Posted on 09/10/2006 4:23:55 PM PDT by Wolfstar
PRESIDENTIAL NEWS OF THE DAY: President and Mrs. Bush, and the American people, begin observances of the 5th anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorists attacks. Excerpt from the AP story by JENNIFER LOVEN, as published on Yahoo News a short time ago.
Bush, wife lay wreaths at ground zeroNEW YORK -- President Bush and his wife Laura stood in somber silence on Sunday after laying wreaths at the ground zero site where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. They honored the victims of the Sept. 11 attacks on a tour that will take them to all three sites of devastation on the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
The Bushes set floral wreaths adrift in ponds of water that mark the former location of the north and south towers. They uttered no words, and walked hand-in-hand on the floor of the cavernous pit, after a slow procession down the long, flag-lined ramp from the street level four to five stories above.
The Bushes then attended a service of prayer and remembrance at nearby St. Paul's Chapel.
The 240-year-old Episcopal church, across the street from the site, escaped damage and became a center of refuge for weary rescue workers.
They were the first stops of nearly 24 hours of observances at the three sites where terrorists wrought death and destruction and transformed his presidency. Nearly 3,000 Americans were killed in the attacks.
On Monday, the anniversary, he was to visit with firefighters and other emergency workers at a firehouse in lower Manhattan; attend a ceremony at the field in Shanksville, Pa., where one of the hijacked planes hurtled to the ground; and participate in a wreath-laying ceremony at the Pentagon.
He also was to speak to Americans during a prime-time address Monday night from the Oval Office.
Accompanying the president and first lady at ground zero were New York Gov. George Pataki, New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg, and Rudy Giuliani, who was New York mayor at the time of the attacks.
September 11, 2001, presidential pre-attack timeline, and a little known incident that may have been a foiled assassination attempt...
The President flew to Sarasota, Florida, on September 10th. He stayed at the Colony Beach Resort located on a coral island in the Gulf of Mexico off Sarasota. After a private dinner with his brother, Florida governor Jeb Bush, other Republican politicians and activists, the President went to bed around 10:00pm.Surface-to-air missiles were placed on the roof of the resort (Sarasota Herald-Tribune, 9/10/02), and an Airborne Warning and Control System (AWACS) plane circled high overhead (Fighting Back: The War on Terrorism—From Inside the Bush White House, by Bill Sammon, 10/02, p. 25). The Secret Service does not make public its detailed security practices, so the public record does not clarify if this type of protection was standard for presidents at the time, or whether security was increased because of possible threats on the life of President Bush in particular. However, an incident the following morning suggests it was due to threats.
On the morning of September 11, President Bush awoke a little before 6:00am. About a half-hour later, he took a four-mile job around a nearby golf course accompanied by a reporter friend and his Secret Service detail.
At about the same time GWB was getting ready for his jog, a van carrying several Middle Eastern men pulled up to the Colony’s guard station. The men said they were a television news crew with a scheduled “poolside” interview with the President. They asked for a certain Secret Service agent by name. The message was relayed to a Secret Service agent inside the resort, who hadn’t heard of the agent mentioned or of plans for an interview. He told the men to contact the President’s public relations office in Washington, DC, and had the van turned away. (Longboat Observer, 9/26/01)
The Secret Service may have foiled an assassination attempt. Two days earlier, Ahmed Shah Massoud, leader of Afghanistan’s Northern Alliance, had been murdered by a similar ruse. Massoud's assassination is widely believed to have been timed to remove the Taliban’s most popular and respected opponent in anticipation of the backlash that would occur after the 9/11 attacks. (BBC, 9/10/01, BBC, 9/10/01 (B), Time, 8/4/02, St. Petersburg Times, 9/9/02)
After his jog, GWB showered, then sat down for his daily intelligence briefing around 8 a.m. While the President was being briefed, the planes that would be hijacked began taking off. American Airlines Flight 11 was first, leaving Boston’s Logan Airport at 7:59 a.m. The others soon followed, except for United Flight 93, scheduled to leave at 8:01, but which was delayed on the runway for about 40 minutes. Around the same time the Flight 11 hijackers were stabbing passenger Daniel Lewin (about 8:20) the President’s briefing ended and he prepared to leave the Colony. Accounts of when his motorcade left for Emma Booker Elementary School vary from 8:30 to 8:39. He arrived at about 9:00am.
The first media reports of Flight 11’s crash into the World Trade Center began around 8:48, two minutes after the attack happened. The President was informed either during the motorcade trip to the school or as he stepped out of the limousine (reports and recollections vary). The President later recalled what he was thinking at the time: “I was concentrating on the program at this point, thinking about what I was going to say [about the plane crash]. Obviously, I felt it was an accident. I was concerned about it, but there were no alarm bells.” At 9:03, at the same time the program at the elementary school started, Flight 175 crashed into the South Tower of the World Trade Center.
Chief of Staff Andrew Card was in a nearby room when he heard the news of the second attack. He waited until there was a pause in the reading drill to walk in and tell the President. The children were getting their books from under their seats to read a story together when Mr. Card came in (Daily Mail, 9/8/02) and whispered to the President: “A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack.” Accounts vary between 9:05 and 9:07am as to when this historic moment occurred.
WOLFSTAR'S NOTE RE TIMELINE: Accounts of the specific timing of events always vary somewhat during and after emergencies. People use different instruments to note the time -- different watches or clocks, many of which run somewhat fast or somewhat slow.
In addition, as any criminal lawyer knows, human memory is notoriously unreliable for retaining details, particularly of shocking events. This is why eye witnesses to crimes are rarely believed without corroborating physical and circumstantial evidence.
Leftist enemies of President Bush have tried viciously to use the slight discrepancies in different accounts of the timeline that morning to paint a portrait of President Bush as clueless, inattentive, negligent, even cowardly during those first minutes and hours of and after the attacks. So I have deliberately started the above timeline with the little-known probable assassination attempt earlier that morning to make it as clear as possible why the President could not simply dash, willy nilly, from the school to wherever. The Secret Service first had to have a plan of action as to where to take the President to ensure not only his safety, but continuity of government given that the nation's capitol city was also under attack, over 3000 planes were still in the air at the time, and no one knew how many more were being hijacked.
For those who are interested in a straightforward, contemporaneous, totally non-political timeline, here's a good one from CNN's archives. It was posted at 12:27 PM EDT (1627 GMT), September 12, 2001.
HISTORICALLY IMPORTANT TRANSCRIPTS: Unless otherwise noted, all transcript links are to the official WhiteHouse.gov web pages, most of which also contain video and audio links to the events.
Sept. 11, 9:30am EDT, Remarks by the President After Two Planes Crash Into World Trade Center, Emma Booker Elementary School, Sarasota, Florida. (In addition to the transcript, this page only contains an audio link.)Sept. 11 (time not recorded on WH web page), Remarks by the President Upon Arrival at Barksdale Air Force Base
Sept. 11, 1:47pm EDT, Press Briefing to the Pool By Ari Fleischer aboard Air Force One en route to Offutt Air Force Base, Nebraska
Sept. 11 (time not recorded on WH web page), Press Briefing by Karen Hughes, Counselor to the President, at National FBI Headquarters
Sept. 11, 5:30pm EDT, Press Briefing to the Pool By Ari Fleischer aboard Air Force One en route to Andrews Air Force Base
Sept. 11, 7:15pm EDT, Press Briefing by Attorney General, Secretary of HHS, Secretary of Transportation, and FEMA Director
Sept. 11, 8:30pm EDT, Statement by the President in His Address to the Nation
VIDEOS: Caution...these are not for the faint of heart and probably are not suitable for very young children.
This is an excellent but heart-wrenching video set with tragic irony to Ray Charles' tune "What a Wonderful World."Other videos can be found here.
re: 41
That's beautiful.
:) True, very true.
Thanks for the ping to what was/ is on your/ all our
hearts & minds.
Thank you for the photos. NEVER forget.
Thank you so much for doing this dose tonight. You did a magnificent job!
My memory of that day is waking up early in my dorm room. I was doing my math homework on my bed when my a friend stormed in and told us. About half of us on the dorm hall gathered for prayer. It was a pretty crazy time. I was working at a daycare at the time and the strongest thing that I remember was when one of the dad's came and picked up their daughter- he just grabbed her and held on tight. It kind of made me miss my dad!
Good night freep me when you have time re job situation
I listened to the link, and that was Louis Armstrong.
http://www.google.com/musicl?lid=GcSKIIFLjSG&aid=JCCKEEtYqHM
This link shows he recorded it. I did a similar search for Ray Charles and couldn't find that he had recorded it.
Was it kaslin who said this? Looks like she was right.
That's interesting about the van with the Middle Eastern men. I don't think I'd heard about that before, but it does sound like they were trying to kill the President. Thank God for that on the ball Secret Service agent!
Bump for history
That was the most poignant thing during that whole morning.
I still remember that day. It sort of started the night before. I had just started law school the previous week, and one of my floormates was quickly becoming a good friend. I had a strange dream that he was crying and would not say why, just that it was something awful.
I tried to shrug it off, grabbed breakfast, and went to Contracts. Everything seemed normal, and I almost forgot about it. Class let out as usual and I went back to my dorm to get my Property books. As I got to the lounge, I noticed a huge group of people standing out there, which was unusual but I figured there was some sort of sports thing going on. I was mildly irritated thinking about how I'd have to politely "excuse me" my way through about fifteen people to get to my door. I am not a morning person.
What made me pause was the silence. People were just standing there not saying anything. I asked, half impatiently, and half curiously, what was going on. I do not remember whether I got an answer right away or not. Someone said, "You have to see this," though I'm still not entirely sure whether I heard it or whether it was one of those eerie unspoken commands. Someone said the World Trade Center had been bombed, and I made my way across the room to where my friend was sitting.
Just as I took a seat next to him, we saw the footage of the second tower falling. He whispered "Oh my God" a few times. His voice was shaking as much as the rest of him. I just sat there too numb to believe it was happening. There was nothing to say, so I just sat in silence with everyone else. I was too stunned to even put my arms around him, even though he leaned in closer to me. Luckily, my presence seemed to be enough.
At some point, only a few moments probably, but it seemed like much longer, people dwindled away. My buddy and I decided to go to class, more to see our classmates and tell them the news than out of any interest in property law.
Our professor understood that nobody was in the mood to study, though he gave us the option of having class. Several people were crying, including the woman next to me whose dad was on a business trip to New York City. She had tried to call him and was not able to reach him. The guy on the other side of her put his arm on her shoulder. I stuck around in case anyone needed to come back to my room and use a phone. I knew a lot of people lived off-campus, and I myself did not have a cell phone until roughly a week later. As it turned out, everyone who needed to call someone did have a cell.
The next day was almost as bad. There were all sorts of notices posted about suspicious looking packages and a bomb scare at Yale. We already had a feeling that major universities might be terror targets and felt like sitting ducks. I said as much when some floormates and I were lounging around talking one night. We all had work to do, but none of us wanted to be left with our own thoughts, so we just milled around in one big purposeless mass. Some people wanted to go home. Nobody did, of course, but it was difficult to tell whether that was because they changed their minds or because they were even more afraid to fly out of Logan Airport. Taking the train and flying out of New York wasn't real appealing either. Needless to say, we didn't plan any excursions to Boston that week.
Wow! I'd never heard that story before about the "interview" - how scarry is that ..?? Thank God the SS didn't fall for it.
I guess that's why I continue to pray Isaiah 54:17 - No weapon formed against you shall prosper ..."
And .. as usual .. the drive-by is silent about the 55% rating for the President's handling of the WOT!!
Whooo Hooooo!!
MUST VIEW . . .
At the following link, you will find MANY videoclips from today, including a videoclip detailing the poignant comments made by the President about an hour ago -- the videoclip is entitled, "Bush approaches 911 with 'heavy heart'"
[Raw video from today's prayer service is also available]
http://news.yahoo.com/video;_ylt=Ak_cRmEFRVn.wlH.KdQ2Ldes0NUE;_ylu=X3oDMTBhNXIwMGFqBHNlYwN2cHJvbW8-
MUST READ . . .
9/10: A DEFINITIONAL DAY FOR THE LEFT
September 10th, 2006
Tomorrow, while much of the country pauses to remember the victims of 9/11 on the five year anniversary of that horrible day, it will occur to many of us what those attacks signified: the day that the United States awoke from its decades-long slumber and finally faced up to the fact that we were at war with a grimly determined, fanatical enemy hell bent on destroying us.
For others, especially for those on the left, 9/11 will be remembered as a tragedy, a day when our “chickens came home to roost” and nearly 3,000 of our fellow citizens paid the price for our folly. In this historical construct, rather than remembering 9/11 as a wake up call, the left sees the anniversary as a day of atonement, a day to make amends for our past sins.
You can read the entire commentary at
http://americanthinker.com/articles.php?article_id=5841
THIS JUST IN: THE GOP INTENDS TO CAMPAIGN!
Posted by Hugh Hewitt | 9:22 AM
The Washington Post is moving into all Democrat-boosting, all-the-time-mode with this morning's "In a Pivotal Year, GOP Plans to Get Personal: Millions to Go to Digging Up Dirt on Democrats."
Chuck Schumer, we must assume, will be not be running any ads against Conrad Burns or any other GOP incumbent using opposition research.
Hugh nails the Democrat cheerleaders in the MSM!
http://hughhewitt.townhall.com/g/c15e93c9-355d-4227-89e8-905e79474f7f
POLLING UPDATE . . .
ABCNEWS
42% approve 55% disapprove 9/5-7/06
33% approve 68% disapprove 5/11-15/06
Two interesting side notes that will make you go hmmmmmmmmmmmmm!
1.) This JA rating is the highest for a ABCNews/WashPost since January 2006 and only SIX POINTS lower than the manufactured JA rating ABCNews produced for the President in December 2004 -- only 1 month after President Bush's historic re-election where he garnered more votes than any other presidential candidate in history, becoming the first candidate since 1988 to earn 51% of the vote!
Bottomline: Despite MSM lies to the contrary, the President's JA ratings have barely moved since his re-election in 2004!
http://pollingreport.com/BushJob1.htm
2.) According to this recent poll, the President's JA rating for his handling of Iraq is now 41% -- exactly where it was in December 2004 . . . Again, despite MSM lies to the contrary, the President's JA ratings have barely moved since his re-election.
http://pollingreport.com/iraq.htm
HEADS UP . . .
FoxNews should carry live or taped coverage of the President's breakfast with NY firefighters early tomorrow morning -- I don't know the exact time (I would imagine early, e.g., 7 AM ish!)
Saluting a powerful, steadfast leader as we approach the fifth anniversary of a horrible day.
Great work, Wolfstar.
I can't imagine losing 2 sons at the same time.
I love the pic of Poppy holding GWB's hand. I have always maintained that most of Clinton's behavior is the result of the psychological damage done by not having a loving father.
Agreed.
Thanks. After listening to it a couple more times, I picked up his distinctive growly voice. :)
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.