Was Bush lying when he said he saw the FIRST plane hit the WTC live?

[TruthIsAll]

Poll question: Was Bush lying when he said he saw the FIRST plane hit the WTC live?

Bush claimed TWICE that he saw the first plane hit the WTC BEFORE he entered the Booker school classroom.

We know that he was INSIDE the classroom for at least seven minutes after Andrew Card whispered in his ear about the SECOND plane.

If Bush was telling the truth about seeing the first plane hit, he must have had a closed circuit hookup and thus pre-knowledge of the attacks.

Either Bush
1) LIED and didn't see the first plane hit
2) was CONFUSED in the recounting of events
3) was COMPLICIT in the crime and stupidly told the truth, not realizing that he would incriminate himself

Which was it?

[joanne]

1. I chose # 1

What angers me so much is how absolutely NONE of the "liberal media" have called him on this.

Just another LIE he gets away with. :mad:

[TruthIsAll]

2. Why would he lie? He would just be incriminating himself.

TIA

[Kool Kitty]

3. Didn't he say he saw the first plane hit and said

to his aides, "That was one bad pilot"? He didn't see the first plane hit, he used this to get off a quippy one-liner to disarm the press. He likes to play the folksy, plain-spoken banterer. He seems to think it makes him seem like just one of the "regular guys". He was trying to be smart, and didn't think for a second about how callous his reply sounded.

[OKNancy]

13. Yup

The whole "one bad pilot" quip is so Bush-like.

[punpirate]

4. I think he was confused...

... but, given that most megalomaniacs are confirmed in the belief that they're never wrong, he never changed his story for months, even though the most accurate version of events was that videotape of the first crash wasn't available until late in the evening.

To him, he saw the first plane crash into the towers, and that's the way it stuck in his mind, the thought never to be relegated to the mental dustbin. And that's the way it will be until he loses his mind completely.

[Skittles]

5. I think he was just confused

I mean, come on, the guy is an idiot.

[comsymp]

6. #4- Cheney saw it on CCTV and told him about it

Any questions?

[Delano]

7. Just the usual bumbling Bush speaking style.

There are other things that have bothered me about how he conducted himself that morning, this is not one of them. It's an easy enough slip-up, especially for one as prone to verbal diarrhea as Bush is.

[AndyTiedye]

8. It Can Be Very Confusing Keeping All The Lies Straight

He probably did see the first plane hit, on a secure video feed to his limo.
He would not have wanted to miss something like that.

MIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOPMIHOP

[maveric]

9. I think that he watched it on closed circuit TV.

With his boys taking the video. :tinfoilhat:

[stickdog]

11. Smile. You're on Qaeda Camera. (nt)

[Beam Me Up]

10. As Documented On the White House Web Site, BUSH SAID:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2002/01/20020105-3.html

Anyway, I was sitting there, and my Chief of Staff -- well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane, or -- anyway, I'm sitting there, listening to the briefing, and Andy Card came and said, "America is under attack."

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011204-17.html

I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower - the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there's one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it.

I believe Bush saw the first plane hit. I also believe Bush is a compulsive liar. So who knows? Perhaps that is the whole point -- make it impossible for any SANE person to reason it out.

[doni_georgia]

18. No one saw the first plane hit on TV on 9/11

Film of the first plane hitting did not surface until 9/12. Also, I am a teacher, and I can tell you that elementary schools do not have CNN on in the classroom, nor are there TVs in the halls. On 9/11, we were given orders by our principal not to turn on the TV even to watch a video or a Power Point presentation, just in case the kids accidentally saw the WTC attack.

Bush was clearly lying, just as he has on numerous ocassions. His people said he learned of the first tower being hit when he arrived at the school and took a call from Rice. Bush claims that Rice told him the tower was hit by a twin engine plane. However, the principal of the school says Bush told her immediately following the call, "A commercial jet has hit the WTC, but we are going ahead and doing this reading thing anyway."

[Beam Me Up]

21. I'm a MIHOPer

I believe 9/11 was a balck-op (covert operation) carried out by a confluence of special quasi-military (aka "mercenary" aka "terrorists") forces to further the PNAC/neocon agenda. Within that belief system, it is conceivable for there to have been an encrypted, closed circuit video stream of the actual event as it happened. This is all totally conjecture, of course. The point is, Bush SAID it. Perhaps he was lying as he does all the time. Then again, it is conceivable that he has told so many lies he sometimes accidentally tells the truth because he can't keep his lies straight. HE saw it and he stupidly thinks we ALL must have seen it.

Take for example the "Israelis" in the White Moving Van that everyone has heard about. When did they show up in that parking lot to take pictures of themselves hi-fiving with the burning towers in the background--before the first hit or after? I don't know. None of us do. There are damn few of us who know jack shit, except what we've been told by agencies that lie as a matter of course.

[OKNancy]

12. He didn't see the first plane hit

He just said that to make himself look all-knowing. He may have been confused, who knows. NO ONE saw the plane hit except a few on the streets of New York. The video done by the French team didn't come out until hours ( days ?) later.

[Jose Diablo]

14. Unless there is another recording

of the first plane hitting the tower.

[Qanisqineq]

15. agreed

I always thought no one saw it until that video came out. If he claimed he saw it happen, wouldn't that mean they had some inside knowledge that they knew it was going to happen and were shooting a video so he could watch??

[OKNancy]

16. Yes

but there is no evidence that Bush had an opportunity to watch a live broadcast of the first plane hitting. He was at the school, not in a secure location. A live broadcast would also mean that the conspirators ( Bush and Co.) had exact knowledge of the timing and location of the hit. I seriously doubt that Atta had an exact location planned. He was just aiming for the WTC...somewhere, anywhere.

[TruthIsAll]

20. He was not at the school; he was in his limo at 8:46am

when the plane hit. He did not enter the school until at least 10 minutes later.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

23. Bingo. And that limo is LOADED with the latest comm devices...

...like closed-circuit television.

[muriel_volestrangler]

17. I think he lied deliberately

He would have been shown the TV coverage of the second plane hitting shortly after it happened (we know he was in the classroom when it happened), and I could forgive him for saying he saw that 'live'. By then, his reaction could never have been 'what a lousy pilot' - he knew it was on purpose - he'd already been told about the first plane.

He also might have thought, on being told of the first plane hitting, "what a lousy pilot" - first reports in the media were confused, and anyone, just given the fact that a plane had hit the tower, without details of visibility, how it had hit, etc. might have thought that (my first thought on hearing it was of the bomber that hit the Empire State Building in, I believe, fog).

But to, more than once, conflate these two incidents (which must be clear in his mind - it's the defining moment of his presidency, and we know he sat for several minutes in the classroom trying to absorb what had happened, and, I'd hope, thinking what he was going to do; so by the time he saw the video, we know he was looking at confirmation of what he'd already been told) is to lie. He's taken his reaction to the first (a 'common' reaction) and put it after the second (a 'common' experience) to make him look like 'one of us'. It's not a slip of the tongue either - he's very explicit about a TV being set up for him to watch, and we know that can only refer to the second plane.

[TruthIsAll]

19. You miss the point. He said he SAW the FIRST plane hit LIVE, not #2.

He knew about it BEFORE he walked in. The question is: How did he first know about it?

Did he see it on TV (as he said twice)? Or did he hear about it on the phone?

Either way, he did nothing, either dereliction of duty, incompetence..or....

[RedEagle]

25. Jeb's Limo

I know nothing about the credibility of this site.

But I did remember a story about Jeb's limo. This is not where I first read about that possibility. And I have no idea if a president would be allowed to ride in another limo, even his brother's. Also included, the possibility that Bush knew about the first tower before he even left the hotel. Which brings up the question, if Bush was watching in the limo, which tower did he see hit? Had the second tower been hit by that time? Did Bush see a tape delay of the first tower hit? Depending on the times involved, if Bush saw the hit in the limo, it could still be the first hit, replayed.

Legitimate site? That's up to further research.

http://www.propagandamatrix.com/bush_school_photos_2.html

"First of all, it's a joke that his first comment would concern the skill of the pilot! No concern for the people who were obviously killed in the crash? None whatsoever? Doesn't that strike anybody as odd, to say the least? Where was his so-called compassion?
As far as how he saw the first plane hit live, I am able to shed some light on that for you. I received an e mail from a person in Florida, who shall remain nameless, who was there and explained how Bush was able to see the first impact live.

On S11 GW was not traveling in the usual presidential limo. In fact he was riding in the limo belonging to Jeb Bush. This limo has a television in the back. A closed circuit camera, set up by the government to witness the event, captured the first impact as it happened and sent it via encrypted satellite feed to Bush while he was seated in the limo in front of Booker Elementary. In the limo watching the feed with him was Andrew Card.

Mr. Card had opened the rear door preparing to exit and did not close it all the way as GW told him to hold on a second to watch the impact. Unknown to GW and Mr. Card, a person who was there in a security capacity, watched the entire event through the partially open door of the limo. I have spoken to a reporter who was also there, they have verified for me the facts of which limo it was, what time the limo was in front of the school and who was in the back seat.

Bush KNEW the attacks were going to occur. Of that there is no doubt."




"1. Bush claimed (when exiting the hotel that morning on the way to the school) - in response to an ABC News reporter's question "Do you know what's happening in New York?" Bush "I'll have something on that later." (paraphrased) So - HE KNEW something terrible had happened in New York BEFORE he even left for the school. Did he cancel? No.

2. Why would the President travel with such a huge entourage? He's just going to a kids' school for god's sake - why would he need Andy Card, Karl Rove, Dan Bartlett and a whole mess of other authority figures with him for that?

3. Any other normal human being after the FIRST plane hit the tower would have said something like "Let's get some planes in the air", or at least postponed his trip to a grammar school until he found out what was going on. He didn't.

4. Any other normal human being would have said "What do you mean we're under attack? By whom? What else is going on out there? Kids...the President has some important business to attend to." But no - Bush sits there (as instructed it must be) for another 20 minutes!

These pictures are some kind of attempts to grapple with all these horrible FACTS that are so plain to see.

5. Any other normal human will have an easy answer to what they were doing when the towers were hit. Bush doesn't."

[soup]

26. What we need is video from the Florida tv channels.

Where would that footage be? Does any still exist? Is there a way to get copies?

Their cameras were on *jr. almost constantly - the motorcade, the arrival at the school, the time in the classroom, the quick speech, the motorcade, AF1 taking off.

Through most of the morning there was a split screen. Sometimes the classroom was only a small square in the upper right hand corner and the focus on the towers, sometimes 1/2 and 1/2.

It wasn't just the Booker Elementary camera rolling. Why is that singular poor quality video the only one around?

-----

Digging through some archives to see if there was available video in the archives of Florida stations, the following article came up. It's very short. Too short. Almost as if it'd been snipped. Here's the last 3 paragraphs (of 5):

Sarasota school reflects on role in history
an Associated Press report 9/11/02

>snip<
Bush planned to listen to teacher Kay Daniels lead her second-grade class in a reading lesson, then go to the school library to talk about the initiative. It was routine as presidential visits go.

Instead, after the lesson, Bush would step to the podium in the library and tell the nation that terrorists crashed hijacked jetliners into New York's World Trade Center towers. Then he would be gone, leaving teachers and students to watch the aftermath on classroom T-Vs and ponder their role in history.

Tose'-Rigell says she first knew something was amiss when Bush emerged from his car and was whisked into a special holding room to take a telephone call. Then she was summoned to the room to talk to the president.
http://www.28news.com/stories/archive/020911school.shtml
-----

How important is this?

"AFTER THE LESSON, BUSH WOULD STEP TO THE PODIUM"
"SHE FIRST KNEW SOMETHING WAS AMISS WHEN HE EMERGED FROM HIS CAR"
"WHISKED INTO A SPECIAL HOLDING ROOM"
"SUMMONED TO THE ROOM TO TALK"

There has to be more. And there has to be video somewhere.

[olddem43]

22. He is as dumb as the News person who,

upon seeing the second plane hit, remarked "what a coincidence"

[Pobeka]

24. 4) Not guilty by reason of insanity.

This is a little like 2), but * is waaayyy beyond confused. He's just flat out insane, completely manipulated by his own poor self-esteem and his handlers.

[robertpaulsen]

27. Chose #3, but its really a combination of all three choices.

I chose number three because it is the most important truth: that Bush was implicit in the crime. But I believe the circle of conspirators is limited to Bush and a small circle of PNAC insiders (Cheney and Rumsfeld). I don't believe Andy Card is in this circle and I don't see the logic in these conspirators taking a chance at exposure by videotaping the event with obvious prior knowledge.

So Bush did lie about SEEING the first plane hit. But he's also a bumbling fool who probably did think after seeing the video of the first plane hitting that it was a terrible pilot error, then remembered that the terrorists did it on purpose, then forgot that he never saw it on September 11 and recounted it for the media in his usual bullshit/folksy manner. He's probably forgotten that Cheney told him what al-Qaeda was up to before 9/11 in the first place!

Just like Reagan forgot about Iran/Contra.

[TexasSissy]

28. I never heard him claim he saw it LIVE. Where did he claim that?

I heard the 9/11 verbal reports by staff on that part. The woman who reported on that said that he was shown a VIDEO of it, while he was still at the school. I am thinking that's a misstatement, by either Bush or others.

[charlie]

29. Post #10

On the White House site.