Of reality, fiction: Bush on 9/11

Trying again on that day, columnist Robert Plunket wonders why the president of the US appeared among the many final to know concerning the worst terrorist assault in American historical past.

Former U.S. Rep. Dan Miller wonders why communications have been so unhealthy the president had to make use of a mobile phone to achieve Washington.

And bartender Darlene Sievers wonders what Mohamed Atta, the lead hijacker, was doing in her lounge just some weeks earlier than Sept. 11, 2001.

On a day of unimaginable horror, President Bush’s go to to a Sarasota elementary college was all however overshadowed by the tragedies elsewhere. But questions rapidly rose concerning the president’s actions that morning, together with these of the Secret Service, the company charged with defending him.

Till lately, the controversy over Bush’s temporary time in Florida has been largely confined to conspiracy-minded Web websites. However now it has burst into prominence with Fahrenheit 9/11, the brand new Michael Moore movie that reveals a blank-looking Bush holding a youngsters’s guide — My Pet Goat — for a number of minutes as a nationwide catastrophe unfolds.

Critics of the movie say it’s grossly unfair to the president. Bush advised the 9/11 fee, which is investigating the assaults and the federal government’s response, that he felt he ought to mission “power and calm” till he higher understood what was taking place.

From his testimony and that of others, a barely fuller image has emerged of the president’s morning. The St. Petersburg Occasions additionally performed quite a few interviews and examined public data in an effort to separate reality from fiction.

However to today the story stays fraught with confusion, contradictions and questions. Amongst them: How a lot in command was the commander in chief?

On the night time of Sept. 10, Bush and his entourage stayed on the Colony Seashore and Tennis Resort on Longboat Key, the slender barrier island of luxurious properties and condos fringing the Gulf of Mexico.

In accordance with the official schedule, the motorcade was to go away the Colony at 8:30 the following morning for the drive to Emma E. Booker Elementary College, 20 minutes and a world away in a predominantly black space of Sarasota.

If the motorcade was on time and even a couple of minutes late, Bush would have been in his limousine, with its superior communications, when the primary airplane hit the World Commerce Heart at 8:46 a.m. and CNN started virtually rapid protection. But Bush didn’t study of the crash till after he arrived on the college, the place journalists’ cell telephones already have been ringing with the information.

“It mystifies me why they didn’t name the president — he’s completely surrounded by state-of-the-art communications tools and no person tells him,” says Plunket, a Sarasota Journal columnist ready on the college.

Of the numerous accounts of how Bush realized concerning the first crash, probably the most baffling comes from the president himself. At the least twice he has stated that he was watching TV when the primary airplane hit.

“I used to be sitting exterior the classroom ready to go in, and I noticed an airplane hit the tower,” Bush advised a city corridor assembly in Orlando that December. “And I used to fly myself, and I stated, “Nicely, there’s one horrible pilot.’ And I stated it will need to have been a horrible accident.”

Bush repeated the story a month later at the same discussion board in California, although his model appears unattainable — no footage of American Airways 11 hitting the north tower surfaced till the following day.

In accordance with different accounts, Bush first heard the information from chief of workers Andrew Card or political adviser Karl Rove — each of whom have been with him — or nationwide safety adviser Condoleezza Rice in Washington.

Miller, then a member of Congress from Bradenton, stated he and others within the receiving line have been advised to attend whereas Bush took a cellphone name from Rice.

When Bush came visiting a couple of minutes later, “it was nothing completely different from the traditional, temporary greeting with the president,” Miller says. “I don’t suppose he was conscious on the time, perhaps, of the seriousness.”

Sticking to his schedule, Bush entered the classroom about 9 a.m. and, judging by a videotape of the occasion, appears to take pleasure in himself because the second-graders learn aloud. 5 minutes later, Card slips in and whispers in Bush’s ear {that a} second airplane has hit the commerce heart.

To journalists and others glued to a TV in a close-by room, the second crash was electrifying. “The sensation among the many reporters — me actually — was that this was an unlimited, world-shaking occasion, and right here I’m caught on this college,” Plunket recollects.

A number of the president’s aides clearly felt the identical means.

Sarasota County Sheriff Invoice Balkwill, who was in the primary workplace, stated a Marine carrying Bush’s cellphone instantly turned to him and requested, “Are you able to get everyone prepared? We’re out of right here.”

However nobody left.

As a substitute, the tape reveals, Bush stays seated for no less than 5 extra minutes, though his expression by turns is somber, pensive, distracted and offended. Then he loosens up a bit and even seems to linger within the classroom.

One of many many unanswered questions on that day is why the Secret Service didn’t instantly hustle Bush to a safe location, because it apparently did with Vice President Dick Cheney.

A workers report of the 9/11 fee concludes that brokers bodily eliminated Cheney from the White Home at 9:36 a.m. and led him into an underground shelter about 10 a.m. However the report acknowledges “conflicting proof” on the precise time, and White Home photographer David Bohrer advised ABC that Cheney was evacuated simply after 9 a.m. — proper after the second airplane hit.

That might jibe with the account of Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta, whose testimony to the fee signifies Cheney already was within the bunker when Mineta arrived about 9:20 a.m.

Mineta’s account additionally suggests it was Cheney who was most concerned in an early and dramatic choice: to shoot down any errant planes.

In his testimony, Mineta stated that about 9:25 a.m. he heard an unidentified man within the bunker reporting on the progress of a airplane heading towards the Pentagon.

When the airplane was 10 miles out, the person “stated to the vice chairman, “Does the order nonetheless stand?’ ” Mineta testified. “And the vice chairman whipped his neck round and stated, “After all the order nonetheless stands.’ “

However, American Flight 77 continued on and hit the Pentagon.

The president, in the meantime, had left the classroom about 9:15 a.m. however remained within the college for 20 minutes, participating in spotty conversations with Cheney.

“There was not an open line of communication between the president and vice chairman on the morning of 9/11 however reasonably a collection of calls between the 2 leaders,” the fee workers report says. Bush advised the fee he had to make use of a mobile phone and was annoyed by communications issues that morning.

As quickly because the second airplane hit, the Secret Service ought to have whisked Bush out of the college, an professional on the company says.

“With an unfolding terrorist assault, the process ought to have been to get the president to the closest safe location as rapidly as potential, which clearly isn’t a faculty,” says Philip Melanson, creator of The Secret Service: The Hidden Historical past of an Enigmatic Company. “You’re safer in that presidential limo, which is bombproof and blastproof and bulletproof.”

The limousine had one other benefit.

“There’s the concept of defending the president after which there’s the concept of command and management,” Melanson says. “Within the presidential limo, the communications system is nearly duplicative of the White Home — he can do virtually something from that however he can’t do a lot sitting in a faculty.”

The Secret Service gained’t focus on safety measures that day: “All of our related data has been offered to the 9/11 fee and we’re awaiting ultimate reviews earlier than making any remark,” spokesperson Ann Roman stated.

About 9:30 a.m. — nonetheless within the college and nonetheless on his authentic schedule – Bush stood earlier than college students, lecturers and others and advised them the nation had been the goal of an “obvious terrorist assault.”

“Sadly, I can be returning to Washington,” he stated.

Or would he? Secret Service brokers and Card felt the scenario within the capital was too unstable. “All witnesses agreed that the president wished to return to Washington and solely grudgingly agreed to go elsewhere,” the fee workers report stated.

Brokers apparently toyed with the concept of taking Bush again to the Colony “as a result of they won’t be capable of get the planes prepared,” recollects Katherine Moulton, the resort’s president. She says an agent known as her from the college and warranted her the resort was “absolutely protected towards something which may occur.”

As a substitute, the motorcade left the college at 9:35 a.m. and headed straight for the Sarasota airport, the place Air Power One was ready. A backup airplane, a Boeing 757, was 60 miles away in Tampa.

Miller, the Bradenton congressman, hurried up the rear steps of the presidential jet whereas Bush went up the entrance. He paused within the doorway to wave to photographers, elevating additional questions on safety that day.

Shortly earlier than 10 a.m., Air Power One took off “like a rocket,” one White Home staffer recalled. Miller stated he and Adam Putnam of Bartow, the one different member of the Home aboard, have been instructed to “buckle up tightly” and advised they have been going to Washington.

Some passengers later stated the airplane appeared to be doing large, sluggish circles over Sarasota, although Miller thought it flew due north for about 45 minutes. Then it turned west; he might see the seashores of the Florida Panhandle far beneath.

One other thriller of 9/11 is why Air Power One flew no less than an hour with no fighter jet escort although one had been requested earlier than 10 a.m., in keeping with the fee workers report. Through the time the 747 was unescorted, one hijacked airplane was nonetheless within the air, different planes have been lacking and no less than one menace had been reported towards Air Power One itself.

Fighters already had been scrambled to guard Washington, and jets have been available in Florida that morning: The North American Air Protection Command had two F-15s on alert at Homestead Air Power Base close to Miami and one other pair at Tyndall Air Power Base, close to Panama Metropolis, in keeping with Maj. Douglas Martin.

“I can’t think about by what glitch the safety was not offered to Air Power One as quickly because it took off,” Melanson says. “I might have thought there’d be one thing in place whereby one cellphone name from the top of the safety element would get the fighters within the air instantly.”

As Air Power One headed towards a still-secret vacation spot, Miller and others within the VIP space obtained periodic updates from Rove and a White Home aide. However “communications have been an actual drawback,” Miller says — the TV reception was poor and everybody had been warned to not use cell telephones.

Lastly, about 11:30 a.m., Miller and Putnam have been summoned ahead to see the president. Bush identified that they now had an escort — F-16s had been scrambled from a base in Texas — and stated a menace had been acquired from somebody who knew the airplane’s code identify. (The White Home later stated there was no such menace.)

Bush “was very critical, very decided, a lot cooler than I used to be,” Miller recollects. “It was very emotional as a result of we simply didn’t know at the moment the total magnitude of what was taking place.”

About 11:45 a.m, Air Power One landed at Barksdale Air Power Base in Louisiana, the place — in distinction to the unfastened safety in Sarasota — it was instantly surrounded by troopers and armored tools. Bush was pushed to a safe location to tape a speech to the nation whereas Miller, Putnam and others waited for the backup airplane from Tampa.

It might have been considered one of only a few planes within the sky that afternoon, or for the following a number of days: At 9:45 a.m., Transportation Secretary Mineta had ordered all civil plane to land, the primary shutdown of civil aviation in U.S. historical past.

As Miller and most different VIPs headed to Washington on the backup flight, Air Power One continued its odyssey. From Louisiana, Bush flew on to Offut Air Power Base in Nebraska and eventually again to Washington that night.

“It was,” he later stated with outstanding understatement, “an fascinating day.”

Was the president ever in peril whereas in Florida on 9/11?

Within the days and weeks after the fear assaults, information organizations within the Sarasota space reported a number of incidents suggesting he was. However like so many issues that day, rumor typically superceded actuality.

One of the tantalizing tales appeared Sept. 26 within the weekly Longboat Observer, which stated Longboat Key fireplace Marshal Carroll Mooneyhan had overheard a “unusual trade” between a receptionist on the Colony and a safety guard.

As associated by Mooneyhan, a van occupied by males of Center Jap descent had pulled as much as the Colony about 6 a.m. on Sept. 11 and stated they’d a “pool facet” interview with the president. The Secret Service stated it had no document of an interview and turned them away.

To conspiracy buffs, the incident bore an eerie resemblance to a profitable ruse used 8,000 miles away in Afghanistan. On Sept. 9 – two days earlier than the U.S. assaults – Ahmed Massoud, the pro-American chief of the Northern Alliance, had been assassinated by two males posing as journalists and carrying a bomb disguised as a TV digicam.

Had been the boys on Longboat Key planning to kill Bush in comparable vogue? The issue with this concept is that Mooneyhan denies he ever advised the Observer about any males in a van searching for an interview.

“How did they get that data from me if I didn’t realize it?” Mooneyhan asks.

The Observer sticks by its story. All of the paper and Mooneyhan agree on is that he chatted with a reporter — he says they have been pals — and that each have been questioned by the Secret Service after the story appeared. (The company wouldn’t remark.)

The Observer additionally reported that two Center Jap males who lived in a Longboat Key cellular house park left shortly earlier than 9/11, saying they have been going to a marriage however by no means got here again. That aroused suspicion as a result of “marriage ceremony” is usually a code phrase for an al-Qaida assault.

However Martin Sharkey, the deputy Longboat Key police chief, recollects that the boys actually had gone to a marriage in Jordan and returned “to search out their names or one thing on TV. They known as the FBI and stated, “We’re not concerned in something.’ I do not forget that was checked out and people individuals have been again right here working.”

A Sarasota TV station reported one other incident: Omer Zainelabden known as Sarasota police on Sept. 10 to say {that a} good friend named “Gandi,” who had made threatening remarks towards the president prior to now, had simply arrived on the town. Zainelabden, a Sudanese, then disappeared — maybe nabbed by immigration authorities in a publish 9/11 sweep of Muslim males.

However data present Zainelabden known as police Sept. 11, hours after Bush left city. And Zainelabden, who had a historical past of heavy consuming, was nonetheless in Sarasota months later, different data present.

However whereas many reviews have been questionable at greatest, it quickly turned recognized that among the 9/11 hijackers had frolicked on the west coast of Florida and brought flight classes there. That lends credibility to the account of Darlene Sievers, a longtime bartender on the Vacation Inn on Longboat Key.

Sievers was watching TV after the assaults when she was shocked to see {a photograph} of lead hijacker Mohamed Atta — the person she swears had been within the resort’s lounge just some weeks earlier than.

Atta, she recollects, got here in throughout glad hour, sat down by himself on the bar and ordered a $4 rum and Coke. A couple of minutes later one other man, carrying a brown, aviator-style jacket, sat down subsequent to Atta. He didn’t communicate English and didn’t need something to drink, so Atta requested for the examine, left a $20 invoice, and the 2 males walked out collectively.

“I used to be kind of dumbfounded he left me a $16 tip with no dialog,” Sievers says. After seeing Atta on TV, Sievers advised her son, who known as the Sheriff’s Workplace, which notified the FBI.

“They known as me twice and did spend a while out on the Vacation Inn — I felt they have been taking it significantly,” she says though she by no means heard something extra.

The eating room supervisor and a waiter on the resort, which has since been torn down, stated they too had seen Atta on different events. It’s actually potential – Atta and Marwan Al-Shehhi, who piloted the second airplane to hit the World Commerce Heart, educated at a flight college in Venice, only a half hour away by automotive.

What have been the 2 males doing on the Vacation Inn that night? Had been they making ultimate plans for the assaults that may remodel the president’s routine day in Florida into one that may perpetually alter his presidency?

Sievers doesn’t know. However she stays satisfied that one of many males was Mohamed Atta.

“I can bear in mind individuals’s drinks,” she says, “and I’ll always remember these piercing black eyes.”

— Occasions researchers Kitty Bennett and Cathy Wos contributed to this report, which additionally comprises data from “An Fascinating Day” by Paul Thompson on the Heart for Cooperative Analysis.

— Susan Taylor Martin could be contacted at susansptimes.com

THE MORNING OF 9/11

(ALL TIMES A.M. UNLESS OTHERWISE SPECIFIED)

HOUR 1

8:30 to eight:39 – Bush motorcade leaves Colony Seashore and Tennis Resort.

8:46 – American Airways Flight 11 hits World Commerce Heart.

8:48 – First media reviews of crash.

8:55 (roughly) – Motorcade arrives at Emma E. Booker Elementary College.

9:00 (roughly) – Bush enters classroom.

9:03 – United Airways Flight 175 hits World Commerce Heart.

9:03 (roughly) – Marine carrying Bush’s cellphone says, “We’re out of right here.” Nobody leaves.

9:03 (roughly) – Secret Service takes Vice President Dick Cheney to White Home bunker, in keeping with White Home photographer.

9:05-9:07 – Chief of workers Andrew Card tells Bush about second airplane crash; Bush stays in classroom one other 5 minutes.

9:15 (roughly) – Bush talks to Cheney, Rice and others.

9:20 (roughly) Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta arrives at bunker.

9:25 (roughly) – Mineta hears Cheney say “order nonetheless stands,” apparently referring to shoot-down order.

9:30 – Bush speaks to lecturers, college students and others.

HOUR 2

9:35 – Motorcade leaves for Sarasota airport.

9:37 – American Airways Flight 77 hits Pentagon.

9:45 – Mineta orders all civil plane to land.

9:55 – Air Power One takes off from Sarasota.

10:03 – United Airways Flight 93 crashes in Pennsylvania.

HOUR 3

11-11:20 – Fighter jets escort Air Power One.

HOUR 4

12:03 p.m. – Backup airplane takes off from MacDill Air Power Base.