Telltale Clues to 9-11 Are Emerging

Tell me it isn’t so, Mr. President! I've tried not to look at this, but the story keeps nagging at me. Perhaps you have a really good explanation for all this and I can stop thinking about it.

It would appear that many Americans, especially the major news media, haven't noticed a few details about 9-11 that are very unsettling.

ABC-TV reported that before entering the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, a reporter asked if you, President Bush, knew what had happened in New York City that morning. You replied that you did and you would have something to say about it later. Of course you would. When you travel, your staff and the Secret Service have the most advanced communication capabilities on the planet.

So you went ahead with the publicly announced event, reading a story to the children and listening to their stories, knowing that the World Trade Center, a highly visible symbol of America, had been struck by a hijacked passenger airliner and was burning.

Within minutes of entering the school at 9:00 AM, Chief of Staff Andrew Card whispered something in your ear. Didn’t he inform you that a second passenger airliner had crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center?

Your Vice President, Dick Cheney has told us that the Secret Service was on an open line to the FAA after the first tower was struck at 8:46 AM. They must have told you that four jumbo jets were off course, unresponsive to FAA controllers, and heading for populated areas. That would set me to worrying! But not you or the Secret Service. I'd like to know why.

Bradenton International Airport is only 5 minutes away from the elementary school. How could you know that you would be safe from a similar attack? Why would the Secret Service allow such a vulnerable situation to proceed? Vice President Cheney told Tim Russert on Meet the Press that the Secret Service picked him up and moved him rapidly into safety. Why wouldn't the Secret Service pick you up and move you rapidly to safety as well? How could they know what the plan was and that you were safe there?

Here’s the really hard part: Did you know what to expect? Did you know that you were safe there? It makes me wonder, more than a little bit. It worries me that you didn’t seem worried!

And then there is the problem of no jetfighters up there to protect the country. That’s their job! They stand ready at a moment’s notice. We know that they were there at the ready because at 6:30 on the evening of September 11, NBC Nightly News reported, “It was after the attack on the Pentagon that the Air Force then decided to scramble F-16s out of the DC National Guard Andrews Air Force Base to fly ... a protective cover over Washington, D.C.”

Why wait? The FAA suspected something was amiss at 8:20 AM and notified the National Military Control Center and NORAD at 8:40 AM. The normal procedure is to launch interceptors from the Air Force Base nearest to the wayward aircraft. No further orders are necessary. I mean, it’s routine! It doesn't require further orders from you or anyone else. Only orders from the highest authority could cause the Air Force to stand down from such a routine duty. This happened not just once but four times in the same morning!

Later, too late, jetfighters were launched from Langley AFB 129 miles away. Why were there 4 hijacked passenger planes in the air for over an hour and no response from the Air Force?

Sir, did you give the order to stand down? Someone was both committing treason and murder or was hopelessly negligent and incompetent. I haven’t heard of any investigation to find out who had given that order or to punish or demote them.

Wouldn’t you wish to know who was responsible for the horrible death of nearly 3,000 of your fellow Americans? And hundreds of thousands, millions who were directly or indirectly affected? I would!

Now that I’ve asked the hardest questions, maybe you could help me with a few other troublesome questions. When were the plans developed to attack Afghanistan? Such an operation cannot be assembled in less than a month.

Other governments were in attendance at the meeting in July when we threatened to attack Afghanistan in October. And there’s an American man who seems to be an officer in Naval Intelligence who told his Canadian jailers in August about the impending attack on the Pentagon, the World Trade Center, and several potential targets. How would Naval Intelligence know?

And that videotape of bin Laden, the one that showed a man with a short, chubby face and short nose! We all know what bin Laden looks like! Even a B-movie would do a better job of casting! What was that all about Mr. President?

The week before September 11, the stock markets showed a huge increase in put-options vs. call-options on United and American Airlines. This would be a very clear signal that someone was expecting a big drop in their stock......and the NSA or FBI, who normally monitor such things, didn't notice? Why not, George?

And now, are we really looking for Osama bin Laden in Iraq, North Korea, and Iran? Iraq is a secular Arabic state, anathema to bin Laden. North Korea is isolated from everybody. Iran even helped us launch Operation Enduring Freedom against Afghanistan to help us find bin Laden.

And aren’t al-Qaeda members helping us train the former KLA in the part of Kosovo that we are to protect? I’m confused how an enemy can be our ally and close associate at the same time in different parts of the world?

I’d really prefer to think that the President of the United States would never wish to harm a single American. That’s the way I grew up. That’s what I was taught. I’d also prefer that the President of the United States would not endanger children by remaining in their elementary school at a time when he is a likely target of a terrorist attack. Either way, I’m not very comfortable with the apparent answer.

Tell me it isn’t so, Mr. President!