Democratic Underground - The story as we've been told so far.

http://www.cooperativeresearch.org/essay.jsp?article=essayaninterestingday

In some accounts, “President Bush had emerged from his car and was shaking hands with local officials standing outside the school when Chief of Staff Andrew Card sidled up to him with the news.” Bush later recalled that it was Card who first notified him: “‘Here’s what you’re going to be doing; you’re going to meet so-and-so, such-and-such.’ Then Andy Card said, ‘By the way, an aircraft flew into the World Trade Center.’ ” At a press conference later that day, Press Secretary Ari Fleischer also claimed it was Andy Card who first informed him, “as the President finished shaking hands in a hallway of school officials.”

In other accounts, it was advisor Karl Rove who first told Bush. According to photographer Eric Draper, who was standing nearby, Rove rushed up, took Bush aside in a corridor inside the school and said the cause of the crash was unclear. Bush replied, “What a horrible accident!” Bush also suggested the pilot may have had a heart attack. Dan Bartlett, White House Communications Director, says he was there when Bush was told: “ being a former pilot, had kind of the same reaction, going, was it bad weather? And I said no, apparently not.” A reporter who was standing nearby later said, “From the demeanor of the President, grinning at the children, it appeared that the enormity of what he had been told was taking a while to sink in.” One account explicitly says that Rove told Bush the World Trade Center had been hit by a large commercial airliner. However, Bush later remembered Rove saying it appeared to be an accident involving a small, twin-engine plane.

In yet another account, Blake Gottesman, Bush’s personal assistant, while giving the president some final instructions as they walked to the school, remarked, “Andy Card says, ‘By the way, an aircraft flew into the World Trade Center.’ ”

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Bush’s own recollection of the first crash only complicates the picture. Less than two months after the attacks, Bush made the preposterous claim that he had watched the first attack as it happened on live television. This is the seventh different account of how Bush learned about the first crash (in his limousine, from Loewer, from Card, from Rove, from Gottesman, from Rice, from television). On December 4, 2001, Bush was asked: “How did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?” Bush replied, “I was sitting outside the classroom waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower—the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly, myself, and I said, well, there’s one terrible pilot. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn’t have much time to think about it.”

There was no film footage of the first attack until at least the following day, and Bush didn’t have access to a television until 15 or so minutes later. The Boston Herald later noted, “Think about that. Bush’s remark implies he saw the first plane hit the tower. But we all know that video of the first plane hitting did not surface until the next day. Could Bush have meant he saw the second plane hit—which many Americans witnessed? No, because he said that he was in the classroom when Card whispered in his ear that a second plane hit.” Bush’s recollection has many precise details. Is he simply confused? It’s doubly strange why his advisors didn’t correct him or—at the very least—stop him from repeating the same story only four weeks later. On January 5, 2002, Bush stated: “Well, I was sitting in a schoolhouse in Florida… and my Chief of Staff – well, first of all, when we walked into the classroom, I had seen this plane fly into the first building. There was a TV set on. And you know, I thought it was pilot error and I was amazed that anybody could make such a terrible mistake. And something was wrong with the plane…”

Unfortunately, Bush has never been asked—not even once—to explain these statements. His memory not only contradicts every single media report, it also contradicts what he said that evening. In his speech to the nation that evening, Bush said: “Immediately following the first attack, I implemented our government’s emergency response plans.” It’s not known what these emergency plans were, because neither Bush nor anyone in his administration mentioned this immediate response again. Implementing “emergency response plans” seems to completely contradict Bush’s “by the way” recollection of a small airplane accident.

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