This might explain why and what Bush did
By William Saffire on the Drudge Report web site:
September 13, 2001
ESSAY
Inside the Bunker
By WILLIAM SAFIRE
Join a Discussion on William Safire's Columns
WASHINGTON
At 9:03 a. m. Tuesday, as Vice President Dick Cheney was staring at the TV
screen, the second hijacked airliner exploded against the Twin Towers. At
that moment his Secret Service detail grabbed him and hurried him down to
"PEOC. "
The President's Emergency Operations Center is an underground facility
hardened to withstand blast overpressure from a nuclear detonation. On the
way to the tubular structure, Cheney was told that another plane, or a
helicopter loaded with explosives, was headed for the White House.
Cheney promptly called the president in Florida, who had just boarded Air
Force One, and urged him not to come back to Washington immediately.
In the PEOC, the vice president was joined by Condoleezza Rice, the
national security adviser, and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta,
among others. They were told that six commercial aircraft were unaccounted
for, all of which were potential missiles. One had supposedly crashed in
Kentucky (not true), and another in Pennsylvania (that report of a crash
was valid; its passengers or crew, apparently struggling with the
hijackers, may have saved the White House).
According to a high White House official speaking to me on background, the
airliner that had taken off at Dulles — AA Flight 77 — "did a 360" (meaning
it changed direction from the White House) and at 9:45 slammed into the
Pentagon.
About that time, accounts began coming into PEOC that four international
flights were headed toward Washington over the Atlantic and another from
Korea. It could not be immediately determined that they were not hostile
and part of the terrorist scheme. U. S. fighter aircraft and an Awacs
control aircraft were scrambled aloft.
A threatening message received by the Secret Service was relayed to the
agents with the president that "Air Force One is next. " According to the
high official, American code words were used showing a knowledge of
procedures that made the threat credible.
(I have a second, on-the-record source about that: Karl Rove, the
president's senior adviser, tells me: "When the president said `I don't
want some tinhorn terrorists keeping me out of Washington,' the Secret
Service informed him that the threat contained language that was evidence
that the terrorists had knowledge of his procedures and whereabouts. In
light of the specific and credible threat, it was decided to get airborne
with a fighter escort. ")
After the president put down at an Air Force base in Louisiana and made a
tape for broadcast (presumably no satellite was available for a live feed),
he was, in Rove's term, "pretty antsy" about not being at the center of
command.
Bush made clear to Cheney, says my source who was in the bunker, his
intense desire to return to Washington immediately. The Secret Service
objected strongly. The vice president, a former secretary of defense,
suggested Air Force One go to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska,
headquarters of the Strategic Air Command, with a communications facility
where the president could convene the National Security Council.
"It would have been irresponsible of him to come back, pounding his chest,"
says my source, "when hostile aircraft may have been headed our way. Any
suggestion that he should have done so is ludicrous. "
Confession: I made just that suggestion in yesterday's column, which
stimulated two set-it-straight calls. Why didn't the V. P. make an
appearance during that long afternoon in Bush's stead? The official reason
is that Cheney was busy in the basement; the real reason, I think, is that
he was unduly concerned it would appear presumptuous.
The most worrisome aspect of these revelations has to do with the
credibility of the "Air Force One is next" message. It is described clearly
as a threat, not a friendly warning — but if so, why would the terrorists
send the message? More to the point, how did they get the code-word
information and transponder know-how that established their mala fides?
That knowledge of code words and presidential whereabouts and possession of
secret procedures indicates that the terrorists may have a mole in the
White House — that, or informants in the Secret Service, F. B. I. , F. A. A. or
C. I. A. If so, the first thing our war on terror needs is an Angleton-type
counterspy.
Attention: TDR Forum Junkies 
Bush is our president and we should support him. PERIOD. Liberal or conservative,we are in the same game.
