George Bush and Dick Cheney spoke with the September 11 Committee on Thursday in a meeting that was described as cordial. No word on whether Bush was hooked up to a lie detector during the meeting. Without one the commission should take what ever Bush says with a grain of salt as he has lied about the events of 9/11 for blatent political purposes.
On Thursday, Dan Froomkin of the Washington Post revisits an old column which reviews a Scott Paltrow article from Wall Street Journal wrote that the commission might review how long Mr. Bush remained in a Florida classroom just after the World Trade Center was hit strikes, whether there really was a threat to Air Force One that day, how effectively American fighter jets reacted to the attacks, and who activated the national-emergency-response plan."
Froomkin wrote that White House Chief of Staff Andrew H. Card Jr. had whispered in the president's ear, "A second plane hit the second tower. America is under attack," previously said that Bush left the Florida classroom he was sitting in within seconds.
But Paltrow wrote that "uncut videotape of the classroom visit obtained from the local cable-TV station director who shot it, and interviews with the teacher and principal, show that Mr. Bush remained in the classroom not for mere seconds, but for at least seven additional minutes. He followed along for five minutes as children read aloud a story about a pet goat. Then he stayed for at least another two minutes, asking the children questions and explaining to Ms. Rigell that he would have to leave more quickly than planned."
Paltrow wrote: "Both Republican and Democratic commissioners have said they are focusing closely on what happened next -- and whether mere minutes could have affected the outcome on Sept. 11. The panel's investigators are looking at questions such as the timeliness of presidential orders about intercepting the jet that at 9:37 a.m. plowed into the Pentagon."
Paltrow also wrote that Bush could not have been telling the truth when he told a town-hall meeting in December, 2001: "I was sitting outside the classroom, waiting to go in, and I saw an airplane hit the tower -- the TV was obviously on. And I used to fly myself, and I said, 'Well, there's one terrible pilot.' "
There was no such video until late that night, and the TV wasn't even plugged in, Paltrow wrote.
So Bush lied about 9/11? So what's new, I'm sure the Wall Street Journal editorial page and FOX News will get to the bottom of this this story by doing another story on whether Sen. John Kerry threw away medals in 1971.
