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.
Geeze, what a shame that Powell has turned out to be such a skunk.
uh-oh... that is an insult to skunks.
Those pictures of the National Cathedral service, the memory of the Battlehymn of the Republic....gives me goosebumps!
Yes, it is. Thanks for the reminder.
I'm glad you're still here. If and when you decide about the toaster, I'm sure snugs will be pleased to do it for you.
There is so much material available on those three days I focused on today, from the 11th through the 14th, plus tons more stuff from afterwards. So I'm glad what I selected hit the mark for people in evoking those awful days. I also like the juxtaposition of today's Ground Zero and St. Paul's events with those of five years ago.
Grin...justifiably so. ;-)
Although I've never been a Powell fan, I did respect him. I'm surprised he turned out to be so disloyal.
snugs, hanging out here may be an excellent idea.
thanks
Nope, I've never seen the pix of Lynne Cheney with VP that day either. Fascinating.
Me too. And to think that if Gore had won, there probably would never have been a service at the National Cathedral. Dem politicos aren't into such things.
It is, indeed. As I told snugs, the photo is remarkably intimate given the circumstances. They are an exceptionally close couple and it shows in that photo.
George W. Bush and Laura almost single-handedly kept this country together in those early days and weeks.
Even TIME or Newsweek magazine was calling Laura the "Comforter in Chief".
Well, prairie, I'm hitting the hay. I'll try to spend some time on tomorrow's thread, but will be spending much of the day in front of the TV.
Thank you for telling me that. I was hoping they wouldn't become red X's too soon! :D
Me too. I'll select one of the Ground Zero pics but since snugs has gone to bed, I'll decide tomorrow.
LOL
Night Wolfstar and everybody, I'm heading to bed too.
I went to work that morning between the time the first tower was hit and the second. I didn't know until I got to work that the first tower had been hit. I went up to the youth room and got the TV tuned in just about the time the second tower was hit. I saw that happen and literally froze in place for what seemed like a really long time. After that and then hearing about the Pentagon, I did what I needed to do and went home. I locked all the doors and loaded both guns. My husband and all 3 kids were at school 35 miles away from where we were living. I paced the floor til they got home. I vowed then to get a cell phone, I never want to be in such a noncommunicative state again. It tooks weeks for the knot that formed in my stomach to go away.
Oh, how I love that couple. The right people at the right time in our history! Thank God for President GW and Laura Bush!
You did an outstanding job.
Bookmarked :)
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