“So I have already heard. He is still pushing that ridiculous theory that Iraq is involved? Good! He’s more trouble than he’s worth!” said Sharon
This had all been on speakerphone, and I glanced over at Libby for his reaction. He was visibly shocked. “That was the gist of our disagreement. Mister Sharon, I don’t have the time to talk to you right now, but I look forward to meeting with you soon to discuss this and other security issues.”
“And I with you, Mister President.”
After I hung up, I looked at Scooter. “Scooter, when this is settled down some, we’d better plan on a summit meeting between me and Sharon. These guys have been fighting these crazies since before you and I were born, so maybe we should listen to them every once in awhile.” Then I grabbed the list. “Who’s next?”
Most of the leaders I spoke to spoke better English than I did, but if it wasn’t their native language, we had translators on the line anyway. We took a break after Europe and North America, and then hit China and Japan after dinner. Meanwhile, I had various aides coming in and out and phone calls from various people about everything else. When did I want to discuss the flight ban? When could I discuss the latest intelligence? When could I discuss military responses? What were my travel plans for tomorrow? What was the latest information from Ground Zero?
Somehow in the midst of all of this, I managed to make a limo drive over to Arlington to see the destruction. Colin Powell was present and he showed me around while the television cameras rolled. The stench was overpowering, a mix of jet fuel, burned tires, melted asphalt, construction fire — and burned flesh. There wasn’t anything to do or say, but I had to say something to the workers. They had already rigged up a gigantic flag and I said something patriotic and martial, about how we wouldn’t let this stand and how justice would be done. I was just winging it, but they were cheering like crazy. Then I told Colin that when this was over, that flag was to be in a museum somewhere.
There must be something in the American psyche about raising the flag in a disaster. After a disaster, natural or man-made, one of the first things we do is raise a flag. I remembered that was one of the first things I saw when we climbed out of the school in Springboro. Somebody had dragged out a spare flag and was running it up the now bare flagpole.
It was late when I got back to the Naval Observatory, well after the dinner bell had rung. Marilyn and the girls were still up, and I gave them the rundown, and then my wife handed me a phone and a slip of paper. Charlie had called from Camp Lejeune, where he was on alert. I called him back and it was good to hear from him. He wanted to know when they were going to deploy to kill the crazies, so I told him to settle down. When I needed the Marines, I would let them know.
No way was I invading half the Islamic world! We lost thousands of American soldiers, sailors, and marines doing that on my first go, and I did not need to include my boy with the list!
Chapter 140: Oath of Office
Friday, September 14, 2001
Thursday morning, we got up early. The girls needed to get back into a regular schedule with school, so Marine Two flew them all home to Hereford at the crack of dawn, with Stormy in her travel cage. Actually, it flew all of us to Andrews and dropped me off first, and then flew to Hereford. This was some crazy fucked up schedule. I knew that sooner or later it would calm down, but right now we were just winging it and making it up as we went. I kissed my family good-bye and waved as they flew away, and then climbed up the stairs to Air Force Two.
It was a fast flight to New York. The President normally gets priority routing, but with no planes flying, there were zero delays. It was spooky. We really needed to get air traffic flying again! With me on the trip were the Three Amigos, the guys from CIA, FBI, and the Secret Service, who spent the trip up briefing me on what they were finding. It had been two days now, and the results were impressive. The flight manifests for the four flights had been examined, and every single passenger and aircrew member was being investigated, with most of them already cleared of any involvement. On every flight there were four or five individuals, all men, with very sketchy backgrounds and personal histories, and everybody was zeroing in on them. Likewise, links were being found between these names and the names the CIA had in their files.
What I was seeing was the first-hand results of what I knew would be found. The FBI is a huge organization. At the lowest levels, where the agents and the first line supervisors are massed, they have extremely smart and dedicated people and amazing technology, and the ability to flood a problem and pick apart every last little piece. Unfortunately, once it climbs up the ladder, very quickly the organization turns into a bureaucracy much more interested in covering its ass. I knew what they would find, that the hijackers had taken flying lessons in the U.S. and had raised a number of red flags in doing so, but when the reports had gone into the system, they had swirled around the bowl and been filed and ignored.
The CIA was similar, with several additional problems. By law they weren’t allowed to operate in the U.S. By practice, they shared nothing with anybody else, especially the FBI. They would be discovered to have followed these guys into the States, filed a classified report, and not told anybody. Furthermore, half the work product these guys were generating was aimed at slanting or corrupting the information heading towards the White House. Not only didn’t the right hand know what the left hand was doing, but half the time they were working at cross purposes.
As for the Secret Service, nobody told them shit.
When we landed in New York, I was greeted by Rudy Giuliani and the Police Commissioner, Bernard Kerik. Rudy I had met a few times at Republican fundraisers and election meetings. Kerik I had never met before. Both men had been near the Twin Towers when they collapsed, Giuliani had actually been invited to the breakfast meeting at Windows on the World but had been delayed, and he had gotten there just as the North Tower was hit. Kerik had arrived afterwards, just in time for the South Tower to be hit. Both men had lost their vehicles to falling debris, and had run away to set up a nearby command post.
The two men looked tired and somber. We rode over in the Mayor’s car, since the armored limousine the President rides around in was buried in the rubble. “How bad is it, guys?” I asked.
“Mister President, you will have to see it to believe it,” answered Rudy. “I simply don’t have words to describe it.”
“Mister President, I don’t know if you believe in Heaven and Hell, but now I have seen Hell,” responded Kerik.
“Is there any hope? Not just for President Bush, but for anybody who was in there?”
Kerik bowed his head and shook it but didn’t answer. Giuliani, sighed and said, “Very little, sir. If you didn’t make it out before the buildings collapsed, you didn’t make it out. We are still trying to figure out who was in there at the time, but so many of the companies that were there… the records and computers are gone. It might take us weeks to find out who was there and who wasn’t.”
“What do you need? What can I do to get you what you need?” I asked.
Again, they shook their heads, but this time it was a more positive response. “Everybody is being extremely helpful. We are getting everything that is available,” said Rudy. He shrugged. “Money? This is going to cost a fortune.”
I gave him a wry smile. “Spend the money. I work for the Federal government. We print the money, remember. We’ll just have to print a little more.”