Where was the OTHER George on 9/11???

[skypilot]

I posted this question on another thread and the thread is dying and sinking like a stone, so I will start a new thread with this question:

Does anyone know what George Tenet did or who he contacted on Sept.11? Tenet was supposedly "obsessed" and "losing sleep" over the fear that an attack was coming (according to Bob Woodward) and he was the one who gave Bush that famous Aug.6, 2001 briefing. When the first plane hit the WTC did anyone get a frantic phone call from Tenet? We all know that Bush claimed to think that the first crash was an accident and supposedly Rumsfeld and Dick Myers thought the same thing and everyone went about their business as though the thought of a terrorist attack never occured to them until the second crash. Where was the OTHER George and who did he contact? What was his reaction after Flight 11 hit the WTC or was he sleeping in that day?

[ewagner]

1. Good question

:kick: for anybody who knows

[itcfish]

2. Where was he?

and where was Poppy Bush and Cheney?



:wtf:

[nostamj]

4. poppy was in the WH

please see the paulthompson timeline linked in my post below for ALL the details........

[nostamj]

3. here ya go!

from the INDISPENSIBLE paulthompson timeline:

(Around 8:30 a.m.) Just prior to learning about the 9/11 attacks, many of the US's leaders are scattered across the US and overseas. Vice President Cheney and National Security Advisor Rice are at their offices in the White House. Defense Secretary Rumsfeld is at his office in the Pentagon, meeting with a delegation from Capitol Hill. Secretary of State Powell is in Lima, Peru. CIA Director Tenet is at breakfast with his old friend and mentor, former senator David Boren (D), at the St. Regis Hotel, three blocks from the White House.

After 8:46 a.m.) A few minutes after the 8:46 WTC crash, CIA Director Tenet is told of the crash while he is eating breakfast with former Senator David Boren. Boren says Tenet is told that the WTC has been attacked by an airplane: "I was struck by the fact that used the word attacked." Tenet then hands a cell phone back to an aide and says to Boren, "You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it." Why is Bush supposedly under the impression the crash was an accident well after Tenet has been told it was an attack? Does Tenet try to communicate with Bush at this time?

MUCH more here:

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/timeline/main/dayof911.html

[ewagner]

7. This is a key question

Does Tenet try to communicate with Bush at this time?

Is this where Bush got the information about the first tower being hit before he entered the classroom ?(as opposed to seeing it on TV which actually wasn't broadcast until after the 2nd tower was struck if I remember correctly)

[nostamj]

8. there was NO film of Tower One on 9/11

it was the next day (at the earliest) and I believe not for several days that the video taken by the filmcrew with the FDNY in lower Manhattan was shown.

bottom line: no one saw the first strike LIVE, unless they were THERE.

on edit: of course I mean NO film of the strike, not the aftermath of the strike.

[ewagner]

9. Thanks for the clarification n/t

[nostamj]

12. oh, you're welcome (and a few more details)

it's one of those little details. so many people believe that footage was shown sometime on 9/11 and it's just not so.

the brothers who were shooting it went straight to the WTC with the FD company and got separated in the ensuing chaos.

if you've never seen the full footage they had of the immediate aftermath of the first strike, it is quite chilling. (I believe some of it is included in the HBO documentary, but I haven't watched that in well over a year now.

[skypilot]

10. This is another thing that bothers me...

...about the officials who claim they saw the aftermath of the first attack on TV that morning yet still went on with photo ops, meetings, etc. First of all they claimed to think that the plane that crashed was a small plane but if they saw the aftermath of the crash then they had some visuals to go on. They could see that it was either a large plane that had crashed or a small plane LOADED WITH EXPLOSIVES. Are we to believe that this possibility occured to no one, especially after the Aug.6th briefing. Also, were these clowns watching the coverage with the sound turned down? Didn't they hear reports of people leaping to their deaths from one of the tallest buildings in the world. How can you turn away from something like that an go on with business as usual? This is what has me convinced that these fuckers are lying with every breath and that they damned well knew what was transpiring that morning.

[nostamj]

13. in the O'Neill book, The Price of Loyalty

O'Neill was overseas but he knew--in real time--that people were jumping out of the North Tower. he also saw the South Tower hit on the live CNN feed.

if he knew, they all knew.

[Cooley Hurd]

38. I watched the coverage all day and all night on 9/11...

...and the first time I saw the Jules and Gedeon Naudet video of AA Flight 11 hitting the north tower was at the opening of the Today show on 9/12 (my birthday).

[CaptainClark23]

5. A couple of things

Per cooperativeresearch timeline:

Meanwhile, CIA Director George Tenet was told of the crash a few minutes after it happened. A messenger gave him the news as he was eating breakfast with former Senator David Boren in a Washington restaurant three blocks from the White House. Boren says Tenet was told that the World Trade Center had been attacked by an airplane: "I was struck by the fact that used the word attacked." An aide then handed a cell phone to Tenet, and Tenet made some calls, showing that at least some at the highest levels of the Bush administration were talking about an attack at this time. Tenet then said to Boren, "You know, this has bin Laden's fingerprints all over it."

Also, I found this in a review of Woodward's book, Bush at War:

On the morning of September 11, 2001, CIA Director George Tenet enters his seventh floor office at the CIA headquarters and faces Cofer Black, a veteran covert operator who helped capture international terrorist Carlos the Jackal in the 1990s.

The CIA Director informs Black that the eight people monitoring the latest intelligence information from the sixth sixth floor of the just-attacked World Trade Center in New York are at risk.

"This is an element - we're going to have to keep them in place," replies Black.
"Well, we have to get those people out," Tenet insists.
"No, sir, we're going to have to leave them there because they have a key function to play in a crisis like this," maintains Black.
"Well, they could die," says Tenet.
"Sir, then they're just going to have to die," says Black (p. 9).




This raises a couple of questions:

1. If Tenet was at breakfast at the time of the attack, then returned to his office on the 7th floor at langley BEFORE the collapse of tower 1. Any DC du'ers can help me out on his drive time from Three blocks to WH to Langley? Is Langley the "headquarters" spoken of? Is there another?

2. Prior to the actual time of collapse, there was no obvious indication that the buildings were in danger of collapse. How is Tenet so sure his agents' lives were in danger if they were on the 6th floor, well below fires, impact, etc?

[skypilot]

6. Thanks, Nostamj and CaptainClark23

These accounts of Tenet's actions that day still don't quite square with the picture of Tenet painted by Woodward. Why would Tenet be particularly "struck" by the word "attacked"? Isn't an "attack" what he'd been expecting? The title of the brief he gave Bush was "Bin Ladin Determined to Attack in U.S. His account sounds scripted to me, just like Andrew Card claiming that after the second attack he whispered in Bush's ear something like, "A second plane has hit the WTC. America is under attack". That "AMERICA is under attack" business sounds so phony and melodramatic to me. It seems that under the circumstances anyone else would have simply said "We are under attack". But I'm digressing and ranting. Forgive me. It's just that so much of what they say sounds scripted. "...this has Bin Laden's fingerprints all over it"(????) Why does he sound as though this is just occuring to him when an attack by Bin Laden is precisely what he briefed Bush about?

[ewagner]

11. "...this has Bin Laden's fingerprints all over it"(????)

Strangely enough, those were the first words out of my mouth when I heard (over NPR)that the first tower had been hit. I didn't have intelligence sources backing up that assertion as most certainly Tenet did, but I knew that Bin Laden was obsessed with the World Trade Center and doggedly tried to destroy it.

[skypilot]

14. My point was...

...that in this account by Tenet he sounds as though this is occuring to him for the first time when, in fact, he'd been expecting an attack from Bin Laden. Maybe that's just the way it sounds to me. In fact, "...this has Bin Laden's fingerprints all over it" has a kind of speculative sound to it which is at odds with Tenet's certainty that "Bin Laden (was)Determined to Strike in the U.S." It just sounds phony to me. I don't believe that that was his reaction. But anyway, I'm quibbling a bit. The really important thing is who did he contact. Did he try to contact Bush and disabuse him of the alleged notion that the crash was the result of "one terrible pilot" or "some poor guy having a heart attack"?

[ewagner]

25. I wasn't quibbling

In fact, the quote coming from Tenet makes even more sense if he, in fact, was advising the Whaite House about Bin Laden being an imminent threat.

My comment was meant to imply that even I, without the benefit of Tenets sources, smelled Bin Laden's hand in the attacks. Tenet should have been evem more suspicious AND SHOULD HAVE BEEN ON THE PHONE TO DUBYA.

Sometimes I get carried away on the keyboard so subtle thoughts don't come out clear.

[skypilot]

27. I didn't mean to suggest that you were quibbling.

I was the one quibbling:) It's just that even some of the "sensible" comments made by some in this administration have the faint whiff of bullshit. My main point was the same as the one you make in your last post: Tenet should have been on the phone to Dubya.

[ieoeja]

28. I think that was Sen. Boren.

Paul Thompson: "Boren says Tenet is told that the WTC has been attacked by an airplane: 'I was struck by the fact that used the word attacked.'"

skypilot: "Why would Tenet be particularly 'struck' by the word 'attacked'?"


I believe Sen Boren is saying that he was struck by the word.

[skypilot]

32. Thanks for the clarification.

*

[mohinoaklawnillinois]

15. I was on the phone with a friend that awful morning

when the second tower fell and I had the same reaction. My friend didn't have a clue who Osama Bin Laden was and I had to explain to her that he had been mentioned in the news after the embassy bombings in Africa.

There are a whole lot of things about that day that just don't add up to me.

[SpiralHawk]

19. This bin Laden - 9/11 stuff always confuses me

Have I missed something? If so, please set me straight.

But as I understand it, the Bush administration has presented the American public with exactly NO evidence that bin Laden was involved or responsible in any way. Further, bin Laden to the best of my knowledge has never claimed involvement or responsibility -- only that he approved of the 9/11 travesty.

So -- where is the evidence that the administration has offered to US citizens ?

Frankly, I'd like to know what the hell my government is up to in my name. That's a basic responsibility of citizenship -- to be informed, and to seek the truth.

[CaptainClark23]

21. Why, its simple.

The Amazing Indestructable Passport issued to one (of several?) Mohammed Atta.

That clinches it for me, I'm convinced. yep.

[nostamj]

30. believe it or not....

the 9/11 Hearing had TWO intact passports from the NYC hijackers and neither was Atta's... i was very surprised by that testimony. it was sometime yesterday late afternoon.

[CaptainClark23]

31. OK, my credulity just snapped entirelly

I missed that one...please provide more info if you can.

[nostamj]

33. this I don't have more info on...

i was stunned. uh, make that STUNNED

try the c-span archives maybe? they should have the hearing...

on edit: they do have yesterday's hearing

[Stephanie]

26. Everyone forgets the Embassy bombers' sentencing was scheduled that week

The sentencing of the Embassy bombers was scheduled for that same week in lower Manhattan (I think Thursday). I remember being very aware of that MYSELF - glad that I wasn't called for jury duty that week, as I frequently was at that time because I kept deferring service. I was glad that I didn't have to report to the courthouse downtown during the same week of the sentencing because I was afraid something might happen. Obviously I was thinking of something smaller than what did happen. But if I expected it, then why didn't THEY? Obviously they did.

[Stephanie]

16. They were in the 6th floor of which tower?

Do you know?

[CaptainClark23]

17. Was wondering the same.

Am trying to find out. Will post here if I find it. Please do the same if you get it first.

For some reason, I thought intelligence assets were all in WTC 7 (y'know, the one that had the "empathy collapse"?). Which would make Tenet's statements all the scarier, as NO ONE feared WTC 7's collapse until the afternoon, if then.

[nostamj]

18. well, "just attacked"

would imply the North Tower. remember, the South Tower evacuation was stopped... and then, well, you know...

[CaptainClark23]

20. Inconsistent timelines

The conversation where Tenet expresses fear for agents' safety, according to Woodward, takes place in Tenet's office. If Tenet heard about the initial attack while having breakfast 3 blocks from the WH, we can assume that it was at a later time, when both towers had been hit.

Still trying to reconcile how he got from downtown DC to Langley in such short order. Was thinking he might have had a chopper on standby (where he'd park it is another question), but if so, why? was he expecting to have to move in a hurry after finishing his scones n' tea?

Tenet's timeline here is funky.

[ieoeja]

29. Replies to CaptainClark23

1. If Tenet was at breakfast at the time of the attack, then returned to his office on the 7th floor at langley BEFORE the collapse of tower 1. Any DC du'ers can help me out on his drive time from Three blocks to WH to Langley? Is Langley the "headquarters" spoken of? Is there another?

I don't know the drive time. However, there was considerable time between the attack and the fall.


2. Prior to the actual time of collapse, there was no obvious indication that the buildings were in danger of collapse. How is Tenet so sure his agents' lives were in danger if they were on the 6th floor, well below fires, impact, etc?

I suspect if we put this as a poll question, "do you believe a persons life is at risk by staying in a burning building" that YES would beat NO about 90% to 10%.

[CaptainClark23]

34. notes

Best I can figure, drivetime about 25 to 30 minutes, best case. I always thought it was further than that, my error. I recall the time between impact and fall, I was there. Add in a little time for clearing out of breakfast, getting into a vehicle, then up to his office, its certainly doable in the time required.



While I imagine that those agents could not leave their post unmanned without prior authorization, I'm still skeptical about fears for their imminent demise being some 60+ floors below impact and fires. The building would have had to burn almost to the ground for them to be in danger..UNLESS the building collapsed.

Life at risk, yes. Life in imminent danger? not to my mind.

Too, we still do not know which specific building they were in.

[ElsewheresDaughter]

22. link to the most extensive and comprehensable 9/11 timelines and site

enjoy

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/index2.html

[alfredo]

23. I wasn't sure the first one was an accident. A pilot would have

done everything he could to avoid population. He would have ditched in the river, he would not have allowed the plane to get anywhere near the city. My suspicions were confirmed when I saw the other plane heading for the other tower.

I remember telling my wife after the first plane, 'that was no accident.'

[lostnfound]

24. Meeting w/ Pakistini ISI Chief / Funder of Atta, according to Gore Vidal

I recall reading in one of Vidal's books that he met with the head of the Pakistani intelligence agency (ISI), Mahmood Ahmed, the same man who had wired $100,000 to Mohammed Atta a month before the attacks.

I don't know if it's true, but I'm pretty sure it was in Vidal's book.

[proud patriot]

36. Yes that's what he was doing

:grr:

[eek]

39. some things that convince me that this was LI/MI-HOP

apart from the excellent LIHOP/MIHOP research


1. BFEE types are the only ones who say "nine one one" instead of "nine eleven". To me, this highlights the sense that the date was chosen for brand-name recognition. Like Andy Card said,
"you don't roll out a new product in July"

2."a reading program that works"
What the f#ck kind of awkwardass thing to say is that?
He's still reading off his marketing bullet points in face of one our darkest days?

3. OBL was in the NY Times a few days before. Prominent photo and feature story. Like a PR campaign was being launched

4. It took like 2 minutes to find all them "How To" videos and manuals in glove boxes of rental cars
Not for nothing but if your plan was that precise, I don't think you'd need to bring your cheat-sheet along.

5.Remember on the day before the press was shut out? There were interview after interview with flight school people who talked about all these weird cash-only students. Every one said they had called the FBI but w/o response

7. A few months earlier I was working in a building on Park Avenue in the 30's. It was around 4pm when the whole area was locked down for a bomb alert.
If you aren't familiar with NYC, this was one of the busiest, most central traffic areas in the city. Just down from Grand Central, just a few blocks from Empire State bld.
This was intense stuff; bomb squad, streets cordoned off for blocks and blocks during rush hour.
Nobody could leave the building.
Cops/ambulances galore.
NO news crew. NO press. NO mention on the news or in the paper. WTF? And it was the second time in a few weeks. Another drill like they were to have on 9/11?

Sorry for the rant but wow - amazing how little a scratch to the surface it takes to get us rolling, huh?

[skypilot]

40. Some rants are better than others.

Thanks for yours.

"a reading program that works"

This "plugging" of some reading program has always struck me as a strange aside when talking about 9/11. He goes into this reading program spiel a second time in California when someone asks him about 9/11. In California he also kind of jokes about how he was down in Florida "to tell my brother what to do". I always thought these little digressions were strange. One of them (the reading program) is irrelevant to how he felt on 9/11 and the other (telling brother what to do) is a somewhat inappropriate comic digression seeing as Bush is being asked about something very serious. But maybe that's just his usual stupidity.

[DoYouEverWonder]

35. So what did Tenet do after he heard about the 1st tower?

It sounds like he made a comment to Boren and then dived back into his scrambled eggs? How long did he sit there with Boren before he excused himself to return to his command post? Why did he go all the way to Langley? Why didn't he head straight for the closest secure bunker?

It is beyond belief that every major player in this event pretended nothing was happening until after the PENTAGON gets hit. They all ignored the 1st tower and at least a few of them had to know there were other hijacked planes in the air. Then they all ignored the 2nd tower. Even when the Pentagon is finally hit, they are still slow to react in anyway that resembles an appropriate response.

Either they did it on purpose, which is treason or they were all totally incompetent, which is a dereliction of duty. Pick One.

[skypilot]

37. I've posted this in other threads but...

...I think it always bears repeating. If you read the transcripts of testimony given to the 9/11 commission you will come across testimony by Air Force Gen.Larry Arnold of NORAD who claims that even after the second WTC crash he wasn't sure that we were dealing with an "attack". He claimed to simply perceive it as a "pattern" and cleary states that he wishes he could tell the commissioners that he knew it was an attack but that he couldn't. A "pattern"?!?!