NYT: Panel Says Chaos in Administration Was Wide on 9/11

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/06/18/politics/18PANE.html?pagewanted=print&position=

Offering an extraordinary window into the government's chaotic response on Sept. 11, 2001, the commission investigating the terrorist attacks detailed on Thursday a series of communications breakdowns at the White House and the Pentagon that were so severe that military commanders did not tell fighter pilots that they had been given the authority by Vice President Dick Cheney to shoot down hijacked planes.

The commission showed that White House communication systems were so close to collapse in the hours after the attack that President Bush, who was visiting a Florida elementary school that morning, could not obtain an open line to Mr. Cheney at the White House and had to resort to a cellphone to reach him.

<snip>

The staff report found that the extraordinary order allowing fighter pilots to shoot down passenger planes was issued by Mr. Cheney at the White House shortly after 10:10 a.m., minutes after a telephone conversation with President Bush from Florida in which the Mr. Bush was said to have approved the decision.

According to notes of the call cited by the commission, Mr. Bush told the vice president: "Sounds like we have a minor war going on here. I heard about the Pentagon. We're at war."

<snip>

The report also provides an explanation of one of the lingering mysteries of Mr. Bush's actions on the day of the attacks; why he remained in a meeting with students at the Florida elementary school for between five and seven minutes after he was interrupted in the classroom by his chief of staff, Andrew Card, and told that the major terrorist attack was under way.

According to the report, Mr. Bush told commission members in his interview with the panel this spring that "his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis." The president, it said, "felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."

Going from incompetent indifference to full "Daffy Duck" mode was transparent, ridiculous and added insult to very real injury.

Hang it up 911 panel!!!

The president, it said, "felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening." THE STUPID ASSHOLE WAS WAITING TO BE TOLD WHAT TO DO.

That is priceless, but I suppose it is also the only thing he could say in response to a question about that day. Ah yes. I was trying to project calm to the American people who didn't have a single news camera in that classroom and therefore could not see me. Then I got my ass outta that classroom and flew all over the country for the next five hours, keeping outta harm's way. I was projecting calm in my airplane and bunker, too.

the logical extension would be to question why the second tower and Pentagon were not evacuated. The incompetent piece of shit JUST STAT THERE. WHEN WILL THEY ASK THIS QUESTION???

he could have been "projecting calm" for a couple of hours.

Sorry, George -- that dog won't hunt.

Never a quarterback. Never team Capt. he's always been a sideline kinda guy. He is NO leader. We got what the people accepted. Caca!

Geez. Imagine if this happened under Clinton. Would he be desperately trying to reach Gore in the middle of a national emergency???

This is nuts. The country was attacked by terrorists and Bozo is trying to reach the VICE PRESIDENT!!

What a complete mockery of an investigation and justice.

According to notes of the call cited by the commission, Mr. Bush told the vice president: "Sounds like we have a minor war going on here. I heard about the Pentagon. We're at war."


Minor? Heard about the pentagon didya? Hmmm... Sooo... What do you think we should do about this? Hmmm....

"felt he should project strength and calm until he could better understand what was happening."

Dude, you didn't have to run out of the room screaming 'FIRE'!!

How about standing up and saying "thank you, you guys are great, I have go now, read, stay in school, bye bye"

He stayed far longer than anybody can excuse. To better understand what was happening he should have been IN THE F($%&($&% LOOP!

interfere with photo-ops </sarcasm>

I have to try that on my boss some time.

Making sure that the children are safe.. He knows there is a war going on and that he could be a target yet he continues to sit in a school full of children??

It just sounds like the report is trying to turn every critical question about FACTS they can't go around in favor of Bush and Cheney. Once again the party of personal responsibility tries desperately to find a scapegoat.

I wonder how long it will take until some officials, sick with being scapegoated, will come out of the woodwork to dispute this obvious whitewash of Dick & Georgie.

it is all so unbelieveable, isn't it? amazing that these people all just turned totally incompetent virtually overnight.

either they are totally incompetent, or they are fully capable. i believe they are fully capable.

bush, cheney, rice, rumsfeld, powell, card are NOT fumbling idiots. they are as calculating and efficient as their histories reflect. they just do bad things very well.

oh, and each time they 'screw up', they get richer and more powerful since 9/11, military-industrial complex, oil buddies, patriot act, bush's leadership pass, boosted poll numbers, etc)