- At http://www.cnn.com/TRANSCRIPTS/0112/04/se.04.html
is a transcript of President Bush's comments regarding the day of the attacks
on the World Trade Towers.
-
- Towards the bottom of the transcript is the following
quote. (Note: Some readers are reporting that the version of the CNN transcriopt
they see in some parts of the country has been edited to remove the following
comment. George Orwell would be proud!)
-
-
- QUESTION: One thing, Mr. President, is that you have
no idea how much you've done for this country, and another thing is that
how did you feel when you heard about the terrorist attack?
-
- BUSH: Well... (APPLAUSE)
-
- Thank you, Jordan (ph).
-
- Well, Jordan (ph), you're not going to believe what state
I was in when I heard about the terrorist attack. I was in Florida. And
my chief of staff, Andy Card -- actually I was in a classroom talking about
a reading program that works. And 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 use to fly myself, and I said, "There's one terrible pilot."
And 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, and I was sitting in the classroom, and Andy Card, my
chief who was sitting over here walked in and said, "A second plane
has hit the tower. America's under attack."
-
- There is a problem with the above statement. There was
no live video coverage of the first plane hitting the tower. There couldn't
be. Video of that first plane hitting the tower did not surface until AFTER
the second plane had hit.
-
- Bush is lying through his teeth here.
-
- Even though Bush is not a very good pilot (he was taken
off of flight status for failure to take a medical exam which included
a drug test), it would be silly to assume that a passenger jet hitting
the WTC in clear weather was pilot error. The only other known impact between
an aircraft and a New York skyscraper was when a military airplane crashed
into the Empire State Building in a heavy fog. Because of that incident,
there are mandatory altitude minimums over the island. If Bush really did
see an airplane on TV hitting the World Trade Towers, then he saw that
the aircraft was under control at the time.
-
- And, it must be remembered that even after Andy Card
informed Bush of the second impact, and by his own admission Bush knew
we were being attacked, he continued to read to the classroom full of children.
-
- Just think about that for a while.
-
- Confirmation of Bush's comments is also at http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/12/20011204-17.html
and http://www.guardian.co.uk/september11/story/0,11209,612354,00.html
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