More Bad Bush: The 9/11 Coverup

Could Hollywood finally be more faithful to the truth than Washington?

With the Bush administration and all its right wing apologistas, it turns out the answer is yes.

In today's Washington Post, John Farmer, a former attorney general of New Jersey who served as senior counsel to the 9/11 Commission, reveals that the movie "United 93" is more accurate about what really happened on 9/11 than a number of reports put out by the Government.

In particular, the movie debunks the notion, still popular with most of the people I know, that the Air Force had scrambled jets prepared to shoot United Flight 93 (the one that crashed in the field near Shanksville, Pa. after its brave passengers took matters into their own hands) from the sky if it approached Washington.

(As an aside, I was sitting in an office with a magnificent view of the White House on 9/11; it was a beautiful morning. Shortly after a colleague told me that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center--which I assumed meant a little plane of some kind, like a Cessna--I heard an unusual sound on my window, like a strong gust of wind but on a windless day. I got up and walked over to the window to see a huge plume of thick black smoke erupting from the Pentagon. Pretty soon, I was one of many panicked Washingtonians pouring into the streets, trying to get home. As I finally neared my home in Arlington, a fighter jet roared overhead, causing every one of us on the sidewalk to hit the deck in fear.)

It turns out, according to Farmer--who reviewed the actual logs of what happened on 9/11, that the military scrambled jets out of Langley Air Force Base (outside Washington--home to Air Force One) in response to a mistaken report that American Flight 11 (which had already crashed into the WTC) was still aloft and headed for D.C. According to Farmer:

"[T]he story that officials told made the government's response appear quicker
and more coordinated than it really was. By telling the public that the
Langley fighters were scrambled in response to reports that American 77 and
United 93 had been hijacked, officials were able to avoid admitting that they
had scrambled fighters in the wrong direction--heading east, not west toward
Pennsylvania--against a plane that did not exist."

Farmer also reveals that the 9/11 Commission asked--more than 18 months ago--the inspectors general of the Depts. of Defense and Transportation to "investigate who was responsible for the mistaken accounts of the morning's events."

No big surprise--the inspectors general haven't gotten back to the Commission with that info.

Of course--W--we all know--W--who is ultimately--W--responsible. Chalk another one up for our great leader.