Tom Flocco
(Cont'd) 9-11 Panel Still Discussing Bush Subpoena
Wed Mar 17 02:14:21 2004
64.140.158.123

(Cont'd) 9-11 Panel Still Discussing Bush Subpoena

http://tomflocco.com/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=43&mode=&order=0&thold=0

All facts indicate that Washington officials were well aware of the American 11 hijacking nearly an hour before Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered in Mr. Bush’s ear at 9:06 am that “America is under attack.” There are additional individuals who can corroborate the event chronology, but the Commission has failed to call any of them to testify publicly regarding when the hijackings commenced, as White House actions are indefensible within the context of the critical two-hour period on the CooperativeResearch.org timeline:

1. According to the Associated Press, American 11 was “given permission to climb to 35,000 feet” (AP, 8-12-2002); and air traffic manager Glenn Michael said "We considered it at that time to be a possible hijacking," with traffic control logs listing the time, direction, airline, flight number and altitude: "8:13:47 - 46R: AAL11, now climb maintain FL3500.” News reports say that at 8:13 am, American 11 failed to respond to a command to climb. (Boston Globe, 11/23/01, 8:13:31), and (New York Times, 10/16/01)

2. At 8:21 am American 11 flight attendant, Amy Sweeney, called American Airlines ground manager Michael Woodward and spoke calmly to him for 25 minutes until the plane crashed. Woodward took notes during the conversation and has yet to testify publicly. (ABC News, 7/18/02)

3. At 8:31 a.m. NORAD employee Lt. Colonel Dawne Deskins told ABC News that Boston flight control notified NORAD of Flight American 77's hijacking at this time. [ABC News, 9/11/02] ABC also reported that "Shortly after 8:30 a.m., behind the scenes, word of a possible hijacking [filtered around] various stations of NORAD." [ABC News, 9/14/02]

4. In a live report, ABC News reporter John Cochran (ABC News, 9/11/01) told ABC anchor Peter Jennings: “Peter, as you know, the president's down in Florida talking about education. He got out of his hotel suite this morning, was about to leave, reporters saw the White House chief of staff, Andy Card, whisper into his ear. [AT THE COLONY RESORT] The reporter said to the president, 'Do you know what's going on in New York?' He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later.” One report said “Bush's motorcade left for the school at 8:30 am.” (Washington Post, 1/27/02) Another report said Bush left for Booker elementary school “promptly at 8:35 am.” (Sarasota Magazine, 9/19/01)

Two accounts explicitly state Bush was told while in the motorcade. "The President was on Highway 301, just north of Main Street ... [when] he received the news that a plane had crashed in New York City." [Sarasota Magazine, 11/01] Another account states, "Bush was driving to the school in a motorcade when the phone rang. An airline accident appeared to have happened. He pressed on with his visit." [Observer, 9/16/01]

When American 11 hits the WTC at 8:46 am, Bush's motorcade is crossing the John Ringling Causeway on the way to Booker Elementary from the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort on Longboat Key. [Washington Times, 10/8/02] Around the same time, news photographer Eric Draper is riding in another car in the motorcade with Press Secretary Ari Fleischer, and overhears Fleischer say on a cell phone, "Oh, my God, I don't believe it. A plane just hit the World Trade Center." Fleischer is told he will be needed on arrival to discuss reports of the crash. [Christian Science Monitor, 9/17/01, Albuquerque Tribune, 9/10/02] Fleischer is told this "just minutes" after the first news reports. [MSNBC, 10/29/02]

The first hijacking commenced at 8:13 am according to air traffic logs, yet Mr. Bush failed to act immediately and decisively while still at the Colony Beach & Tennis Resort on Longboat Key before leaving for his reading photo-op. The CooperativeResearch.org website timeline indicates the President did not enter his limousine to leave Colony Beach until 8:30 or 8:35 am; and he was continually attended to by his Secret Service detail which was in constant contact with Washington, DC. and would have been aware of the hijacking via his agents.

The Commission has yet to address publicly the timeline facts, emergency procedures and communication links established between Bush, Rice, Rumsfeld, and Myers--whose surrogates at the least were in direct contact with FAA, NORAD, DOD, and the President’s Secret Service agents.

President Bush has yet to explain publicly why he continued to socialize with students and teachers at the school, even after all reporters hurried out of the classroom to cover the World Trade Center attacks.


“Had I known that the enemy was going to use airplanes....”

At 9:06 am, Bush is in a Booker Elementary School second-grader classroom. His chief of staff, Andrew Card, enters the room and whispers into his ear, "A second plane hit the other tower, and America's under attack." [New York Times, 9/16/01] [9:05, New York Times, 9/16/01, 9:05 am, Telegraph, 12/16/01, 9:05 am, Albuquerque Tribune, 9/10/02, 9:07, Washington Times, 10/8/02]

ABC News reporter Ann Compton, who is in the room, says she is struck "So much so that I [write] it down in my reporter's notebook, by my watch, 9:07 a.m.," [ABC News, 9/11/02]


Intelligence expert James Bamford describes Bush's reaction: "Immediately [after Card speaks to Bush] an expression of befuddlement passe[s] across the President's face. Then, having just been told that the country was under attack, the Commander in Chief appear[s] uninterested in further details. He never ask[s] if there had been any additional threats, where the attacks were coming from, how to best protect the country from further attacks.... Instead, in the middle of a modern-day Pearl Harbor, he simply turn[s] back to the matter at hand: the day's photo op." [Body of Secrets, James Bamford, 4/02 edition, p. 633]

Bush continues listening to the goat story. Then, in an event noticeable in its absence, as one newspaper put it, "For some reason, Secret Service agents [do] not bustle him away." [Globe and Mail, 9/12/01] Bush later says of the experience, "I am very aware of the cameras. I'm trying to absorb that knowledge. I have nobody to talk to. I'm sitting in the midst of a classroom with little kids, listening to a children's story and I realize I'm the Commander in Chief and the country has just come under attack." [Telegraph, 12/16/01] Bush continues to listen to the goat story for about ten more minutes.

In the back of the room, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer catches Bush's eye and holds up a pad of paper for him to read, with "DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET" written on it in big block letters. [Washington Times, 10/7/02] [ http://www.COOPERATIVERESEARCH.ORG  ]

Kristen Breitweiser, a member of the Family Steering Committee whose husband, Ronald, was killed at the World Trade Center, has said “I don’t understand why high-ranking officials would not welcome the opportunity to testify openly in a public forum,” adding “If you’ve got nothing to hide, why wouldn’t you welcome a chance to talk to the American people openly and tell them that?”

So 9-11 families in America and other countries are left with having to trust Mr. Bush’s hand-picked chairman and other staff and panel members having close links to major Bush fundraisers, professional relationships with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice, links to both the CIA and the Bush 2000 transition team--even ties to a past record of soft, hands-off investigations of the Bush 41 Iran contra and B.C.C.I. scandals--to decide whether to subpoena a sitting president for public testimony involving a 3,000 death mass murder investigation, absent career prosecutors and a grand jury.

Kean and Hamilton now face the daunting task regarding whether the constitutional crisis sure to be created when Mr. Bush invokes presidential immunity and use immunity for himself and his surrogates in response to their subpoena, is worth the aggravation. To America and the world, it is. To the poor families, it is. And perhaps most of all, for the sake of History and Truth, it surely is.

“If a ruler listens to lies, all his officials become wicked.” (Proverbs 29:12)
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WORLDWIDE 9-11 PHONE, FAX, EMAIL CAMPAIGN

Tom Flocco ( TomFlocco.com ) Bill Douglas ( 911visibility.org )

PLEASE POST AND/OR EMAIL WIDELY:

There are six individuals who have the power to influence whether President George Bush, Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman, General Richard Myers, will publicly testify under oath before the American people to explain why they sat at their desks and in a school classroom, failing to take decisive action on September 11, 2001, until after four planes attacked the United States and killed 3,000 Americans and citizens from many other countries. This, despite knowledge of the hijackings earlier that morning before any of the four planes crashed.

Click on link below for contact numbers and questions to initiate weekly communication with those who have the over-sight responsibility, public microphone, and/or power to influence the strength of the 9-11 Commission investigation. These actions may well determine whether those in charge on 9-11 publicly testify under oath and submit to questioning by Commission-assisted and experienced career prosecutors rather than appointed former government bureaucrats and/or legislators. Lawyers with prosecutorial skills prepare intensely for specific areas of interrogation and will be able to elicit truth and facts via questioning technique regarding the 3,000 death mass-murder investigation.
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