Scoop Link: White House Lied About Air Force One

Tuesday, 2 October 2001, 11:31 am
Article: Alastair Thompson

SCOOP LINK: White House Lied About Threat To Air Force One
For the full text click on the link below...
http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/bush-s28.shtml
Publisher: WSWS - Friday, 28 September 2001

By JERRY WHITE

The White House has been caught in a lie about the alleged terrorist threat against Air Force One [U.S. President's official airplane] which it had cited as the reason for President Bush's absence from Washington for most of September 11. According to reports by CBS News and the Washington Post, White House officials have stated that the Secret Service never received a phone call warning of a direct threat to the President's airplane. The government's reversal has gone largely unreported in the media.

In the immediate aftermath of the terror attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, Bush's movements became a matter of controversy within political and media circles. As the destruction in New York and Washington unfolded and unconfirmed reports emerged of a car bomb at the State Department and the danger of further hijackings, Bush, who began the day in Florida, was whisked from one military installation to another by the Secret Service.

Looking pale and shaken, he taped a brief initial message from an underground bunker at an air force base in Louisiana. Several hours later--when all non-U.S. military aircraft in American air space had been grounded--Bush was flown to another fortified location at the Strategic Air Command headquarters in Nebraska. The President did not return to Washington until 7 p.m., nearly 10 hours after the initial attack.

For the full text click on the link below...

http://www.wsws.org/articles/2001/sep2001/bush-s28.shtml

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Alastair Thompson

Scoop Publisher

Alastair Thompson is the co-founder of Scoop. He is of Scottish and Irish extraction and from Wellington, New Zealand. Alastair has 24 years experience in the media, at the Dominion, National Business Review, North & South magazine, Straight Furrow newspaper and online since 1997. He is the winner of several journalism awards for business and investigative work.

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