I had some hope for Farmer, the 9/11 Commission staffer who's come forward to say that Cheney basically lied to the panel about what his actions were that morning. But, Farmer (and the NYT book review that reports this) is preoccupied with a little corner of the story, and doesn't touch the bigger deception about Cheney's role in the attacks. Transportation Secretary Mineta tells us what Cheney did that morning, but the 9/11 Commission simply glossed over his testimony, and it was left to Woodward and another WaPo reporter to put a gloss of outright deception on the story:
Here are the two interpretations of Transportation Secretary Mineta's account (Wiki):
Mineta's testimony to the 9/11 Commission about his experience in the Presidential Emergency Operating Center with Vice President Cheney as American Airlines flight 77 approached the Pentagon was not included in the 9/11 Commission Report. In one colloquy testified by Mineta, the vice president refers to orders to shoot the plane approaching the Pentagon:
"There was a young man who had come in and said to the vice president, 'The plane is 50 miles out. The plane is 30 miles out.' And when it got down to, 'The plane is 10 miles out,' the young man also said to the vice president, 'Do the orders still stand?' And the vice president turned and whipped his neck around and said, 'Of course the orders still stand. Have you heard anything to the contrary?' Well, at the time I didn't know what all that meant."
– Norman Mineta, <3>
Mineta's testimony to the Commission on Flight 77 differs rather significantly from the account provided in the January 22, 2002 edition of the Washington Post, as reported by Bob Woodward and Dan Balz in their series "10 Days in September"
“ 9:32 a.m.
The Vice President in Washington: Underground, in Touch With Bush
Transportation Secretary Norman Y. Mineta, summoned by the White House to the bunker, was on an open line to the Federal Aviation Administration operations center, monitoring Flight 77 as it hurtled toward Washington, with radar tracks coming every seven seconds. Reports came that the plane was 50 miles out, 30 miles out, 10 miles out-until word reached the bunker that there had been an explosion at the Pentagon.
Mineta shouted into the phone to Monte Belger at the FAA: "Monte, bring all the planes down." It was an unprecedented order-there were 4,546 airplanes in the air at the time. Belger, the FAA's acting deputy administrator, amended Mineta's directive to take into account the authority vested in airline pilots. "We're bringing them down per pilot discretion," Belger told the secretary.
" pilot discretion," Mineta yelled back. "Get those planes down."
Sitting at the other end of the table, Cheney snapped his head up, looked squarely at Mineta and nodded in agreement.
”
—Dan Balz and Bob Woodward,
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A42754-20...This same article also reports that the conversation between Cheney and the aide occurred at 9:55 am, about 30 minutes later than the time Mineta cited (9:26 am) during his testimony to the 9/11 Commission.
This remains an unanswered question, and Farmer sheds no light on it, other than another, "Look at the shiny object over here" side-issue. Disgusting.