Rumsfled and Bush absent on 9/11.

[freedomburns]

The Smoking Gun on 9/11
Documented Evidence
August 15, 2004

by freedomburns  

The 9/11 Commission has serious problems.  They pick and choose what to cover and what to leave out of that report.  It is a whitewash.  The most damning evidence that I have seen of a case for gross negligence, or worse, lies in the absence of leadership and the total dereliction of duty by the top people in the chain of command on the morning of September 11.

Bush, Rumsfeld and Gen. Myers (Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff) carried on with their normal scheduled activities on the morning of Sept. 11 and then each went missing for extended periods of time, abandoning their responsibilities and becoming conspicuously absent during this national emergency.  They all acted as though their sworn duty to protect the nation had been completely forgotten.  The country was left virtually leaderless during the crucial hour and a half between 8:30AM and 10:00AM on 9/11.  This contributed to the massive confusion on that fateful morning.  

Rumsfled was coincidentally in a meeting discussing missile defense and the risk of terrorism when he was informed of the first attack.  Later, in a meeting with Christopher Cox, the defence policy committee chairman of the House of Representatives, Mr Rumsfeld, recalls Mr Cox, watched the TV coverage from New York and said, "Believe me, this isn't over yet. There's going to be another attack, and it could be us."  Moments later Flight 77 struck the Pentagon.  Yet, Rumsfeld did not feel compelled to go to the Pentagon War Room, again shirking his duty.

Why did the country's top leadership, to a man, abandon its posts in this time of crisis?

Gail Sheehy, in an article published in the LA Times on Friday, August 13, 2004, points fingers and names names, but she does not tell the whole story.  

A few choice excerpts from her articles:
 
Rumsfeld and Bush Failed Us on Sept. 11  
(LA TIMES 8/13/04)
"Two planes hitting the twin towers did not rise to the level of
Rumsfeld's leaving his office and going to the War Room? How can that be?" asked Mindy Kleinberg, one of the widows known as the Jersey Girls, whose efforts helped create and guide the 9/11 commission.
...
 
The lead military officer that day, Brig. Gen. Montague Winfield, told the commission that the Pentagon's command center had been essentially leaderless: "For 30 minutes we couldn't find" Rumsfeld.
...
 
[Rumsfeld] didn't speak to the vice president until 10:39 a.m.,
according to the report. Since that was more than 30 minutes after the last hijacked plane crashed, it would seem to be an admission of dereliction of duty.
...
 
Why wasn't Rumsfeld able to see on TV what millions of civilians
already knew? After the Pentagon was attacked, why did he run outside to play medic instead of moving to the command center and taking charge? The 9/11 report records the fatal confusion [italics mine] in which command center personnel were left: ...
http://www.latimes.com/news/printedition/opinion/la-oe-sheehy13aug13,1,6693051.story
 
Who's in Charge Here?  
(Mother Jones 7/22/04)
"In what may be one of the most remarkable statements in the report, the commission concludes that "[t]he Secretary of Defense did not enter the chain of command until the morning's key events were over."
http://www.motherjones.com/news/update/2004/07/07_400.html


Bush was similarly absent from fulfilling his duties.  Bush swore on the Bible at his inauguration to protect this country from all enemies, foreign and domestic.  Yet at the exact moment that the towers were burning and crumbling to dust, Bush chose to sit in a second-grade classroom, carrying on with reading a book called "My Pet Goat".  After being told by his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card, "America is under attack," Bush sat and did nothing for twenty agonizingly long minutes when he should have seized the helm of government and taken steps right away to protect the country.  Again, the absence of leadership caused fatal confusion (to borrow Sheehy's language).

The information that really needs national coverage is that the person ostensibly left "in charge" was a rookie Captain named Leidig who was told the night before (Sept 10) to sit in for Gen. Montague Winfield, the director of the National Military Command Center (NMCC).  Leidig was "in charge" for only the 90 minutes that the crisis was happening.  In my humble opinion, this is obviously not just a coincidence.  

More:
The official investigation of the September 11th events has failed to
explain or even to ask why the top officials in the U.S. military chain
of command were missing in action during the attacks.
...
 
The report neglects to mention anything about the whereabouts on Sept. 11 of Gen. Montague Winfield, the director of the National Military Command Center, the "war room" located in the Pentagon itself.

Montague Winfield

The Joint Chiefs of Staff are technically advisers
( http://www.dtic.mil/jcs/core/jcs_defn.html ) to the executive and
theater command, which under law "runs from the President to the
Secretary of Defense; and from the Secretary of Defense to the commander of the combatant command." As the theater of combat on Sept. 11 was domestic, the function of combatant command resided in the NMCC and authority therefore ran from Bush to Rumsfeld to Winfield.

Winfield was scheduled to be at his post on the morning of Sept. 11. But on Sept. 10 he arranged for his deputy to relieve him the next morning, at exactly 8:30 a.m. This turned out to be just eight minutes before the military was alerted to the diversion of the first flight, at 8:38 a.m. (according to the timeline in The 9/11 Commission Report).

The report mentions Winfield by name only once, as a source in a
footnote, without clarification (Ch. 1 fn 190, p. 463). His apparent absence from the NMCC after 8:30 a.m. was revealed to the Commission in a June 17, 2004 statement by his deputy, Capt. Charles J. Leidig (who was recently promoted to admiral).
http://www.9-11commission.gov/hearings/hearing12/leidig_statement.pdf

Winfield was scheduled to testify before the Kean Commission in public on the same day as Leidig. As on Sept. 11, he was a no-show. Leidig spoke for him, saying under oath that on Sept. 11, "Right after we resolved what was going on with United 93, around that time General Winfield took over" command of the NMCC.
http://www.9-11commission.gov/archive/hearing12/9-11Commission_Hearing_2004-06-17.pdf

Thus Gen. Winfield did not hold any operational authority until after the attacks were over.  In the further absence of Bush and Rumsfeld, the man in charge of the U.S. military during the attacks was apparently Capt. Leidig, a rookie in the job who, in his own words, first qualified in August 2001 "to stand watch as the Deputy Director for Operations in the NMCC."

Winfield either forgot his own absence or attempted to gloss over it when he was filmed for a 2002 Discovery-Times documentary...

Why would Winfield try to hide an absence for which no one would otherwise think to blame him, since it was arranged the night before? Where was he during the 90 minutes after 8:30 a.m.?
http://www.911truth.org/article.php?story=20040801011459507
 

Ok?  Excellent questions.  I hope they keep asking them and then ask the next one, and the next, and the next...  The country, including the families who lost loved-ones on 9/11, demand that these questions be answered.  They are the ones who caused the 9-11 Commission to be formed despite resistance from the White House.  Now they are calling the report a cover up.  The mass media needs to publish the information on Capt. Leidig's role, and to start asking the tough questions that lead from there.  

Other obvious questions surround the four or five different war games that the military coincidentally had scheduled for 9/11.  How did the terrorists know to strike on this particular day, when the war games were taking place, when they would have a greater chance of success due to the confusion between whether this was a drill-exercise or something real?  Are all of the bizarre coincidences just that?  How can there be so many of them?  Why did the 9/11 Commission fail to conduct any questioning on the war games going on that day?  

This country may soon start to connect the dots.  At least, it's obvious to me.  Why are Americans always the last ones to know what is going on?

freedomburns

[Dr. Cynic]

To be totally honest, if it was me, I'd hide too. I'm a gutless coward, like the character Lee in The Magnificent Seven. BUt he ended up fighting and... oops.

[??????????]

Like it would make any sense for a president, no matter of which party, to be standing on the White House lawn saying, "Come on you S.O.B.s, I'm the president lets rock." I mean come on this isn't a Hollywood flick like 'Airforce One' or 'Independence Day'. The presidents' safety is a priority to insure the stability of our nation.

[AuH2O]

The author he cites is just a stupid lefty slanderer.

Kerry has also whined about Bush not immediately leaving the schoolkids. I don't have a problem with that either. Bush did not want to appear panicked, because that could have made things worse than they already were.

[Giant Saguaro]

What this person is criticizing is standard emergency procedure. Criticize the procedure, not Bush. Oh wait, what am I saying? I forgot the mentality I was dealing with. And what are we criticizing The 9/11 Report for, not attacking Bush? Good grief. And this 7-minute lapse or whatever it is between the time the Tower was hit and Bush left the kids, amazing. It's like, "Well it took him an entire 140 seconds to get his shoes on and tie them when he got out of bed on the morning of September 12; that's entirely too long for someone acting as President and he should have..." This level of damned if you do/damned if you don't is really, really, really becoming laughable. And keep in mind that amid all this no one is allowed to question John kerry's voting record and no one is allowed to say he is unfit. Hahahahaha!

[Dr. Cynic]

I believe the President should leave if there is an immediate danger to his or her life.

[Jake]

If someone was nuking the uS would the president fly back to Washington and give a speech. Yeah right.

Actually think before posting bullsh*t, nonsense.

[12th Doctor]

Bush did not "go missing", he went to Kansas to the aviation control center there that monitors the activity of all planes over North America.  This was exactly where he should have been and it is a documented fact that he was there.  I can remember them reporting on this after the fact on Sept. 12th-16th.  Where do you dig up this crap?

[Fritz]

I have to say that the administration responded appropriately on Sept. 11, and any attempts by members of my party to find fault is just scraping the bottom of the barrel.  We were all behind Bush on Sept 11, even Al Gore was for gods sake.  There are many, many, many issues I can criticize the President for, but what he did in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is not one of them.

[angus]

I have to say that the administration responded appropriately on Sept. 11, and any attempts by members of my party to find fault is just scraping the bottom of the barrel.  We were all behind Bush on Sept 11, even Al Gore was for gods sake.  There are many, many, many issues I can criticize the President for, but what he did in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is not one of them.

Nice post Fritz.  It's too easy to get caught up in the sport of antagonism.  We need the occassional reality check.  

[??????????]

I have to say that the administration responded appropriately on Sept. 11, and any attempts by members of my party to find fault is just scraping the bottom of the barrel.  We were all behind Bush on Sept 11, even Al Gore was for gods sake.  There are many, many, many issues I can criticize the President for, but what he did in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is not one of them.

I agree. I blame no public official for protecting or having his life protected during a national disaster. It's only common sense. If Bush had done what some have said and gone back to DC and him and his whole cabinet had been killed, how disastorous would that have been?

[12th Doctor]

I have to say that the administration responded appropriately on Sept. 11, and any attempts by members of my party to find fault is just scraping the bottom of the barrel.  We were all behind Bush on Sept 11, even Al Gore was for gods sake.  There are many, many, many issues I can criticize the President for, but what he did in the aftermath of Sept. 11 is not one of them.

I agree. I blame no public official for protecting or having his life protected during a national disaster. It's only common sense. If Bush had done what some have said and gone back to DC and him and his whole cabinet had been killed, how disastorous would that have been?

The sad part is that I'm certain that that is precisly what many on the Left wish would have happened.

But not Fritz, I see.  It is very refreshing to see someone on the Left with some sense.  Good show, man.  

[Dr. Cynic]

Now wait a minute! I may not agree with GWB's policies, but I never wished the man dead.

[Gabu]

I would like to chime in as another crazy leftie who completely agrees with what Fritz said.  I don't like Bush, but really, this criticism is silly.  Had he gone straight back to Washington, DC, he would probably have been criticized just as harshly for not taking shelter and for endangering the life of the president.

[12th Doctor]

Now wait a minute! I may not agree with GWB's policies, but I never wished the man dead.

You might not.  A lot of Lefties would.  Understand that when I say the "Left" I am refering to those who make up roughly the top 25% most Liberal Americans, not all Liberals.  If Hubert Humphrey is your hero "the last good candidate the Dems have run, in my oppinion) then you probably are not in this group.

[Dr. Cynic]

I'm a moderate. I've mentioned that I'm friendly to the NRA, and would be willing to increase the millitary budget. So, technically, you're right. I'm not in the left, I'm in the center-left.

[12th Doctor]

I'm a moderate. I've mentioned that I'm friendly to the NRA, and would be willing to increase the millitary budget. So, technically, you're right. I'm not in the left, I'm in the center-left.

So, if you don't mind my asking, what makes you a Democrat?

You are from south of Pittsburgh, yes?

[freedomburns]

Now wait a minute! I may not agree with GWB's policies, but I never wished the man dead.

You might not.  A lot of Lefties would.  Understand that when I say the "Left" I am refering to those who make up roughly the top 25% most Liberal Americans, not all Liberals.  

Oh, please.  No one belives this BS.  No lefties think that 25% of righties want Kerry dead.  Give the demagoguery a rest for goodness sake.

[NewFreedom]

President getting somewhere save: Perfectly ok, no matter how much I dislike him, a gouvernment without a head is probably worsse than a gouvernment with a.. let's call it slow but radical head.
But sitting around for several minutes doing nothing: Guess it shows he is human after all, though he often does not seem to care much about his fellow humans. But Excusing himself, saying that he had something urgent to attend to, getting the information, and then coming back to calmly give a summary of what happened would certainly not have been panicky but what I EXPECT from the military leader of the Unites States... wich he happens to be, even if only as side-effect of being President. He IS the one who has the finger on the red button, and while I am kind of glad he did not rush off in a panick, I certainly wish he could make CALM decisions faster.

[??????????]

President getting somewhere save: Perfectly ok, no matter how much I dislike him, a gouvernment without a head is probably worsse than a gouvernment with a.. let's call it slow but radical head.
But sitting around for several minutes doing nothing: Guess it shows he is human after all, though he often does not seem to care much about his fellow humans. But Excusing himself, saying that he had something urgent to attend to, getting the information, and then coming back to calmly give a summary of what happened would certainly not have been panicky but what I EXPECT from the military leader of the Unites States... wich he happens to be, even if only as side-effect of being President. He IS the one who has the finger on the red button, and while I am kind of glad he did not rush off in a panick, I certainly wish he could make CALM decisions faster.

Why in the world would you want to give a summary of what happened to 6-8 year olds? Children are easily frightened when those in authority become panicky.