Big 9/11 Secret? WH went "deer-in-headlights", left nobody in charge.

[mouse7]

I've got to buy the Clarke book soon. The more I pick up about what was going on in the WH command and control structure, the more it looks like damn near all the neo-cons disintegrated under the pressure and went into "deer-in-headlights" mode.

Richard Clarke, Trans. Sec'y Mineta, and some junior staffers were the only functional humans in the command and control areas (situation room and bunker) of the White House. WSJ said that the military wasn't even put on alert until Gen. Myers did it more than an hour after the Pentagon got hit. Bush was at the school, completely out of position. Cheney was for all practical purposes out of the loop because his wife kept turning off the crisis communication system to watch TV. The only way Cheney would allow that to happen was if he was in "deer-in-headlights" mode, too. We know that Rumsfeld was in his office, not the Pentagon command center when the Pentagon was hit. So Rumsfeld was somehow out of the loop as well. I'll credit Rumsfeld for being a functional human, because he did help some wounded at the Pentagon, but he was completely out of position and not doing the job he was supposed to be doing. Powell was out of the country. The chain of command then sits at that point on who, Paul O'Neill? Ashcroft? Hastert?

Mineta was at the bunker complex, getting radar updates on Flight 77 every 7 secs until it hit the Pentagon. Mineta gave the order to ground all civil aviation three minutes later... Bush was still at the Elementary School

[SpiralHawk]

1. They couldn't even muster a pea shooter

to defend the Pentagon, with all the time and warning they had.

Bush is the most pathetic "commander in chief" ever to wear a codpiece.

He and his administration failed America.

[DAGDA56]

2. I like the phrase öut of position.

it's the kind of thing that sticks in the mind (like a sports analogy) and could really become part of the overall discourse. I credit you with using it first, and wouldn't be surprised to seeing it show up elsewhere...

[Jim Warren]

3. Correct me if I am wrong....... poppy?

Just going on memory from all the news blather that day but wasn't poppy bush at the WH when the planes hit on 911?
I can find nothing searching this since other than confirm he was in fact in DC that morning. Seems though, I'm pretty sure, it was mentioned as an aside from some TV news desk that he just happened to be "visiting" while junior was out of town.

[mouse7]

7. He ended up in Milwaukee when the planes got grounded.

I don't know where he was the previous night, but Poppy got stuck in Milwaukee by the flight groundings.

"169) 2:36 p.m.: En route to Offutt, Bush reached his father on the phone. His aides left him alone in the cabin. "Where are you?" Bush recalled asking his father. The former president said he and his wife, Barbara, were in Milwaukee, on their way to Minneapolis. "What are you doing in Milwaukee?" "You grounded my plane," the former president said."

http://www.911timeline.net/

[izzie]

10. I am sure I read Poppy was in the air and came down with every else.

I think I recall mid-west.

[RedSock]

11. poppy began the day at the WH

he and his wife had breakfast with laura and took an early flight out. just wrapping up some last-minute details with old buddy cheney no doubt.

bush's father spent the night of 9/10 at the fucking white house.

in a very pro-bush book about how wonderful * and laura's relationship is, it is all laid out in the first chapter.

[madaboutharry]

4. It is truly stunning

how the WH covered this up for so long and was able to manipulate the press and thus, the nation, into viewing Bush and those surrounding him as heroes. Fear, an amazing tool.

[Disturbed]

5. Theory

If the 4th plane was supposed to hit the White House and Bush 1 was there wouldn't that throw out the theory that Bush 2 and a few others knew about this attack beforehand?

[Vickers]

6. Maybe he doesn't like dear old dad?

:shrug:

[izzie]

8. I do not think that party understands govt. Business is their thing

This govt is to run from bottom up and not top down. They are trying to make it run like a CEO runs a business and it can not be done. Kings ruled top down also. Our founders were trying something new and I do not think the GOP likes it.

[kentuck]

9. I read someplace that they told Clarke that he was 'in charge'???

But then, he he couldn't be "out of the loop" if that were the case? Hmmmmm...

[Cocoa]

12. the late Betty Ong

flight attendant showed more presence of mind than Bush and his whole staff put together.