be no democracy. It is the job reporters and editors to ask the tough questions of those in power and to act on the answers with trust, integrity, and honesty guiding their judgment.” –Helen Thomas, “Watchdogs of Democracy” (2006)
“The Central Intelligence Agency owns everyone of any significance in the major media.” –William Colby, former CIA Director, quoted by David McGowan, “Derailing Democracy” (2000)
Laura Bush recalls 9/11 panic at White House
In her new book, the former first lady details problems with communication system.
In her memoir, "Spoken from the Heart," former first lady Laura Bush shares a detailed account of being in the White House during the terrorist attacks. An excerpt from TODAY books.
Goodness in the land of the living:
Tuesday morning, September 11, was sunny and warm, the sky a brilliant cerulean blue. The day before, I had hosted a lunch for Janette Howard, wife of the Australian prime minister, while George met with her husband, John. My friends who had come for the National Book Festival had all flown home, and even George was gone, in Florida for a school visit. George H. W. Bush and Bar had spent the night, but they had already left at 7:00 a.m. to catch an early flight. And I had what I considered a big day planned. I was set to arrive at the Capitol at 9:15 to brief the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Edward M. Kennedy, on the findings of the early childhood development conference that I’d held in July. In the afternoon, we were hosting the entire Congress and their families for the annual Congressional Picnic. The South Lawn of the White House was already covered with picnic tables awaiting their fluttering cloths, and Tom Perini from Buffalo Gap, Texas, was setting up his chuckwagons. Our entertainment would be old-fashioned square dancing and Texas swing music by Ray Benson and his classic band, Asleep at the Wheel.
I finished dressing in silence, going over my statement again in my mind. I was very nervous about appearing before a Senate committee and having news cameras trained on me. Had the TV been turned on, I might have heard the first fleeting report of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center at the tip of Manhattan as I walked out the door to the elevator. Instead, it was the head of my Secret Service detail, Ron Sprinkle, who leaned over and whispered the news in my ear as I entered the car a few minutes after 9:00 a.m. for the ride to the Russell Senate Office Building, adjacent to the Capitol. Andi Ball, now my chief of staff at the White House; Domestic Policy Advisor Margaret Spellings; and I speculated about what could have happened: a small plane, a Cessna perhaps, running into one of those massive towers on this perfect September morning. We wondered too if Hillary Clinton might decide not to attend the committee briefing, since the World Trade Center was in New York. We were driving up Pennsylvania Avenue when word came that the South Tower had been hit. The car fell silent; we sat in mute disbelief. One plane might be a strange accident; two planes were clearly an attack. I thought about George and wondered if the Secret Service had already hustled him to the motorcade and begun the race to Air Force One to return home. Two minutes later, at 9:16 a.m., we pulled up at the entrance to the Russell Building. In the time it had taken to drive the less than two miles between the White House and the Capitol, the world as I knew it had irrevocably changed.
Senator Kennedy was waiting to greet me, according to plan. We both knew when we met that the towers had been hit and, without a word being spoken, knew that there would be no briefing that morning. Together, we walked the short distance to his office. He began by presenting me with a limited-edition print; it was a vase of bright daffodils, a copy of a painting he had created for his wife, Victoria, and given to her on their wedding day. The print was inscribed to me and dated September 11, 2001.
An old television was turned on in a corner of the room, and I glanced over to see the plumes of smoke billowing from the Twin Towers. Senator Kennedy kept his eyes averted from the screen. Instead he led me on a tour of his office, pointing out various pictures, furniture, pieces of memorabilia, even a framed note that his brother Jack had sent to their mother when he was a child, in which he wrote, “Teddy is getting fat.” The senator, who would outlive all his brothers by more than forty years, laughed at the note as he showed it to me, still finding it amusing.
All the while, I kept glancing over at the glowing television screen. My skin was starting to crawl, I wanted to leave, to find out what was going on, to process what I was seeing, but I felt trapped in an endless cycle of pleasantries. It did not occur to me to say, “Senator Kennedy, what about the towers?” I simply followed his lead, and he may have feared that if we actually began to contemplate what had happened in New York, I might dissolve into tears.
Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the committee and one of our very good friends in the Senate—Judd had played Al Gore for George during mock debates at the ranch the previous fall—was also designated to escort me to the committee room, and he arrived just as I was completing the tour. Senator Kennedy invited us to sit on the couches, and he continued chatting about anything other than the horrific images unfolding on the tiny screen across the room. I looked around his shoulder but could see very little, and I was still trying to pay attention to him and the thread of his conversation. It seemed completely unreal, sitting in this elegant, sunlit office as an immense tragedy unfolded. We sat as human beings driven by smoke, flame, and searing heat jumped from the tops of the Twin Towers to end their lives and as firemen in full gear began the climb up the towers’ stairs.
I have often wondered if the small talk that morning was Ted Kennedy’s defense mechanism, if after so much tragedy—the combat death of his oldest brother in World War II, the assassinations of his brothers Jack and Robert, and the deaths of nephews, including John Jr., whose body he identified when it was pulled from the cold, dark waters off Martha’s Vineyard—if after all of those things, he simply could not look upon another grievous tragedy.
At about 9:45, after George had made a brief statement to the nation, which we watched, clustered around a small television that was perched on the receptionist’s desk, Ted Kennedy, Judd Gregg, and I walked out to tell reporters that my briefing had been postponed. I said, “You heard from the president this morning, and Senator Kennedy and Senator Gregg and I both join his statement in saying that our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims of this act of terrorism, and that our support goes to the rescue workers. And all of our prayers are with everyone there right now.” As I turned to exit, Laurence McQuillan of USA Today asked a question. “Mrs. Bush, you know, children are kind of struck by all this. Is there a message you could tell to the nation’s—” I didn’t even wait for him to finish but began, “Well, parents need to reassure their children everywhere in our country that they’re safe.”
As we walked out of the briefing room, the cell phone of my advance man, John Meyers, rang. A friend told him that CNN was reporting that an airplane had crashed into the Pentagon. Within minutes, the order would be given to evacuate the White House and the Capitol.
I walked back to Senator Kennedy’s office and then began moving quickly toward the stairs, to reach my car to return to the White House. Suddenly, the lead Secret Service agent turned to me and my staff and said that we needed to head to the basement immediately. We took off at a run; Judd Gregg suggested his private office, which was in the lower level and was an interior room. The Secret Service then told John that they were waiting for an Emergency Response Team to reach the Capitol. The team would take me, but my staff would be left behind. Overhearing the conversation, I turned back and said, “No, everyone is coming.” We entered Judd’s office, where I tried to call Barbara and Jenna, and Judd tried to call his daughter, who was in New York. Then we sat and talked quietly about our families and our worries for them, and the overwhelming shock we both felt.
Sometime after 10:00 a.m., when the entire Capitol was being emptied, when White House staffers had fled barefoot and sobbing through the heavy iron gates with Secret Service agents shouting at them to “Run, run!” my agents collected me. They now included an additional Secret Service detail and an Emergency Response Team, dressed in black tactical clothing like a SWAT force and moving with guns drawn. As we raced through the dim hallways of the Russell Building, past panicked staffers emptying from their offices, the ERT team shouted “GET BACK” and covered my every move with their guns. We reached the underground entrance; the doors on the motorcade slammed shut, and we sped off. The Secret Service had decided to take me temporarily to their headquarters, located in a nondescript federal office building a few blocks from the White House. Following the Oklahoma City bombing, their offices had been reinforced to survive a large-scale blast. Outside our convoy windows, the city streets were clogged with people evacuating their workplaces and trying to reach their own homes.
By the time I had reached my motorcade, Flight 93 had crashed in a Pennsylvania field and the west side of the Pentagon had begun to collapse. Judd Gregg walked alone to the underground Senate parking garage and retrieved his car, the last one left there. He pulled out of the garage and headed home, across the Fourteenth Street Bridge and past the Pentagon, thick with smoke and flame.
In the intervening years, Judd and I, and many others, were left to contemplate what if Flight 93 had not been forced down by its passengers into an empty field; what if, shortly after 10:00 a.m., it had reached the Capitol Dome?
We arrived at the Secret Service building via an underground entrance and were escorted first to the director’s office and then below ground to a windowless conference room with blank walls and a mustard yellow table. A large display screen with a constant TV feed took up most of one wall. Walking through the hallways, I saw a sign emblazoned with the emergency number 9-1-1. Had the terrorists thought about our iconic number when they picked this date and planned an emergency so overwhelming? For a while, I sat in a small area off the conference room, silently watching the images on television. I watched the replay as the South Tower of the World Trade Center roared with sound and then collapsed into a silent gray plume, offering my personal prayer to God to receive the victims with open arms. The North Tower had given way, live in front of my eyes, sending some 1,500 souls and 110 stories of gypsum and concrete buckling to the ground.
So much happened during those terrible hours at the tip of Manhattan. That morning, as the people who worked in the towers descended, water from the sprinkler system was racing down the darkened stairwells. With their feet soaked, for some the greatest fear was that when they reached the bottom, the rushing water would be too high and they would be drowned. A few walked to safety under a canopy of skylights covered with the bodies of those who had jumped. Over two hundred people jumped to escape the heat, smoke, and flames. I was told that Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain for the New York City Fire Department, who had come to offer aid, comfort, and last rites, was killed that morning by the body of someone who had, in desperation, hurled himself from the upper floors of one of those towers.
The early expectation was for horrific numbers of deaths. Manhattan emergency rooms and hospitals as far away as Dallas were placed on Code Red, expecting to receive airlifted survivors. Some fifty thousand people worked inside the towers; on a beautiful day, as many as eighty thousand tourists would visit an observation deck on the South Tower’s 107th floor, where the vistas stretched for fifty miles. Had those hijacked planes struck the towers thirty or forty or fifty minutes later, the final toll might well have been in the tens of thousands.
Inside Secret Service headquarters, I asked my staff to call their families, and I called the girls, who had been whisked away by Secret Service agents to secure locations. In Austin, Jenna had been awakened by an agent pounding on her dorm door. In her room at Yale, Barbara had heard another student sobbing uncontrollably a few doors down. Then I called my mother, because I wanted her to know that I was safe and I wanted so much to hear the sound of her voice. And I tried to reach George, but my calls could not get through; John Meyers, my advance man, promised to keep trying. I did know from the Secret Service that George had taken off from Florida, safe on board Air Force One. I knew my daughters and my mother were safe. But beyond that, everything was chaos. I was told that Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson, had been aboard the plane that hit the Pentagon. At one point, we also received word that Camp David had been attacked and hit. I began thinking of all the people who would have been there, like Bob Williams, the chaplain. Another report had a plane crashing into our ranch in Crawford. It got so that we were living in five-minute increments, wondering if a new plane would emerge from the sky and hit a target. All of us in that basement conference room and many more in the Secret Service building were relying on rumors and on whatever news came from the announcers on television. When there were reports of more errant planes or other targets, it was almost impossible not to believe them.
George had tried to call me from Air Force One. It is stunning now to think that our “state-of-the-art” communications would not allow him to complete a phone call to Secret Service headquarters, or me to reach him on Air Force One. On my second call from the secure line, our third attempt, I was finally able to contact the plane, a little before twelve noon. I was grateful just to hear his voice, to know that he was all right, and to tell him the girls were fine. From the way he spoke, I could hear how starkly his presidency had been transformed.
We remained in that drab conference room for hours, eventually turning off the repetitive horror of the images on the television. Inside, I felt a grief, a loss, a mourning like I had never known.
A few blocks away, in the Chrysler offices near Pennsylvania Avenue, a group of White House senior staff began to gather. After the evacuation, some of those who were new to Washington had been wandering, dazed and shaken, in nearby Lafayette Park. By midafternoon, seventy staff members had congregated inside this office building, attempting to resume work, while Secret Service agents stood in the lobby and forbade anyone without a White House pass from entering. Key presidential and national security staff and Vice President Cheney were still sealed away in the small underground emergency center deep below the White House.
As the skies and streets grew silent, there was a debate over what to do with George and what to do with me. The Secret Service detail told me to be prepared to leave Washington for several days at least. My assistant, Sarah Moss, was sent into the White House to gather some of my clothes. John Meyers accompanied her to retrieve Spot, Barney, and Kitty.
Then we got word that the president was returning to Washington. I would be staying as well. Late in the afternoon, I spoke to George again. At 6:30 we got in a Secret Service caravan to drive to the White House. I gazed out the window; the city had taken on the cast of an abandoned movie set: the sun was shining, but the streets were deserted. We could not see a person on the sidewalk or any vehicles driving on the street. There was no sound at all except for the roll of our wheels over the ground.
We drove at full throttle through the gate, and the agents hopped out. Heavily armed men in black swarmed over the grounds. Before I got out, one of my agents, Dave Saunders, who had been driving, turned around and said, “Mrs. Bush, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” He said it with the greatest of concern and a hint of emotion in his voice. He knew what this day meant for us.
I was hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal. I was now in one of the unfinished subterranean hallways underneath the White House, heading for the PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, built for President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment. The PEOC is designed to be a command center during emergencies, with televisions, phones, and communications facilities.
I was ushered into the conference room adjacent to the PEOC’s nerve center. It’s a small room with a large table. National Security Advisor Condi Rice, Counselor to the President Karen Hughes, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and Dick and Lynne Cheney were already there, where they had been since the morning. Lynne, whose agents had brought her to the White House just after the first attack, came over and hugged me. Then she said quietly into my ear, “The plane that hit the Pentagon circled the White House first.”
I felt a shiver vibrate down my spine. Unlike the major monuments and even the leading government buildings in Washington, the White House sits low to the ground. It is a three-story building, tucked away in a downward slope toward the Potomac. When the White House was first built, visitors complained about the putrid scent rising from the river and the swampy grounds nearby. From the air, the White House is hard to see and hard to reach. A plane could circle it and find no plausible approach. And that is what Lynne Cheney told me had happened that morning, a little past 9:30, before Flight 77 crossed the river and thundered into the Pentagon.
At 7:10 that night, George strode into the PEOC. Early that afternoon, he had conducted a secure videoconference from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska with the CIA and FBI directors, as well as the military Joint Chiefs of Staff and the vice president and his national security staff, giving instructions and getting briefings on the latest information. Over the objections of the Secret Service, he had insisted upon returning home. We hugged and talked with the Cheneys a bit. Then the Secret Service detail suggested that we spend the night there, belowground. They showed us the bed, a foldout that looked like it had been installed when FDR was president. George and I stared at it, and we both said no, George adding, “We’re not going to sleep down here. We’re going to go upstairs and you can get us if something happens.” He said, “I’ve got to get sleep, in our own bed.” George was preparing to speak to the nation from the Oval Office, to reassure everyone and to show that the president was safely back in Washington, ready to respond.
By 7:30 we were on our way up to the residence. I have no memory of having eaten dinner—George may have eaten on the plane. He tried to call the girls as soon as we were upstairs but couldn’t reach them. Barbara called back close to 8:00 p.m., and then George left to make remarks to the nation.
We did finally climb into our own bed that night, exhausted and emotionally drained. Outside the doors of the residence, the Secret Service detail stood in their usual posts. I fell asleep, but it was a light, fitful rest, and I could feel George staring into the darkness beside me. Then I heard a man screaming as he ran, “Mr. President, Mr. President, you’ve got to get up. The White House is under attack.”
We jumped up, and I grabbed a robe and stuck my feet into my slippers, but I didn’t stop to put in my contacts. George grabbed Barney; I grabbed Kitty. With Spot trailing behind, we started walking down to the PEOC. George had wanted to take the elevator, but the agents didn’t think it was safe, so we had to descend flight after flight of stairs, to the state floor, then the ground floor, and below, while I held George’s hand because I couldn’t see anything. My heart was pounding, and all I could do was count stairwell landings, trying to count off in my mind how many more floors we had to go. When we reached the PEOC, I saw the outline of a military sergeant unfolding the ancient hideaway bed and putting on some sheets.
At that moment, another agent ran up to us and said, “Mr. President, it’s one of our own.” The plane was ours.
For months afterward at night, in bed, we’d hear the military jets thundering overhead, traveling so fast that the ground below quivered and shook. They would make one pass and then, three or five minutes later, make another low-flying loop. I would fall asleep to the roar of the fighters in the skies, hearing in my mind those words, “one of our own.” There was a quiet security in that, in knowing that we slept beneath the watchful cover of our own.
Waking the next morning, I had the sensation of knowing before my eyes opened that something terrible had happened, something beyond comprehension, and I wondered for a brief instant if it had all been a dream. Then I saw George, and I knew, knew that yesterday would be with us, each day, for all of our days to come.
Excerpted from "Spoken from the Heart" by Laura Bush. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Bush. Excerpted with permission by Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. © 2010 MSNBC Interactive
Goodness in the land of the living:
Tuesday morning, September 11, was sunny and warm, the sky a brilliant cerulean blue. The day before, I had hosted a lunch for Janette Howard, wife of the Australian prime minister, while George met with her husband, John. My friends who had come for the National Book Festival had all flown home, and even George was gone, in Florida for a school visit. George H. W. Bush and Bar had spent the night, but they had already left at 7:00 a.m. to catch an early flight. And I had what I considered a big day planned. I was set to arrive at the Capitol at 9:15 to brief the Senate Education Committee, chaired by Edward M. Kennedy, on the findings of the early childhood development conference that I’d held in July. In the afternoon, we were hosting the entire Congress and their families for the annual Congressional Picnic. The South Lawn of the White House was already covered with picnic tables awaiting their fluttering cloths, and Tom Perini from Buffalo Gap, Texas, was setting up his chuckwagons. Our entertainment would be old-fashioned square dancing and Texas swing music by Ray Benson and his classic band, Asleep at the Wheel.
I finished dressing in silence, going over my statement again in my mind. I was very nervous about appearing before a Senate committee and having news cameras trained on me. Had the TV been turned on, I might have heard the first fleeting report of a plane hitting the North Tower of the World Trade Center at the tip of Manhattan as I walked out the door to the elevator. Instead, it was the head of my Secret Service detail, Ron Sprinkle, who leaned over and whispered the news in my ear as I entered the car a few minutes after 9:00 a.m. for the ride to the Russell Senate Office Building, adjacent to the Capitol. Andi Ball, now my chief of staff at the White House; Domestic Policy Advisor Margaret Spellings; and I speculated about what could have happened: a small plane, a Cessna perhaps, running into one of those massive towers on this perfect September morning. We wondered too if Hillary Clinton might decide not to attend the committee briefing, since the World Trade Center was in New York. We were driving up Pennsylvania Avenue when word came that the South Tower had been hit. The car fell silent; we sat in mute disbelief. One plane might be a strange accident; two planes were clearly an attack. I thought about George and wondered if the Secret Service had already hustled him to the motorcade and begun the race to Air Force One to return home. Two minutes later, at 9:16 a.m., we pulled up at the entrance to the Russell Building. In the time it had taken to drive the less than two miles between the White House and the Capitol, the world as I knew it had irrevocably changed.
Senator Kennedy was waiting to greet me, according to plan. We both knew when we met that the towers had been hit and, without a word being spoken, knew that there would be no briefing that morning. Together, we walked the short distance to his office. He began by presenting me with a limited-edition print; it was a vase of bright daffodils, a copy of a painting he had created for his wife, Victoria, and given to her on their wedding day. The print was inscribed to me and dated September 11, 2001.
An old television was turned on in a corner of the room, and I glanced over to see the plumes of smoke billowing from the Twin Towers. Senator Kennedy kept his eyes averted from the screen. Instead he led me on a tour of his office, pointing out various pictures, furniture, pieces of memorabilia, even a framed note that his brother Jack had sent to their mother when he was a child, in which he wrote, “Teddy is getting fat.” The senator, who would outlive all his brothers by more than forty years, laughed at the note as he showed it to me, still finding it amusing.
All the while, I kept glancing over at the glowing television screen. My skin was starting to crawl, I wanted to leave, to find out what was going on, to process what I was seeing, but I felt trapped in an endless cycle of pleasantries. It did not occur to me to say, “Senator Kennedy, what about the towers?” I simply followed his lead, and he may have feared that if we actually began to contemplate what had happened in New York, I might dissolve into tears.
Senator Judd Gregg of New Hampshire, the ranking Republican on the committee and one of our very good friends in the Senate—Judd had played Al Gore for George during mock debates at the ranch the previous fall—was also designated to escort me to the committee room, and he arrived just as I was completing the tour. Senator Kennedy invited us to sit on the couches, and he continued chatting about anything other than the horrific images unfolding on the tiny screen across the room. I looked around his shoulder but could see very little, and I was still trying to pay attention to him and the thread of his conversation. It seemed completely unreal, sitting in this elegant, sunlit office as an immense tragedy unfolded. We sat as human beings driven by smoke, flame, and searing heat jumped from the tops of the Twin Towers to end their lives and as firemen in full gear began the climb up the towers’ stairs.
I have often wondered if the small talk that morning was Ted Kennedy’s defense mechanism, if after so much tragedy—the combat death of his oldest brother in World War II, the assassinations of his brothers Jack and Robert, and the deaths of nephews, including John Jr., whose body he identified when it was pulled from the cold, dark waters off Martha’s Vineyard—if after all of those things, he simply could not look upon another grievous tragedy.
At about 9:45, after George had made a brief statement to the nation, which we watched, clustered around a small television that was perched on the receptionist’s desk, Ted Kennedy, Judd Gregg, and I walked out to tell reporters that my briefing had been postponed. I said, “You heard from the president this morning, and Senator Kennedy and Senator Gregg and I both join his statement in saying that our hearts and our prayers go out to the victims of this act of terrorism, and that our support goes to the rescue workers. And all of our prayers are with everyone there right now.” As I turned to exit, Laurence McQuillan of USA Today asked a question. “Mrs. Bush, you know, children are kind of struck by all this. Is there a message you could tell to the nation’s—” I didn’t even wait for him to finish but began, “Well, parents need to reassure their children everywhere in our country that they’re safe.”
As we walked out of the briefing room, the cell phone of my advance man, John Meyers, rang. A friend told him that CNN was reporting that an airplane had crashed into the Pentagon. Within minutes, the order would be given to evacuate the White House and the Capitol.
I walked back to Senator Kennedy’s office and then began moving quickly toward the stairs, to reach my car to return to the White House. Suddenly, the lead Secret Service agent turned to me and my staff and said that we needed to head to the basement immediately. We took off at a run; Judd Gregg suggested his private office, which was in the lower level and was an interior room. The Secret Service then told John that they were waiting for an Emergency Response Team to reach the Capitol. The team would take me, but my staff would be left behind. Overhearing the conversation, I turned back and said, “No, everyone is coming.” We entered Judd’s office, where I tried to call Barbara and Jenna, and Judd tried to call his daughter, who was in New York. Then we sat and talked quietly about our families and our worries for them, and the overwhelming shock we both felt.
Sometime after 10:00 a.m., when the entire Capitol was being emptied, when White House staffers had fled barefoot and sobbing through the heavy iron gates with Secret Service agents shouting at them to “Run, run!” my agents collected me. They now included an additional Secret Service detail and an Emergency Response Team, dressed in black tactical clothing like a SWAT force and moving with guns drawn. As we raced through the dim hallways of the Russell Building, past panicked staffers emptying from their offices, the ERT team shouted “GET BACK” and covered my every move with their guns. We reached the underground entrance; the doors on the motorcade slammed shut, and we sped off. The Secret Service had decided to take me temporarily to their headquarters, located in a nondescript federal office building a few blocks from the White House. Following the Oklahoma City bombing, their offices had been reinforced to survive a large-scale blast. Outside our convoy windows, the city streets were clogged with people evacuating their workplaces and trying to reach their own homes.
By the time I had reached my motorcade, Flight 93 had crashed in a Pennsylvania field and the west side of the Pentagon had begun to collapse. Judd Gregg walked alone to the underground Senate parking garage and retrieved his car, the last one left there. He pulled out of the garage and headed home, across the Fourteenth Street Bridge and past the Pentagon, thick with smoke and flame.
In the intervening years, Judd and I, and many others, were left to contemplate what if Flight 93 had not been forced down by its passengers into an empty field; what if, shortly after 10:00 a.m., it had reached the Capitol Dome?
We arrived at the Secret Service building via an underground entrance and were escorted first to the director’s office and then below ground to a windowless conference room with blank walls and a mustard yellow table. A large display screen with a constant TV feed took up most of one wall. Walking through the hallways, I saw a sign emblazoned with the emergency number 9-1-1. Had the terrorists thought about our iconic number when they picked this date and planned an emergency so overwhelming? For a while, I sat in a small area off the conference room, silently watching the images on television. I watched the replay as the South Tower of the World Trade Center roared with sound and then collapsed into a silent gray plume, offering my personal prayer to God to receive the victims with open arms. The North Tower had given way, live in front of my eyes, sending some 1,500 souls and 110 stories of gypsum and concrete buckling to the ground.
So much happened during those terrible hours at the tip of Manhattan. That morning, as the people who worked in the towers descended, water from the sprinkler system was racing down the darkened stairwells. With their feet soaked, for some the greatest fear was that when they reached the bottom, the rushing water would be too high and they would be drowned. A few walked to safety under a canopy of skylights covered with the bodies of those who had jumped. Over two hundred people jumped to escape the heat, smoke, and flames. I was told that Father Mychal Judge, the chaplain for the New York City Fire Department, who had come to offer aid, comfort, and last rites, was killed that morning by the body of someone who had, in desperation, hurled himself from the upper floors of one of those towers.
The early expectation was for horrific numbers of deaths. Manhattan emergency rooms and hospitals as far away as Dallas were placed on Code Red, expecting to receive airlifted survivors. Some fifty thousand people worked inside the towers; on a beautiful day, as many as eighty thousand tourists would visit an observation deck on the South Tower’s 107th floor, where the vistas stretched for fifty miles. Had those hijacked planes struck the towers thirty or forty or fifty minutes later, the final toll might well have been in the tens of thousands.
Inside Secret Service headquarters, I asked my staff to call their families, and I called the girls, who had been whisked away by Secret Service agents to secure locations. In Austin, Jenna had been awakened by an agent pounding on her dorm door. In her room at Yale, Barbara had heard another student sobbing uncontrollably a few doors down. Then I called my mother, because I wanted her to know that I was safe and I wanted so much to hear the sound of her voice. And I tried to reach George, but my calls could not get through; John Meyers, my advance man, promised to keep trying. I did know from the Secret Service that George had taken off from Florida, safe on board Air Force One. I knew my daughters and my mother were safe. But beyond that, everything was chaos. I was told that Barbara Olson, wife of Solicitor General Ted Olson, had been aboard the plane that hit the Pentagon. At one point, we also received word that Camp David had been attacked and hit. I began thinking of all the people who would have been there, like Bob Williams, the chaplain. Another report had a plane crashing into our ranch in Crawford. It got so that we were living in five-minute increments, wondering if a new plane would emerge from the sky and hit a target. All of us in that basement conference room and many more in the Secret Service building were relying on rumors and on whatever news came from the announcers on television. When there were reports of more errant planes or other targets, it was almost impossible not to believe them.
George had tried to call me from Air Force One. It is stunning now to think that our “state-of-the-art” communications would not allow him to complete a phone call to Secret Service headquarters, or me to reach him on Air Force One. On my second call from the secure line, our third attempt, I was finally able to contact the plane, a little before twelve noon. I was grateful just to hear his voice, to know that he was all right, and to tell him the girls were fine. From the way he spoke, I could hear how starkly his presidency had been transformed.
We remained in that drab conference room for hours, eventually turning off the repetitive horror of the images on the television. Inside, I felt a grief, a loss, a mourning like I had never known.
A few blocks away, in the Chrysler offices near Pennsylvania Avenue, a group of White House senior staff began to gather. After the evacuation, some of those who were new to Washington had been wandering, dazed and shaken, in nearby Lafayette Park. By midafternoon, seventy staff members had congregated inside this office building, attempting to resume work, while Secret Service agents stood in the lobby and forbade anyone without a White House pass from entering. Key presidential and national security staff and Vice President Cheney were still sealed away in the small underground emergency center deep below the White House.
As the skies and streets grew silent, there was a debate over what to do with George and what to do with me. The Secret Service detail told me to be prepared to leave Washington for several days at least. My assistant, Sarah Moss, was sent into the White House to gather some of my clothes. John Meyers accompanied her to retrieve Spot, Barney, and Kitty.
Then we got word that the president was returning to Washington. I would be staying as well. Late in the afternoon, I spoke to George again. At 6:30 we got in a Secret Service caravan to drive to the White House. I gazed out the window; the city had taken on the cast of an abandoned movie set: the sun was shining, but the streets were deserted. We could not see a person on the sidewalk or any vehicles driving on the street. There was no sound at all except for the roll of our wheels over the ground.
We drove at full throttle through the gate, and the agents hopped out. Heavily armed men in black swarmed over the grounds. Before I got out, one of my agents, Dave Saunders, who had been driving, turned around and said, “Mrs. Bush, I’m so sorry. I’m so sorry.” He said it with the greatest of concern and a hint of emotion in his voice. He knew what this day meant for us.
I was hustled inside and downstairs through a pair of big steel doors that closed behind me with a loud hiss, forming an airtight seal. I was now in one of the unfinished subterranean hallways underneath the White House, heading for the PEOC, the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, built for President Franklin Roosevelt during World War II. We walked along old tile floors with pipes hanging from the ceiling and all kinds of mechanical equipment. The PEOC is designed to be a command center during emergencies, with televisions, phones, and communications facilities.
I was ushered into the conference room adjacent to the PEOC’s nerve center. It’s a small room with a large table. National Security Advisor Condi Rice, Counselor to the President Karen Hughes, Deputy Chief of Staff Josh Bolten, and Dick and Lynne Cheney were already there, where they had been since the morning. Lynne, whose agents had brought her to the White House just after the first attack, came over and hugged me. Then she said quietly into my ear, “The plane that hit the Pentagon circled the White House first.”
I felt a shiver vibrate down my spine. Unlike the major monuments and even the leading government buildings in Washington, the White House sits low to the ground. It is a three-story building, tucked away in a downward slope toward the Potomac. When the White House was first built, visitors complained about the putrid scent rising from the river and the swampy grounds nearby. From the air, the White House is hard to see and hard to reach. A plane could circle it and find no plausible approach. And that is what Lynne Cheney told me had happened that morning, a little past 9:30, before Flight 77 crossed the river and thundered into the Pentagon.
At 7:10 that night, George strode into the PEOC. Early that afternoon, he had conducted a secure videoconference from Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska with the CIA and FBI directors, as well as the military Joint Chiefs of Staff and the vice president and his national security staff, giving instructions and getting briefings on the latest information. Over the objections of the Secret Service, he had insisted upon returning home. We hugged and talked with the Cheneys a bit. Then the Secret Service detail suggested that we spend the night there, belowground. They showed us the bed, a foldout that looked like it had been installed when FDR was president. George and I stared at it, and we both said no, George adding, “We’re not going to sleep down here. We’re going to go upstairs and you can get us if something happens.” He said, “I’ve got to get sleep, in our own bed.” George was preparing to speak to the nation from the Oval Office, to reassure everyone and to show that the president was safely back in Washington, ready to respond.
By 7:30 we were on our way up to the residence. I have no memory of having eaten dinner—George may have eaten on the plane. He tried to call the girls as soon as we were upstairs but couldn’t reach them. Barbara called back close to 8:00 p.m., and then George left to make remarks to the nation.
We did finally climb into our own bed that night, exhausted and emotionally drained. Outside the doors of the residence, the Secret Service detail stood in their usual posts. I fell asleep, but it was a light, fitful rest, and I could feel George staring into the darkness beside me. Then I heard a man screaming as he ran, “Mr. President, Mr. President, you’ve got to get up. The White House is under attack.”
We jumped up, and I grabbed a robe and stuck my feet into my slippers, but I didn’t stop to put in my contacts. George grabbed Barney; I grabbed Kitty. With Spot trailing behind, we started walking down to the PEOC. George had wanted to take the elevator, but the agents didn’t think it was safe, so we had to descend flight after flight of stairs, to the state floor, then the ground floor, and below, while I held George’s hand because I couldn’t see anything. My heart was pounding, and all I could do was count stairwell landings, trying to count off in my mind how many more floors we had to go. When we reached the PEOC, I saw the outline of a military sergeant unfolding the ancient hideaway bed and putting on some sheets.
At that moment, another agent ran up to us and said, “Mr. President, it’s one of our own.” The plane was ours.
For months afterward at night, in bed, we’d hear the military jets thundering overhead, traveling so fast that the ground below quivered and shook. They would make one pass and then, three or five minutes later, make another low-flying loop. I would fall asleep to the roar of the fighters in the skies, hearing in my mind those words, “one of our own.” There was a quiet security in that, in knowing that we slept beneath the watchful cover of our own.
Waking the next morning, I had the sensation of knowing before my eyes opened that something terrible had happened, something beyond comprehension, and I wondered for a brief instant if it had all been a dream. Then I saw George, and I knew, knew that yesterday would be with us, each day, for all of our days to come.
Excerpted from "Spoken from the Heart" by Laura Bush. Copyright © 2010 by Laura Bush. Excerpted with permission by Scribner, a Division of Simon & Schuster, Inc. © 2010 MSNBC Interactive
A Short Review of Some of Bush's Executive Orders
Since 9/11 many of our “rights” were crushed under the guise of "national insecurity." The major event of 9/11 supposedly justified George Bush's Executive Orders - and here are some of them listed below. Note that some of these have been revoked. And we hope that President Obama revokes them all:
“Executive Order 10990 Allows the government to take over all modes of transportation and can control the highways and the seaports.
Executive Order 10995 Allows the government to seize and control all communications media (Telecommunications, Internet, Radio & TV, etc)
Executive Order 10997 Allows the government to takeover all electrical power, gas, petroleum, fuels and minerals.
Executive Order 10998 Allows the government to seize all means of transportation including personal cars trucks or vehicles of any kind.
Executive Order 10999 Allows the government to take over all food resources and farms.
Executive Order 11000 Allows the government to mobilize civilians into work brigades under government supervision.
Executive Order 11001 Allows the government to take over all health education and welfare functions.
Executive Order 11002 Designates the Postmaster General to organize a national registration of all persons,
Executive Order 11003 Allows the government to take over all airports and aircraft, including commercial aircraft.
Executive Order 11004 Allows the Housing and Finance Authority to regulate communities, build new housing with public funds, and designate areas to be abandoned.
Executive Order 11005 Allows the government to take over railroads, inland waterways and public storage facilities.
Executive Order 11921 Allows the Federal Emergency Preparedness Agency to take control of all financial institutions in the United States."
Watch Richard Gage Enter a Battle of Wits with an Unarmed Man
It is a study in frustration to watch Richard Gage have to "debunk" Roberts constantly in order to present and explain basic facts in this Hardfire "debate" Between Gage and Roberts. Hard science isn't usually thought of as "debatable" but "truthers" are constantly having to do this.
Originally aired July 15, 2008, these two programs feature, Richard Gage, AIA, San Francisco Bay area architect and founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, and Mark Roberts on the events of September 11, 2001.
John Clifton, past chair of the Libertarian Party of New York, hosts.
Part 1
Part 2
Originally aired July 15, 2008, these two programs feature, Richard Gage, AIA, San Francisco Bay area architect and founder of Architects & Engineers for 9/11 Truth, and Mark Roberts on the events of September 11, 2001.
John Clifton, past chair of the Libertarian Party of New York, hosts.
Part 1
Part 2
Obama Warns Not To Question The Official 9/11 Story
Most people agree that our current President isn't dumb.
So how can he "really believe" that 19 angry Arabs with box cutters - led by a man in a cave - hijack 4 airplanes, violate the most secure air space on the planet, and successfully pull off the 9/11 attacks?
Is he the "Manchurian Candidate" or would Obama be in grave danger if he indicated that he has serious questions raised by the bogus 9/11 Commission Report and asks for a New Investigation into 9/11?
*David Ray Griffin: Is the War in Afghanistan Justified by 9/11?
“Whereas it is widely recognized that the US-led war in Afghanistan is illegal under international law, because it was never authorized by the UN Security Council, most Americans have believed that it was morally justified as a response to the 9/11 attacks, and many believe it is still justified as a necessary means to prevent another attack originating from that region."
"My lecture will present evidence showing that both of these beliefs are untrue, so that the 9/11 Truth Movement and more traditional Peace and Anti-War groups should be able to combine forces to oppose this illegal and immoral war.” – David Ray Griffin
As part of his current speaking tour, David Ray Griffin spoke in Hanover, NH (May 4). We do not have the tape of this but this is the same lecture as taped in Chicago on April 27, 2010:
Part 1
Part 2
Part 3
Page 4
Part 5
Part 6
Part 7
Yet Another Amazing Coincidence Related to the WTC
by Kevin Ryan
01/06/2008 Source: http://www.911blogger.com/node/13272
There appears to be a remarkable correlation between the floors upgraded for fireproofing in the WTC towers, in the years preceding 9/11/01, and the floors of impact, fire and failure. The fireproofing upgrades would have allowed for shutdown of the affected floors, and the exposure of the floor assemblies and the columns for a significant period of time. Exactly what work was done during that time?
In some sections of the NIST WTC report, the exact floors upgraded are listed. Other sections of the report suggest even more floors were upgraded, a total of 18 floors in WTC 1 and 13 floors in WTC 2, but the additional floors involved are not specified.[1]
WTC tower floors upgraded for fireproofing and floors of impact, fires and failure on 9/11 (click for full size)
This relationship is unmistakable for WTC 1. Some investigators have pointed out that a number of floors failed simultaneously in this tower, in accordion-like fashion, before the rest of the building began to 'collapse'. These floors seem to match up almost exactly with the floors that were upgraded. See the film clip below, and the following Powerpoint sequence created by Gregory Urich.
http://www.911research.com/wtc/evidence/videos/docs/north_tower_collapse...
http://www.cool-places.0catch.com/docs/Wtc1SeriesNW.ppt
Two blueprints for the 1999, 2000 construction upgrades to WTC 2, provided by a supporter, indicated that the work was done at almost exactly the point of impact and failure in that tower. That is, the southeast quadrant of WTC 2 was the focus of the work, at least on the 78th floor (the blueprints provided were for floors 77 and 78 only). It was the southeast quadrant of WTC 2, at and just above floor 78, where flight 175 hit.
We have also seen video of molten metal pouring from WTC 2 prior to its destruction. The relationship between fireproofing upgrades and the pouring metal is close but not exact, as the molten metal seen in videos appears to be coming from floors 80 and 81. Communication to the NIST team from Frank Lombardi of the Port Authority, in 2002, indicated that only floor 78 of the impact failure floors of WTC 2 had been upgraded. But NCSTAR 1-6A (table 4-2, p 45) lists floor 85 as an upgraded floor as well. Could it be that certain areas within floors 79 to 84 were upgraded also, and not reported because the floors were not fully upgraded?
For the north tower at least, it is difficult to accept that this relationship is yet another unbelievable coincidence related to 9/11. Certainly the upgrade work allowed for access to critical areas. But in considering this, a number of other, admittedly far-fetched questions come to mind. Why was the upgraded fireproofing measured to be twice the thickness specified?[2] Could incendiary or explosive materials have been embedded within the upgraded fireproofing? Could these “construction” activities have involved installing mechanisms to direct the planes to the specific areas in which they hit each building?
In any case, the demolition hypothesis should be considered more than just simple demolition. If the idea was to create the appearance of a fire-induced collapse, then a fiery presentation was needed, much more than the jet fuel/office furnishings would have been able to provide. It seems that thermate may have been used not only to weaken or cut the steel infrastructure throughout the buildings, but also to help create that fiery presentation near the floors of impact.
It seems possible that a thermate-like material, and/or other devices contributing to the destruction of the towers, could have been incorporated on the floors of impact and failure during the fireproofing upgrades. The access for such an operation would have been facilitated by the activity surrounding the fireproofing upgrades.
[1] NCSTAR 1-6A, page xxxvii, indicates which exact floors were upgraded. NCSTAR 1-6, page 20 repeats these claims, as noted in the figure above. Elsewhere in NCSTAR 1-6, on page lxxi, NIST muddies the water by saying “18 floors in WTC 1, including all the floors affected by the aircraft impact and fires" and “"13 floors in WTC 2, although none were directly affected by the aircraft impact and fires.". On this last part, NIST contradicts itself yet again in NCSTAR 1-6 (on page lxvii-lxix) by stating that some of the floors upgraded in WTC 2 were affected by the impacts and fires (notably floor 78). As with the contradictory amounts of jet fuel referenced throughout NIST’s report, these fireproofing upgrade statements appear to be another example of how detailed findings in the NIST team’s lower level reports were confused or made vague in higher-level reports.
[2] NCSTAR 1-6A (p xl) states “The overall average thickness determined from the 356 individual measurements was found to be 2.5 in, with a standard deviation of 0.6 in.” The same report (p 44) says “Note that some of the average thicknesses shown in Table 4-2 equal or exceed 3.5 in. No photos were available of upgraded floors to show the appearance of such high average thickness of SFRM.” Floor 94 of WTC 1 stands out in this data, with a SFRM thickness of more than 4 in. The specification for these upgrades was only 1.5 in, increased from the as-built specification of 0.75 in.
01/06/2008 Source: http://www.911blogger.com/node/13272
There appears to be a remarkable correlation between the floors upgraded for fireproofing in the WTC towers, in the years preceding 9/11/01, and the floors of impact, fire and failure. The fireproofing upgrades would have allowed for shutdown of the affected floors, and the exposure of the floor assemblies and the columns for a significant period of time. Exactly what work was done during that time?
In some sections of the NIST WTC report, the exact floors upgraded are listed. Other sections of the report suggest even more floors were upgraded, a total of 18 floors in WTC 1 and 13 floors in WTC 2, but the additional floors involved are not specified.[1]
WTC tower floors upgraded for fireproofing and floors of impact, fires and failure on 9/11 (click for full size)
This relationship is unmistakable for WTC 1. Some investigators have pointed out that a number of floors failed simultaneously in this tower, in accordion-like fashion, before the rest of the building began to 'collapse'. These floors seem to match up almost exactly with the floors that were upgraded. See the film clip below, and the following Powerpoint sequence created by Gregory Urich.
http://www.911research.com/wtc/evidence/videos/docs/north_tower_collapse...
http://www.cool-places.0catch.com/docs/Wtc1SeriesNW.ppt
Two blueprints for the 1999, 2000 construction upgrades to WTC 2, provided by a supporter, indicated that the work was done at almost exactly the point of impact and failure in that tower. That is, the southeast quadrant of WTC 2 was the focus of the work, at least on the 78th floor (the blueprints provided were for floors 77 and 78 only). It was the southeast quadrant of WTC 2, at and just above floor 78, where flight 175 hit.
We have also seen video of molten metal pouring from WTC 2 prior to its destruction. The relationship between fireproofing upgrades and the pouring metal is close but not exact, as the molten metal seen in videos appears to be coming from floors 80 and 81. Communication to the NIST team from Frank Lombardi of the Port Authority, in 2002, indicated that only floor 78 of the impact failure floors of WTC 2 had been upgraded. But NCSTAR 1-6A (table 4-2, p 45) lists floor 85 as an upgraded floor as well. Could it be that certain areas within floors 79 to 84 were upgraded also, and not reported because the floors were not fully upgraded?
For the north tower at least, it is difficult to accept that this relationship is yet another unbelievable coincidence related to 9/11. Certainly the upgrade work allowed for access to critical areas. But in considering this, a number of other, admittedly far-fetched questions come to mind. Why was the upgraded fireproofing measured to be twice the thickness specified?[2] Could incendiary or explosive materials have been embedded within the upgraded fireproofing? Could these “construction” activities have involved installing mechanisms to direct the planes to the specific areas in which they hit each building?
In any case, the demolition hypothesis should be considered more than just simple demolition. If the idea was to create the appearance of a fire-induced collapse, then a fiery presentation was needed, much more than the jet fuel/office furnishings would have been able to provide. It seems that thermate may have been used not only to weaken or cut the steel infrastructure throughout the buildings, but also to help create that fiery presentation near the floors of impact.
It seems possible that a thermate-like material, and/or other devices contributing to the destruction of the towers, could have been incorporated on the floors of impact and failure during the fireproofing upgrades. The access for such an operation would have been facilitated by the activity surrounding the fireproofing upgrades.
[1] NCSTAR 1-6A, page xxxvii, indicates which exact floors were upgraded. NCSTAR 1-6, page 20 repeats these claims, as noted in the figure above. Elsewhere in NCSTAR 1-6, on page lxxi, NIST muddies the water by saying “18 floors in WTC 1, including all the floors affected by the aircraft impact and fires" and “"13 floors in WTC 2, although none were directly affected by the aircraft impact and fires.". On this last part, NIST contradicts itself yet again in NCSTAR 1-6 (on page lxvii-lxix) by stating that some of the floors upgraded in WTC 2 were affected by the impacts and fires (notably floor 78). As with the contradictory amounts of jet fuel referenced throughout NIST’s report, these fireproofing upgrade statements appear to be another example of how detailed findings in the NIST team’s lower level reports were confused or made vague in higher-level reports.
[2] NCSTAR 1-6A (p xl) states “The overall average thickness determined from the 356 individual measurements was found to be 2.5 in, with a standard deviation of 0.6 in.” The same report (p 44) says “Note that some of the average thicknesses shown in Table 4-2 equal or exceed 3.5 in. No photos were available of upgraded floors to show the appearance of such high average thickness of SFRM.” Floor 94 of WTC 1 stands out in this data, with a SFRM thickness of more than 4 in. The specification for these upgrades was only 1.5 in, increased from the as-built specification of 0.75 in.
WTC Bulding 7 Collapse Compilation
On September 11th, 2001 two airplanes hit the World Trade Center Twin Towers. WTC Building #7 was not hit by any airplane. Yet it collapsed seven hours later, at around 5:20pm, in its own footprints and in only 6.5 seconds.
When scientists find explosives in the dust, it looks like a controlled demolition & sounds just like a controlled demolition - it is fairly easy to see that it is indeed, a controlled demolition.
It's time for a NEW INVESTIGATION to find out why the official 9/11 Commission Report did not bother to mention the "sudden and unexpected" collapse of Building #7.
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