Never forget: Bush was **sound asleep** by 11:30 pm on 9/11/01

[BurtWorm]

If you were outraged by the 2003 Bush interview with Peggy Noonan, which elehhhhna posted here recently and in which Bush said 9/11 ended on a "humorous note," you'll love this London Times article from November 2001 (the link is long-since defunct):





MONDAY NOVEMBER 26 2001

False alarm roused Bush from his bed


FROM MARTIN FLETCHER IN WASHINGTON


ON THE night of September 11, President and Mrs Bush were roused from their bed
and rushed down to the bunker below the White House because an aircraft had been
spotted flying towards the President’s mansion, George W. Bush disclosed
yesterday.

Describing his day to Newsweek magazine, Mr Bush also recalled the moment that
Andrew Card, his Chief of Staff, told him of the second attack on the World
Trade Centre as he was waiting to speak at a Florida elementary school.

He said that he tried not to look shocked. “I was very aware of the cameras,” he
said. “America is under attack. I’m trying to absorb that knowledge. I have
nobody to talk to. I’m sitting in the midst of a classroom with little kids and
I realise I’m the Commander-in-Chief and America’s under attack.”


He was whisked back to Air Force One, where he told aides: “We’re at war. That’s
what we are paid for, boys. The first thing we had to do was understood what the
heck was going on.” Air Force One embarked on an eight-hour odyssey before it
was deemed safe for Mr Bush to return to Washington at 5.30pm. Still nettled by
the criticism, he insisted: “I wanted to go back to Washington. There is strong
advice that I did not, primarily from the Vice President.”


He held a National Security Council meeting in the emergency operations centre
in a bunker below the building. Then, as they were going upstairs, a secret
service agent said: “Mr President, we’re staying down here in the basement.”

The President recalled: “I had taken a look at the bed which (Laura) points out
was about a 1955 roll-out, pull-out. I said: ‘No, we’re not. I’m really tired.
I’ve had a heck of a day and I’m going to sleep in my own bed.’ ”

At 11.30pm, they were sound asleep. “I can hear a guy breathing quite heavily.
‘Mr President! Mr President! There’s an unidentified aircraft heading toward the
White House.’ So we get out of bed. I’m actually in my running shorts with a
T-shirt, old shoes. Grab Barney, grab Spot (the family dogs). Laura has no
contacts, she’s holding on to my arm. We get into the elevator, straight down,
in towards the conference room.


“And I’m thinking: ‘What the heck is going on?’ Then an enlisted fellow walks in
and goes: ‘Mr President, good news. It’s one of our own.’ ”

[opihimoimoi]

1. Such is the shallow mind of our shallow Prez....dispicable

[BrklynLiberal]

2. The fact that he has no conscience does not surprise me.

He comes by that genetically.

[texasleo]

3. I stayed up all night watching Brokaw

and I'm hundreds of miles away.

[Bridget Burke]

4. I don't think I slept at all that night.

And I didn't sleep well for a couple of weeks. I'm far from NYC & didn't know anyone involved. (Well, a cousin in the FBI is based there--but I didn't know it at the time.)

[BrklynLiberal]

10. I don't think I slept for a couple of weeks,except for minutes at a time.

I was glued to the TV.

That asshole makes me want to puke....all the time.

[PWRinNY]

35. Same here only

I'm close to NYC and could smell it, and there were F14's flying over my head every few minutes. I still can't look at pictures or watch TV when they show it. I can't believe chimperor in chief could sleep. Well, then again, maybe I can. After all, he knew he was about to get up and comfort the nation, and his bumbling approval ratings were about to skyrocket over his MIHOP.

[The_Casual_Observer]

5. He was incapable of doing anything useful anyway, so why not sleep?

The damage had already been done when he ignored "Bin Laden determined to attack US".

[BurtWorm]

7. This is the guy who likes to call himself "the war time president"

as though his default mode is Commander in Chief.

[The_Casual_Observer]

13. Correction: "Mr Popular War Time President"

[louis-t]

6. "I wanted to go back to Washington"

No you didn't. You wanted to go back to Crawford and hide under your bed.
Classless piece of garbage.

[The_Casual_Observer]

9. But dick wouldn't give him permission to go to Washington apparently.

[bdamomma]

30. Dick was running everything.

[derby378]

8. In all fairness, so was I

You have no idea what I'm capable of sleeping through.

[BurtWorm]

11. That's beyond fair.

You're not the "president." (Of course, Bush wasn't either.)

[derby378]

15. Touche!

[EarlG]

12. Let's not forget his fond reminiscences of 2001 either

"But all in all, it's been a fabulous year for Laura and me." - GWB, December 31, 2001

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/2001122...

[JuniperLea]

18. That is beyond disgusting n/t

[BurtWorm]

19. Holy shit! Even then he was talking about the goddamn rug!

THE PRESIDENT: Don't step on the new rug! (Laughter.)

We wanted you to see the new rug. It's a tradition for each President to design a rug. And Laura helped design this rug, and I think she did a fantastic job, as you can see. It's just beautiful.

That's the seal in the middle. The border here has got a little Texan in it --

MRS. BUSH: We have the Lone Star.

THE PRESIDENT: The Lone Star. The rays are, I think, very dramatic. And so we wanted you to come by and take a look at it.

[Jara sang]

25. And don't for get re:Bin Laden "I truly am not that concerned about him."

And this curious statement: "I was concerned about him, when he had taken over a country. I was concerned about the fact that he was basically running Afghanistan and calling the shots for the Taliban."

Bin Laden had never taken over Afghanistan. That is an outright lie.

[JuniperLea]

14. What is it they say about guilty prisoners?

They are the ones who sleep all the time?

I don't think I slept for 48 hours... and then only sporatically... every little breeze, every creek of a floor, every single little noise woke me up for at least a month.

There is no reason why he couldn't have stood up in that classroom and calmly explained to the teachers and students, and cameras, that he apologizes, but he must leave to attend to very important and unexpected business.

[LSK]

16. i thought all planes were grounded by that evening

And wasnt he flown to some base in Nebraska?

[gkhouston]

23. they were. The only air traffic I remember in the days after 9/11

are copters circling the Pentagon and some fighter jets. It was eerie, how quiet it was, especially after all the sirens on 9/11.

[npincus]

17. worthless piece of shit.

who the hell could sleep that night?

[robbedvoter]

20. I was looking for this. That's the one I read. Nov 2001

I knew that the funny, funny joke was told before - I thought I read it in Newsweek's Fineman (and it's still possible as they all steno talking points)

[BurtWorm]

24. It was in Newsweek.The London Times was reporting on the Newsweek

story. What amazes me still is how that fact could have been printed in the US and Americans just didn't care. I try to imagine how the media would have reacted if Clinton had admitted being asleep--make that **sound** asleep--before midnight that night. To me that fact speaks volumes about the vacancy that has been at the top since January 2001.

[robbedvoter]

31. It was posted on DU - MWO commented on it too

I especially remember the following part - not in this excerpt. it dealt with the meeting taking place next day (we know from Clarke - the one where he asked for the Saddam frame-up). he came in the room bright eyed and very happy and said: "Gentlemen, this is why we are getting paid for"

[glarius]

21. I've always thought Bush hadn't a clue what he was supposed to do and

that's why he sat in the chair at the school for several (7?) minutes before leaving. No matter the explanations of flying him around for safety's sake, I really believe he was really in a state of shock and possibly even hysteria and they were trying to calm him down before he would face the public. His explanation of why he didn't say anything while in the school doesn't ring true to me either. He says he didn't want to alarm the children....That's ridiculous. All he had to say was "there is some important business the president has to take care of so I'll have to leave you now."....There's nothing alarming to children about that. What a sham the whole thing is!

[pepperbear]

22. Oh pish, posh, push!

"He was whisked back to Air Force One, where he told aides: “We’re at war. That’s what we are paid for, boys. The first thing we had to do was understood what the heck was going on.”

Uh, no, buttercup. any "whisking" happened 7+ minutes after you were told. Also, he determined we were at war within a couple of hours of the attacks? What does that say about "what he knew and when he knew it?"

I am not much of a conspiracy theorist regarding 9/11, but this makes me wonder about the incompetence involved.

[Initech]

26. Asshole.

I'm starting to wonder if the conspiracy theories surrounding 9/11 are coming true or not. This just adds a tank of kerosene to the fire.

[elehhhhna]

27. "I’ve had a heck of a day" self centered bastard

[yellowcanine]

28. LBJ or Bill Clinton would have been up all night working the phones and

monitoring things in the Situation Room. Even Nixon would have done that. What a wimp.

[yurbud]

29. probably happiest day of his life, "I get to be war president & dick

taster."

[BurtWorm]

32. kick

[GCP]

33. I didn't sleep well for a week after 9/11

Every time I closed my eyes I saw the second plane flying through the south tower.
I have never loathed anyone as much as I loathe the Pretender.

[Connie_Corleone]

34. I didn't get to sleep until about 4:30 am.

And I had to get up at 5:30 am to get ready for work. I had the TV on all night.

How can a "president" sleep soundly on the same day his country is attacked??

[Lisa]

36. most people I know slept like babies that night ...

Up at 1 AM, with lots of crying.

Unlike Mr. Bush, evidently!

[Z_I_Peevey]

37. It was the afternoon of the following day

when I lay down crossways on my bed, exhausted, drained, sick at heart, thoroughly baffled that human minds could conceive of such evil against their fellow man. I knew I had to sleep, somehow, after hours and hours monitoring the news on Paul Thompson's original thread at The American Prospect, the local New York stations (still had a satellite feed in those days) and keeping up with all the local responses. Locating my children, communicating with my loved ones caught up in the whole Cleveland airport confusion. All this from faraway Oklahoma, a nobody, a nothing, just another
American horrified and knowing somehow, deep down in a place that could not speak the words, just who, really, was responsible for this. Knew it in my bones, just as I know it today.

As I slipped into unconsciousness, I found myself falling, falling, falling from one of the towers, spiritually linked to a man, any one of the many I saw falling so far...and in my altered state, I joined with him mentally, and it was if I could read his thoughts. He was thinking "This is not as easy as I thought it would be, this is not what I thought it would be at all." And I felt his terror, his bottomless terror, and I woke up crying out. And I could not sleep again until another day had past.

But George Bush was asleep at 11:30 that night. Amused by his less than regal appearance. And the only connection he made to that falling man was to stomp on his final resting place and bellow through a bullhorn. May history fully and accurately record what George W. Bush did on that day, and in the following days. May the people of the United States of America (1776-2000) fully realize what was done on that day, and may there be no hiding place for those who planned it, those who wrote policy papers about it, those who implemented it, those who gave the stand down orders, and those who used it to ram through their fascist agenda. May the people of the United States of America throw off these murderous ursurpers, these Constitution-rapers and may goverment of the people, by the people and for the people be restored.

[lavendermist]

39. Well said and ......

[Olney Blue]

41. Constitution-rapers, indeed.

I wasn't sure I could hate * more, now I know I can. Asleep at 11:30. It says everything we need to know.

[A Brand New World]

38. I don't think I slept at all for several days and then only fitfully

with nightmares for a couple weeks. I even went to the hospital a few weeks later with severe stomach pains that I think were stress related. The doctors offered no other diagnosis. And I live in Ohio - many, many miles away from the targeted areas. How that ass could sleep soundly that very night is astounding!

[maveric]

40. And JFK stayed awake, in the White House for 13 days. Cuban Missile Crisis

He may have not stayed awake the whole time but I read that there wasnt much sleeping going on.
Fucking little coward runs, hides and is in his jammies by 11:30.

This man is an embarassment to our country!

[Xenotime]

42. He was sound asleep because..

his full plan was now in motion. He could start his own little war that would make all his friends rich and thought nobody would ever know what he did..

[Octafish]

43. ''...an enlisted fellow walks in...''

The guy's a class clown, all right.

PYSCHO NAZI