10 Wartime

1.All times are Eastern Daylight Time. Sometime around 10:30, after the decision had already been made not to return to Washington, a reported threat to "Angel"-the code word for Air Force One-was widely disseminated in the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) and aboard Air Force One. Notes from the morning indicate that Vice President Cheney informed President Bush in a phone conversation shortly after 10:30 that an anonymous threat had been phoned into the White House that was viewed as credible.At about the same time, news of the threat was conveyed on the air threat conference call.

The Secret Service's Intelligence Division tracked down the origin of this threat and, during the day, determined that it had originated in a misunderstanding by a watch officer in the White House Situation Room.The director of the White House Situation Room that day disputes this account. But the Intelligence Division had the primary job of running down the story, and we found their witnesses on this point to be credible. During the afternoon of September 11 the leadership of the Secret Service was satisfied that the reported threat to "Angel" was unfounded.

At the White House press briefing on September 12, spokesperson Ari Fleischer described the threat to Air Force One as "real and credible."White House transcript, Press Briefing by Ari Fleischer, Sept. 12, 2001 (online at www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2001/09/print/20010912-8.html). Fleischer told us he cited the information in good faith. Indeed, Fleischer had conferred with Vice President Cheney and Karen Hughes before the briefing, and they had decided to let people know about the threat, all of them believing it was true.According to Fleischer, only weeks later did he learn-from press reports-that the threat was unfounded. We have not found any evidence that contradicts his account.Ari Fleischer interview (Apr. 22, 2004); Chuck Green interview (Mar. 10, 2004); Deborah Loewer meeting (Feb. 6, 2004); Ralph Sigler meeting (May 10, 2004); Andrew Card meeting (Mar. 31, 2004); Edward Marinzel interview (Apr. 21, 2004); Secret Service briefing (Jan. 29, 2004).

Commentary:
With the Bush presidency winding down, it's time to do some house cleaning. The lies about a threat to AF1 went on for weeks but the Secret Service and the President knew it was a mistake.

Recall how the WH said they had credible evidence of a threat to AF1, that was a lie. Recall how they said the terrorists had the codes to AF1, that was a lie. Finally, recall that they allowed these lies to go on for weeks before allowing them die ever so slowly. However, by then a majority of Americans believed these lies and this laid the ground work for lying about a threat to our national security. Their motto became clear "Lie long enough and people will believe it."

I believe this is where the media made its biggest mistake. They allowed Bush (aka: Rove) to get away with lying about a threat to AF1, which made it that much easier to lie about a threat to OUR national security. The reader should never forget that the UN inspectors said Bush's per-war intelligence "garbage." There was NO excuse for the media letting him get away with these lies. It started with lies on 9/11 and it won't stop until the day he's defeated.