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www.tenc.net * [Emperor's Clothes]

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MSNBC's Attempt to Cover-up for Mr. Bush Backfires
Letter from a reader with reply by Jared Israel
[Posted 12 September 2002]
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Dear Emperor's Clothes,

I thought you'd appreciate this.

Excerpt: "I actually heard the first plane had hit from the president, and he said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and that it was a commercial plane," says [Emma E. Booker Elementary School Principal Gwen Tose] Rigell. "He said but we're going to go on, and in my mind I had created this picture of a plane knocking off some bricks on the corner of the World Trade Center."

Full story: http://www.msnbc.com/news/801474.asp

Regards,
David D.

***

Dear David,

Thanks for the article. It has some useful information although I think it was written to justify Bush's behavior on the morning of 9-11.

The writer, Ashleigh Banfield, selects snippets from the people she interviewed and frames them with the official story. So the comments by the people at the Booker melt into Banfield's pro-Bush spin.

For example, consider how Banfield frames this comment by Booker Principal Gwen Tose Rigell:

[START Rigell excerpt]

[First Riggell:] "'The limousine stops and the president comes out,' says Rigell. 'He walks towards me. I'm standing here in a lineup; there are about five people. He walks over and says he has to make a phone call, and he'll be right back.'"

[Then Banfield:] "That phone call was to National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice. It was the first inkling the president would get about what was to unfold."

-- http://www.msnbc.com/news/801474.asp

[END Rigell excerpt]

How does Banfield know that Bush in fact spoke to Rice? And how can she state as an established fact that this was the first time Bush had heard about the World Trade Center attack? Obviously she cannot.

Moreover, consider Banfield's choice of words:

"It was the first *inkling* the president would get *about what was to unfold*." (My emphasis)

The first "inkling"?

inkling (îng´klîng) noun

1. A slight hint or indication. 2. A slight understanding or vague idea or notion.

So Bush got his first "slight hint" or "vague idea" from National Security Advisor Rice?

How can Banfield know this? Answer: she cannott, and in fact the assertion is absurd.

If Rice had only vague information then she wouldn't realize the seriousness of the situation and would have had no reason to ask Bush to call. And if Bush did not know about the WTC prior to his alleged conversation with Rice, why would he initiate the call, disrupting his welcoming ceremony to do so?

Banfield tells us that this "first inkling" of information was "about what was to unfold."

Huh? "Was to unfold"?

Aside from the impossibility of getting information about a surprise event that was about "to unfold," aside from that, this contradicts the following:

1) The FAA reports that they knew a plane was probably hijacked as early as 8:20. (1)

2) Several days after 9-11, the FAA started claiming they had dispatched two planes from Otis Airforce base before the first WTC crash. Why would they dispatch fighters if there wasn't a serious problem?

3) Bush got to the Booker about 15 minutes after the first plane crashed into the World Trade Center. (Keep in mind that the FAA had known that plane was hijacked.)

4) By the time Banfield tells us that Bush spoke to Rice (i.e., around 9 AM) , the FAA was about to close the entire air corridor between Cleveland and Washington, DC. The FAA says they closed that corridor at 9:06. Later they closed all US air space. (1)

So weren't events *already* unfolding?

Moreover, on the TV program, "Meet the Press", on Sept. 16th, Vice President Cheney stated that the FAA had open lines to the Secret Service - obviously an extreme measure - after the first WTC crash. Doesn't the Secret Service talk to the Presidential Security Adviser? Not to mention the President... (2)

Banfield goes on to describe Bush's visit to teacher Sandra Kay Daniels' reading class. While Bush was in the classroom, his Chief of Staff, Andrew Card came in and whispered something in Bush's ear. According to Banfield, he whispered that there had been a second crash and "America is under attack" - as if everyone in the world didn't know that twenty minutes earlier! Then Banfield quotes the teacher, Ms. Daniels, saying that Bush:

"sort of sat back and withdrew for a moment. And I could see this through the corner of my eye, and I'm wondering 'OK, President Bush I need you to stay with me here, but I knew I had to carry on.'"

Didn't any of the people whom Banfield interviewed notice that after Andrew Card left the room, Bush participated enthusiastically in the reading lesson? That he laughed and at one point cheered the kids? That before he left the room he stood around with the kids and gave the following pep talk:

"These are great readers. Very impressive! Thank you all so much for showing me your reading skills. I bet they practice [unintelligible] reading more than they watch TV? Anybody do that? Read more than you watch TV? [Hands go up] Oh that's great! Very good [unintelligible] Very important to practice! Thanks for having me. Very impressed."

-- Transcribed from video of Bush visit. To download the video, go to http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/bvl.htm

Banfield quotes Principal Rigell commenting on Bush's reaction after Andrew Card whispered in his ear:

"there was just a slight hesitancy in him, just a slight pause and then he continued. *That was presidential*."

It was presidential because "he continued"? Continued to do *what*? Continued hanging out with a bunch of school children even though his visit to the Booker was a publicly advertised event? Even though any terrorist wanting to kill him knew where to find him? Even though planes were being hijacked and flown into buildings and there was an international airport five miles from the Booker School? So that a terrorist, with foreknowledge of his planned visit, could have hijacked a plane from the local airport and flown it into the building killing him and all those very impressive young readers?

"Continued" to sit there doing nothing when it was his job to be conferring with the top military brass, and had been his job ever since the first plane was hijacked at 8:20?

That's a president abdicating his duties in a national emergency. It is either criminal negligence or treason.

USEFUL INFORMATION

Although Banfield's piece looks suspiciously like an apology for Bush, she does let some useful information slip through.

For example, she makes it clear Bush was lying during his appearance at a Florida "Town Hall" meeting last December. Mr. Bush told the audience (and TV viewers and newspaper readers):

"'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, 'There's one terrible pilot'. And I said, 'It must have been a horrible accident'."
-- http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/liar.htm

Since TV stations did not have any footage of the first plane hitting the WTC until well after Bush left the Booker, there is no way Bush saw the first plane hitting the WTC. Period.

But let us allow for a fault of memory. Perhaps Bush saw footage of the burning building and watched the news on a TV set in the Booker hallway, and later he mis-remembered, thinking he'd seen the actual plane.

Holding that thought, let us consider the following statement, which Banfield attributes to Principal Rigell:

"'I actually heard the first plane had hit from the president, and he said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center and that it was a commercial plane,' says Rigell. 'He said but we're going to go on, and in my mind I had created this picture of a plane knocking off some bricks on the corner of the World Trade Center.'"

Rigell's reaction is perfectly sensible. Since Bush said "we're going to go on" with the reading lesson she of course believed that the WTC crash was minor. And Banfield has conditioned our minds to accept that Bush believed the crash was minor as well, telling us that Bush had only a "first inkling" of what was "about" to happen.

As we have seen, this is nonsense, but anyway, consider this: Rigell could hardly have thought the WTC crash was minor if she had watched the TV news. And how could the news of that crash have been shown on a TV in the hallway of the Booker School without everyone knowing? When people in the U.S. saw the news on the morning of September 11th they reacted with great emotion, yelling, crying or just staring in shock. But Principal Rigell says she first heard about the news from Bush and *thought it was a minor accident*. Therefore, there was no TV tuned to the news in the hallway of Principal Gwen Tose Rigell's school on the morning that Mr. Bush paid his visit.

President Bush lied at the "Town Hall" meeting.

This was no casual lie. If you read the relevant part of the transcript of that meeting, you will see that the lie was staged so that Bush could most effectively present his false explanation of why he shirked his positive obligations of office during a national emergency. (3)

That raises a question which anyone who defends the official story must answer.

Why did Bush fail to do what he was obliged to do?

And why did he lie?

-- Jared Israel

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Further Reading
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'Articles on 9-11' lists Emperor's Clothes articles on what happened on 9-11 and why. Can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/911page.htm

1) Newsday 23 September 2001, 'Air Attack on Pentagon Indicates Weaknesses' by Sylvia Adcock, Brian Donovan and Craig Gordon
For what the FAA says it knew when, go to either url below and scroll down the page a bit. http://emperors-clothes.com/9-11backups/nd923.htm#faa840norad
Or read the original at:
http://www.newsday.com/ny-uspent232380681sep23.story

2) "Guilty for 9-11 Section 3: Bush in the Open" includes the excerpt from Cheney's appearance on MEET THE PRESS, where he spoke of the Secret Service having open lines with the Federal Aviation Administration at around 8:45 in the morning on 9-11. It can be read at
http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/indict-3.htm#qa

3) "The President as Incompetent Liar: Bush's Claim that he Saw TV Footage of 1st Plane Hitting WTC." Remarks by Bush at a 'town hall' meeting in Florida last December, with comments by Jared Israel
http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/liar.htm

4) To view the video of Bush's visit to the Booker School, go to http://emperors-clothes.com/indict/bvl.htm

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