What were the President, Vice President, Secretary of Defense, and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff doing while Air Force pilots awaited their commands? Supposedly they learned about the attack over 30 minutes later than anyone watching TV. Each has a story of what they were doing during the critical hour when the air defense network stood down.

Of these four officials, all pretend they did not grasp what was unfolding until shortly before the Pentagon was hit at 9:37, even though the story of the attack had gone live on local television stations across the nation by 9 AM. ¹ Cheney was in the White House and Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon -- two of the command and control centers of the U.S. military. The Cheyenne Mountain official website described NORAD's Command Center:

Redundant and survivable communications hotlines connect the Command Center to the Pentagon, White House, U.S. Strategic Command, Canadian Forces Headquarters in Ottawa, other aerospace defense system command posts, and major military centers around the world.

Bush is always surrounded by his Secret Service detail, who would presumably be aware of current events, and Myers was on Capital Hill in a scheduled meeting, and hence easily locatable.

References

1. Another Look at 9/11, and Those Unscrambled Jets, Nothing Urgent, New York Press, [cached]

page last modified: 2006-08-06