I caught something watching 9/11 coverage...

Last night, I watched MSNBC's live coverage of the 9/11 terrorist attacks. They replayed the
actual footage of Katie Couric and Matt Lauer commentating at the terrorist attacks unfolded.
Brokaw later joined them--and sporadically, the team cut away to Jim Micklashevski at the Pentagon,
and David Gregory in Florida, covering President Bush's visit to a school to discuss literacy.

I noticed that, after both planes hit, Gregory was speaking live about President Bush and his
whereabouts. Gregory said that Bush was on his way to the Florida school. But, this was after
both planes had hit.

Gregory even commented to Couric, Lauer and Brokaw that he had been told that "President Bush
has been briefed on the situation."

I though Bush was told while he was at the school, that the "nation was under attack." We
all saw his reaction, after an aid whispered in his ear.

Maybe I've misunderstood something, but this is what I hear. Did anyone else hear it?

{I'm trying to find a link and will post as soon as I do}

I didn't post it because someone would ridicule my "tin foil hat" or some such nonsense.

they delete these threads from GD to make room for the concern trolls

I mean, I know lots of folks think it was an inside job (I'm a big believer in LIHOP) but things were crazy that morning and you can't really fault someone for misspeaking in a situation like that. I mean, look at the one Producer who was on the phone, Elliot something (a woman). After the second plane hit, you could hear her on the phone wondering aloud if there was something wrong with the Traffic control.

No one knew what was going on that morning and it's amazing things were as coherent as they were. Think about it, in NYC anyway, Lauer, Couric and Brokaw are sitting in the studio telling the news not knowing if they could die next. That's some pressure to hold up under.

I don't claim anything other than David Gregory, who was traveling with the President, say that Bush was briefed before he got to that school and started reading with the kids.

and I had the same understanding as you.

I don't know about that part you described, but it seemed to me that some of the audio might have happened earlier than the video they were showing with it.

They 1st reported that a small plane, perhaps like a Piper Cub had hit the 1st tower, how did they later change it to an airliner? Somebody must have been off script for a while.

removed from the school? Wouldn't an attack anywhere in the country require the Secret Service to get him out of sight immediately? Why would he stay in a school where his presence could put children and teachers in danger?

How did the folks on the flights make cell phone calls 30K feet in the air?

Why did the buildings collapse in a controlled fashion?

Why did WTC7 Collapse?

Too many questions, and we will never know the answers.

Our grandkids might...

...the guy next to me was checking his voicemail all throughout the flight, despite the fact he wasn't supposed to be doing so. He seemed to have no problem getting service although my phone wouldn't work when I checked it.

If you're lucky, you might get it for 2-3 seconds.

Mainly because the bulk of the evidence at the crime scene was shipped off to India and China. Along with our jobs. And the two are probably connected.

The ones that cost $10 a minute or so.

They've pretty much been removed from most all commerical airliners now, but there were still a number of around then.

called "Human Shields".

He was told before he actually got IN the schoo, but still decided to stay and read My Pet Goat....
He was then told of Plane #2, but also kept on reading.

The first reports were that it was a small commuter plane. When I saw it on tv, my first thought was "Idiot pilot doesn't know how to friggin' fly."

The first footage on TV was of the second plane hitting the tower, by which time we all knew it was a deliberate attack. You are saying exactly what GWB said, "I saw the first plane hit, and I though, what a terrible pilot!" Only thing is, the footage of the first plane hitting did not get on the airwaves until hours later...

Another point though. Whether you or I might have thought at some point that this was an accident, the President is kept abreast of important national developments. And hijacked airplanes are *always* important. And they knew early on that there were *4 hijacked airplanes* ongoing -- so if the damned president didn't know then he wasn't doing his damned job now, was he?

I was just saying that after the first plane hit, they thought it was a commuter plane.

I watched the same thing as the poster and it unfolded very much as I remember it happening. Gregory did say that bush* had been briefed before he arrived at the school and that was after both airliners had hit the trade center....

But Congress decided to go with the BFEE cover-up instead.

Especially if he helped obscure the timeline of what Chimpy knew, and when he knew it.

...on it?

hehe.

Gregory folded somewhere along the line.

You're right. Maybe it was at this moment.

I am willing to give him the benefit of the doubt in this instance though, even though he is a douchebag, because clearly, the video of the classroom (as seen in Fahrenheit 9/11) shows Chimpy having some sort of reaction to what Andy Card tells him. Now personally I believe the words used by Andy Card were probably more like "two down, two to go" or Chimpy's favorite slogan "mission accomplished" rather than the reported "America's under attack". But I don't believe Chimpy actually knew about the second plane until Card told him. Though that's NOT to say he didn't know it WOULD happen before then.

...I'm totally stuck.

If Bush was briefed on both planes hitting the towers, in the car en route to the school--as Gregory said, then
what was the stricken look that Bush had on his face, and exactly what did Card say?

I'm really stuck on the question, "What in the hell was that Card/Bush reaction scene" if Bush all ready
knew. You don't look stricken about something that you were briefed on twenty minutes ago.

And now that I think about it...would someone communicate to the President of the United States, in front
of an audience of children that America is under a massive attack? Wouldn't that be cause for taking someone
out of the room? It's as if the entire thing was staged to show Bush's reaction. Oh, look how shocked
he is, America!

America being under attack is reason enough to usher the President out the door. How did they know that
someone wasn't coming to harm the President? That public appearance was well known. Weren't they
worried?

It doesn't make sense that a sitting President would remain seated and in 'education President' mode when
he was just told that our country was being attacked.

Doesn't add up.

The fact that cell phones wouldn't work within Manhattan itself had a lot to do with it. If I remember correctly, some of the phone & cable companies' networks had their own facilities wiped out in the Towers and it took them a while to reroute everything.

As I said, I don't excuse Gregory for much, but I don't think he intentionally lied about that one. There was probably some geniune confusion over what Chimpy actually knew before he walked into the school, and Gregory apparently heard about that all after the fact.

But even in last night's censored replays (between the NBC footage and the History Channel compilation video) there were a lot of crazy things reported at the time that weren't true, by any known account of the story. Things like a third plane crashing into the towers. Or the "terraists" claiming they were going to crash a plane into the WTC every half hour. Or the Palestinians taking "credit" for the operation (as if they had the resources to pull that off?). Or Flight 93 crashing at Camp David. Just to name a few of the things going around during the two longest and most fucked up hours in recent American history.

...because I thought I was hearing things.

But then...I guess I feel worse, because of the implications of that statement being true.

Why would Gregory have misstated that insignificant point of fact? Gregory, knowing that
both planes had hit, said that aides were briefing Bush about the two planes, en route to
the school.

Makes yer blood kinda coagulate... :scared:

Lots of links. Have fun. :hi:

Edit to add the freakin' link: http://www.archive.org/details/sept_11_tv_archive

Does it show the full broadcasting for the day, or is it edited?

Divided up by time periods so you can pick where you want to start. The day I found it, I was riveted. I watched the NBC broadcast from the time just before it first happened and then couldn't tear myself away from the computer for the next 4 hours.

It was weird watching the Today Show anchors, minutes before it happened, all thinking it was just another normal day... then all hell broke loose.

Edit to add: "Have fun" was a completely inappropriate thing for me to type in my prior post. I wish I could untype it. Too late to edit. I feel like an asshat. :blush:

And I have read a lot in the dungeon. It is confirmed that Bush was told about the first plane hitting the building while he was in the limo on the way to the school. So I think what we see on the video is Andrew Card telling him about the second plane hitting. The timing of the tape confirms that. So at that very moment he knows the country is under attack and - while not wanting to alarm children - he should be getting up out of that chair and responding immediately. Even if he has no idea what to do he could get on the horn and call Uncle Dick. Call Daddy. Do SOMETHING.

Seeing how the old man was in the middle of a champagne brunch with his Carlyle Group buddies, including one Shafiq Bin Laden, brother of that guy in Cheney's freezer.

Why would they use the words "under attack?" Those just weren't the right words at the time. It implies that the Russian airforce was overhead and bombing or landing on the shore in Alaska. I mean, the meme that the terrorist attack equals a military attack is something that they thought up immediately?

You'd think a personage so important as the President would be told a fact, such as "jets have collided with each of the twin towers of the WTC."