There's a harrowing, fascinating article by Gail Sheehy now in the New York Observer,
"Stewardess ID'd Hijackers Early, Transcripts Show," outlining a lot of the confusion and unanswered questions surrounding the events of 9/11. In particular, Sheehy points to conflicting narratives, apparently unreported in the media and not permitted to be discussed publicly in Congressional hearings, about what exactly happened on board the hijacked planes, and what Bush/Cheney knew and when they knew it. It's too long to summarize, but is very much worth reading.
The most infuriating paragraph, though, involves an account of Bush's initial reaction to seeing the World Trade Center burning on TV the morning of 9/11 before heading out to read to second graders in Sarasota:
Mr. Bush was notified 14 minutes after the first attack, at 9 a.m., when he arrived at an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla. He went into a private room and spoke by phone with his national security advisor, Condoleezza Rice, and glanced at a TV in the room. Mrs. Homer's [wife of first officer on Flight 93] soft voice curdles when she describes his reaction: "I can't get over what Bush said when he was called about the first plane hitting the tower: `That's some bad pilot.' Why did people on the street assume right away it was a terrorist hijacking, but our President didn't know? Why did it take so long to ground all civilian aircraft? In the time between when my husband's plane took off [at 8:41 a.m.] and when the second plane hit in New York [9:02 a.m.], they could have turned back to airfield."
Bush's response is horrifying on so many levels, including his staggering callousness in the face what was obviously a monstrous tragedy, even if it wasn't terrorism. Then, of course, there's his complete obliviousness to the likelihood, as he had been warned as recently as a month before, that it was in fact a terrorist attack. Then there's the fact that he went on with his photo-op even after he'd been told that it was an attack.
But my question is, why haven't we heard this quote before? Is there another independent, unimpeachable source for this? And if so, shouldn't we be shouting this from the rooftops?
Thanks to Google, here's another quote from an earlier 8/25/03 article by Sheehy in the Observer about the same subject (she's writing a book on the 9/11 families),
"Four 9/11 Moms Battle Bush," which also includes the Bush quote:
Lorie was the network's designated researcher, since she had in her basement what looked like a NASA command module; her husband had been an amateur designer. Kristen had told her to focus on the timeline: Who knew what, when did they know it, and what did they do about it?
Once Lorie began surfing the Web, she couldn't stop. She found a video of President Bush's reaction on the morning of Sept. 11. According to the official timeline provided by his press secretary, the President arrived at an elementary school in Sarasota, Fla., at 9 a.m. and was told in the hallway of the school that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center. This was 14 minutes after the first attack. The President went into a private room and spoke by phone with his National Security Advisor, Condoleezza Rice, and glanced at a TV in the room. "That's some bad pilot," the President said. Bush then proceeded to a classroom, where he drew up a little stool to listen to second graders read. At 9:04 a.m., his chief of staff, Andrew Card, whispered in his ear that a second plane had struck the towers. "We are under attack," Mr. Card informed the President.
"Bush's sunny countenance went grim," said the White House account. "After Card's whisper, Bush looked distracted and somber but continued to listen to the second graders read and soon was smiling again. He joked that they read so well, they must be sixth graders."
Lorie checked the Web site of the Federal Aviation Authority. The F.A.A. and the Secret Service, which had an open phone connection, both knew at 8:20 a.m. that two planes had been hijacked in the New York area and had their transponders turned off. How could they have thought it was an accident when the first plane slammed into the first tower 26 minutes later? How could the President have dismissed this as merely an accident by a "bad pilot"? And how, after he had been specifically told by his chief of staff that "We are under attack," could the Commander in Chief continue sitting with second graders and make a joke? Lorie ran the video over and over.
"I couldn't stop watching the President sitting there, listening to second graders, while my husband was burning in a building," she said.