(Between 8:30 - 8:48 A.M.) President George W. Bush is in Sarasota, Florida, where his brother - Gov. Jeb Bush - placed the Florida National Guard on full alert four days earlier. At some unknown time, Bush's motorcade leaves his hotel for Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida. [8:30, Washington Post, 1/27/02, 8:30, Telegraph, 12/16/01] Supposedly the trip takes 25 minutes, which seems slow for a nine mile journey by a Presidential motorcade that usually travels fast and never stops at traffic lights.

8:46 A.M. Flight 11 hits the north tower, 1 World Trade Center.

(Between 8:46 A.M. - 9:00 A.M.) United States Navy Captain Deborah Loewer is traveling in Bush's motorcade towards a Saratoga elementary school. She receives a message from her deputy in the White House Situation Room about the first WTC crash, and passes the message on to Bush. Once they reach the school, Bush's team watches TV coverage of the attack for a short while. Loewer says, "Mr. President, I think it's terrorism." [Catholic Telegraph, 12/7/01, "shortly before 9:00", AP, 11/26/01] Note that Bush maintains he didn't know until he saw it on TV, then still didn't consider it might be terrorism until the second attack.

(Before 8:58 A.M.) Following Bush on the way to Booker Elementary School, a news photographer overhears a radio transmission saying that Press Secretary Ari Fleischer would be needed on arrival to discuss reports of some sort of crash. [Christian Science Monitor, 9/17/01] This seems to indicate that Bush's team knows about the WTC crash before when they claim to know. [Back]

(8:58 A.M.) Bush arrives at Booker Elementary School. ["just before 9:00," Telegraph, 12/16/01]

(9:00 A.M.) According to the official timeline, only now does White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card tell Bush a plane has crashed into the World Trade Center. [Telegraph, 12/16/01] As Bush arrives at the Booker Elementary School, he is whisked into holding room and updated on the situation via telephone by National Security Advisor Rice. [Christian Science Monitor, 9/17/01] Given that there actually was no footage of the plane actually hitting the first tower, why does Bush later say: "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. I said, it must have been a horrible accident. But I was whisked off there, I didn't have much time to think about it." [White House press release, 12/4/01, repeated at other times: White House press release, 1/5/02, CBS, 9/11/02 (which has a video of Bush repeating this story - look for "President Bush talks about first hearing that a plane had hit the WTC"). See also CNN, 12/4/01] Either Bush is lying (why?) or is so clueless that he has no idea what actually happened on the most important day of his Presidency. [Back]

9:02 A.M. Bush begins a reading lesson with 18 Booker Elementary School second-graders; the story being used is about a girl's pet goat.

9:03 A.M. Flight 175 hits the south tower, 2 World Trade Center.

9:05 A.M. Bush is fully involved in the reading lesson with the second-graders and the goat story. His chief of staff Andrew Card, whispers into his ear, "A second plane has hit the World Trade Center. America is under attack." [Telegraph, 12/16/01] He says nothing in response, but continues with the goat story after a brief pause. Then, in an event noticeable in its absence, as one newspaper put it, "for some reason, Secret Service agents [do] not bustle him away." [Globe and Mail, 9/12/01] At some point, reporters ask him if he is aware of the two crashes and explosions. He nods and says he will talk about the situation later. [CNN, 9/12/01] Bush makes no move but continues with the goat story for at least 7 more minutes, and maybe a much as the next 20 minutes. What is going on here?!? Why isn't the Commander-in-Chief taking command? [Back]

9:27 A.M. Just prior to his first public comments at about 9:29, Bush speaks with Vice President Cheney and watches a recording of events at the WTC. [Telegraph, 12/16/01] [Back]

9:30 A.M. Bush leaves the elementary school classroom, and as he leaves, makes a few brief comments to reporters, calling the crashes "an apparent terrorist attack on our country." The talk occurs at exactly the time and place his publicly announced advance schedule said it would. [9:30, CNN, 9/12/01, 9:30, New York Times, 9/12/01, speech begins at 9:29:55 according to an ABC timing device, advanced schedule 9:30 in Federal News Service, 9/10/01] [Back]

9:41 A.M. Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. Bush and his entourage are at the Sarasota airport, getting ready to board Air Force One. [Telegraph, 12/16/01] [Back]

9:55 A.M. Bush departs from the Saratoga, Florida airport on Air Force One. [9:55, Washington Post, 1/27/02, 9:57, CNN, 9/12/01, 9:55, Washington Post, 9/12/01, 9:55, AP, 9/12/01, 9:57, New York Times, 9/12/01, 9:57, Telegraph, 12/16/01] Amazingly, his plane takes off without any fighters protecting it. "The object seemed to be simply to get the President airborne and out of the way," says an administration official. [Telegraph, 12/16/01] Wouldn't Bush have been safer staying on the ground at some "undisclosed location" than flying the "hostile skies" in a distinctively marked, unescorted plane? After flying off in Air Force One, Bush talks to Cheney on the phone. Cheney recommends that Bush authorize the military to shoot down any plane under control of the hijackers. "I said, 'You bet,'" Bush later recalls. "We had a little discussion, but not much." ["after Flight 77 crashed into the Pentagon", Newsday, 9/23/01, time unknown, USA Today, 9/16/01, "Once airborne, Bush spoke again to Cheney", Washington Post, 1/27/02, after Bush is airborne, CBS, 9/11/02]

9:55 - 11:55 A.M. For much of the next two hours the presidential jet [appears] to be going nowhere. The journalists on board - all of whom [are] barred from communicating with their offices - [sense] that the plane [is] flying in big, slow circles. Apparently Bush, Cheney and the Secret Service argue over the safety of Bush coming back to Washington. [Telegraph, 12/16/01] [Back]