Help me answer friend about what Kerry was doing on 9/11?

[momisold]

About the issue of Bush not jumping into action fast enough on 9/11... He says that when the first plane hit, NO ONE knew what was going on, that it could have been a plane having trouble, being hijacked, etc., but no one much suspected it was an actual attack. Not until the second plane hit did it start to look like it might be a planned attack. By then, Bush was up and out of the classroom.

Then he brings up the following comment attributed to Kerry:

"I was in the Capitol. We'd just had a meeting -- we'd just come into a leadership meeting in Tom Daschle's office, looking out at the Capitol. And as I came in, Barbara Boxer and Harry Reid were standing there, and we watched the second plane come in to the building. And we shortly thereafter sat down at the table and then we just realized nobody could think, and then boom, right behind us, we saw the cloud of explosion at the Pentagon. And then word came
from the White House, they were evacuating, and we were to
evacuate, and so we immediately began the evacuation."

+ + Kerry: "Nobody Could Think"

For the record, it was about 40 minutes between the when the second tower was hit and when the Pentagon was hit. For 40 minutes, Sen. John Kerry, a sitting member of the Senate Intelligence Committee, sat in a room with Senate Leader Tom Daschle.

Do you know if Kerry really made this statement, and if so, how do I counter?

[trotsky]

1. I believe the statement is true.

But consider that Kerry was just a senator. He had no authority to do anything. He was not privy to the 8/6/01 PDB which stated bin Laden wanted to attack, wanted to hit NYC, and wanted to use airplanes.

Throw it back at the freeper - what SHOULD or COULD Kerry have done?

[polmaven]

29. He also wouldn't have been privy

to the information that the 2nd and third planes had been hijacked. Bush was.

[nickinSTL]

2. False premise

Uh, if I remember right, Bush was informed of the first plane before going into the classroom, and then told of the SECOND while sitting in the classroom...for SEVEN MINUTES without doing crap.

Bush was in a position to take charge and to lead...Kerry was only a member of the Senate, not President. He had no authority to order planes into the air, or to issue shootdown orders, or much else.

[trotsky]

5. I forgot that part!

Yes, Bush DID stay in the classrom - AFTER the 2nd plane hit. Then he even remained AT THE SCHOOL for another 20-30 minutes before beginning his scampering to different air force bases.

[aldian159]

3. Not relevant

Kerry wasn't the leader of the free world, Bush was.

Kerry wasn't going to make the call about shooting down planes, Bush was.

Kerry wasn't in charge of the armed forces, Bush was.

Kerry did nothing because he could do nothing. Bush did nothing because he's a bumbling fool.

[momisold]

4. But my friend's point

is that Kerry said "We couldn't think".

[aldian159]

7. Kerry didn't have to think

He wasn't making any decisions anytime soon, except where to go for lunch.

[auburngrad82]

28. I don't remember Kerry's name coming up at all during the 9/11 hearings

Kerry wasn't involved any more than you or I were involved. He was a citizen that was in no position to do anything. I wasted a day at work on 9/11/2001 trying to get to news websites, calling people on the phone, watching the aftermath on television.

Bush was the only one, I think, that was in a position to order a shootdown of an airliner and he failed to do so, although I don't think it would have happened anyway. The administration, the FAA, and the air defense of the country were frozen and had no idea what to do.

[graywarrior]

8. When you don't hava access to information like Bush administration did

There is no way you can think any problem through. Bush was responsible for the thinking, not Kerry.

[flowomo]

9. And what's YOUR point, momisold?

just curious

[momisold]

11. My point is...

how do I counter his arguement when he quotes Kerry as saying "we couldn't think". That it took everyone time to figure out that it wasn't just an accident.

[flowomo]

12. And why do you think that needs to be countered?

And what would you say?

[BUSHOUT]

17. What? Bush KNEW it wasn't an "accident" after two planes had hit??

Of course he did....the person whispering into his ear even SPELLED IT OUT FOR HIM IN CASE HE WAS TOO STUPID!!!
"Another plane has hit the towers, America is under attack Mr. President"

Hmmmm. and what did he do next? Let's see if you know, do you?

Sounds like both you AND your friend are completely unaware of actual events that day.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

18. See my post #16.

[Media_Lies_Daily]

16. Wasn't the Chimpster the self-annointed leader of the NeoCon Junta?....

What the hell was HE doing besides looking around blankly for seven minutes??

Kerry didn't have to think or anything else...he wasn't in charge, was he?

Tell your "friend" to piss off.

[merh]

26. The weed and his Admin KNEW we were under attack!

Kerry, like the rest of us, probably thought that we were under attack, but he didn't have the resources at his disposal to KNOW what the admin KNEW!

Tell your friend he/she is an idiot - there is no comparison.

[proud patriot]

6. Ask your friend if they could think about work on 9-11

Everyone I know took the day off except for
the teachers at my son's school .

Nobody was thinking about work that day .
Everyone was thinking about the tradegy.

[tech3149]

10. As a senator he was doing his job

He was not aware of the situation until the Pentagon was hit.

[VolcanoJen]

13. Watch "The Choice" on Frontline (PBS)

Kerry's longtime aide, Jonathan Winer, expressed Kerry's frustration, along with that of the senators he was with, on September 11. They couldn't do anything, they couldn't respond, because that is the job of the President.

"He was so angry about what these people had done to the United States, what the terrorists had done to Americans, that there was this pent-up anger and energy that couldn't be released because there wasn't action to take as a senator, as opposed to as a president, at that moment."

- Jonathan Winer, Frontline: The Choice, October 12, 2004

[Hobarticus]

14. Kerry wasn't POTUS, doesn't matter what he did on 9/11

What did your friend EXPECT him to do, and then ask your friend, what does Kerry's LEGAL authority as a US Senator entitle Kerry to do in case of national emergency.

He's a senator. Even if he wanted to do something, he didn't have the authority to do squat.

On the other hand, the Commander-in-Chief of our armed forces read "My Pet Goat", then went hop-scotching around in Air Force One.

Meanwhile, the VP is issuing orders that he claimed came from the POTUS but didn't.

I think it's reasonable for US citizens to expect their POTUS and the armed force's CinC to do much more than sit dumbstruck when we're under attack.

[BUSHOUT]

15. TELL YOUR FRIEND SHE'S IGNORANT of the actual events.

And Bush sat immobilized for 7 minutes AFTER learning about the second plane.

He was dead weight. Tits on a bull. Useless lump of flesh.

His excuse: "I didn't want to startle the children"
Translation: " I was scared to death and needed a drink bad!"

[ElsewheresDaughter]

19. what does it fucking matter?...Bush* was the Commander-in-Theif on 911!!!!

[TexasSissy]

20. Don't know. Will try to find out. BUT sounds like a freeper creation..

Usually freeper creations are part truth, part lies.

But even if true, sitting at the table for 30 seconds with others waiting to see what happens is very different than sitting in a chair all alone, esp. when you're the one in charge and you don't have all the facts yet.

But I'll look it up. It doesn't sound quite right, though. Really.

[Name removed]

21. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

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[momisold]

22. Ok, thanks.

I need to get back to work so will have to sign off.

Could I say something? As you can see, I am a newbie at all this. I feel like you are yelling at ME for asking the question. It might be more helpful for those of us just starting out to not feel like we're going to be eaten by our own if we speak about anything. And the language...hurts my ears!

Just my simple observation. Have a great day.

[skygazer]

23. What a ridiculously bogus argument

"We couldn't think."

What does that mean? John Kerry was not in a position where he was required to do anything at all, he wasn't in a position where he COULD do anything at all, except watch - in essence, he was helpless in the situation, as were all of us who were watching on our television sets.

When he was in combat, in Vietnam, he WAS in a position where he had both the authority and the mandate to act, and he did act, decisively and bravely. He was able to think about what to do because he had something he COULD do.

The person who was required to act, the man who was in charge, was George W. Bush. He did nothing. Condoning his lack of action because John Kerry made a remark about being stunned and surprised by the attack is absurd. The two situations cannot be compared.

[exsoccermom]

25. A lot of people weren't thinking that day

The jets from Andrews AFB didn't even take off until after 10:30 AM. And those weren't sent up by Bush/Cheney and all. According to the 9/11 report:

"The Vice President was mistaken in his belief that shootdown authorization had been passed to the pilots flying at NORAD’s direction. By 10:45 there was, however, another set of fighters circling Washington that had entirely different rules of engagement.These fighters, part of the 113th Wing of the District of
Columbia Air National Guard, launched out of Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland in response to information passed to them by the Secret Service. The first of the Andrews fighters was airborne at 10:38.

General David Wherley—the commander of the 113th Wing—reached out
to the Secret Service after hearing secondhand reports that it wanted fighters airborne. A Secret Service agent had a phone in each ear, one connected to Wherley and the other to a fellow agent at the White House, relaying instructions that the White House agent said he was getting from the Vice President. The guidance for Wherley was to send up the aircraft, with orders to protect the White House and take out any aircraft that threatened the Capitol. General
Wherley translated this in military terms to flying “weapons free”—that is, the decision to shoot rests in the cockpit, or in this case in the cockpit of the lead pilot. He passed these instructions to the pilots that launched at 10:42 and afterward.

Thus, while the fighter pilots under NORAD direction who had scrambled out of Langley never received any type of engagement order, the Andrews pilots were operating weapons free—a permissive rule of engagement. The President and the Vice President indicated to us they had not been aware that fighters had been scrambled out of Andrews, at the request of the Secret Service and outside the military chain of command."

[Bridget Burke]

27. Ask your "friend" what Bush was doing the whole month of August...

After he was warned of impending terror attacks using planes. Answer: He was on vacation.

He was informed of the first crash on his way to the photo op but did nothing. He was informed of the second crash during a reading lesson but did nothing. After about half an hour, he fled to Nebraska.

Senators are not members of the Executive Branch of government. They have no power to command.

Edited to add: Sorry I doubted the existence of your friend. But why didn't you answer instead of having my message deleted?

[momisold]

30. I didn't.

I wouldn't even know how to do that.

[MsTryska]

31. Here's Matt Bai's NYT editorial...

i don't know if you have to log in to view it or not, but it's floating around DU somewhere as well, because i read it yesterday:

http://www.nytimes.com/2004/10/10/magazine/10KERRY.html?oref=login

"As New York and Washington were under attack on Sept. 11, 2001, a film crew happened to come upon John Kerry leaving the Capitol. The brief moment of footage, included in a BBC documentary called ''Clear the Skies,'' tells us something, perhaps, about Kerry in a crisis. "