Anthony Summers - The Eleventh Day

35 “I’m talking”:int. Anthony Barnes. According to Barnes, it was not he who warned Cheney of an approaching aircraft. That information reached the Vice President from someone else. The Commission Report identifies the source of the “aircraft 80 miles out” report only as a “military aide.” The aide could perhaps have been the Vice President’s military aide, Douglas Cochrane, who was also in the PEOC at some point (CR, 40–).

36 Libby/“Yes”:int. Libby by Newsweek , 11/16/01;

37 lt. col. “confirmed”:CR 42, 465n227;

38 “pin-drop”:MFR 04020719, 4/29/04;

39 Libby note:CR, 465n220;

40 “wanted to make sure”:CR, 41.

41 Fleisher kept record:Ari Fleischer, Taking Heat , NY: William Morrow, 2005, 141, transcript 60 Minutes , CBS, 9/11/02. The note Fleischer made on 9/11, which firmly timed the President’s comment as having been made at 10:20, remains classified. The press secretary’s memoir—published after the Commission’s Report came out—refers to the timing of the authorization only vaguely, as “shortly after we took off” (classified: corr. Kristen Wilhem, 2010, “shortly”: Fleischer, 141);

42 “he had authorized”:CR, 41, 465n221;

43 not “alert”:Cherie Gott, “Brief Look at the Effect of Considering Prior Years’ More Robust Alert Facility Architecture on Events of 11 Sep 2001,” www.scribd.com;

44 “Capital Guardians”:“Andrews AFB Guide,” www.dcmilitary.com.

45 SS/FAA contact early on:CR, 464n208. Secret Service agent Nelson Garabito had first discussed how to react with his usual FAA liaison, Terry Van Steenbergen, who said what was needed was “fighters airborne.” Van Steenbergen initiated contacts with the National Guard at Andrews. Told by a colleague at the base of the approach, Major Daniel Caine in turn called another Secret Service agent, Ken Beauchamp, asking whether he could be of assistance. Though Beauchamp initially made no request, he phoned back later—after the Pentagon was hit at 9:37. (Garabito/Van Steenbergen: MFR of int. Terry Van Steenbergen, 3/30/04, “FAA HQ,” B6, T8, CF, MFR 04017326, 7/28/03, CR, 464n208, USSS Statements & Interview Reports, 7/28/03, “Secret Service Requests,” B5, Dana Hyde files, CF; Caine/Beauchamp: MFR 04020717, 3/8/04, Spencer, 124).

46 Pentagon/Wherely at run:MFR 03005418, 8/28/03, WP , 4/8/02.

47 “Get anything”:Wherley Interview, “Andrews AFB Logs-Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF. This wording fits closely with a “Memo for Record” written on September 16 by Andrews’s Aircraft Generation Squadron Commander, Lieutenant Colonel Charles Denman. “At 10:10,” he noted, “we received word to ‘Get something up.’ ” “10:10” may or may not be a correct timing—a time Denham gave for a later event in the Andrews sequence seems inconsistent with other information (Memo for Record, 9/16/01, “Andrews AFB Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF).

48 “someone a little higher”/“It’s coming”/Ediger:“Andrews AFB Timelines,” BH, Dana Hyde files, CF, MFR 03005418, 8/28/03;

49 asked to speak/“wasn’t going”/made do/“unidentified male”:MFR of int. David Wherley, 2/27/04, “General Wherley,” B1, Dana Hyde, CF;

50 “put aircraft”/“any force”/“understandable”:MFR 03005418, 8/28/03;

51 After the crash:Prewitt (USSS) to Monaghan re FOIA 20080330 & 20080331 & attachments, 4/23/10, “USSS Memos & Timelines,” www.scrib.doc re [Barnes] USSS Interview notes, 7/28/03, “USSS Requests & Notes,” B5, Dana Hyde files, CF, int. Anthony Barnes, MFR 03005418, 8/28/03, National Society of Black Engineers press release, “Igniting the Torch,” 2008.

52 Barnes cannot pin down:A further document, a Commission memo on the Secret Service records, suggests the contacts with Barnes took place at about the time Cheney was arriving at the PEOC—linking it to efforts to protect the White House. “All air traffic,” the document indicates, “would be halted and forced to land” (memo, 7/28/03, “USSS Requests & Notes,” B5, T8, CF);

53 10:04:Relevant Andrews Transmissions, 2/17–18/04, “Andrews AFB Logs,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF, corr. Miles Kara, 2011.

54 Cheney would deny/“aware that”:CR, 44;

55 “acted on its own”/“the agents’ ”: WSJ , 3/22/04.

56 On own initative?:While there is no documentary evidence of a call between Bush and Cheney in which Bush authorized a shoot-down, Commission notes released to the authors in 2011 do indicate that the Vice President felt the need to get Bush’s authorization at a later point. At 10:44, while speaking with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld about raising the military’s alert status to Defcon 3, Cheney told Rumsfeld, “I’ll have to run that by him [Bush] and let him make the call.” It is arguable that Cheney would have felt the same need for authority to engage hijacked airliners (“Dana Hyde Notes of Air Threat Conference Call,” CF, corr. Miles Kara).

57 sec. def. out of touch/intermittent contact:As reported earlier, the President recalled that it repeatedly proved difficult to get through to Cheney on 9/11. Richard Clarke described Cheney, in the PEOC, complaining, “The comms [communications] in this place are terrible.” Presidential press secretary Ari Fleischer recalled the President saying, “The communications equipment was good, not great, as he often had to wait to get people on the phone. After September 11, Air Force’s One’s communications equipment received a major modernization.” (Bush recalled: see Ch. 9; “The comms”: Richard Clarke, 19; “The communications”: Fleischer, 141).

58 Wherley no immediate way:Miles Kara, “The Andrews Fighters”: An Expeditionary Force, Not an Air Defense,” 9/11 Revisited, www.oredigger61.org, CR, 44, Charles J. Gross, Memo for the Record, 9/19/01, “Andrews AFB Logs-Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF.

59 less than certain/“check out”:MFR 03005418, 8/28/03, MFR of int. David Wherley, 2/27/04, “General Wherley,” B1, Dana Hyde files, CF. This first fighter to go up from Andrews carried no missiles, and its gun was loaded only with training rounds. Its pilot, Major Billy Hutchison, would later claim that the general told him to “intercept [an] aircraft coming toward D.C. and prevent it from reaching D.C.” Another officer at the base, however, Major David McNulty, said Hutchison was tasked to do nothing more than identify an aircraft approaching along the Potomac. (That plane, it later turned out, had been just a helicopter.) Senior Commission counsel John Farmer in 2009 roundly rejected an account that suggested Hutchison located United 93 on his radar and considered ramming it—Hutchison did not even take off until 10:38, more than half an hour after Flight 93 had crashed (“intercept”: Hutchison [typed notes of int.] & MFR of Hutchinson, “Billy Hutchinson Andrews AFB,” B3, Dana Hyde files, CF; McNulty: MFR 04020718, 3/11/04; Farmer rejected: Farmer, 375, & see Miles Kara, “The Scott Trilogy: Cutting to the Chase,” 9/11 Revisited, www.oredigger61.org; considered ramming: Spencer, 219–; 10:38: Relevant Andrews Timelines, “Miles Kara Docs 3,” B8, T8, CF).

60 Four more fighters:ibid., MFR 04020720, 3/11/04, Charles Gross, Memo for the Record, UA 93 and Andrews Timeline, & transcript ints. Igor Rasmussen & Leslie Filson, 9/18/03, “Andrews AFB Logs-Timelines,” B4, Dana Hyde files, CF.