Where was
Rumsfeld?
There will be another event.”
[Rumsfeld repeats that sentence for emphasis.] According to Cox, “Within minutes of that utterance,
Rumsfeld’s words proved tragically prophetic.”
306
––Representative
Christopher Cox (R)
“I had no idea hijacked airliners would be used as weapons.”
…so said Rumsfeld, in his opening
remarks to the Kean Commission on March 23, 2004. His final statement on the topic while under oath was, “I
plead ignorance.” The fact that not
one member of the Kean Commission chose to scrutinize Rumsfeld’s gives
credibility to those that insist there is a cover-up operation.
“‘We still don’t have a full accounting
of Rumsfeld’s whereabouts and knowledge on the morning of 9-11,’ [9/11
Commissioner Jamie] Gorelick acknowledged after the commission’s final public
hearing.”[i]
Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld
(Photo: Melina
Mara/The Washington Post).
AWOL accomplished.
On 911 The Secretary of Defense did not
participate the chain of command until the morning’s key events were over.
“Two planes hitting the twin towers did
not rise to the level of Rumsfeld’s [not] leaving his office and going to the
War Room? How can that be?” asked Mindy
Kleinberg, one of the 9/11 widows. In
the morning Rumsfeld failed to act against the hijackers when the evidence was massive,
and in the afternoon he was looking to act against Saddam Hussein when the
evidence was non-existent.312
The lead military officer that day,
Brig. Gen. Montague Winfield, told the commission that the Pentagon’s command
center had been essentially leaderless: “For 30 minutes we couldn’t find”
Rumsfeld. For more than two hours after
the FAA became aware that the first plane had been hijacked, the man whose job
it was to order air cover over Washington did not show up in the Pentagon’s
command center (NMCC). It took him
almost two hours to “gain situational awareness,” he told the commission.100
[ii]
He didn’t speak to the vice president
until 10:39 a.m., according to the report.97 Since that was more than 30 minutes after the
last hijacked plane crashed. Bush told
the panel he spoke to Rumsfeld for the first time that morning shortly after 10
a.m. It would seem to be an admission
of dereliction of duty.... Rumsfeld is
in charge of NORAD, which has the specific mission of protecting the United
States and Canada by responding to any form of air attack.304
What did witnesses say about Rumsfeld on the morning of 9/11?
The Pentagon was attacked, only minutes
after Rumsfeld warned a defense minded congressional delegation, that a
“shocking” terrorism event was imminent.[iii]
At 9:37 Representative Christopher Cox claims he is still meeting
with Defense Secretary Rumsfeld. They
are discussing missile defense, when Rumsfeld makes a prediction that the
Pentagon will get hit. Cox claimed that
they are completely oblivious of the supposed approaching Flight 77.[iv]
Cox also claims, “I escaped just minutes before the building was
hit.”[v] However, Rumsfeld claims that this meeting
with Cox ended before the second WTC crash, which occurred at 9:03 a.m. [this
agrees more with timeline] Cox himself said that after being told of the WTC, “[Rumsfeld]
sped off, as did I.” Cox says he
immediately headed to his car, making it impossible for him to still be in the
Pentagon “just minutes before” it is hit.[vi] Another account puts Rumsfeld’s predictions
comments two minutes before the first WTC crash at 8:46 a.m., when Rumsfeld
reportedly makes even more predictive comments (More about his amazing
predictions later).[vii] Assistant Secretary of Defense Victoria
Clarke explained how events unfolded:
Well, the terrible moment was actually earlier at about 8:40, 8:45 when we realized a plane and then a second plane had hit the World Trade Center. And immediately the crisis management process started up. A couple of us had gone into the secretary’s office, Secretary Rumsfeld’s office, to alert him to that, tell him that the crisis management process was starting up. He wanted to make a few phone calls. So a few of us headed across the hallway to an area called the National Military Command Center. He stayed in his office. We were in these rooms maybe 200 feet away where we felt the concussion. We immediately knew it was something bad…
The secretary was in his office, really not that far away from the side of the building that got hit by the plane. He and another person immediately ran down the hallway and went outside and helped some of the people, some of the casualties getting off the stretchers, etc.197
Therefore, in accordance with Assistant
Secretary of Defense Victoria Clarke, it was she who first told Rumsfeld about
the World Trade Center attack. And
after that, what did he do? According
to Clarke, he stayed in his office until after the Pentagon was hit. He did not join her in the National Military
Command Center. Now, this is an
unbelievable response. This woman comes
in and tells Rumsfeld the two biggest buildings in the New York have just been
hit by hijacked planes and Rumsfeld says, “I have to make some phone calls.” Her statements are supported by the lead military
officer that day, Brigadier General Montague Winfield, told the commission that
the center had been leaderless. “For 30
minutes we couldn’t find [Secretary Rumsfeld].”124
What would be the reason for him staying
out of the National Military Command Center for at least 45 minutes?
In his detailed account, Richard Clarke
(from the White House) has Rumsfeld on his videoconference — he notes nothing
of authorizations, orders, or any type of leadership decisions from him since
roughly 9:10 a.m.60 He avoids heading the NMCC, which is his
duty. It is he who has the authority to
engage and destroy the threat, and he does absolutely nothing. He issues no shoot down orders (No
shoot downs possible without his authority, according to the directive that he
changed only a few months previously!).
Donald Rumsfeld — Defense Secretary? No, not on 9/11.
Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld after playing rescue worker
in his perfectly
clean suit (Photo: Jason Ingersoll).
Rumsfeld decided to check up on things outside…
“Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld, who almost immediately was at the scene of the crash, gave aid to the injured and then organized a joint operations center to be located at Fort Myer, Va., for the purpose of coordinating everything and everybody at the crash scene. The operations center was to report directly to Rumsfeld.”[viii]
Was the priority of him going
outside — to help people — or to make sure that his operations center was setup?
And according to Rumsfeld, what was he doing that morning?
According to Rumsfeld, on the morning of
September 11 he in his private dining room at the Pentagon with his deputy,
Paul Wolfowitz and some members of Congress including, U.S. Representative
Christopher Cox. It was a meeting, to
discuss how to win votes for Bush’s defense plan when Rumsfeld had made his
uncanny predictions. Soon after,
someone walked in and gave him a note saying a plane had hit the World Trade
Center. Yet Rumsfeld apparently was not
moved to take action. He went on
with his meeting …continuing with more of his prophecies! “[W]e adjourned the meeting, and I went in to
get my CIA briefing,” he said.
While he was in his office with the CIA
briefer, Rumsfeld says he was told of the second plane hitting the WTC. Yet he went on with his CIA meeting…
During a Rumsfeld’s interview with Parade he stated
(excerpts):
Well, I was sitting here [in his office] and the building was struck, and you could feel the impact of it very clearly. … Asked a person who’d seen it, and he told me that a plane had flown into it. … I had been aware of a plane going into the World Trade Center… I was out there for awhile, and then people started gathering, and we were able to get other people to do that, to hold IVs for people. … I came back in here, came into this office. There was smoke in here by then. … The advantage for me was I could be here near where the problems were and I had full communications from the area––to the president and the vice president, the secretary of state. I guess he was out of the country, wasn’t he? It was the deputy.300
Larry King tells Donald Rumsfeld he is “prophetic.”
Rumsfeld is on the record showing his incredible
powers of premonition. He is noted
predicting the attack on the Pentagon literally seconds before it happened,
while publicly he claims that he doesn’t know anything.
Watching television coverage from New
York City, Rumsfeld says to Cox, “Believe me, this isn’t over yet. There’s going to be another attack, and it
could be us.” Cox claims that Rumsfeld
says:
If we remain vulnerable to missile attack, a
terrorist group or rogue state that demonstrates the capacity to strike the US
or its allies from long range could have the power to hold our entire country
hostage to nuclear or other blackmail.
And let me tell you, I’ve been around the block a few times. There will be another event.” Rumsfeld repeats that sentence for
emphasis. According to Cox, “Within
minutes of that utterance, Rumsfeld’s words proved tragically prophetic.”306
Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld with Larry King
(Photo: september11news.com).
During the Larry King interview, it is
stated that Rumsfeld was in the Pentagon room when he was first told of the
attack (however, in other witness reports, he was in his office).
I had said at — I had an 8
o’clock breakfast — that sometime in the next two, four, six,
eight, 10, 12 months, there would be an event that would occur in the world
that would be sufficiently shocking that it would remind people, again, how
important it is to have a strong, healthy Defense Department that contributes — that
underpins peace and stability in our world.305
Larry King tells Donald Rumsfeld he is
“prophetic”.
Rumsfeld
continues…
And someone walked in and handed a note that
said that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center. And we adjourned the meeting. And I went in to get my CIA briefing right
next door here, and the whole building shook within 15 minutes. And it was a jarring thing.”305
He claimed that he continued with his
lecture until the Pentagon was struck, at 9:38 a.m. This makes absolutely no sense.
If the Secretary of Defense is lecturing to a Congressional delegation
(Representative Christopher Cox and others) about the danger of terrorist
attacks, and if in the middle of that he is told two planes have hit both World
Trade Center towers. It is unbelievable
that he would continue with his presentation without reacting to two massive
air strikes… unless he knew they were coming… then it makes sense.
Larry King inquired. And you ran toward the smoke? To which Rumsfeld answers “yes”, then goes
on to explain how he plays medic:
I wanted to see what had happened. I wanted to see if people needed help. And went downstairs and helped for a bit
with some people on stretchers.”305
Rumsfeld went outside more likely to
organize the operation, for the purpose of coordinating everything and
everybody at the crash scene. The
operations center was to report directly to Rumsfeld.310 He needed to see if everything was going to plan.
Rumsfeld working on plans to attack Iraq by afternoon!
“While the 9/11 Commission Report stated
the astonishing claim by Rumsfeld that he didn’t have “situational awareness”
until 10:39, the “slow moving” Secretary of Defense suddenly made a miraculous
return as a “hang’em high gun slinger” in the afternoon. According to the
9/11 Commission’s Report:
On the afternoon of 9/11… Secretary Rumsfeld instructed General Myers to obtain quickly as much information as possible [Iraq]. …the U.S. response should consider a wide range of options and possibilities. The secretary said his instinct was to hit Saddam Hussein at the same time...[ix]
In the morning Rumsfeld failed to act
and in the afternoon he was looking to act against Saddam Hussein when the
evidence was non-existent.[x]
Also, CBS News reported:
… that barely five hours after American Airlines Flight 77 plowed into the Pentagon, Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld was telling his aides to come up with plans for striking Iraq — even though there was no evidence linking Saddam Hussein to the attacks.... Now, nearly one year later, there is still very little evidence Iraq was involved in the Sept. 11 attacks. But if these notes are accurate, that didn’t matter to Rumsfeld.[xi]
But, it’s worst than that––that what they
want you to believe––the planning was in motion years before 9/11. Was 9/11 an opportune moment or
a planned
event?
Years before George W. Bush entered the White House, and years before the Sept. 11 attacks set the direction of his presidency, a group of influential neoconservatives hatched a plan to get Saddam Hussein out of power... The group was never secret about its aims. In its 1998 open letter to Clinton, the group openly advocated unilateral U.S. action against Iraq.... Of the 18 people who signed the letter, 10 are now in the Bush administration. As well as Rumsfeld and Wolfowitz, they include Deputy Secretary of State Richard Armitage...[xii]
Rumsfeld said “…and the missile to damage this building…”
In a Parade Magazine interview, Secretary of
Defense Donald Rumsfeld, made his famous “slip of the tongue”:
Here we’re talking about plastic knives and
using an American Airlines flight filed with our citizens, and the missile to
damage this building and similar (inaudible) that damaged the World Trade
Center.300
“Missile”? What missile would that be? It appears that this thought was in his mind. A “slip of the tongue” could occur simply
when someone is not concentrating on what he is saying, or other physical
conditions like, sleep deprivation, alcohol, drugs, or medical conditions. The inhibition is disarmed and the thought
is released. Perhaps he had been
reading too many 9/11 conspiracy books; well, no, not possible, there were none
at that time! The only conspiracy story
was the one in his head!
…the real one.
On 12 October 2001, Lyric Winik of Parade
Magazine blindsided Rumsfeld with some good questions:
Lyric Winik: “This is a question that’s been asked by many Americans, but especially by the widows of September 11th. How were we so asleep at the switch? How did a war targeting civilians arrive on our homeland with seemingly no warning?”
Rumsfeld: “There were lots of warnings.” 300 [Emphasis added]
It seems the reporter set off a
defensive response from Rumsfeld, but he soon realizes that he had tangled
himself. Immediately after this
sentence, though, the Secretary starts to qualify it. He infers that, “we didn’t figure it out”.
The intelligence information that we get, it sometimes runs into the hundreds of alerts or pieces of intelligence a week. One looks at the worldwide, it’s thousands. And the task is to sort through it and see what you can find.300
Although he doesn’t directly say it, it
would seem that Rumsfeld is insinuating that the, understaffed, shoestring
intelligence and defense establishments can’t put together intelligence in a
timely manner, which is contrary to reality: CIA, NRO, NSA, DIA, NGA, etc. spending
has increased +80% compared to 1980; amounting to $40 billion FY2001.[xiii]
Rumsfeld: “And as you find things, the law enforcement officials who have the responsibility to deal with that type of thing — the FBI at the federal level, and although it is not, it’s an investigative service as opposed to a police force, it’s not a federal police force, as you know. But the state and local law enforcement officials have the responsibility for dealing with those kinds of issues.” 300 [Emphasis added]
Rumsfeld didn’t tell you there were specific
warnings from Britain, Germany, Russia, and even the Taliban. However, even after admitting that there
were plenty of warnings, it was up to the FBI, state, and local law enforcement
agencies to uncover and prevent the worst terrorist attack in US history. What are the CIA and NSA for then — hmmm,
covert operations, and domestic spying?
Donald Rumsfeld — makes another Freudian slip.
At Rumsfeld’s “surprise”
Christmas Eve visit to Iraq in 2004:
And I think all of us have a sense if we imagine
the kind of world we would face if the people who bombed the mess hall in
Mosul, or the people who did the bombing in Spain, or the people who attacked
the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and
attacked the Pentagon, the people who cut off peoples’ heads on television to
intimidate, to frighten — indeed the word “terrorized” is just
that. Its purpose is to terrorize, to
alter behavior, to make people be something other than that which they want to
be.[xiv]