WP/Milbank: Cheney Authorized Shooting Down Planes

[kskiska]

(snip)

The commission's description of actions taken by Cheney and President Bush, based in part on interviews with both men, provides new details of that morning. The report portrays the vice president taking command from his bunker while Bush, who was in Florida, communicated with the White House in a series of phone calls, and occasionally had trouble getting through.

Cheney, who told the commission he was operating on instructions from Bush given in a phone call, issued authority for aircraft threatening Washington to be shot down. But the commission noted that "among the sources that reflect other important events that morning there is no documentary evidence for this call, although the relevant sources are incomplete." Those sources include people nearby taking notes, such as Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, and Cheney's wife, Lynne.

Bush and Cheney told the commission that they remember the phone call; the president said it reminded him of his time as a fighter pilot. National security adviser Condoleezza Rice, who had joined Cheney, told the commission that she heard the vice president discuss the rules of engagement for fighter jets over Washington with Bush.

(snip)

Communications with Washington were so poor that Bush, who told the commission he was "deeply dissatisfied" with the technical problems, at one point resorted to using a cell phone on the way to Air Force One, according to commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton. Both said Bush's motorcade took a wrong turn on the way to the airport and had to reverse.

more…
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A50745-2004Jun17.html

[LittleApple81]

1. Pure, unadultered bullshit. These "journalists" must have a brown

face from trying to serve as vessel for so much human manure.

[MikeG]

2. OK. This is really starting to stink.

Cheney and Bush lied about the phone call.
Cheney didn't want Bush back in Washington because
he would screw up Cheney's plans.

[walldude]

3. Trouble getting through?

What a joke. My mom has traveled with 2 Presidents and she told me he could reach anyone any time within seconds. And that was technology from 25 years ago. Please, ever heard of a satellite phone. :eyes:

As far as shooting the planes down. Well I have to say it was probably the right move after trying a forced landing of course. 230 dead or thousands dead? The needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few... or the one. Imagine if they had managed to hit a nuke plant. Or a weapons lab. This is actually one of the things I was pissed off about, after the first plane hit why were the F16's not all over the place? Now I'm hearing wierd stories about the CIA doing hijacking training exercises on the same day and that things got confused between what was real and what was drill... If the bullshit surrounding this gets any deeper....

[Pachamama]

10. I thought whoever had "The Football" was able to be contacted at any ...

...given notice....Are we supposed to believe that our "Commander in Chief" who is running around with nuclear codes in a briefcase within feet of him at any time, couldn't get any clear communication channels? Puhleeeeeze....How f**king stupid do they think the American Public is? (Okay, so maybe half are really stupid) but seriously - this is either the lamest and worst excuse I've ever heard (common Karl and Karen - you can do better than that) or we as a Nation were and are in bigger trouble than we thought....

:scared:

Un-f*cking believable....the sh*t just keeps getting deeper by the moment...

[GarySeven]

4. Folks, think this through

It was not a secret Bush was flying that day. It is not inconceivable that communication with Air Force One could be quickly and unexpectedly terminated by confederates on the ground. Besides, the military comes up with these scenarios and the politicians follow their advice and take the credit or the blame; that is how continuity of command is maintained. Don't you folks watch the West Wing?

[GoddessOfGuinness]

7. Confederates?

What confederates could manage this dastardly deed without being caught, and without even being sought as co-conspirators? If this is true, why are we only hearing about it now...almost 3 years after the fact, and right before the presidential election?

[GarySeven]

8. who knew

at the time what kind of support there was on the ground? It was clear to anyone by the time the second plane hit that a coordinated attack was under way. Who was coordinating it? How? Now we know some of the answers, but we didn't while it was under way. This kind of uncertainty was and is something any attacker can count on; that's why its SOP to assume the worst when something like this is happening.

I can't stand this bunch in the White House, but I am pretty sure the military (despite whatever faults) has figured out by now how to protect the continuity of its command from a decapitation attack.

[cosmicdot]

5. "the president said it reminded him of his time as a fighter pilot"

who does he think he is, Ronald Reagan having flashbacks to "International Squadron" during his presidency?


"...adviser Condoleezza Rice, who had joined Cheney, told the commission that she heard the vice president discuss the rules of engagement for fighter jets over Washington with Bush"

it's scares me to even imagine this primer-in-action

who was telling Chickenhawk Crashcart?

Theatre of Absurd: held over for extended viewing

[keithyboy]

6. Now if Al Gore had ordered a "shoot down" instead of Clinton.....

what would be in all the media breaking news?

[daleo]

9. What does his time in the Texas Air National Guard have to do with this?

"the president said it reminded him of his time as a fighter pilot"

These events are not even remotely similar.

"About 9 a.m. that day, at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Fla., it was Bush's top political adviser, Karl Rove, who first told him and White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center, though initially it was believed to be a small private plane, the commission reported."

Um, yeah, a small plane, right.

"Bush remained in the classroom for "five to seven minutes" after learning of the second crash as the children around him continued reading."

Why, why, why, why, why, why, why?

"Communications with Washington were so poor that Bush, who told the commission he was "deeply dissatisfied" with the technical problems, at one point resorted to using a cell phone on the way to Air Force One, according to commission Chairman Thomas H. Kean and Vice Chairman Lee H. Hamilton. Both said Bush's motorcade took a wrong turn on the way to the airport and had to reverse."

The presidential communications system doesn't work? From Florida? In the year 2001?

"Cheney joined the Secret Service and Card in urging Bush not to return to Washington. The two apparently were still on the phone, about 10 minutes later, as Air Force One took off from Florida without a destination. "The objective was to get up in the air -- as fast and as high as possible -- and then decide where to go," the commission report noted."

The plan was to just go for a cruise until the heat died down? The military spends 100s of billions of dollars per year, and this is the best plan they could come up with?

So we have Cheney in a bunker giving orders and Bush flying around like a scared, stupid chicken. And the president's phones don't work, in the year 2001. Talk about Dr. Strangelove, but stranger. If it wasn't MIHOP/LIHOP, then they ought to be fired just on general principles. It makes you wonder how the world survived the cold war.

This story doesn't add up.

[Pachamama]

12. Sounds like Dick was trying to get rid of Stupid....?? n/t

[janx]

11. Cheney in the rabbit hole--

Where on earth was our director of defense at that time?

[SaintLouisBlues]

19. And Lynne along side in the hidey-hole...Coincidence?

Did Lynne just get a wild hair and "mosey on over to the war room" that morning?

And her notes are considered valid evidence?

[LizW]

20. You know who else was in there?

Mary Matalin. (According to Clarke in his book.) Isn't that strange?

[Pachamama]

13. Chain of Command - President to Defense Secretary - NOT - Cheney

....Why the hell was Cheney making the "commands"...Shouldn't it have been Bush to his Sec. of Defense? Huh? Where does Cheney come into the picture, unless the Commander in Chief is unavailable - and if he was "unavailable" the question is how and why?

This just doesn't make any sense and the situation is getting freakier and more f*cked up by the day....

[Leilani]

16. Right...Prez to Sec Def...

but Shrub did not know what to do.

Cheney was in charge, & that phantom phone call never happened...that is why they testified together.

[Pachamama]

14. On 9/11, Bush was “flying around the country like a scared child, ....

.... seeking refuge in his mother's bed after having a nightmare”

Love that quote from a Journalist who was promptly fired after that account from Sept. 11th...

Probably the best image/description of him yet....MAMA!!! Help!!!

:scared:

[Josh]

15. Serious question: does a VP have the authority to give that order?

Constitutional scholars?

[displacedtexan]

17. No.

I posted a citation yesterday after googling "chain of command" and "shoot down." The order has to come from the president of the United States. Period.

[Gin]

18. this made me laugh.....I bet it did.....hiding out somewhere..

the president said it reminded him of his time as a fighter pilot.

[TahitiNut]

24. Actually, prior to June 2001, the senior authority for a shoot-down ...

... over US territory was at the NORAD command level. Rumsfeld issued a directive to raise the command authority required to himself, the SecDef. The SecDef has always been the 2nd highest in the CoC, just below the President.

This June 2001 change is VERY misguided and supports the notion of LIHOP to a very great extent. It is totally contrary to military emergency response doctrine that insists that the command authority for such a decision must be available 24x7 - and only the on-duty uniformed command meets that need. Thus, the only effect of the June 2001 directive would be to inhibit a response to this scenario. Since it's now proven that (1) there was abundant intelligence warning of such an attack and (2) the attack was imminent for many months, it becomes even clearer that the Busholini Cabal deliberately made choices that "swept the ice in front of the curling stone."

[TahitiNut]

23. The VP doesn't, but the SecDef does.

So, if Rumsfeld chose to take direction from Cheney, it's his ass but only if DimSon was a law-abiding President (which he isn't). (Not every order has to come from the top.)

[Beetwasher]

21. "...there is no documentary evidence for this call..."

Why not?

In the most technologically advanced country in the history of the world, on the day of the one of the worst disasters in our history, the Pres. is out of the loop because of communications problems? And there are NO records about it?

Maybe they should start using cans connected by a string.

[KoKo]

22. Probably because the "call" never happened. That's what I thought

when I heard the testamony. :shrug: Cheney is the P-Resident.