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National Commission on
Terrorist Attacks
I n t e r n a l Transcript Auqust '/, 200?.
O f f i c e of t lio C h i e f oi . S t a f f
2 : 1 0 P . M . liDT
O Can ! st.op y o u ? W h y ( J j d y o u t ) ) j ; i k
V^' l~S j • J \ . V* I t f V4 J V4 Y V-/ l * it
l i t * was c j o i n g t o \_>c
a h i C K J I >r day boc - ti'i«;c? i t 'was ?.-.neh a so
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And 1 remember g o i n g irit.o the h o l d l n e j room b e f o r e he went
i n t o t h e 1 c 1 assi'oom, and it w < i s J ri t h e h o l d i n g room t h a t
!">i t u d t i e>n was t r y i n g to roach u s . Cal (?) got. on t h e - phone-, was
t o ! el a p l a n e - had hit the Wor 1 el Traele C e n t e r , the f i r s t p l a n e . f
then jumped on the? phone and we t a .Iked •• • j u s t , b e f o r e t h e
P r e s i d e n t went i n t o the room w L t h the school k i e l s , T remember we?
had a ve°j y b r i e f c o n v e r s a t i o n , but it was what, a h o r r i b l e
a c e - j d e n t , t he pi J e^t must have; had a h e a r t a t t a c k . And we
t h o u g h t t h a t i t w a s a t w i n - e n g i n e prop p l a n e ? a t that, p o i n t .
M K . CARD: A t w i n - e n g i n e prop p l a n e , h o r r i b l e a c c i d e n t ,
p i l o t m u s t have had a h e a r t a t t a c k . And he went i n t o the
classroom. i then • we got a t e l e v i s i o n i n t o the h o l d i n g
room t h e n , so we did some l o g i s t i c s t h i n g s -- t e l e v i s i o n in,
get the t e l e v i s i o n e j n . Ariel then word carne? t h a t a second p l a n e
h a d h i t a n e l t h a t t h e ? f i r s t p l a n e w a s a j e t l i n c ? r a n e l t h e second
p l a n e was a j e t l i n e r .
Then t h e r e 1 w a s a s l i g h t , b r e a k i n t h e meet. I J K . J a n e l t h a t
when F w o n t up to the P r e s i d e n t , w h i s p e r eel i n t o h i s ear .
t . r j e e J t o be ve j r.y, very ef f J ci erjJ^--wT"frFr my worejs, a n e
cemsc i OIM;! y (jJ^rrrfenTT T sa'fd, "A second p l a n e hit t h e
t eiv/ei^^—rcrTTei i e - a is u n c l e a r . i t ' t a c k . " T h a t ' s ; l i t c ^ r a l ly w h a t I
i in.
MK . C A K D : f eli d not .
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Q A l 1 you kii(-~'w was two jpt l i n e r s , two Ioweic.
y And i t worked.
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MR. CARL): Then he came i n t o ' hie h o l d i n g room and qot on
t h e phone, t a l k e d t o t h e S i t u a t i o n Room
O lie did?
MR. CARD: He d i d .
MH . C A R D : Y e s , wo v . - i - r e , t l j :; t and i nq a r o u n d t a 1 k i nq . I
t h e n r a n cm t t o c h e c k t I •.< • ! ou : s t j cc; i n t h e ina i n , T t. h.i nk i t was
a ( j y m n a s i u m , and l e t t h e a d v a n c e I vain • r.aicJ the- President.
w o u l d b e l e a v i n g , . S e c r e t , M V ! a i c j i - ' w o u l d b e s t a y i n g ; qot t h e word
to 5;eo r r?t ar y P a i g e 3 . So 1 did k i n d of the l o q i n t Lcs r > L d e of i t .
A c t u a l l y d i d t r a c k my s i s t e r down and s a i d t.o my s i s t e r , two
plane?:-; c r a s h e d i n t o t h e W o r l d T r a d e C e n t e r i n M e w Y o r k , a n d
w e ' r e e m i n q t o have t o l e a v e , w o c a n ' t s t a y . .','ho qave me a h u g ;
tha t w r i s a l l i sa i d t ( • h e j .
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then he gave t:he statement there. It. was on tape, mid then sent
out. to you guys.
And t h a t was a ci.l t ure change to the FBI. Their psyche had
been b u i it , in my opinion, around f i n d i n g spies and b u i l d i n g
cases for [>r'.>soou t j on .
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attackers all carne i roin inside the United States. And lie said,
yes, he wanted to have an FBI hrietincj. So that 's how it.
star teel.
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the f i r s t 30 minvit.cs of the day. The President then held a
Coin not meeting, and it. was a remarkable Cabinet, meeting be?causo
t h e President used i lie term, "war council." He obviously,
r a i l e d on the Sec-rot t u y of State and the Secretary of. Defense
and t he A t t o r n e y General. But then I was .imp reused w i t h how (.hie
Fr es id (-.Tit went around the Cabinet table and talked about the
r espons ibi 1 i t ies of each Cabinet member ••- I ' l l be l i g h t i n g
this war against terrorism and ho called i t a war
talked about the war council. He talked about the role that
.State had to play and Defense had to play and the Justice
Depa r t rnent had to play.
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f lie-men t h a t were s t i l l missing. And those people were still
fi.1 led w i M i hope t h i i l t h e i r loved ones would bo l.ound; they
weren't . Bui i l was exlrernoly emotional. Arid lie did not. get. up
and g i ve a speech or go to the microphone, he went to each
i n d i v i d u a l person, and hugged, cried, laughed, consoled,
counseled. And he d i d it. on behalf of all ot us.
Then he ;ioo:; t <.• I lie-1 Nat ii.-n.il Cathedral arid leads not only
Hie nat i e j i , but the whole wor !d in prayer, arid shows that, t h i s
if, about soiii' -r In rig bigger t h a n us. And I think the c a l l i n g was
real . Then |;i- goes to Now York and r a l l i e s the rescue workers,
comfort.''; t h e farni I i os of the v i c t i m s , and sends a message1 to the
world t h a t A m e r i c a wi I I be heard. I --• it was just a
r erna r kab 1 o d,;y .
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(,) W h a t war; hi;-, r e p l y ' Hero's l h i .'j .'it. I ho end of. one of
the worst weeks o f h i s l i t e .
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Q Right, that's riot the quest-ion I'm asking. I ' rn asking
has he -•
You know, the strcinge thing about the atvtack on Sept ember
llth, every other attack that t h e United States has had to
suffer through - - and that, may bo an overstatement •• but
any other attack of any magnitude that America had to suffer
through came from either another nation or another philosophy
the Civil War, World War I, World War I J , the Spanish-
American War, the Cold War. This attack came 1 rom people who
are interested in anarchy. They weren't looking to introduce
another philosophy, they weren't looking to introduce another
government, they weren't looking to replace our system w i t h
their system. They were Looking to introduce anarchy.
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MR. CARD: He knew that he had cjood people working on
education reform. He'd already one congressional pa.ssaqe, arid
he could s.iy, let's qet it done. .So he d i d n ' t have t.<>
micromanaqe t h e i rnp Lementat i on of his qoa L to leave no c h i l d
behind. He could say. Rod Paiqe, Marqaret Spellinqs, do i i .
And r t biink thiit t.hat's kind o£ what he did at LhaL Cabinet
meetinq on the 14th. 1 Lhink he went around that tabJo, in
essence, saying, T am going to have to .spend more l.ime focusing
on t i n s war; therefore, don't forget the job you have t o do.
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MR. CARD: I i.hj rik lie did joke less, but he is now jokituj
I t h i n k the burden of September l l L h t h a t lasted u n t i l
October 7i h October 7th is the day t h a t wo1 went i n t o
Af qhari j :.;tan. That period of t i m e was very, very heavy, because
decisions were beinq made then that would have l i t e r a l ly
consequence:; for l i t e or death. October 7th beqan an
operational phase, but the decisions t o qel t h e r e ? wei e vei y
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heavy. And he took - he spent a .lot of Lime thinking after
he had been consulted by Rumsfeld and Powell and Dick Myers
remember Shel ton had done the? cusp, Shelton was on the cusp. So
that was a heavy time. There? wasn't an opportunity for
frivolity during that period of time. But that's also when we
were? meeting six days a week.
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be able to manage the unknown. This President has demonstrated
the capacity to manage the unknown challenge. And he knows that
lie has a biggor rosponsib: l i t y t. o do it .
END 2 : 5 8 P . M . EOT
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