No, it was fully 18 minutes before he took any action, not five, and that was to make some phone calls to Cheney, Rice and Pataki, as I've already pointed out. Read my postscript to see what Cheney was up to while Bush dawdled at the Florida school.

The consequences? Nero fiddled while Rome burnt.

Subsequently, Pres. Bush has used 9/11 to justify a whole host of adventures, foreign and domestic, and have you forgotten that he initially opposed any 9/11 investigation at all? Or that the 9/11 panel had to threaten or actually use its subpoena powers to gain access to documents it had been assured would be delivered?

Bush officials insist they had no idea terrorists might use aircraft as weapons, yet the public record is bursting with examples contradicting their claims. Ashcroft doesn't want to hear about impending Al Qaeda terrorist action in the US, but quits flying commercial aircraft himself because of security concerns. The FBI forbids its field agents to follow-up on the suspicious activities of Middle Eastern men enrolled in US flight schools, and when a FBI translator reveals that there was specific information within the FBI in early 2001 describing terrorist plans to use hijacked airliners on suicide missions, the Attorney General slaps a gag order on her.

There were specific warnings from the German BND and from Russian premier Putin describing plans by terrorists to use aircraft to attack within the US, but when this happens and Pres. Bush sits on his duff while critical minutes tick away, you attribute it to media bias and complain that Bush and his administration are being treated unfairly.

That's not discussion; it's denial.
S