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From fork-admin@xent.com Thu Sep 12 13:39:57 2002
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Subject: CBS News' interview w/Bush & reconstruction of his peregrinations
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From: Rohit Khare <khare@alumni.caltech.edu>
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Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 01:14:22 -0700
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"60 Minutes II" Bush Interview:
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(CBS)<29>No president since Abraham Lincoln has seen such horrific loss of
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life in a war on American soil. No president since James Madison, nearly
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200 years ago, has seen the nation<6F>s capital city successfully attacked.
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But, one year ago, President George W. Bush was thrown into the first
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great crisis of the 21st century.
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This is the president<6E>s story of September 11th and the week America
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went to war. 60 Minutes II spent two hours with Mr. Bush, one, on Air
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Force One and another in the Oval Office last week. Even after a year,
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the president is still moved, sometimes to the point of tears, when he
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remembers Sept. 11.
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<EFBFBD>I knew, the farther we get away from Sept.11, the more likely it is for
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some around the world to forget the mission, but not me,<2C> Mr. Bush says
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during the Air Force One interview. <20>Not me. I made the pledge to myself
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and to people that I<>m not going to forget what happened on Sept. 11. So
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long as I<>m president, we will pursue the killers and bring them to
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justice. We owe that to those who have lost their lives.<2E>
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The memories come back sharp and clear on Air Force One, where Pelley
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joined the president for a recent trip across country. 60 Minutes II
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wanted to talk to him there because that is where he spent the first
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hours after the attack.
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Not since Lyndon Johnson was sworn in on Air Force One has the airplane
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been so central to America in a crisis.
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For President Bush, Sept. 11 2001, started with the usual routine.
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Before dawn, the president was on his four-mile run. It was just before
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6 a.m. and, at the same moment, another man was on the move: Mohammad
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Atta. Two hours later, as Mr. Bush drove to an elementary school,
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hijackers on four planes were murdering the flight crews and turning the
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airliners east. As the motorcade neared the school at 8:45 a.m., jet
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engines echoed in Manhattan.
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Atta plunged the 767 jumbo jet into World Trade Center Tower One.
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<EFBFBD>I thought it was an accident,<2C> says Mr. Bush. <20>I thought it was a pilot
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error. I thought that some foolish soul had gotten lost and - and made a
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terrible mistake.<2E>
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Mr. Bush was told about the first plane just before sitting down with a
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class of second graders. He was watching a reading drill when, just
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after nine, United Flight 175 exploded into the second tower. There was
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the sudden realization that what had seemed like a terrible mistake was
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a coordinated attack.
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Back in the Florida classroom, press secretary Ari Fleischer got the
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news on his pager. The president<6E>s chief-of-staff, Andy Card stepped in.
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<EFBFBD>A second plane hit the second tower; America is under attack,<2C> Card
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told the president
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When he said those words, what did he see in the President<6E>s face?
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<EFBFBD>I saw him coming to recognition of what I had said,<2C> Card recalls. <20>I
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think he understood that he was going to have to take command as
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commander-in-chief, not just as president.<2E>
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What was going through Bush<73>s mind when he heard the news?
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<EFBFBD>We<EFBFBD>re at war and somebody has dared attack us and we<77>re going to do
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something about it,<2C> Mr. Bush recalls. <20>I realized I was in a unique
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setting to receive a message that somebody attacked us, and I was
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looking at these little children and all of the sudden we were at war. I
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can remember noticing the press pool and the press corps beginning to
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get the calls and seeing the look on their face. And it became evident
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that we were, you know, that the world had changed.<2E>
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Mr. Bush walked into a classroom set up with a secure phone. He called
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the vice president, pulling the phone cord tight as he spun to see the
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attack on TV. Then he grabbed a legal pad and quickly wrote his first
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words to the nation.
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"Ladies and gentlemen, this is a difficult moment for America,<2C> he said
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in the speech. <20>Today, we<77>ve had a national tragedy.<2E>
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It was 9:30 a.m. As he spoke, Mr. Bush didn<64>t know that two more
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hijacked jets were streaking toward Washington. Vice Pesident Dick
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Cheney was in his office at the White House when a Secret Service agent
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ran in.
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<EFBFBD>He said to me, <20>Sir, we have to leave immediately<6C> and grabbed, put a
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hand on my belt, another hand on my shoulder and propelled me out the
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door of my office,<2C> Cheney recalls. <20>I<EFBFBD>m not sure how they do it, but
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they sort of levitate you down the hallway, you move very fast.<2E>
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<EFBFBD>There wasn<73>t a lot of time for chitchat, you know, with the vice
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president,<2C> says Secret Service Director Brian Stafford, who was in his
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command center ordering the round-up of top officials and the First
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Family. He felt that he had only minutes to work with. <20>We knew there
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were unidentified planes tracking in our direction,<2C> he says.
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Cheney was rushed deep under the White House into a bunker called the
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Presidential Emergency Operations Center. It was built for war, and this
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was it. On her way down, National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice
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called Mr. Bush.
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<EFBFBD>It was brief because I was being pushed to get off the phone and get
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out of the West Wing,<2C> says Rice. <20>They were hurrying me off the phone
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with the president and I just said, he said, <20>I<EFBFBD>m coming back<63> and we
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said <20>Mr. President that may not be wise.<2E> I remember stopping briefly
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to call my family, my aunt and uncle in Alabama and say, <20>I<EFBFBD>m fine. You
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have to tell everybody that I<>m fine<6E> but then settling into trying to
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deal with the enormity of that moment, and in the first few hours, I
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think the thing that was on everybody<64>s mind was how many more planes
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are coming.<2E>
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The Capitol was evacuated. And for the first time ever, the Secret
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Service executed the emergency plan to ensure the presidential line of
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succession. Agents swept up the 15 officials who stood to become
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president if the others were killed. They wanted to move Vice President
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Cheney, fearing he was in danger even in the bunker. But Cheney says
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when he heard the other officials were safe, he decided to stay at the
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White House, no matter what.
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<EFBFBD>It<EFBFBD>s important to emphasize it's not personal, you don<6F>t think of it in
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personal terms, you<6F>ve got a professional job to do,<2C> says Cheney.
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Cheney was joined by transportation secretary Norm Mineta who remembers
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hearing the FAA counting down the hijacked jets closing in on the
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capital.
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Says Mineta: <20>Someone came in and said <20>Mr. Vice president there<72>s a
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plane 50 miles out,<2C> then he came in and said <20>Its now 10 miles out, we
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don<EFBFBD>t know where it is exactly, but it<69>s coming in low and fast.<2E><>
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It was American Flight 77. At 9:38 a.m., it exploded into the Pentagon,
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the first successful attack on Washington since the War of 1812.
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As the Pentagon burned, Mr. Bush<73>s limousine sped toward Air Force One
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in Florida. At that moment, United Flight 93 - the last hijacked plane -
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was taking dead aim at Washington. At the White House, the staff was in
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the West Wing cafeteria, watching on TV. Press Secretary Jennifer
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Millerwise was in the crowd when the order came to evacuate.
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<EFBFBD>I no sooner walked outside when someone from the Secret Service yelled
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<EFBFBD>Women drop your heels and run, drop your heels and run,<2C> and suddenly
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the gates that never open except for authorized vehicles just opened and
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the whole White House just flooded out,<2C> she recalls.
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In Florida, as Mr. Bush boarded Air Force One, he was overheard telling
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a Secret Service agent <20>Be sure to get the First Lady and my daughters
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protected.<2E> At 9:57 a.m., Air Force One thundered down the runway,
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blasting smoke and dust in a full -hrust take off. Communications
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Director Dan Bartlett was on board.
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<EFBFBD>It was like a rocket,<2C> he remembers. <20>For a good ten minutes, the plane
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was going almost straight up.<2E>
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At the same moment, 56 minutes after it was hit, World Trade Center
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Tower Two began to falter, then cascade in an incomprehensible avalanche
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of steel, concrete and human lives.
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<EFBFBD>Someone said to me, <20>Look at that<61> I remember that, <20>Look at that<61> and
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I looked up and I saw and I just remember a cloud of dust and smoke and
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the horror of that moment,<2C> recalls Rice of the TV newscast.
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She also felt something in her gut: <20>That we<77>ve lost a lot of Americans
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and that eventually we would get these people. I felt the anger. Of
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course I felt the anger.<2E>
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Down in the bunker, Cheney was trying to figure out how many hijacked
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planes there were. Officials feared there could be as many as 11.
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As the planes track toward Washington, a discussion begins about whether
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to shoot them down. <20>I discussed it with the president,<2C> Cheney
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recalls. <20><>Are we prepared to order our aircraft to shoot down these
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airliners that have been hijacked?<3F> He said yes.<2E>
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<EFBFBD>It was my advice. It was his decision,<2C> says Cheney.
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<EFBFBD>That<EFBFBD>s a sobering moment to order your own combat aircraft to shoot
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down your own civilian aircraft,<2C> says Bush. <20>But it was an easy
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decision to make given the <20> given the fact that we had learned that a
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commercial aircraft was being used as a weapon. I say easy decision, it
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was, I didn<64>t hesitate, let me put it that way. I knew what had to be
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done.<2E>
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The passengers on United Flight 93 also knew what had to be done. They
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fought for control and sacrificed themselves in a Pennsylvania meadow.
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The flight was 15 minutes from Washington.
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<EFBFBD>Clearly, the terrorists were trying to take out as many symbols of
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government as they could: the Pentagon, perhaps the Capitol, perhaps the
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White House. These people saved us not only physically but they saved us
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psychologically and symbolically in a very important way, too,<2C> says
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Rice.
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Meanwhile, Tower One was weakening. It had stood for an hour and 43
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minutes. At 10:29 a.m., it buckled in a mirror image of the collapse of
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its twin.
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The image that went round the world reached the First Lady in a secure
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location somewhere in Washington. <20>I was horrified,<2C> she says. <20>I
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thought, <20>Dear God, protect as many citizens as you can.<2E> It was a
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nightmare.<2E>
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By 10:30 a.m., America<63>s largest city was devastated, its military
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headquarters were burning. Air force One turned west along the Gulf
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Coast.
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<EFBFBD>I can remember sitting right here in this office thinking about the
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consequences of what had taken place and realizing it was the defining
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moment in the history of the United States,<2C> says President Bush. <20>I
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didn<EFBFBD>t need any legal briefs, I didn<64>t need any consultations, I knew we
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were at war.<2E>
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Mr. Bush says the first hours were frustrating. He watched the
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horrifying pictures, but the TV signal was breaking up. His calls to
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Cheney were cutting out. Mr. Bush says he pounded his desk shouting,
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<EFBFBD>This is inexcusable; get me the vice president.<2E>
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<EFBFBD>I was trying to clear the fog of war, and there is a fog of war, says
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the president. "Information was just flying from all directions.<2E>
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Chief of staff Card brought in the reports. There was word Camp David
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had been hit. A jet was thought to be targeting Mr. Bush<73>s ranch.
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<EFBFBD>I remember hearing that the State Department might have been hit, or
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that the White House had a fire in it. So we were hearing lots of
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different information,<2C> says Card.
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They also feared that Air Force One itself was a target. Cheney told the
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president there was a credible threat against the plane. Using the code
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name for Air Force One, Mr. Bush told an aide, <20>Angel is next.<2E> The
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threat was passed to presidential pilot Colonel Mark Tillman.
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<EFBFBD>It was serious before that but now it is -no longer is it a time to get
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the president home,<2C> Tillman says. <20>We actually have to consider
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everything we say, everything we do could be intercepted, and we have to
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make sure that no one knows what our position is.<2E>
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Tillman asked for an armed guard at his cockpit door while Secret
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Service agents double-checked the identity of everyone on board. The
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crew reviewed the emergency evacuation plan. Then came a warning from
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air traffic control <20> a suspect airliner was dead ahead.
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<EFBFBD>Coming out of Sarasota there was one call that said there was an
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airliner off our nose that they did not have contact with,<2C> Tillman
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remembers.
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Tillman took evasive action, pulling his plane high above normal
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traffic. They were on course for Washington, but by now no one thought
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that was a good idea, except the president.
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<EFBFBD>I wanted to come back to Washington, but the circumstances were such
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that it was just impossible for the Secret Service or the national
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security team to clear the way for Air Force One to come back,<2C> says
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Bush.
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So Air Force One set course for an underground command center in
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Nebraska. Back in Washington, the president<6E>s closest advisor, Karen
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Hughes, heard about the threat to the plane and placed a call to Mr.
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Bush.
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<EFBFBD>And the military operator came back to me and in a voice that, to me,
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sounded very shaken said, <20>Ma<4D>am, I<>m sorry, we can<61>t reach Air Force
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One.<2E><> Hughes recalls. Hughes was out of the White House during the
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attacks. When she came back, it was a place she didn<64>t recognize.
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<EFBFBD>There were either military, or maybe Secret Service, dressed all in
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black, holding machine guns as, as we drove up. And I never expected to
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see something like that in, in our nation's capital,<2C> says Hughes.
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When she walked into the White House, no one was inside. <20>I knew it was
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a day that you didn't want to surprise anybody, and so I yelled,
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<EFBFBD>Hello?<3F> and two, again, kind of SWAT team members came running, running
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through the, the hall with, again, guns drawn, and then took me to, to
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the location where I met the vice president.<2E>
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On Air Force One, Col. Tillman had a problem. He needed to hide the most
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visible plane in the world, a 747 longer than the White House itself. He
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didn<EFBFBD>t want to use his radio, because the hijackers could be listening
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to air traffic control. So he called air traffic control on the
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telephone.
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<EFBFBD>We actually didn't tell them our destination or what directions we were
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heading,<2C> says Tillman. <20>We, we basically just talked to 'em and said,
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'OK, fine, we have no clearance at this time, we are just going to fly
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across the United States.'<27>
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Controllers passed Air Force One from one sector to another, warning
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each other to keep the route secret.
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<EFBFBD>OK, where<72>s he going?<3F> one tower radioed to another.
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<EFBFBD>Just watch him,<2C> a second tower responded. <20>Don<6F>t question him where<72>s
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he's going. Just work him and watch him, there<72>s no flight plan in and
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we<EFBFBD>re not going to put anything in. Ok, sir?<3F>
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Air Force One ordered a fighter escort, and air traffic control radioed
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back: <20>Air Force One, got two F-16s at about your 10 o<>clock position.<2E>
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<EFBFBD>The staff, and the president and us, were filed out along the outside
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hallway of his presidential cabin there and looking out the windows,<2C>
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says Bartlett. <20>And the president gives them a signal of salute, and the
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pilot kind of tips his wing, and fades off and backs into formation.<2E>
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The men in the F-16s were Shane Brotherton and Randy Roberts, from the
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Texas Air National Guard. Their mission was so secret their commander
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wouldn<EFBFBD>t tell them where they were going.
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<EFBFBD>He just said, 'You<6F>ll know when you see it,' and that was my first
|
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clue, I didn<64>t have any idea what we were going up until that point,<2C>
|
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says Brotherton. He knew when he saw it.
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<EFBFBD>We, we were trying to keep an 80-mile bubble, bubble around Air Force
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One, and we'd investigate anything that was within 80 miles,<2C> says
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Roberts.
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Bush says he was not worried about the safety of the people on this
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aircraft, or for his own safety: <20>I looked out the airplane and saw two
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F-16s on each wing. It was going to have to be a pretty good pilot to
|
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get us.<2E>
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|
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We now know that the threat to Air Force One was part of the fog of war,
|
||
a false alarm. But it had a powerful effect at the time. Some wondered,
|
||
with the president out of sight, was he still running the government? He
|
||
hadn<EFBFBD>t appeared after the attack on Washington. Mr. Bush was clearly
|
||
worried about it. At one point he was overheard saying, <20>The American
|
||
people want to know where their dang president is.<2E> The staff considered
|
||
an address to the nation by phone but instead Mr. Bush ordered Air Force
|
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One to land somewhere within 30 minutes so he could appear on TV. At
|
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11:45 a.m., they landed at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana.
|
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<EFBFBD>The resolve of our great nation is being tested. But make no mistake,
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we will show the world that we will pass this test. God bless,<2C> Bush
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said to the nation from Barksdale.
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At Barksdale, the Secret Service believed the situation in Washington
|
||
was still unsafe. So the plane continued on to Nebraska, to the command
|
||
center where Mr. Bush would be secure and have all the communications
|
||
gear he needed to run the government. Aboard Air Force One, Mr. Bush had
|
||
a job for press secretary Fleischer.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>The president asked me to make sure that I took down everything that
|
||
was said. I think he wanted to make certain that a record existed,<2C> says
|
||
Fleischer
|
||
|
||
Fleischer<EFBFBD>s notes capture Mr. Bush<73>s language, plain and unguarded. To
|
||
the vice president he said: <20>We<57>re at war, Dick, we<77>re going to find out
|
||
who did this and kick their ass.<2E> Another time, Mr. Bush said, <20>We<57>re
|
||
not going to have any slap-on-the-wrist crap this time.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The President adds, <20>I can remember telling the Secretary of Defense, I
|
||
said, <20>We<57>re going to find out who did this and then Mr. Secretary, you
|
||
and Dick Myers,<2C> who we just named as chairman of the joint chiefs, <20>are
|
||
going to go get them.<2E><>
|
||
|
||
By 3 p.m., Air Force One touched down at Offutt Air Force Base in
|
||
Nebraska. Mr. Bush and his team were herded into a small brick hut that
|
||
gave no hint of what they would find below.
|
||
|
||
At the bottom of the stairs was the U.S. Strategic Command Underground
|
||
Command Center. It was built to transmit a president<6E>s order to go to
|
||
nuclear war. But when Mr. Bush walked in, the battle staff was watching
|
||
the skies over the United States. Many airplanes had still not landed.
|
||
After a short briefing, Mr. Bush and Card were taken to a teleconference
|
||
center which connected them to the White House, the Pentagon, the FBI
|
||
and the CIA. Mr. Bush had a question for his CIA Director George Tenent.
|
||
|
||
According to Rice, Bush asked Tenent who had done this. Rice recalls
|
||
that Tenent answered: <20>Sir, I believe its al Qaeda. We<57>re doing the
|
||
assessment but it looks like, it feels like, it smells like al Qaeda.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The evidence would build. FBI Director Robert Mueller says that an
|
||
essential clue came from one of the hijacked planes before it crashed.
|
||
|
||
A flight attendant on American Flight 11, Amy Sweeney, had the presence
|
||
of mind to call her office as the plane was hijacked and give them the
|
||
seat numbers of the hijackers. <20>That was the first piece of hard
|
||
evidence. We could then go to the manifest, find out who was sitting in
|
||
those seats and immediately conduct an investigation of those
|
||
individuals, as opposed to taking all the passengers on the plane and
|
||
going through a process of elimination,<2C> says Mueller.
|
||
|
||
In Nebraska, the White House staff was preparing for an address to the
|
||
nation from the Air Force bunker, but by then the president had had
|
||
enough. He decided to come back.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>At one point, he said he didn<64>t want any tinhorn terrorist keeping him
|
||
out of Washington,<2C> Fleischer says. <20>That verbatim.<2E>
|
||
|
||
On board, he was already thinking of issuing an ultimatum to the world:
|
||
<EFBFBD>I had time to think and a couple of thoughts emerged. One was that
|
||
you're guilty if you harbor a terrorist, because I knew these terrorists
|
||
like al-Qaeda liked to prey on weak government and weak people. The
|
||
other thought that came was the opportunity to fashion a vast coalition
|
||
of countries that would either be with us or with the terrorists.<2E>
|
||
|
||
As Air Force One sped east, the last casualty of the attack on America
|
||
collapsed, one of the nation<6F>s worst days wore into evening. At the
|
||
World Trade Center, 2,801 were killed; at the Pentagon, 184; and in
|
||
Pennsylvania 40. Altogether, there were 3,025 dead.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>Anybody who would attack America the way they did, anybody who would
|
||
take innocent life the way they did, anybody who's so devious, is evil,<2C>
|
||
Bush said recently.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush would soon see that evil face to face. After arriving in
|
||
Washington, he boarded his helicopter and flew past the Pentagon on the
|
||
way to the White House.
|
||
|
||
Was there a time when he was afraid that there might not be a White
|
||
House to return to? <20>I don<6F>t remember thinking about whether or not the
|
||
White House would have been obliterated," he recalls. "I think I might
|
||
have thought they took their best shot, and now it was time for us to
|
||
take our best shot.<2E>
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush arrived back at the White House nine hours after the attacks.
|
||
His next step was an address to the nation. Karen Hughes and her staff
|
||
were already working on the speech.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>He decided that the primary tone he wanted to strike that night was
|
||
reassurance,<2C> remembers Hughes. <20>We had to show resolve, we had to
|
||
reassure people, we had to let them know that we would be OK.<2E>
|
||
|
||
Just off the Oval Office, Mr. Bush added the words that would become
|
||
known as the Bush Doctrine - no distinction between terrorists and those
|
||
who harbor them. The staff wanted to add a declaration of war but Mr.
|
||
Bush didn<64>t think the American people wanted to hear it that night and
|
||
he was emphatic about that.
|
||
|
||
He prepared to say it from the same desk where Franklin Roosevelt first
|
||
heard the news of Pearl Harbor. Now Bush was commander in chief. Eighty
|
||
million Americans were watching.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>Today our fellow citizens, our way of life, our very freedom came under
|
||
attack in a series of deliberate and deadly terrorist acts,<2C> he said
|
||
from the Oval Office that night.
|
||
|
||
The Oval Office speech came at the end of the bloodiest day in American
|
||
history since the Civil War. Before he walked to the White House
|
||
residence for the night, Mr. Bush dictated these words for the White
|
||
House daily log: <20>The Pearl Harbor of the 21st century took place today.
|
||
We think it's Osama bin Laden.<2E>
|
||
|
||
(CBS)<29>When Sept. 12 dawned, President Bush was demanding a war plan. No
|
||
one in the White House or the Pentagon could be sure of what the
|
||
president would do. In office for just eight months, he<68>d never been
|
||
tested as commander-in-chief.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>I never asked them what they thought,<2C> President Bush said of the
|
||
Pentagon brass, <20>because I didn<64>t really <20> because I knew what I was
|
||
gonna do. I knew exactly what had to be done, Scott. And that was to set
|
||
a strategy to seek justice. Find out who did it, hunt them down and
|
||
bring them to justice.<2E>
|
||
|
||
In the cabinet room, the president made clear what was next: <20>The
|
||
deliberate and deadly attacks which were carried out yesterday against
|
||
our country were more than acts of terror, they were acts of war,<2C> he
|
||
said.
|
||
|
||
To the war cabinet, al Qaeda was no surprise. National Security Advisor
|
||
Condoleezza Rice says the administration had been at work on a plan to
|
||
strike bin Laden<65>s organization well before Sept. 11.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>The president said, <20>You know I<>m tired of swatting at flies, I need a
|
||
strategy to eliminate these guys,<2C><> Rice recalls.
|
||
|
||
In one of the worst intelligence failures ever, the CIA and FBI didn<64>t
|
||
pick up clues that an attack in the United States was imminent. Without
|
||
a sense of urgency, the White House strategy the president had asked for
|
||
came too late.
|
||
|
||
Chief of Staff Andrew Card recalls that the plan Mr. Bush had asked for
|
||
was <20>literally headed to the president<6E>s desk, I think, on the eleventh,
|
||
tenth or eleventh, of September.<2E>
|
||
|
||
On Sept. 12, the war cabinet was debating the full range of options -
|
||
who to hit and how to hit them. There were some at the Pentagon who
|
||
worried in the early hours that Mr. Bush would order up an immediate
|
||
cruise missile strike, of the kind that had not deterred bin Laden in
|
||
the past.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>Well, there<72>s a lot of nervous Nellies at the Pentagon, anyway,<2C> Mr.
|
||
Bush tells Pelley. <20>A lot of people like to chatter, you know, more than
|
||
they should. But no, I appreciate that very much. Secretary of Defense
|
||
(Donald) Rumsfeld early on discussed the idea of making sure we had what
|
||
we called <20>boots on the ground.<2E> That if you<6F>re gonna go to war, then
|
||
you<EFBFBD>ve gotta go to war with all your assets.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The president says he wanted to <20>fight and win a guerilla war with
|
||
conventional means.<2E>
|
||
|
||
It was an innovative but risky idea being proposed by CIA Director
|
||
George Tenent. Tenent wanted to combine American technology and
|
||
intelligence with the brute force of Afghan fighters hostile to the
|
||
Taliban government.
|
||
|
||
Secretary of State Colin Powell, noting that the CIA had already
|
||
developed a long relationship with the Afghan resistance, called it an
|
||
unconventional solution to an unconventional problem.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>As I like to describe it to my friends,<2C> Powell says, <20>we had on the
|
||
ground a Fourth World army riding horses and living in tents with some
|
||
CIA and special forces with them and we had a First World air force, the
|
||
best in the world. How do you connect it all?<3F>
|
||
|
||
The president gave them 48 hours to figure it out.
|
||
|
||
Meanwhile, Mr. Bush went to the battlefield himself. Just the day
|
||
before, he had called the Pentagon the <20>mightiest building in the
|
||
world.<2E> Now one-fifth of it was in ruins. The wreckage of American
|
||
Flight 77 was being examined by Navy investigators. And before Mr. Bush
|
||
left, he made a point of speaking personally with the team recovering
|
||
the remains of the first casualties of war on his watch.
|
||
The next day, Sept. 13, there was another warning of attack that the
|
||
public never heard about. Threats had been were coming in constantly but
|
||
this one sounded credible: a large truck bomb headed to the White House.
|
||
The Secret Service wanted the president back in the bunker.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>He wasn<73>t real receptive to that, to that recommendation,<2C> remembers
|
||
Brian Stafford, director of the Secret Service. <20>And he ordered a
|
||
hamburger and said he was going to stay in the White House that evening
|
||
and that<61>s what he did.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The next day, would be one of the longest and the most difficult for the
|
||
president. On Friday, Sept. 14, Mr. Bush started the day with a cabinet
|
||
meeting, but he wept when he walked in and was surprised by applause.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>He sat down, slightly overcome, for a moment but he recaptured it,<2C>
|
||
says Powell who remembers being worried that the president might have
|
||
trouble getting through his speech at the national memorial service
|
||
later that morning.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>And I just scribbled a little note to him,<2C> Powell recalls, <20>and I
|
||
said, <20>Mr. President, I<>ve learned over the years when you are going to
|
||
give a very emotional speech, watch out for certain words that will
|
||
cause you to start to tear up.<2E> He looked at me and he smiled and then
|
||
at the next break in the conversation he said, <20>The Secretary of State
|
||
told me not to break down at the memorial service,<2C> and that broke the
|
||
tension and everybody started laughing and I felt embarrassed.<2E>
|
||
|
||
First Lady Laura Bush was involved in planning the memorial service and
|
||
she says she wanted it to be both dignified and comforting. <20>I wanted
|
||
the Psalms and everything to be read to be comforting, because I think
|
||
we were a country, that needed, everyone of us, needed comforting.<2E>
|
||
|
||
It also stirred the mourners<72> resolve, as Rice remember. <20>As we stood to
|
||
sing the Battle Hymn of the Republic,<2C> she says, <20>you could feel the
|
||
entire congregation and I could certainly feel myself stiffen, the kind
|
||
of spine, and this deep sadness was being replaced by resolve.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>We all felt that we still had mourning to do for our countrymen who had
|
||
been lost but that we also had a new purpose in not just avenging what
|
||
had happened to them but making certain that the world was eventually
|
||
going to be safe from this kind of attack ever again.<2E>
|
||
|
||
Next came a visit to ground zero. The president was not prepared for
|
||
what he encountered there.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>You couldn<64>t brief me, you couldn<64>t brief anybody on ground zero until
|
||
you saw it," Mr. Bush says. <20>It was like <20> it was ghostly. Like you<6F>re
|
||
having a bad dream and you<6F>re walking through the dream.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The president found the scene very powerful, particularly when the men
|
||
and women at ground zero began to chant, <20>USA! USA!.<2E>
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>There was a lot of bloodlust,<2C> the president recalls. <20>People were, you
|
||
know, pointing their big old hands at me saying, <20>Don<6F>t you ever forget
|
||
this, Mr. President. Don<6F>t let us down.<2E> The scene was very powerful.
|
||
Very powerful.<2E>
|
||
|
||
When Mr. Bush tried to speak, the crowd kept shouting, <20>We can<61>t hear
|
||
you.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The president responded, <20>I can hear you. I can hear you. The rest of
|
||
the world hears you. And the people who knocked these buildings down
|
||
will hear all of us soon.<2E>
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush had been in New York just a few weeks before; he<68>d posed with
|
||
the firemen who always stood by whenever the president<6E>s helicopter
|
||
landed there. Now, five of the men who stood with the president in the
|
||
picture were dead <20> lost at ground zero.
|
||
|
||
When the president arrived Sept. 14, Manhattan was papered with the
|
||
faces of the lost. Families, unable to believe that so many had vanished
|
||
in an instant, held onto the hope that their loved ones were just
|
||
missing. It was a place where a child comforted a grieving mother.
|
||
|
||
At a meeting the public never saw, the president spoke with several
|
||
hundred of these families in a convention hall.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>People said to me, <20>He<48>ll come out. Don<6F>t worry, Mr. president, we<77>ll
|
||
see him soon. I know my loved one, he will - he<68>ll find a place to
|
||
survive underneath the rubble and we<77>ll get him out.<2E> I, on the other
|
||
hand had been briefed about the realities, and my job was to hug and
|
||
cry, but I remember the whole time thinking, <20>This is incredibly sad
|
||
because the loved ones won<6F>t come out.<2E><>
|
||
|
||
One little boy handed the president a picture of his father in his
|
||
firefighter uniform and as he signed it, Mr. Bush remembers, he told the
|
||
boy, <20>Your daddy won<6F>t believe that I was here, so you show him that
|
||
autograph.<2E>
|
||
|
||
It was an effort <20>to provide a little hope,<2C> the president recalls. <20>I
|
||
still get emotional thinking about it because we<77>re dealing with people
|
||
who loved their dads or loved their mom, or loved their<69>wives who loved
|
||
their husbands. It was a tough time, you know, it was a tough time for
|
||
all of us because we were a very emotional, and I was emotional at
|
||
times. I felt, I felt the same now as I did then, which is sad. And I
|
||
still feel sad for those who grieve for their families, but through my
|
||
tears, I see opportunity.<2E>
|
||
|
||
The president was supposed to be with the families for about 30 minutes;
|
||
he stayed for two and a half hours. It was there he met Arlene Howard.
|
||
The body of her son, George, was among the first to be found at ground
|
||
zero.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>I called the police department,<2C> Howard remembers, <20> and they said he
|
||
hadn<EFBFBD>t called in for roll call and to call back in an hour and I said,
|
||
<EFBFBD>No, I don<6F>t need to call back.<2E> If he hadn<64>t called in, I knew where he
|
||
was.<2E>
|
||
|
||
George Howard had rescued children trapped in an elevator back in 1993
|
||
when the World Trade Center was bombed. He had been off duty that day,
|
||
and he was off duty on Sept. 11, but couldn<64>t stay away. The police
|
||
department gave his badge to his mother and she gave it to the president.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>He (the president) he leaned over to talk to me,<2C> Howard recalls. <20>And
|
||
he extends his sympathy to me and that<61>s when I asked him I<>d like to
|
||
present George<67>s shield to him in honor of all the men and women who
|
||
were killed over there.<2E>
|
||
|
||
By the end of that day, Mr. Bush flew to Camp David visibly drained.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>He was physically exhausted, he was mentally exhausted, he was
|
||
emotionally exhausted, he was spiritually exhausted,<2C> recalls Card..
|
||
|
||
The next day <20> Saturday, Sept. 15 - Mr. Bush met members of his war
|
||
cabinet at the presidential retreat for a last decisive meeting.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>My message is for everybody who wears the uniform <20> get ready. The
|
||
United States will do what it takes,<2C> Mr. Bush told them.
|
||
|
||
As Powell remembers it, <20>He was encouraging us to think boldly. He was
|
||
listening to all ideas; he was not constrained to any one idea; he
|
||
wanted to hear his advisors talk and argue and debate with each other.<2E>
|
||
|
||
President Bush was pleased with the progress that had been made. <20>On the
|
||
other hand,<2C> he says, <20>I wanted to clarify plans and I went around the
|
||
room and I asked everybody what they thought ought to happen.<2E>
|
||
|
||
When he left that meeting on Saturday night, he still had not told the
|
||
cabinet what he was planning.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>I wanted to just think it through,<2C> Mr. Bush remembers. <20>Any time you
|
||
commit troops to harm<72>s way, a president must make sure that he fully
|
||
understands all the consequences and ramifications. And I wanted to just
|
||
spend some time on it alone. And did.<2E>
|
||
|
||
What were his reservations?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush says, <20>Could we win? I didn<64>t want to be putting our troops in
|
||
there unless I was certain we could win. And I was certain we could win.<2E>
|
||
|
||
Nine days after the attacks on America, before a joint session of
|
||
Congress the president committed the nation to the war on terror.
|
||
|
||
<EFBFBD>Each of us will remember what happened that day and to whom it
|
||
happened,<2C> Mr. Bush told the Congress and the nation. <20>We<57>ll remember
|
||
the moment the news came, where we were and what we were doing. Some
|
||
will remember an image of a fire or a story of rescue. Some will carry
|
||
memories of a face and a voice gone forever. And I will carry this. It
|
||
is the police shield of a man named George Howard, who died at the World
|
||
Trade Center trying to save others. It was given to me by his mom,
|
||
Arlene, as a proud memorial to her son. It is my reminder of lives that
|
||
ended and a task that does not end.<2E>
|
||
|
||
A year has passed since then, but the president says his job is still to
|
||
remind Americans of what happened and of the war that is still being
|
||
waged, a war he reminds himself of every day in the Oval Office,
|
||
literally keeping score, one terrorist at a time.
|
||
|
||
In his desk, the president says, <20>I have a classified document that
|
||
might have some pictures on there, just to keep reminding me about who<68>s
|
||
out there, where they might be<62>
|
||
|
||
And as the terrorists are captures or killed? <20>I might make a little
|
||
check there, yeah,<2C> Mr. Bush admits.
|
||
|
||
But there is no check by the name that must be on the top of that list <20>
|
||
Osama bin Laden.
|
||
|
||
(CBS)<29>A lot has happened in the year since Sept. 11. One year ago, the
|
||
president was new on the job, with little experience in foreign policy.
|
||
He had wanted to pull the military back from foreign entanglements. Now,
|
||
on his orders, U.S. forces are engaged around the globe in a war he did
|
||
not expect, in a world completely changed. In the Oval Office last week,
|
||
CBS News Correspondent Scott Pelley asked the president about Iraq,
|
||
about whether Americans are safe at home and about Osama bin Laden.
|
||
------------------------------------------------------------------------
|
||
|
||
|
||
Scott Pelley: You must be frustrated, maybe angry. After a year, we
|
||
still don<6F>t have Osama Bin Laden?
|
||
|
||
President Bush: How do you know that? I don<6F>t know whether Osama bin
|
||
Laden is dead or alive. I don<6F>t know that. He<48>s not leading a lot of
|
||
parades. And he<68>s not nearly the hero that a lot of people thought he
|
||
was. This is much bigger than one person anyway. This is <20> we<77>re slowly
|
||
but surely dismantling and disrupting the al Qaeda network that, that
|
||
hates America. And we will stay on task until we complete the task. I
|
||
always knew this was a different kind of war, Scott. See, in the old
|
||
days, you measure the size and the strength of the enemy by counting his
|
||
tanks or his airplanes and his ships. This is an international manhunt.
|
||
We<EFBFBD>re after these people one at the time. They<65>re killers. Period.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: But have you won the war before you find Osama bin Laden dead or
|
||
alive?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: If he were dead, there<72>s somebody else to replace him. And we
|
||
would find that person. But slowly but surely, we will dismantle the al
|
||
Qaeda network. And those who sponsor them and those who harbor them. And
|
||
at the same time, hopefully lay the seeds for, the conditions necessary
|
||
so that people don<6F>t feel like they<65>ve got to conduct terror to achieve
|
||
objectives.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: Do you look back on the Afghan campaign with any doubts?
|
||
Certainly, we<77>ve overthrown the Taliban government. Certainly, al Qaeda
|
||
has been scattered. But some of the Taliban leaders appear to have
|
||
gotten away. And there have been many civilian casualties as well.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: Uh huh. Well, you know, I am sad that civilians lost their
|
||
life. But I understand war. We did everything we can to <20> everything we
|
||
could to protect people. When civilians did die, it was because of a
|
||
mistake. Certainly not because of intention. We liberated a country for
|
||
which I<>m extremely proud. No, <20> I don<6F>t second guess things. It<49>s <20>
|
||
things never go perfect in a time of war.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: Are you committed to ending the rule of Saddam Hussein?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: I<>m committed to regime change.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: There are those who have been vocal in their advice against war
|
||
in Iraq. Some of our allies in the Gulf War, Saudi Arabia, Turkey for
|
||
example. Even your father<65>s former national security advisor, Mr.
|
||
Scowcroft has written about it in the paper. What is it in your
|
||
estimation that they don<6F>t understand about the Iraq question that you
|
||
do appreciate?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: The policy of the government is regime change, Scott, hasn<73>t
|
||
changed. I get all kinds of advice. I<>m listening to the advice. I
|
||
appreciate the consultations. And we<77>ll consult with a lot of people but
|
||
our policy hasn<73>t changed.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: On Air Force One you described the terrorists as evil.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: Yeah.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: I don<6F>t think anyone would disagree with that, but at the same
|
||
time, many in the Arab world are angry at the United States for
|
||
political reasons because of our policy in Israel or our troops in the
|
||
oil region of the Middle East. Is there any change in foreign policy
|
||
that you<6F>re considering that might reduce Arab anger against the United
|
||
States.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: Hmm. Well, I<>m working for peace in the Middle East. I<>m the
|
||
first president that ever went to the United Nations and publicly
|
||
declared the need to have a Palestinian state living side-by-side with
|
||
Israel in peace. I<>ve made it clear that in order for there to be peace
|
||
the Palestinians have gotta to get some leadership that renounces terror
|
||
and believes in peaces and quits using the Palestinian people as pawns.
|
||
I've also made it clear to the other Arab nations in the region that
|
||
they<EFBFBD>ve got responsibilities. If you want peace they gotta work toward
|
||
it. We<57>re more than willing to work for it, but they have to work for it
|
||
as well. But all this business isn<73>t going to happen as long as a few
|
||
are willing to blow up the hopes of many. So we all gotta work to fight
|
||
off terror.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: Arafat has to go?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: Either, he<68>s, he<68>s been a complete failure as far as I am
|
||
concerned. Utter disappointment.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: There has been some concern over the year about civil liberties.
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: Yeah<61>
|
||
|
||
Pelley: In fact, an appeals court recently was harsh about your
|
||
administration<EFBFBD>s decision to close certain deportation hearings. They
|
||
said, quote, <20>A government operating in secrecy stands in opposition to
|
||
the Constitution.<2E> Where do you draw the line sir?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: I draw the line at the Constitution. We will protect America.
|
||
But we will do so on, within the guidelines of the Constitution,
|
||
confines of the Constitution, spirit of the Constitution.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: Is there anything that the Justice Department has brought to you
|
||
as an idea that you<6F>ve thought, <20>No, that<61>s too far. I don<6F>t wanna go<67>"
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: Nah, not that that I remember. And I am pleased with the
|
||
Justice Department. I think that Attorney General<61>s doing a fine job, by
|
||
the way...and to the extent that our courts are willing to make sure
|
||
that they review decisions we make, I think that<61>s fine. I mean, that<61>s
|
||
good. It<49>s healthy. It<49>s part of America.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: Franklin Roosevelt said that America should stand in defense of
|
||
four freedoms. Freedom of speech, freedom of religion, freedom from want
|
||
and freedom from fear. Do we have that today Mr. President? Freedom from
|
||
fear?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: I think more than we did, in retrospect. The fact that we are
|
||
on alert, the fact that we understand the new circumstances makes us
|
||
more free from fear than on that fateful day of September the 11th.
|
||
We<EFBFBD>ve got more work to do.
|
||
|
||
Pelley: And Americans should not live their lives in fear?
|
||
|
||
Mr. Bush: I don<6F>t think so. No. I think Americans oughta know their
|
||
government<EFBFBD>s doing everything possible to help. And obviously if we get
|
||
information that relates directly a particular attack we<77>ll deal with
|
||
it. And if we get noise that deals with a general attack, we<77>ll alert
|
||
people. There are a lot of good folks working hard to disrupt and deny
|
||
and run down leads. And the American people need to go about their
|
||
lives. It seems like they are.
|
||
|
||
|