We all know, many of us thanks to Michael Moore, that George W. Bush read a book about a pet goat with young schoolchildran even after he found out about the second plane flying into the World Trade Center. And I’ve never been able to figure that out. But the most likely reason has always struck me as being that he did not have a responsibility for national security issues at that time in his Presidency. Dick Cheney was running the show.
And the 9/11 Commission did quietly point out that Cheney probably lied to them in his unsworn testimony when he claimed to have consulted Bush before authorizing the shoot-down of Flight 93. The commission toned down their accusation to a mere read-between-the-lines peep after the White House read their preliminary report and went nuts.
So, it’s nice to see Newsweek come straight and say that Cheney was lying in their huge write-up of the most famous gunman since Lee Harvey Oswald.
Cheney testified to the 9/11 Commission that he spoke with President Bush before giving an order to shoot down a hijacked civilian airliner that appeared headed toward Washington. (The plane was United Flight 93, which crashed in a Pennsylvania field after a brave revolt by the passengers.) But a source close to the commission, who declined to be identified revealing sensitive information, says that none of the staffers who worked on this aspect of the investigation believed Cheney’s version of events.
A draft of the report conveyed their skepticism. But when top White House officials, including chief of staff Andy Card and the then White House counsel Alberto Gonzales, reviewed the draft, they became extremely agitated. After a prolonged battle, the report was toned down. The factual narrative, closely read, offers no evidence that Cheney sought initial authorization from the president. The point is not a small one. Legally, Cheney was required to get permission from his commander in chief, who was traveling (but reachable) at the time. If the public ever found out that Cheney gave the order on his own, it would have strongly fed the view that he was the real power behind the throne.
It’s a good reminder that George W. Bush is a midget of a President and that Dick Cheney lied to the 9/11 Commission. When will the depth of this duo’s evil sink in with the American public?
