The principal is entitled to her opinions, of course, but they are essentially trivial and not really germaine to the question of Pres. Bush's peculiar behavior the morning of 9/11.

It's not clear when Pres. Bush learned of the initial WTC attack. He is on record - on two occasions - claiming that he watched on TV as the first plane hit the tower while he was waiting to enter a classroom, but this is seemingly impossible as there was no live coverage broadcast of the initial event.

It is most likely that Pres. Bush first learned of the opening attack while his motorcade cruised from his motel to the Booker school. There is a report by ABC's John Cochran:

"Peter, as you know, the president's down in Florida talking about education. He got out of his hotel suite this morning, was about to leave, reporters saw the White House chief of staff, Andy Card, whisper into his ear. The reporter said to the president, 'Do you know what's going on in New York?' He said he did, and he said he will have something about it later. His first event is about half an hour at an elementary school in Sarasota, Florida."

According to the official timeline, the initial strike at 8:46 did not occur until after Pres. Bush's motorcade left his motel that morning at 8:32, so Cochran's account seems to be mystifyingly at odds with the known facts. Since the president's motorcade arrived at the school around 8:52, it seems likely that he learned of the first attack while enroute to the school. I assume - but cannot prove - that the exchange Cochran reported actually occured after the motorcade arrived at the school. Where Card's first whisper took place remains unknown, but it is conceivable that Cochran's account is accurate if we assume that the whisper took place at the Colony Resort (which would place it before the first impact), and the reporter's question occured at Booker, after the motorcade arrived.

My supposition is that Cochran's report may have been edited, and the transcript run together.

In any event, Card's second whisper at approx 9:05, however, which informed the President of the United States that "America is under attack," clearly occurred as Pres. Bush sat in the Booker classroom.

And he sat, and sat...for at least seven, and possibly as long as 18 minutes.

Finally, at 9:23, Pres. Bush talked by phone with VP Cheney, NSA C. Rice, and NY Gov. Pataki, and at 9:30 he addressed the nation, stating that the country has suffered "an apparent terrorist attack."

It wasn't until 9:45 that Bush's motorcade departed the Booker school enroute Sarasota-Bradenton airport where AF1 was parked.

Despite administration claims that nobody knew the initial strike was a terrorist attack, NYC Fire Battalion Chief Joe Pfeiffer from the 7th Battalion made an emergency call stating that American Airlines Flight 11 impacting the north side of the North Tower was no accident, but a "direct attack."

What should Bush have done when Card whispered those fatal words in his ear?

To start with, he should have done what any other person on the earth would have done: he should have jumped out of his seat and started asking questions for more details. Getting those, he should have immediately ordered his Air Force to guard our cities and assets against further attacks. And finally, he should have gotten his butt out of there.

Instead, he just sat there, and followed the advice scrawled in big block letters on the back of a note pad and held aloft by press secretary Ari Fleischer in the back of the room :

"DON'T SAY ANYTHING YET"

Why was it so important that Pres. Bush not say anthing yet? And how did Fleischer know what Card had whispered in Bush's ear?

Flight 77 didn't hit the Pentagon until 9:37, although some accounts have the impact as late as 9:45. Even using the earlier time, Air Defense assets would have had over 30 minutes to defend the Pentagon IF the Commander in Chief had leaped into action, instead of just sitting there.

In fact, according to testimony to the 911 Panel by NORAD and AF commanders, it would have been possible to have stopped all the attacks if warnings of the hijackings had been passed along promptly.

Instead, on Black Tuesday, September 11, 2001, nothing seems to have worked properly within the defense establishment of the United States of America, and the commander-in-chief was too busy listening to kids read to take charge.

Don't think anything yet.
S