These Handwritten Notes from Air Force One on 9/11 Are Surreal

From Esquire

In all likelihood, the first thing that comes to mind when you think of George W. Bush on 9/11 is The Pet Goat. That morning, the President was down at Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Florida, seated with one leg crossed inside a first grade classroom. His thumb pinched the interior spine of the children's book even as an aide entered the room at 9:06 a.m. and whispered into his ear that the United States was under attack.

Then came the seven minutes of silence.

Bush stared into the middle distance with a vulnerable look on his face-part panic, part disbelief, mostly bewilderment. He'd eventually make it to Air Force One. There was a chance the safest plane in the world was the hijackers' next target.

We know so much about the events of that day and yet there are still so many questions and gaps in public knowledge. Former Bush press secretary Ari Fleischer recently released his handwritten notes of the day to journalists from Yahoo News and Reuters. Now, 15 years after the attacks, a clearer timeline of Bush's day has started to emerge thanks to these notes and a gripping oral history of the conversations on Air Force One by Garrett M. Graff over at Politico.

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The first line of Fleischer's very first note is sure to rile up conspiracists. He timestamps Karl Rove relaying word of the attack at 8:45 a.m., exactly one minute before the first plane hit the North Tower. The next note doesn't come for an hour later, roughly five minutes after the Pentagon had been hit.

"Sounds like we have a minor war going on here," Bush told his VP, Dick Cheney.

From Yahoo:

An entry at 10:20 a.m. notes Bush "authorized shoot down if reason" - a reference to the president deciding that, if a hijacked airliner were dangerously on course with a potential target, fighter planes could be allowed to fire. The false threat to Air Force One - "Angel is next" - comes in via the White House switchboard at 10:32 a.m.

This part of the timeline is particularly important.

United 93 crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania, at 10:03 a.m., exactly 17 minutes before Bush's order to take action if necessary. Many conspiracists believe that the United flight was preemptively shot down, and that the "Let's roll" story of heroism is nothing but a hoax. Hopefully these notes are another piece of evidence against such claims, but Fleischer's incorrect timeline on his first note does not help the cause.

More, from Yahoo:

At 2:58 p.m., Bush tells an aide "we need 2 get back to Wash. We don't need some tinhorn terrorist to scare us off. The Am ppl want 2 know where their dang P is." ... At 4:39 p.m., after another stop, this one at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, Bush finally speaks to first lady Laura Bush. "I'm coming home. See you at the White House," he said. "Love you … go on home." And, he adds, "If I'm in the WH and there's a plane coming my way, all I can say is I hope I read my bible that day."

Read the full report and see the rest of the handwritten notes here.

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