Why Were U.S. Intelligence Facilities in an 'Information Void' During the 9/11 Attacks?

When the terrorist attacks began on September 11, 2001, numerous U.S. intelligence agencies and facilities that should have been closely following the catastrophic events taking place in the skies over America were unaware that anything was wrong. Because of their particular responsibilities and their advanced capabilities, agencies such as the FBI and the National Security Agency (NSA) should have been among the first to learn the details of the crisis. But, instead, they were apparently in an information blackout, and their knowledge of the attacks was limited to what they could learn from television reports.

The fact that key intelligence agencies and facilities experienced this problem, and all at the same time, suggests that the information blackout may have been intentional--an act of sabotage committed by the perpetrators of the attacks. Such an act could have been intended to render these agencies and facilities useless when their services were urgently needed, thereby helping to ensure that the attacks were successful.

MILITARY OFFICERS UNSUCCESSFULLY SOUGHT INFORMATION ABOUT THE ATTACKS
The lack of awareness of the crisis on September 11 is highlighted in the accounts of two military officers who contacted numerous facilities in their attempts to learn more about the attacks. These officers were Lieutenant Colonel Mark Stuart, an intelligence officer at NORAD's Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS), and Major David McNulty, the senior intelligence officer of the 113th Wing of the District of Columbia Air National Guard at Andrews Air Force Base. [1]

Stuart and McNulty's units had crucial roles to play on September 11. NEADS, based in Rome, New York, was responsible for coordinating the U.S. military's response to the hijackings. [2] And "air defense around Washington, DC," according to Knight Ridder, was provided "mainly by fighter planes from Andrews Air Force Base," which is just 10 miles from the capital. [3] The DC Air National Guard was in fact known as the "Capital Guardians." [4] It was therefore essential that Stuart and McNulty be provided with up-to-the-minute information on the attacks. That, however, did not happen.

NEADS was alerted to the first hijacking--that of American Airlines Flight 11--just before 8:38 a.m. on September 11, when an air traffic controller called to report the incident and request military assistance. [5] Beginning at around 8:48 a.m., Mark Stuart contacted several facilities to see if they had any information on the hijacking, beyond what he had already learned. These facilities included the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center, the National Military Joint Intelligence Center, and the 1st Air Force headquarters. None of them could provide any additional information. A colleague of Stuart's checked the SIPRNET--the U.S. military Internet system--for relevant information, but also without success. [6]

At Andrews Air Force Base, about five minutes or so after he learned that a second plane had hit the World Trade Center (the crash occurred at 9:03 a.m.), McNulty went to his "intel vault" and began seeking relevant information. He too checked the SIPRNET. He called agencies such as the FBI, the CIA, and the NSA. He also called units such as the Air Combat Command Intelligence Squadron and the 609th Air Intelligence Squadron. But he was unable to find out anything more than he had already learned from television reports. [7]

Other accounts provide further details of the lack of awareness of the catastrophic events within the military and other government agencies. Indeed, the information blackout appears to have been almost universal. One government official commented that the U.S. was "deaf, dumb, and blind" for much of September 11. [8]

AIR TRAFFIC CONTROLLERS NOTICED EARLY SIGNS OF THE CRISIS
Although many key facilities were unaware of what was happening at the time the WTC towers were hit, indications of the crisis had been evident much earlier on. These indications were received or noticed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), which is responsible for operating the U.S. air traffic control system, or by American Airlines.

The first sign that something was wrong came nearly 33 minutes before Flight 11 crashed into the WTC, when communication with the plane was lost. Just before 8:14 a.m., the plane's crew failed to respond to an instruction to climb to 35,000 feet. The air traffic controller at the FAA's Boston Center who was handling Flight 11 tried repeatedly to contact the plane over the next 10 minutes, but without success. [9]

Boston Center controllers noticed a further indication of the emergency at 8:21 a.m., when Flight 11's transponder--the equipment that transmits identifying information about a plane to radar screens--was turned off. This, according to the Christian Science Monitor, was "something more worrisome" than the loss of radio contact. [10]

Then, at around 8:25 a.m., the controller handling Flight 11 heard a couple of suspicious radio transmissions, apparently made by a hijacker on Flight 11, which led him to conclude that the plane had been hijacked. At that point, the Boston Center began notifying its chain of command within the FAA of the suspected hijacking. [11]

A minute later, at 8:26 a.m., Boston Center controllers noticed Flight 11 drastically changing course, turning sharply to the south. [12] This was a significant development. Darrel Smith, an intelligence officer working at FAA headquarters that morning, has commented that he was particularly alarmed when he learned about it, because such a deviation was like "changing directions off I-95 north and heading south." Flight 11's change of course "jeopardized the other flights in the surrounding airspace," he said. [13]

AIRLINE RECEIVED EARLY NOTIFICATION OF THE EMERGENCY IN CALLS FROM FLIGHT ATTENDANTS
American Airlines, like the FAA, was aware of the crisis well before the first plane hit the WTC. At 8:19 a.m., Betty Ong, one of the flight attendants on Flight 11, contacted the American Airlines Southeastern Reservations Office in Cary, North Carolina, and, in a 25-minute phone call, relayed crucial information about what was happening on her plane. A couple of minutes after Ong's call began, a supervisor at the reservations office called the American Airlines System Operations Control Center in Fort Worth, Texas, and alerted it to the information that Ong was providing. And at 8:32 a.m., Amy Sweeney, another of the plane's flight attendants, reached the American Airlines flight services office in Boston. In a 12-minute phone call, she provided details of the crisis to the manager there.

In their calls, Ong and Sweeney made clear the seriousness of the situation. They reported that Flight 11 had been hijacked and that the hijackers were in the cockpit; two flight attendants had been stabbed; one passenger had his throat slashed and died as a result; and there was a bomb in the cockpit. [14]

But while American Airlines and the FAA knew details of the emergency early on, other agencies and facilities that should also have been closely following the crisis were unaware that anything was wrong. So when Mark Stuart, at NEADS, contacted a number of intelligence facilities, beginning shortly after the first plane hit the WTC, he found they had no information beyond what he already knew. [15] And David McNulty, at Andrews Air Force Base, has recalled that when he did the same, beginning several minutes after the second plane hit the WTC, he felt like he was "waking up the national agencies" and found that the agencies he called "had nothing to report." [16]

FBI'S OPERATIONS CENTER HAD KEY ROLE IN U.S. RESPONSE TO TERRORISM
Mark Stuart called the FBI's Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) to report the hijacking of Flight 11. Stuart told the 9/11 Commission that he made the call at around 8:48 a.m. This was two minutes after Flight 11 crashed into the North Tower of the World Trade Center. [17]

The SIOC should have been well suited to handling the 9/11 attacks. The United States Government Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan of January 2001 stated that the SIOC's role was "to coordinate and manage the national level support to a terrorism incident." [18] The purpose of the center, according to FBI officials, was "to keep the FBI updated on any crisis through sophisticated computers and communications equipment."

The SIOC, which opened in 1998, was a 40,000-square-foot facility on the fifth floor of the FBI's headquarters in Washington. It was designed to handle up to five crises at the same time, and, during a major emergency, could accommodate up to 450 people. [19]

The SIOC functioned as a 24-hour watch post and crisis management center. [20] It had 10-member watch teams on duty at all times. These teams included a representative from the NSA's Cryptologic Security Group, who could provide information from the government's worldwide electronic eavesdropping. [21] The center's 225 computer terminals had access to three types of local area networks: the regular FBI network that could connect to the networks of outside agencies; a classified network that operated at the level of Top Secret; and an even more highly classified Special Compartmented Information network. [22]

FBI agents and top officials, along with representatives from many other government agencies, went to the SIOC on September 11 in response to the terrorist attacks. [23] John Ashcroft, the attorney general at the time, told the 9/11 Commission that "the SIOC was the place to be to get information and so everyone wanted to be there." [24]

SOPHISTICATED OPERATIONS CENTER 'HAD NOTHING' ON THE ATTACKS
And yet, despite the center's key responsibilities and its advanced capabilities, personnel in this state-of-the-art command post were apparently no better informed about the 9/11 attacks than members of the public watching the events on television. Stuart has recalled that when he called the SIOC, the center "had no information to pass that could shed light on the nature of the American Air 11 hijacking." Stuart was handed off to two or three individuals at the center. He explained to them what was happening and asked for law enforcement information. But, Stuart has said, "They had nothing." One of the people that Stuart spoke to said to him, "Oh shit, I have to go," and then hung up. [25]

Fred Stremmel, an FBI counterterrorism analyst, was in the SIOC when the attacks began and has described events there. According to his account, those in the center only realized the U.S. was under terrorist attack when they saw the second plane hitting the WTC on television.

Stremmel learned of the crisis that morning when a colleague in the SIOC told him about the first plane hitting the WTC. A crowd was watching the television coverage of the crash on a giant video screen, and Stremmel saw the second plane hitting the WTC when it was broadcast live, at 9:03 a.m. According to journalist and author Garrett Graff, at that time, "Everyone in the operations center stood there stunned." Stremmel has commented that after seeing the second crash on TV, those in the SIOC "probably knew it was terrorism, but we were in denial. It's like being told you have cancer. You want to deny it for as long as possible." [26]

Even the FBI's top officials were apparently no more aware of what was happening than members of the public were. FBI Director Robert Mueller was holding his daily briefing in his conference room at the FBI headquarters when the attacks began. All of the bureau's assistant directors were with him, including Dale Watson, the head of counterterrorism. They all learned of the crisis when someone interrupted the briefing and told them a plane had crashed into the WTC. However, they were initially unclear about whether this was a terrorist attack. "How could a plane not see the tower? It's so clear out today," Mueller reportedly said. Some of the group then went to the office of Deputy Director Thomas Pickard. There they saw the second crash live on television and realized for certain that this was terrorism. Only then did Watson go to his office and activate the SIOC for crisis mode, and Pickard and Mueller quickly made their way to the SIOC. [27]

Agents at the FBI's Washington, DC, field office were just as poorly informed. The Washington field office was one of the facilities David McNulty called after the second hijacked plane, United Airlines Flight 175, hit the South Tower of the WTC. However, it could provide him with no additional information on the crisis. "It was a fruitless effort," McNulty has commented. [28]

PENTAGON INTELLIGENCE CENTER HAD 'NO ADDITIONAL RELEVANT INFORMATION'
After calling the SIOC, Mark Stuart called the National Military Joint Intelligence Center (NMJIC) about the hijacking of Flight 11. [29] The NMJIC, which is located in the Joint Staff area of the Pentagon, constantly monitors worldwide developments for any looming crisis that might require U.S. involvement. [30] Agencies such as the CIA and the NSA have full-time representatives there. According to James Clapper, a former director of the Defense Intelligence Agency, "During actual crises, NMJIC serves as a clearinghouse for all requests for national-level intelligence information." [31]

The NMJIC should presumably, therefore, have been aware of the crisis on September 11 from the outset. But when Stuart called the Air Force desk there, he found that the NMJIC "had no additional relevant information" it could provide him with. [32] Furthermore, personnel in the NMJIC appear to have remained poorly informed about the unfolding emergency after Stuart contacted them, and they were even unaware that their building had been hit when it was attacked at 9:37 a.m.

Marc Garlasco, a senior intelligence analyst at the Pentagon, was in the NMJIC on September 11. Garlasco has recalled that he was in a meeting that morning and only learned of the crisis when a colleague said to him, "Oh, you know, [the World Trade Center has] been hit." He then started watching the television coverage of the crash and therefore saw Flight 175 hitting the South Tower at 9:03 a.m.

However, when the Pentagon was attacked over 30 minutes later, Garlasco was unaware that his building had been hit. The NMJIC is on the opposite side of the Pentagon to where the impact occurred, so Garlasco did not feel or hear the explosion from the attack. More significantly, considering that the NMJIC presumably had advanced capabilities and also had a key role to play during an event like 9/11, those in the center apparently were not immediately informed of the attack on the Pentagon by any other means. Garlasco has recalled that he "was really still surprised when the boys in black pajamas ran into the office with their submachine guns and screamed, 'Evacuate, we've just been hit.'" (Presumably "the boys in black pajamas" were members of the Defense Protective Service--the law enforcement agency that guards the Pentagon.) [33]

NATIONAL SECURITY AGENCY LEARNED OF THE ATTACKS FROM CNN
Another agency we might reasonably expect to have been following the 9/11 attacks from the outset is the National Security Agency. This is one of the facilities that David McNulty contacted in his search for information. [34]

The NSA, at Fort Meade, Maryland, is responsible for collecting and analyzing foreign communications, and protecting U.S. government communications and information systems. Author James Bamford, an expert on the agency, called it "the largest, most secret, and most advanced spy organization on the planet." In 2001, it had around 38,000 employees, which was more than the CIA and FBI combined. [35]

And yet McNulty has recalled that when he phoned the NSA's "24-hour information desk" at some time after the second plane hit the WTC, "they knew nothing more than I did." McNulty has commented, "We were all getting our information from CNN." [36]

Even Michael Hayden, the director of the NSA at the time, was unaware of the crisis when the WTC towers were hit. Hayden was in his office, holding a routine meeting with a few senior agency officials, when he received his first notification of what was happening. His executive assistant came in and told him a plane had hit the World Trade Center. [37] Hayden thought the crash was probably a "horrible accident." [38] "The immediate image I had was a light plane, off course, bad flying," he has said.

Hayden walked over to his desk, on which a television was showing the coverage of the burning WTC. Hayden "thought that was a big fire for a small plane," he has recalled. All the same, he continued with his meeting. [39] Hayden only realized the U.S. was under terrorist attack when his executive assistant came in again, shortly after 9:00 a.m., and told him about the second plane hitting the WTC. At that point, he has recalled, "it removed all doubt from me ... that this had to be an attack." [40]

NSA'S 'WARNING BELL FOR A PLANNED ATTACK' LEARNED OF THE CRISIS FROM TV
The NSA's lack of awareness is particularly notable because the agency has a facility that is meant to detect when an attack is about to take place. The Defense Special Missile and Astronautics Center (DEFSMAC), located in the NSA's main operations building, is intended to serve as "the nation's chief warning bell for a planned attack on America," according to Bamford.

DEFSMAC "serves as the focal point for 'all-source' intelligence--listening posts, early-warning satellites, human agents, and seismic detectors," and its analysts spend their time "closely monitoring all intercepts flooding in; examining the latest overhead photography; and analyzing data from early-warning satellites 22,300 miles above the equator." The center will then "flash the intelligence to the U.S. Strategic Command at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, NORAD at Cheyenne Mountain in Colorado, and other emergency command centers."

A former NSA official explained that DEFSMAC "has all the inputs from all the assets and is a warning activity. They probably have a better feel for any worldwide threat to this country from missiles, aircraft, or overt military activities, better and more timely, at instant fingertip availability, than any group in the United States."

And yet DEFSMAC failed to pick up the signs of the 9/11 attacks. Bamford noted, "On the morning of September 11, DEFSMAC learned of the massive airborne attacks after the fact--not from America's multibillion-dollar spy satellites or its worldwide network of advanced listening posts, or its army of human spies, but from a dusty, off-the-shelf TV set."

DEFSMAC's failure would have had serious consequences. According to Bamford, "Upon receiving indicators that an attack was imminent, DEFSMAC officials would immediately send out near-real-time and in-depth, all-source intelligence alerts to almost 200 'customers,' including the White House Situation Room, the National Military Command Center at the Pentagon, the DIA Alert Center, and listening posts around the world." [41] But because DEFSMAC failed to pick up signs of the 9/11 attacks, these "customers" would have lacked the early warning the center should have provided.

MILITARY INTERNET SYSTEM HAD NO RELEVANT INFORMATION
While they were seeking information on the terrorist attacks, an intelligence officer at NEADS and David McNulty at Andrews Air Force Base checked the "SIPRNET." [42] This is the U.S. Department of Defense's version of the Internet, which can handle classified information, up to the secret level. [43]

The SIPRNET should have been a valuable tool for keeping military personnel updated with the latest information on the attacks. Colonel Brian Meenan, the director of the military cell at the FAA's Command Center in Herndon, Virginia, explained the benefits of his unit having a SIPRNET terminal installed shortly before 9/11. He said that having the terminal meant "we could immediately look at NORAD and [Defense Department] plans as they evolved; filter, package, and format them, then walk out to the [FAA] national operations manager--who had control of the entire national airspace system--and give him current visibility into ... fighter, tanker, and support aircraft activities." [44]

And yet McNulty was unable to find out anything more from the SIPRNET than what he had learned from television. [45] At NEADS, Mark Stuart instructed a colleague to search the SIPRNET for information relating to the attacks. But Stuart has recalled that his colleague "found none that morning or afternoon." [46]

OTHER MILITARY UNITS HAD 'NO FURTHER INFORMATION'
Stuart and McNulty contacted several military units as they sought information about the attacks, but without success. McNulty called the Air Combat Command Intelligence Squadron at Langley Air Force Base, Virginia, and the 609th Air Intelligence Squadron at Shaw Air Force Base, South Carolina, but both were unable to provide him with any new information. [47] And Stuart, after contacting the NMJIC, called an intelligence officer with the 1st Air Force at Tyndall Air Force Base, Florida. But, Stuart has recalled, the 1st Air Force had "no further information" on the attacks. [48]

Other accounts reveal that personnel in the NORAD operations center in Cheyenne Mountain, Colorado--another key facility--were similarly unaware of what was happening. The Cheyenne Mountain Operations Center (CMOC), according to NORAD, collected data "from a worldwide system of satellites, radars, and other sensors, and processes that information on sophisticated computer systems to support critical NORAD and U.S. Space Command missions." [49] The Toronto Star reported that the center's role was "to fuse every critical piece of information NORAD has into a concise and crystalline snapshot." [50] Airman described CMOC personnel as "the eyes and ears of North America," and stated that "nothing escapes their unsleeping watch." [51]

And since NORAD is the military organization responsible for monitoring and defending U.S. airspace, we might reasonably expect personnel in its operations center to have been very much aware of the crisis taking place in the skies over America on September 11. But, as officers who were on duty in the CMOC that day have made clear, this was not the case.

Lieutenant Colonel William Glover said that the morning of September 11 was his "first time ... thinking about the fog of war, because we didn't know what was going on." [52] Lieutenant Colonel Steven Armstrong recalled that those in the CMOC "were out there in an information void, just looking for anything that we could find." [53] Armstrong said, "The majority of the information we're getting at the time is literally off the TV." [54] And Major General Rick Findley commented, "We were a little bit behind the power curve most of that morning as we were trying to figure out exactly what transpired." [55]

WAS THE INFORMATION BLACKOUT CAUSED BY SABOTAGE?
The evidence described above raises many questions that require serious investigation. Other facilities, besides those discussed here, were presumably in the same "information void" during the 9/11 attacks. Investigators and researchers should determine if this was the case. If it was, which facilities were affected, and what problems did they experience?

We also need to know when key facilities and agencies, such as those contacted by Mark Stuart and David McNulty, finally gained a greater awareness of the crisis and became able to make use of their own capabilities, rather than having to rely on television reports as their main source of information. And we need to determine what caused the information blackout. Have previous investigations looked into this? If so, what did they find?

If, as previously suggested, the lack of awareness within the U.S. government and military of the catastrophic events on September 11 was due to sabotage, this would have serious implications. The 19 young Arabs accused of hijacking four planes and carrying out the attacks would surely have lacked the capability to cause an information blackout across numerous intelligence facilities. Highly skilled individuals with knowledge and experience of how the military and intelligence agencies operate must presumably have been involved. If this was the case, it would mean that men who had worked for the U.S. military or U.S. intelligence agencies likely helped plan and carry out the 9/11 attacks.

NOTES
[1] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart, USAF, Intelligence Officer, Northeast Air Defense Sector (NEADS)." 9/11 Commission, October 30, 2003; "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty, Chief of Intelligence, 121st Fighter Squadron, Air National Guard, Andrews Air Force Base." 9/11 Commission, March 11, 2004.
[2] Michael Bronner, "9/11 Live: The NORAD Tapes." Vanity Fair, August 2006; Philip Shenon, The Commission: The Uncensored History of the 9/11 Investigation. New York: Twelve, 2008, p. 203.
[3] Steve Goldstein, "Focus of Training for Terrorist Attacks Has Been Chemical, Biological Warfare." Knight Ridder, September 11, 2001; "Andrews AFB, Maryland." GlobalSecurity.org, May 7, 2011.
[4] Lynn Spencer, Touching History: The Untold Story of the Drama That Unfolded in the Skies Over America on 9/11. New York: Free Press, 2008, p. 122; Andrew Wackerfuss, "'We Did What Guardsmen Always Do': The Air National Guard Responds on 9/11." New Patriot, July/August 2011.
[5] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 20.
[6] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[7] Leslie Filson, Air War Over America: Sept. 11 Alters Face of Air Defense Mission. Tyndall Air Force Base, FL: 1st Air Force, 2003, p. 79; "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty"; Lynn Spencer, Touching History, pp. 155-156.
[8] Dan Verton, Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism. Emeryville, CA: McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003, p. 151.
[9] "Summary of Air Traffic Hijack Events: September 11, 2001." Federal Aviation Administration, September 17, 2001; "Transcript American Airlines Flight 11." New York Times, October 16, 2001; "Flight Path Study: American Airlines Flight 11." National Transportation Safety Board, February 19, 2002.
[10] Mark Clayton, "Controllers' Tale of Flight 11." Christian Science Monitor, September 13, 2001; Staff Report: The Four Flights. 9/11 Commission, August 26, 2004, p. 9.
[11] "Summary of Air Traffic Hijack Events"; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 19.
[12] "Summary of Air Traffic Hijack Events"; "Flight Path Study: American Airlines Flight 11"; "The Skies Over America: The Air Traffic Controllers on 9/11 Saw the Nightmare Coming." Dateline, NBC, September 9, 2006.
[13] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Darrel Smith." 9/11 Commission, July 13, 2004.
[14] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 5-6; Staff Report: The Four Flights, pp. 8-12.
[15] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[16] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty."
[17] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[18] United States Government Interagency Domestic Terrorism Concept of Operations Plan. Washington, DC: Federal Emergency Management Agency, January 2001, p. 20.
[19] "FBI Opens High-Tech Crisis Center." CNN, November 20, 1998.
[20] "Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) Fact Sheet." Federal Bureau of Investigation, January 18, 2004.
[21] "FBI Opens High-Tech Crisis Center."
[22] Jim McGee, "In Federal Law Enforcement, 'All the Walls Are Down.'" Washington Post, October 14, 2001; "Strategic Information and Operations Center (SIOC) Fact Sheet."
[23] Ronald Kessler, The Bureau: The Secret History of the FBI. New York: St. Martin's Press, 2002, p. 5.
[24] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Attorney General John D. Ashcroft." 9/11 Commission, December 17, 2003.
[25] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[26] Jim McGee, "In Federal Law Enforcement, 'All the Walls Are Down'"; Garrett M. Graff, The Threat Matrix: The FBI at War in the Age of Global Terror. New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2011, p. 317.
[27] "September 11, 2001." New Yorker, September 24, 2001; Ronald Kessler, The Bureau, pp. 419-420; Garrett M. Graff, The Threat Matrix, pp. 314-315.
[28] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty"; Lynn Spencer, Touching History, pp. 155-156.
[29] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[30] Ernest Blazar, "Inside the Ring." Washington Times, September 25, 1997; "National Military Joint Intelligence Alert Center." Joint Chiefs of Staff, February 6, 2006.
[31] James R. Clapper Jr., "Challenging Joint Military Intelligence." Joint Force Quarterly, Spring 1994.
[32] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[33] "The Pentagon on Sept. 11: One Survivor's Account." Fresh Air, NPR, May 22, 2008.
[34] Leslie Filson, Air War Over America, p. 79.
[35] James Bamford, Body of Secrets: Anatomy of the Ultra-Secret National Security Agency. New York: Doubleday, 2001, pp. 4, 482; George Cahlink, "Breaking the Code." Government Executive, September 1, 2001.
[36] Leslie Filson, Air War Over America, p. 79; "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty."
[37] James Bamford, A Pretext for War: 9/11, Iraq, and the Abuse of America's Intelligence Agencies. New York: Doubleday, 2004, pp. 18, 20; Sara Sorcher, "Former, Current Officials Reflect on Bin Laden Hunt a Decade After 9/11: Video." National Journal, September 8, 2011.
[38] Ariel Sabar, "General Goes a Little Public to Enhance Image of NSA." Baltimore Sun, April 19, 2002; "9/11 10 Years After: Interview With Andy Card; Interview With Michael Hayden." Live Event/Special, CNN, September 11, 2011.
[39] James Bamford, A Pretext for War, pp. 18, 20.
[40] Ibid., p. 33; "9/11 10 Years After: Interview With Andy Card; Interview With Michael Hayden."
[41] James Bamford, A Pretext for War, pp. 33-35.
[42] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart"; "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty."
[43] Lynn Spencer, Touching History, p. 155; Sharon Weinberger, "What is SIPRNET?" Popular Mechanics, December 1, 2010.
[44] William B. Scott, "Command Cells Speed Airspace Reactivation." Aviation Week & Space Technology, June 10, 2002.
[45] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Major David McNulty"; Lynn Spencer, Touching History, pp. 155-156.
[46] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[47] Lynn Spencer, Touching History, pp. 155-156.
[48] "Memorandum for the Record: Interview With Lt. Col. Mark E. Stuart."
[49] "Cheyenne Mountain." North American Aerospace Defense Command, November 27, 1999.
[50] Scott Simmie, "The Scene at NORAD on Sept. 11: Playing Russian War Games ... and Then Someone Shouted to Look at the Monitor." Toronto Star, December 9, 2001.
[51] Pat McKenna, "The Border Guards." Airman, January 1996.
[52] "NORAD." The Early Edition, CBC, September 8, 2011.
[53] "In Their Own Words--NORAD Members Recall September 11, Part 3: Steve Armstrong." North American Aerospace Defense Command, September 9, 2011.
[54] Kevin Simpson, "Rearmed Forces: 9/11 Changed Military Life in Colorado." Denver Post, August 28, 2011.
[55] Steve Mertl, "Canadian General Who Led NORAD on 9/11 Praises its Performance, Considering." Canadian Press, September 10, 2006.

New York's Terrorism Task Force Predicted Terrorists Crashing Planes Into the World Trade Center Before 9/11

"I was told about the attack on the World Trade Center
on 9/11 about a year and a half before it happened."

- Best-selling author Nelson DeMille [1]

Members of New York's Joint Terrorism Task Force (JTTF) were predicting, almost two years before 9/11, that terrorists would fly planes into the World Trade Center. JTTF members described their prediction to best-selling thriller writer Nelson DeMille while he was interviewing them as part of the research for his novel The Lion's Game.

The Lion's Game, written in 1999 and published in January 2000, is about a ruthless Libyan terrorist, known as "The Lion," who comes to the United States and goes on a killing spree. In an introduction to the paperback reissue of the book in 2010, DeMille explained that when he interviewed members of the New York JTTF during his research for the book, he kept hearing about "the next attack." Nearly two years before 9/11, the JTTF members told him that the "World Trade Center would again be targeted, and the attack would be carried out by suicide pilots, flying small private jets loaded with fuel and explosives, which would be flown into the North and South Towers of the Trade Center." [2]

TASK FORCE PREDICTED ATTACK USING 'LEARJETS FULL OF EXPLOSIVES'
DeMille has, in various interviews, given additional details of what the JTTF members told him.

The New York JTTF was established in 1980, to improve coordination between the FBI and the New York Police Department in the fight against terrorism. [3] The task force, which had exclusive jurisdiction over local terrorism investigations, began with 11 FBI investigators and 11 members of the NYPD. But by 1999 it had grown to more than 140 members and included personnel from numerous other agencies, including the Port Authority Police Department, the Immigration and Naturalization Service, and the Secret Service. [4] It also included more than a dozen CIA officers. [5] The New York JTTF was, according to the FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, "on the forefront of the war against terrorism." [6]

DeMille told talk radio host Glenn Beck that while conducting research for The Lion's Game, he had been at 26 Federal Plaza, where the New York JTTF was located, and, he recalled, "Just in passing we were talking about the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center." DeMille had asked the JTTF members: "What do you think the next attack would be? Will there be another attack?" They replied that the target of the next terrorist attack in the United States would be the World Trade Center again. They said, "Look, they missed and they're gonna do it next time." [7]

(Presumably, when the JTTF members said "they missed," they meant that the terrorists had failed to cause the Twin Towers to collapse when they bombed the WTC in 1993. After all, the bomb the terrorists used had been placed at the correct location, in the parking garage beneath the WTC, so it had not missed its target. But the terrorists supposedly intended for the explosion to topple one of the towers, causing it to crash into the other tower and bringing them both down. [8])

DeMille pointed out to the JTTF members, "Well, you know, this car bomb in the basement [used in the 1993 attack] really didn't do much." They replied: "No, no, no. It's gonna be Learjets." [9] (Learjets are small private aircraft.) They said there would be "two or three or four Learjets" used in the attack. [10] These planes, they said, would be "full of explosives and full of gasoline." The JTTF members, according to DeMille, were "positive" that that next terrorist attack in the U.S. "was gonna be Learjets full of explosives." The Learjets would be flown by "suicide pilots" into "both towers" of the World Trade Center. [11] And the pilots would be "guys who know how to fly and not [how] to land." [12]

TASK FORCE MEMBERS 'KNEW' THE WORLD TRADE CENTER WOULD BE THE TARGET OF THE NEXT ATTACK
The JTTF members also said they "knew" the target of the attack "was gonna be the World Trade Center. They were pretty definite about that." DeMille asked: "Why not any other iconic landmark? Why not the Empire State Building?" The JTTF members replied that the terrorists would be "looking for maximum death." DeMille pointed out to talk radio host John Gambling, "The Empire State Building doesn't have as many people, obviously, as the Twin Towers." DeMille then asked the JTTF members, "How about something like the Statue of Liberty?" but they told him that the terrorists were "not after symbols or icons. They're after maximum death." [13]

DeMille told the New York Times that the members of the JTTF "were all obsessed with the 1993 attack on the World Trade Center, and they were convinced we'd be attacked again." [14] He similarly told the Egyptian newspaper Al-Masry Al-Youm that he "interviewed many people in the FBI, the Joint Terrorism Task Force, and a few people in the CIA," and they "all knew the World Trade Center would be attacked again." [15] Furthermore, DeMille said, the JTTF members "knew that Arabs were training in the United States to fly small planes." [16]

Glenn Beck commented to DeMille that what the New York JTTF members told him "shows that [the U.S. government] really, they knew specifically" what the 9/11 attacks would involve. DeMille responded, "Yeah, they knew." [17] DeMille told another interviewer that when planes crashed into the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001, he found it "just chilling to think that [the JTTF] had some, if not foreknowledge, at least some forethought of this." [18]

NOVEL INCLUDES TERRORIST ATTACK ON 'FLIGHT 175' BOUND FOR NEW YORK
Despite what he was told by the members of the JTTF, DeMille did not include the scenario of terrorists crashing planes into the WTC in The Lion's Game. Curiously, though, the novel begins with The Lion carrying out a terrorist attack on a "Flight 175" that is bound for New York. [19] (The second plane to hit the World Trade Center on September 11 was also a Flight 175--a United Airlines Boeing 767 originally bound from Boston to Los Angeles. [20] Flight 175 in The Lion's Game is slightly different, in that it belongs to "Trans-Continental Airlines," is a Boeing 747, comes from Paris, France, and New York is its original, intended destination. [21])

The Lion carries out his attack on Trans-Continental Flight 175 using poison gas, and causes the deaths of everyone on board--over 300 people--except himself. (He knew the plane was programmed to land at New York's JFK International Airport on autopilot, and so would still land safely if the pilots were killed.) [22]

Is it a coincidence that The Lion's Game includes a terrorist attack on an aircraft with the same flight number as one of the planes used in the 9/11 attacks? Or might one of DeMille's sources--perhaps a member of the New York JTTF--have had foreknowledge of the flight number of one (or more) of the planes that would be hijacked on September 11 and passed on this information to DeMille, who then managed to incorporate the detail into his book?

NOVEL INCLUDES NUMEROUS MENTIONS OF THE WORLD TRADE CENTER
DeMille told Newsweek that he regretted omitting the scenario of terrorists crashing planes into the World Trade Center from The Lion's Game, because such a storyline would have been "a kind of wake-up call, an alert." [23] However, presumably influenced by what members of the JTTF had told him, he included in the novel numerous mentions of the WTC and the bombing of the North Tower in 1993.

The Lion's Game tells the story of Asad Khalil, also known as "The Lion," coming to the United States to get violent revenge for the American air strikes against Libya on April 15, 1986, which were carried out in retaliation for the terrorist bombing of a West German disco in which two Americans were killed. On Khalil's trail is ex-NYPD detective John Corey, who is attached to the fictional "Anti-Terrorist Task Force," which is based on the New York JTTF. [24]

In one scene, Khalil is being driven through New York and his taxi driver points out the Twin Towers to him. Looking at them, Khalil says, "Maybe next time." [25] (Khalil presumably means that the "next time" there is an attack on the WTC, the towers will be brought down.)

In another scene, DeMille describes how the desk of Jack Koenig, the head of the Anti-Terrorist Task Force, at 26 Federal Plaza "was arranged so that every time [Koenig] looked out the window, he could see these [WTC] towers, and he could contemplate what some Arab gentlemen had prayed for when they had driven an explosive-filled van into the basement parking garage--namely, the collapse of the South Tower and the death of over 50,000 people in the tower and on the ground." When Corey looks out the window of Koenig's office at the Twin Towers, Koenig asks him, "Are they still standing?" [26]

The Lion's Game also mentions the threat posed by Islamic terrorists. Early in the story, FBI agent Kate Mayfield tells Corey that "Islamic groups ... are potentially dangerous to national security." She says, "The whole country is paranoid about a Mideast terrorist biological attack or a nuclear or chemical attack," and so, she says, the "real action" in the Anti-Terrorist Task Force "is in the Mideast section." [27] One review, published in March 2000, even mentioned that the plot of The Lion's Game "reads eerily like recent news stories of the worldwide bin Laden terrorist conspiracy." [28]

AUTHOR'S ACCOUNT SHOWS 9/11 ATTACKS WERE PREDICTED
What the members of the New York Joint Terrorism Task Force told Nelson DeMille, regarding what the next terrorist attack in the United States would involve, disproves any claims that the 9/11 attacks were a surprise and were impossible to predict beforehand. As a result of hearing the JTTF's prediction, DeMille wrote: "[W]hen the events of the morning of September 11, 2001, unfolded, I was not taken completely unaware. And neither were the people who had spent years investigating terrorist threats to this country." [29] DeMille has noted that the JTTF members "were close to right" about the nature of the attack. "They knew the target and they knew the method," he said. [30]

This issue, however, needs further examination to see if there is more significance to the JTTF's apparent foreknowledge of the 9/11 attacks. We need to know, for example, why, in 1999 or early 2000, the JTTF members were so sure that the World Trade Center would be the target of the next terrorist attack in the U.S. Had they received information indicating this would be the case? If so, what was this information and from where did it come? What else did they know about the next attack in the U.S.? And what action did they take as a result of receiving this information?

Furthermore, we need to know if other government agencies expected an attack of the kind the JTTF was predicting. The New York JTTF, after all, included representatives from numerous agencies, including the FBI, CIA, NYPD, and the Secret Service. So did JTTF members share the task force's concerns with the agencies they worked for?

Questions like these surely need to be answered if we are to properly understand what happened on September 11, 2001, and find out who was responsible for the terrorist attacks that day.

NOTES
[1] "Nelson DeMille: 'The Lion.'" Morning Blend, Fox 4, June 21, 2010.
[2] Nelson DeMille, The Lion's Game. 2000. Reprint, New York: Grand Central Publishing, 2010, p. xii.
[3] U.S. Congress. Eleanor Hill. Joint Inquiry Staff. Joint Inquiry Staff Statement: Hearing on the Intelligence Community's Response to Past Terrorist Attacks Against the United States From February 1993 to September 2001. 107th Cong., 2nd Sess., October 8, 2002; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 81.
[4] Robert A. Martin, "The Joint Terrorism Task Force: A Concept That Works." FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, March 1999; Heather Mac Donald, "Keeping New York Safe From Terrorists." City Journal, Autumn 2001.
[5] Dana Priest, "CIA is Expanding Domestic Operations." Washington Post, October 23, 2002.
[6] Robert A. Martin, "The Joint Terrorism Task Force."
[7] "Nelson DeMille: The Lion." Glenn Beck Program, Premiere Radio Networks, June 9, 2010; "Glenn Beck: 'Fiction Becomes Reality' With Nelson DeMille and Vince Flynn." Author Confidential, Sirius XM Book Radio, June 16, 2010.
[8] U.S. Congress. Senate. Committee on the Judiciary. Foreign Terrorists in America: Five Years After the World Trade Center. 105th Cong., 2nd Sess., February 24, 1998; "FBI 100: First Strike: Global Terror in America." Federal Bureau of Investigation, February 26, 2008.
[9] "Glenn Beck: 'Fiction Becomes Reality' With Nelson DeMille and Vince Flynn."
[10] "Nelson DeMille, Author: The Lion." John Gambling Show, WOR, June 14, 2010.
[11] "Nelson DeMille: The Lion"; "Glenn Beck: 'Fiction Becomes Reality' With Nelson DeMille and Vince Flynn."
[12] Sherryl Connelly, "9/11 Remembered: For These Authors, September 11 Was Transformative Event." New York Daily News, September 11, 2011.
[13] "Nelson DeMille, Author: The Lion."
[14] Ginia Bellafante, "Dark Plots Conceived in a Tudor Setting." New York Times, November 9, 2006.
[15] Soha ElSaman, "Q&A With Nelson DeMille: All the Lion Games." Al-Masry Al-Youm, April 27, 2010.
[16] Arlene Getz, "Vietnam Redux." Newsweek, January 23, 2002.
[17] "Nelson DeMille: The Lion."
[18] Mark Simone. 77 WABC Radio, May 22, 2010.
[19] Sherryl Connelly, "DeMille's Latest a Compelling Contest of a Cop vs. Master Terrorist." New York Daily News, January 16, 2000; Joe Meyers, "An Oldie but Goodie From a Master Entertainer." Connecticut Post, August 3, 2010.
[20] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, pp. 7-8.
[21] Sherryl Connelly, "DeMille's Latest a Compelling Contest of a Cop vs. Master Terrorist"; "Picks and Pans Review: The Lion's Game." People, February 14, 2000.
[22] Sherryl Connelly, "DeMille's Latest a Compelling Contest of a Cop vs. Master Terrorist"; Joe Meyers, "An Oldie but Goodie From a Master Entertainer."
[23] Arlene Getz, "Vietnam Redux."
[24] Linda Richards, "January Interview: Nelson DeMille." January Magazine, July 7, 2000; Joe Meyers, "An Oldie but Goodie From a Master Entertainer."
[25] Nelson DeMille, The Lion's Game, p. 203.
[26] Ibid., pp. 219-220.
[27] Ibid., pp. 14-15.
[28] Elaine Budd, "More Thrills From Westlake, DeMille, Perry." Hartford Courant, March 26, 2000.
[29] Nelson DeMille, The Lion's Game, p. xii.
[30] "Glenn Beck: 'Fiction Becomes Reality' With Nelson DeMille and Vince Flynn."

Laura Bush on 9/11: Why Was the President's Wife Left Vulnerable and Unprotected?

The wife of the U.S. president is considered one of the nation's "most visible targets," and is therefore provided with a detail of Secret Service agents whose job is to protect her and keep her out of harm's way. And yet on September 11, 2001, Laura Bush, the wife of then-President George W. Bush, was left vulnerable all through the terrorist attacks.

She was allowed to head to her scheduled destination¸ the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill, even after a second plane hit the World Trade Center and it was obvious the U.S. was under attack. She was allowed to spend time there, even though her Secret Service agents should have taken her away to a "secure site." She even appeared live on CNN, thereby revealing her location to any terrorist who might be watching television. And when people were ordered to evacuate, due to reports that a suspicious plane was heading toward Capitol Hill, Bush remained in the Russell Office Building, even though this could have proved fatal had a plane crashed into it. She was only driven away to a "secure location" at 10:10 a.m., after the attacks had ended. And all this time, she was accompanied by her Secret Service detail.

The failure of those agents to properly protect Bush was extraordinary. Examination of their actions raises serious questions. We need to discover what caused these skilled professionals to repeatedly leave the first lady in serious danger.

LAURA BUSH WAS SET FOR HISTORIC APPEARANCE BEFORE CONGRESS ON SEPTEMBER 11
September 11, 2001, had events gone as originally planned, would have been an historic day for Laura Bush. That morning, she was scheduled to become only the fourth first lady to testify before Congress. [1] At 10:00 a.m., Bush was going to appear before the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions, and talk about early childhood education. [2] She was set to arrive at the Russell Senate Office Building, located just north of the Capitol building in Washington, DC, at 9:15 a.m. for the hearing. [3]

According to Noelia Rodriguez, the first lady's press secretary, with Laura Bush set to appear at the hearing that morning, "We expected it to be a big news day for us." [4] The forthcoming event had been well publicized. It had been reported in advance by the Associated Press and in major newspapers such as USA Today and the New York Daily News. [5] This meant that had terrorists wanted to attack an important person representing the U.S. government as part of the 9/11 attacks, they could have targeted the wife of the president. They could easily have found out her plans for September 11, simply by reading a newspaper or checking on the Internet.

BUSH CONTINUED TO CAPITOL HILL AFTER LEARNING OF ATTACKS IN NEW YORK
On September 11, Laura Bush learned that a plane had crashed into the World Trade Center at around 9:00 a.m., as she was about to be driven from the White House to Capitol Hill. She did not see the initial coverage of the crash on television. Instead, the head of her Secret Service detail, Ron Sprinkle, told her what had happened as she was getting into her limousine. Bush has said she didn't initially think the crash was an act of terrorism. She speculated about what could have happened with Andi Ball, her chief of staff, and Margaret Spellings, the White House domestic policy adviser, who were with her. But "at that time," Bush has recalled, "we thought it was just some weird freak accident." [6]

Nevertheless, Bush thought the Senate hearing should perhaps be canceled, because New York Senator Hillary Clinton was supposed to attend it. Bush has said that after learning of the first crash, "I thought we probably should cancel, because Mrs. Clinton was on the [Senate education] committee and she's from New York, and she'd probably want to rush home at that time." [7] But, despite her reservations, Bush continued to Capitol Hill. Most of her staffers traveled there with her, while the others stayed behind at the White House. [8]

At 9:03 a.m., a second plane crashed into the WTC. It was then clear that the U.S. was suffering a serious and unprecedented terrorist attack. [9] According to a National Geographic Channel documentary about the Secret Service, "In a state of emergency, the Secret Service's plan is to get every protectee to a secure site." [10] But, in this obvious emergency, the first lady's Secret Service agents made no attempt to rush their "protectee" to a secure site, and they appear to have raised no objections to her continuing to her planned destination.

Bush's limousine and the vehicles accompanying it drove off from the White House for the two-mile journey to Capitol Hill at 9:07 a.m., four minutes after the second crash took place, according to Noelia Rodriguez, who was traveling in the staff van. At that time, Bush and the members of staff accompanying her were apparently unaware of the second crash. [11] Bush was traveling with four Secret Service agents that day, according to journalist and author Ronald Kessler. [12] It is unclear if these agents learned of the second crash right after it happened. If they did, why did they fail to pass on the news to the first lady immediately? If not, this would be extraordinary: Surely their colleagues would have seen the crash live on television and should have contacted them at once to pass on the critical news.

Instead, it was several minutes before the first lady was told about the second crash. Bush has recalled, "As we approached Capitol Hill, the Secret Service said that another plane had hit the second tower." She "knew then that it was terrorism" and not an accident. [13] Bush's limousine arrived at the Russell Senate Office Building at 9:16 a.m., according to Rodriguez. [14] And Bush has written that she was told about the second crash two minutes before then, meaning around 9:14 a.m. [15] If correct, this means the wife of the U.S. president only learned of the crash 11 minutes after it happened.

SENATE HEARING CANCELED, BUT BUSH NOT TAKEN TO A SECURE SITE
Laura Bush's limousine pulled up outside the Russell Senate Office Building just one minute behind schedule, at 9:16 a.m. Senator Edward Kennedy, the chairman of the education committee, came to greet the first lady after she entered the building, as planned. [16] In light of the events in New York, Bush and Kennedy immediately agreed to postpone the hearing and then headed to Kennedy's office, accompanied by the first lady's staff. [17] After a time, they were joined by Senator Judd Gregg, a longtime Bush family friend. It appears the group stayed in Kennedy's office for around 20 minutes. Bush's Secret Service agents allowed this, even though they should surely have taken the first lady away to a "secure site."

Although a television in a corner of the room was showing the catastrophe taking place in New York, Kennedy, rather than focusing on the attacks, took the first lady on a tour of his office and, Bush has recalled, the two talked about "mundane things." [18] They were "talking about some other items" besides the terrorist attacks, according to Gregg. [19]

Meanwhile, Bush's Secret Service agents and senior staff reportedly "frantically worked their earpieces and cell phones to get a handle on the unfolding attacks." Although the first lady and those with her weren't catching all of the television coverage of the events in New York, Bush has recalled that they "knew what was happening because people kept coming in." [20]

BUSH APPEARED LIVE ON TV DURING THE ATTACKS
Bush and Kennedy decided they should offer some words of reassurance to the American public. [21] Therefore, at around 9:41 a.m., Bush, Kennedy, and Gregg went to the Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building, where they appeared before reporters and television cameras. Kennedy and Bush announced that the planned Senate education committee hearing had been postponed and commented on the attacks in New York. [22] (Although the Pentagon had been hit a few minutes earlier, Bush and the two senators were at that time unaware of this. [23])

The beginning of the appearance was actually broadcast live on CNN. [24] This means the location of the wife of the U.S. president was revealed to any terrorist who might have been watching television. So why did the Secret Service, whose job was to protect the first lady, let Laura Bush make this appearance, thereby putting herself in greater danger?

Furthermore, Bush, Kennedy, and Gregg's appearance was unnecessary. People would have guessed that the Senate hearing was canceled, so there was no need for these prominent individuals to announce the fact in front of television cameras. At most, all that would have been needed was for someone to contact the TV networks and inform them of the cancelation. Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson, who was reporting from Capitol Hill at the time, has noted this oddity, saying, "They were (incredibly) trying to set up a brief photo opportunity" for Bush and the senators. [25]

However, the appearance did end up serving a significant purpose for Laura Bush. After she and Kennedy had given their statements and were turning to leave the room, USA Today reporter Laurence McQuillan said: "Children are kind of struck by all this. Is there a message you could tell to the nation's ..." Before he could finish the sentence, Bush replied, "Parents need to reassure their children everywhere in our country that they're safe." [26]

The first lady's answer to McQuillan is, according to Noelia Rodriguez, "what people remember her for that day." [27] With her words of advice for American parents, according to Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush "became the comforter in chief, calmly reassuring the nation and dispensing advice on how parents should deal with the tragedy." [28] September 11 was therefore a turning point for her. A few weeks later, Us Weekly magazine described, "The former librarian from Midland, Texas, has transformed her image from the behind-the-scenes presidential wife most comparable to Mamie Eisenhower to the nation's comforter in chief." [29]

BUSH NOT EVACUATED, DESPITE REPORT OF A SUSPICIOUS PLANE APPROACHING WASHINGTON
As Laura Bush was leaving the Caucus Room, John Meyers, her advance man, received a call on his cell phone from a friend of his, who said CNN was reporting an attack on the Pentagon. [30] It was now clear that Washington, and not just New York, was being targeted. And yet Bush's Secret Service agents still did not take the first lady away from Capitol Hill to somewhere secure and less prominent.

At 9:48 a.m., an evacuation of the Russell Senate Office Building and the nearby Capitol building began, apparently because of concerns that a suspicious plane was heading toward Capitol Hill. Capitol Police officers were hearing in their radios that there was "another plane in the air, likely headed for the Capitol," according to CNN. [31] Andi Ball has recalled: "Our agents thought another plane was coming toward Washington. The Capitol was being evacuated." [32]

Ann Gerhart, a Washington Post reporter, was actually warned to stay away from a window of the Russell Senate Office Building in case a plane crashed into there. Gerhart had just left the Caucus Room, where she had watched Bush and the senators make their brief appearance. She has recalled, "As I moved closer to one of the building's tall, beautiful leaded glass windows to get better cell phone reception, a Capitol Police officer practically tackled me." The officer yelled, "Get away from the window!" When Gerhart asked why, the officer replied: "Because we're under attack! There's still one plane up there and it's headed right for us!" [33]

And yet, despite these concerns, Bush's Secret Service agents allowed the first lady to stay in the Russell Office Building.

BUSH AND HER STAFF TOLD THEY COULDN'T LEAVE
After leaving the Caucus Room, Bush and her staff initially started making their way down to the cars that would take them back to the White House. But, according to Ball, Bush's Secret Service agents then told them, "We can't go right now." The agents said, "We need to go back and wait a few minutes." [34] Bush has recalled that her lead agent told her and her staff that they needed to head to the basement immediately. Her agents told John Meyers "that they were waiting for an emergency response team to reach the Capitol."

Judd Gregg suggested that they all go to his office, which was an interior room and was on a lower floor of the Russell Office Building. Whether it was in the basement, however, is unclear. Nevertheless, that is where Bush and her staff went. [35] In Gregg's office, according to Edward Kennedy, they "kept the television set off and simply talked for a while." [36]

CAPITOL WAS A LIKELY TARGET FOR TERRORISTS
The fact that, in the middle of a major terrorist attack on the United States, Laura Bush and her staff were allowed to go to the Russell Senate Office Building and then spend so much time there is particularly alarming considering that the Capitol building, located just south of there, was an obvious target for terrorists. As USA Today has commented, "Democracy's most important icons are also terrorists' most likely targets." [37]

The 9/11 Commission in fact claimed that had United Airlines Flight 93--the fourth hijacked plane--not crashed in rural Pennsylvania on September 11, its hijackers would have aimed for "symbols of the American Republic, the Capitol or the White House." [38] Laura Bush has written that in the years since 9/11, she "and many others were left to contemplate what if Flight 93 had not been forced down by its passengers into an empty field; what if, shortly after 10:00 a.m., it had reached the Capitol dome?" [39]

Not only was Bush allowed to stay in the Russell Senate Office Building during the attacks, it also appears there was no increase in security after she arrived on Capitol Hill. Fox News correspondent Brian Wilson has recalled that when he was reporting from the Capitol building that morning, he had been "on the air talking about the first lady being in the Capitol and saying that I had not seen any signs of tighter security in the building." [40]

ARMED AGENTS TOOK BUSH TO SECURE LOCATION
Bush has recalled that she stayed in Judd Gregg's office until "sometime after 10:00 a.m.," when she was finally evacuated from the Russell Senate Office Building. She was collected from Gregg's office by her Secret Service agents, who, she has recalled, were joined by "an additional Secret Service detail and an emergency response team, dressed in black tactical clothing like a SWAT force and moving with guns drawn." [41] Presumably these armed agents were members of the Secret Service emergency response team (ERT), which guards the president at the White House. This unit's "primary mission" is "to provide tactical response to unlawful intrusions and other protective challenges related to the White House and its grounds." [42] Its members are "sharpshooters assigned to respond to any terrorist strike," according to U.S. News & World Report. [43] They are "equipped with the very latest in armor and weaponry, and receive advanced gun and defense training." [44]

Bush has described being escorted from the building, writing: "As we raced through the dim hallways of the Russell Building, past panicked staffers emptying from their offices, the ERT team shouted 'Get back' and covered my every move with their guns. We reached the underground entrance; the doors on the motorcade slammed shut, and we sped off." [45]

Bush and her staff left Capitol Hill at 10:10 a.m., according to Noelia Rodriguez. Secret Service agents protected them with their guns as they were driven away. Ashleigh Adams, Bush's deputy press secretary, has described, "It felt like we were in a war, because the Secret Service was driving next to the motorcade and they were hanging out of the windows with their machine guns out." [46]

This urgency exhibited by the ERT is surely what would be expected when protecting a person as important as the president's wife during a terrorist attack. What is remarkable is that such urgency was not evident earlier that morning among those responsible for protecting Laura Bush.

It is unclear why the ERT only arrived to collect the first lady after 10:00 a.m., and what it was doing before then is unknown. But by the time Laura Bush left Capitol Hill, Flight 93 had already crashed and so the terrorist attacks were over.

Bush's Secret Service agents said they were going to take the first lady and her staff to a secure location. This turned out to be the Secret Service headquarters. [47] The nine-story office building had been reinforced to survive a large-scale blast after the Oklahoma City bombing in 1995. It is in Washington, just a few blocks away from the White House. [48] However, Andi Ball has recalled, the traffic at the time "was so bad that everything was stopped." [49] Therefore, the drive to the headquarters took 45 minutes, according to Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward, meaning the first lady would have arrived there at around 10:55 a.m. [50]

BUSH AND HER STAFF SPENT AFTERNOON AT SECRET SERVICE HEADQUARTERS
After they arrived at the Secret Service headquarters, Bush and her entourage were taken to the office of Secret Service Director Brian Stafford, which was on an upper floor of the building. [51] There, Bush made phone calls to her two daughters and to her mother, and her staffers called their families to let them know they were alright. [52]

After a time, Bush and her staff were moved to the basement. This was because the agents responsible for the first lady realized that, since the attacks in New York had involved planes being crashed into tall buildings, having Bush on an upper floor was "perhaps not such a hot idea," according to journalist and author Robert Draper. [53] Again, the behavior of the Secret Service was extraordinary. If the 9/11 attacks were a surprise to the U.S. government, as is officially claimed, and the targets unknown beforehand, then these agents had taken the first lady somewhere--an upper floor of a government building--where there was a greater risk of her becoming a victim of the attacks.

In the basement, Bush and her staff were taken to a windowless conference room, which had a large display screen across one wall, showing a constant TV feed. They remained in the conference room for much of the rest of the day and spent time watching the television coverage of the attacks. [54]

At some point in the afternoon, Laura Bush and those with her learned that the president would be coming back to Washington that day, and so it was decided that the first lady could return to the White House. At 6:30 p.m., the Secret Service drove her there. Bush found the White House surrounded by "heavily armed men in black" when she arrived. Upon entering the building, she was taken to the Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a secure bunker below the East Wing, where she remained until the president arrived back at the White House. [55]

SECRET SERVICE IS MEANT TO KEEP FIRST LADY 'OUT OF HARM'S WAY'
The first lady is regarded as one of the nation's "most visible targets," and so the Secret Service is responsible for protecting her. [56] As one of the agency's "permanent protectees," she, like the president, has a detail of special agents assigned to her. [57] These agents' mission is to keep the first lady "in sight and out of harm's way," according to a book about the Secret Service by author Philip Melanson. [58]

Secret Service agents are highly trained, and according to Jeffrey Robinson, co-author of another book about the Secret Service: "The Secret Service has an esprit de corps like the Marines. They are very proud of what they do." [59] Laura Bush praised the agency in her memoir, Spoken From the Heart, calling it "a remarkable institution" whose "men and women are willing to risk their lives to guard the president's." Secret Service agents, she wrote, "wait in broiling sun and subzero cold; their mission is to protect the first family from harm." [60]

Furthermore, the Secret Service makes extensive preparations before one of its protectees visits a location. The agency stated on its website: "The advance team surveys each site to be visited. From these surveys, the members determine manpower, equipment, hospitals, and evacuation routes for emergencies." Before the visit, the Secret Service establishes a command post with full communications facilities for the security operation. What is more, "Intelligence information is discussed, identification specified, and emergency options outlined." The work of the Secret Service when someone it protects visits a particular location is clearly a sophisticated operation. [61]

Additionally, the Secret Service had capabilities that should have meant its response to the 9/11 attacks was particularly prompt and effective. Notably, it was able to monitor U.S. airspace. Richard Clarke, the White House counterterrorism chief on September 11, mentioned in his book Against All Enemies that the "Secret Service had a system that allowed them to see what FAA's radar was seeing." [62] According to Secret Service agent Barbara Riggs, "Through monitoring radar and activating an open line with the FAA [the Federal Aviation Administration], the Secret Service was able to receive real-time information about ... hijacked aircraft." Riggs, who was in the Secret Service headquarters on September 11, added, "We were tracking two hijacked aircraft as they approached Washington, DC, and our assumption was that the White House was a target." [63]

In light of these facts, it would be difficult to claim that the Secret Service's failure to adequately protect Laura Bush on the morning of September 11 was due to incompetence. It seems that something must have happened to hinder the first lady's Secret Service agents. While a new investigation of 9/11 is necessary to properly look into this matter, we can at least speculate about factors that may have been involved.

DID THE SECRET SERVICE HAVE FOREKNOWLEDGE OF 9/11?
One possibility to consider is that key individuals in the Secret Service knew in advance what the 9/11 attacks would involve and what the targets would be. Consequently, they knew it would be safe for Laura Bush to go to the Russell Senate Office Building, as planned, and remain there until the attacks ended.

Any such individuals would presumably have included whoever was responsible for directing the actions of the first lady's Secret Service detail. The identity of that person (or persons) is currently unknown. In her memoir, Bush mentioned that on September 11, the head of her Secret Service detail was Ron Sprinkle. She named another of her agents, Dave Saunders, who she said drove her to the White House that evening. And she named four more of her "closest agents"--Wayne Williams, Leon Newsome, Ignacio Zamora, and Karen Shugart--but did not say whether any of them were with her on September 11. [64] It is unknown which, if any, of these agents was responsible for the failure to properly protect the first lady on September 11, or whether Laura Bush's Secret Service detail was instead directed by someone else, perhaps one of these agents' superiors.

COMMUNICATION PROBLEMS HINDERED GOVERNMENT RESPONSE TO ATTACKS
Another possibility is that the perpetrators of the 9/11 attacks sabotaged communications in the Washington area on September 11, so as to limit the flow of information and impede the ability of honest and principled individuals to effectively respond. If this happened, Secret Service agents protecting the first lady may have had only a limited awareness of the crisis taking place, and were therefore slowed in their response to it.

There is in fact considerable evidence indicating that communications were sabotaged on September 11. [65] A classified report was produced that, reportedly, "does not paint a favorable picture of the government's overall crisis management capabilities" during the attacks. A government official told author Dan Verton that the U.S. was "deaf, dumb, and blind" for much of that day. [66]

More specifically, there is evidence that communications may have been sabotaged on Capitol Hill. Noelia Rodriguez recalled that when Laura Bush and her staff were in Edward Kennedy's office, "Nobody could get a cell [phone call] to get through," and so "we took turns using the office phone." [67] Tom Daschle, the Senate majority leader on September 11, has stated that after the Capitol building was evacuated: "People were punching their cell phones to no avail. The lines were jammed." [68] And CNN senior political correspondent Candy Crowley described: "The cell phones went down. Eventually ... the personal BlackBerrys that bring your e-mail to you, they went down." Landline phones were also affected. Crowley added: "Inside the Capitol, remember [there are] still switchboard operators there. Inside the Capitol, the phones worked only on and off." [69]

Even the president and the first lady were affected. They finally spoke over the phone at around 11:45 a.m., when President Bush was descending into Barksdale Air Force Base on Air Force One and Laura Bush was at the Secret Service headquarters. George W. Bush has recalled that before then, he "had been trying to reach Laura all morning." He described: "I placed several calls, but the line kept dropping. I couldn't believe that the president of the United States couldn't reach his wife." Laura Bush recalled, "I tried to reach George, but my calls could not get through." She commented, "It is stunning now to think that our 'state-of-the-art' communications would not allow him to complete a phone call to Secret Service headquarters, or me to reach him on Air Force One." [70]

WERE ROGUE AGENTS DELIBERATELY NEGLIGENT?
Another possibility is that rogue Secret Service agents in key positions were deliberately negligent, so as to impair their colleagues' responses to the attacks. Some evidence indicates this could have happened. For example, U.S. News & World Report noted, "On the morning of the September 11 attacks, Secret Service executives did not implement an 'emergency call-up' of all personnel until the third plane crashed, into the Pentagon." [71]

And some agents appear to have failed to pass on critical information to their colleagues. Shortly after the second plane hit the WTC, Nelson Garabito, the Secret Service agent in charge of protecting the White House airspace, called his contact at the FAA. The FAA employee told Garabito there were two unaccounted for planes that had possibly been hijacked, in addition to the two planes that had crashed into the WTC. Garabito told a colleague "to convey this information to the Secret Service's operations center," according to the 9/11 Commission Report. However, the information "either was not passed on or was passed on but not disseminated." [72]

The U.S. military is known to have been conducting a number of training exercises when the 9/11 attacks began, and evidence indicates that its response to the attacks was hindered as a result. [73] A possibility to consider is that the Secret Service was similarly conducting a training exercise on the morning of September 11, and this led to confusion and delayed the agency's response to the attacks. Secret Service agents could have mistaken reports of the real-world attacks for simulations incorporated into the exercise. Or agents could have been unable to respond to the attacks immediately because they were busy participating in the exercise.

SECRET SERVICE FAILED TO PROTECT THE PRESIDENT
It is worth noting the similarities between the actions of Laura Bush and her Secret Service detail, and the actions of President Bush and his Secret Service detail on September 11. The president, like the first lady, was allowed to proceed to his scheduled destination that morning--in his case, an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida. (His destination, like the first lady's, had been publicly announced several days earlier.)

He was allowed to stay at the school after the second plane hit the WTC and it was obvious that America was suffering a major terrorist attack. And, as it did with the first lady, the Secret Service let the president appear live on television in the middle of the attacks: Bush gave a brief statement in the school's library at 9:30 a.m., thereby revealing his location to any terrorist who might have been watching TV. He only left the school at around 9:35 a.m., more than half an hour after the second attack in New York. [74]

There are many serious questions that need to be investigated. For example, why did the Secret Service allow Laura Bush to go to her planned destination on September 11 when it was apparent that the United States was under attack and she could have been a target? Why did it fail to get her away from the Russell Senate Office Building, even when it was thought that a suspicious plane was heading toward Capitol Hill? Why did it instead allow her to stay there for almost an hour, so that by the time she was taken away to a "secure location," the terrorist attacks had ended?

Laura Bush's Secret Service agents would have been highly trained professionals. Something must surely have happened that led to them being unable to provide the first lady with the usual level of protection, at a time when that protection was most critically needed. The question is what was it?

NOTES
[1] Laurence McQuillan, "Bushes' Push for Education Bill Starts This Weekend." USA Today, September 6, 2001; Nina Burleigh, "Life for Laura Bush." Us Weekly, October 15, 2001.
[2] Laurence McQuillan, "Laura Bush Stepping out Into Spotlight." USA Today, September 10, 2001; Ian Christopher McCaleb, "Bush: U.S. Feels 'Quiet, Unyielding Anger.'" CNN, September 12, 2001; "Sunset Ceremony Commemorates Lighting of Eternal Flame." Live Event/Special, CNN, September 11, 2002.
[3] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart. New York: Scribner, 2010, p. 197.
[4] "Sunset Ceremony Commemorates Lighting of Eternal Flame."
[5] Laurence McQuillan, "Bushes' Push for Education Bill Starts This Weekend"; Timothy J. Burger, "1st Ladies to Meet at Kids' Forum." New York Daily News, September 7, 2001; "President to Push Reading." Associated Press, September 8, 2001; Lawrence L. Knutson, "Bush Presses for Action on Education Plan." Associated Press, September 9, 2001.
[6] Nina Burleigh, "Life for Laura Bush"; "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'" National Journal, August 31, 2002; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 197-198.
[7] Laurence McQuillan, "Laura Bush Stepping out Into Spotlight"; Ann Gerhart, The Perfect Wife: The Life and Choices of Laura Bush. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2004, p. 162.
[8] The Oprah Winfrey Show. Harpo Productions, September 18, 2001.
[9] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report: Final Report of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States. New York: W. W. Norton & Company, 2004, p. 8.
[10] Inside the U.S. Secret Service. National Geographic Channel, October 24, 2004.
[11] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information'"; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 197-198.
[12] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush: An Intimate Portrait of the First Lady. New York: Doubleday, 2006, p. 136; Ronald Kessler, In the President's Secret Service: Behind the Scenes With Agents in the Line of Fire and the Presidents They Protect. New York: Crown, 2009, p. 181.
[13] "Sunset Ceremony Commemorates Lighting of Eternal Flame."
[14] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'"
[15] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 198.
[16] "Sunset Ceremony Commemorates Lighting of Eternal Flame"; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 197-198.
[17] Christopher Andersen, George and Laura: Portrait of an American Marriage. New York: William Morrow, 2002, p. 4; "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'"
[18] "September 11: One Year Later." Larry King Live, CNN, September 11, 2002; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 198-199.
[19] "Sunset Ceremony Commemorates Lighting of Eternal Flame."
[20] Nina Burleigh, "Life for Laura Bush."
[21] Christopher Andersen, George and Laura, p. 5.
[22] "Mrs. Bush Addresses Senate." Associated Press, September 11, 2001; Margaret Carlson, "A Pillow Away From the President." Time, December 31, 2001; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 199.
[23] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'"
[24] "9:29 a.m.-10:11 a.m." CNN, September 11, 2001; "Senator Kennedy Addresses the Recent Terrorist Attacks." Live Event/Special, CNN, September 11, 2001.
[25] Allison Gilbert et al. (Editors), Covering Catastrophe: Broadcast Journalists Report September 11. Chicago, IL: Bonus Books, 2002, p. 64.
[26] "Sunset Ceremony Commemorates Lighting of Eternal Flame"; Ann Gerhart, The Perfect Wife, p. 163; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 199.
[27] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'"
[28] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, p. 136.
[29] Nina Burleigh, "Life for Laura Bush."
[30] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 200.
[31] "Mrs. Bush Addresses Senate"; "Related Major Developments in the Year Since the Sept. 11 Terrorist Attacks." Associated Press, August 21, 2002; "9/11: The World Remembers; Plane Diverted." CNN Newsroom, CNN, September 11, 2006."
[32] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, p. 136.
[33] Ann Gerhart, The Perfect Wife, p. 163.
[34] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, p. 136.
[35] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 200.
[36] Edward M. Kennedy, True Compass: A Memoir. New York: Twelve, 2009, p. 492.
[37] Kathy Kiely, "Post-9/11 Security Hinders Access at Capitols." USA Today, August 4, 2002.
[38] 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 14.
[39] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 201.
[40] Allison Gilbert et al. (Editors), Covering Catastrophe, p. 64.
[41] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 200.
[42] "Uniformed Division." United States Secret Service, 2010; Niall Firth, "Defending the White House: What a Special Forces Guard Wears When He's Protecting the President." Daily Mail, December 16, 2010.
[43] Chitra Ragavan, "Under Cloudy Skies." U.S. News & World Report, December 1, 2002.
[44] Niall Firth, "Defending the White House."
[45] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 200.
[46] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'"
[47] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, p. 136.
[48] James Bamford, "James Bamford Reviews Ronald Kessler's 'In the President's Secret Service.'" Washington Post, August 23, 2009; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 200.
[49] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, p. 136.
[50] Bob Woodward, Bush at War. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2002, p. 17.
[51] Robert Draper, Dead Certain: The Presidency of George W. Bush. New York: Free Press, 2007, p. 143; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 201.
[52] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information'"; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 202.
[53] Robert Draper, Dead Certain, p. 143.
[54] Nina Burleigh, "Life for Laura Bush"; "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information'"; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 201-203.
[55] Ronald Kessler, Laura Bush, p. 136; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 203-205.
[56] "Testimony of Paul H. O'Neill, Secretary of the Treasury, Before the Senate Committee on Appropriations." U.S. Department of the Treasury, May 8, 2001; Office of Management and Budget, Annual Report to Congress on Combating Terrorism. Washington, DC: Office of Management and Budget, July 2001, p. 82; "Protection: Protective Mission." United States Secret Service, 2002.
[57] "Protection: How Protection Works." United States Secret Service, 2002.
[58] Philip H. Melanson with Peter F. Stevens, The Secret Service: The Hidden History of an Enigmatic Agency. New York: Carroll & Graf, 2002, p. 273.
[59] "Secret Service: Not Just an Elite Guard." Associated Press, February 13, 1998; Karen McVeigh, "Secret Service Scandal in Colombia Has Agency's Culture Under a Microscope." The Guardian, April 20, 2012.
[60] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, p. 260.
[61] "Protection: How Protection Works."
[62] Richard A. Clarke, Against All Enemies: Inside America's War on Terror. New York: Free Press, 2004, p. 7.
[63] "Spotlight on: Barbara Riggs." PCCW Newsletter, Spring 2006.
[64] Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 197, 203, 260.
[65] See "'Deaf, Dumb, and Blind': Were Communications Sabotaged on 9/11?" Shoestring 9/11, October 19, 2007.
[66] Dan Verton, Black Ice: The Invisible Threat of Cyber-Terrorism. Emeryville, CA: McGraw-Hill/Osborne, 2003, pp. 150-151.
[67] "Voices of 9/11: 'A Cacophony of Information.'"
[68] Tom Daschle with Michael D'Orso, Like No Other Time: The 107th Congress and the Two Years That Changed America Forever. New York: Crown, 2003, p. 110.
[69] "9/11: What Really Happened at Congress." Live Event/Special, CNN, September 11, 2002.
[70] George W. Bush, Decision Points. New York: Crown, 2010, p. 132; Laura Bush, Spoken From the Heart, pp. 202-203.
[71] Chitra Ragavan, "Under Cloudy Skies."
[72] "USSS Statements and Interview Reports." 9/11 Commission, July 28, 2003; 9/11 Commission, The 9/11 Commission Report, p. 464; "The Footnotes of 9/11." CNN Presents, CNN, September 11, 2011.
[73] See, for example, "Did Training Exercises Prevent Andrews Air Force Base From Responding to the 9/11 Attacks?" Shoestring 9/11, October 26, 2009; "'Real-World or Exercise': Did the U.S. Military Mistake the 9/11 Attacks for a Training Scenario?" Shoestring 9/11, March 22, 2012; "Training Exercises on 9/11." Complete 9/11 Timeline, n.d.
[74] For more information on President Bush's actions on September 11, see Allan Wood and Paul Thompson, "An Interesting Day: President Bush's Movements and Actions on 9/11." Center for Cooperative Research, May 9, 2003; Susan Taylor Martin, "Of Fact, Fiction: Bush on 9/11." St. Petersburg Times, July 4, 2004; Kevin Ryan, "Secret Service Failures on 9/11: A Call for Transparency." Washington's Blog, March 25, 2012; "Bush's Actions on 9/11." Complete 9/11 Timeline, n.d.