Egads Confidential 9/11 Pager Messages Disclosed

[RamboLiberal]

Source: CBS News

As the World Trade Center and Pentagon were ablaze on September 11, 2001, the U.S. Secret Service's presidential protective detail was informed that a "Korean airliner has been hijacked" en route to San Francisco, prompting already-skittish agents to worry about another wave of terrorist attacks.

That morning and afternoon, Secret Service agents assigned to protect the president and his family found their pagers constantly buzzing with alerts both true and false. There was a false alarm about a car bomb in downtown Washington, D.C., a report of "two Arab males detained" after asking for directions to the presidential retreat at Camp David, and reassurances that "Twinkle and Turq" -- code names for the Bush daughters -- were safe and accounted for.

This unusual glimpse into the events of 9/11 comes from messages sent to alphanumeric pagers that were anonymously published on the Internet on Wednesday. The pager transcripts, which total about 573,000 lines and 6.4 million words, include numeric and text messages also sent to private sector and unclassified military pagers.

It's impossible to tell whether the logs have been faithfully reproduced in their entirety. But there's evidence they have been: I spoke to three journalists working on September 11, 2001 whose correspondence appeared in the logs or who were familiar with the messages circulated in their newsrooms that day. All three say the logs appear to be legitimate.

This trove of messages is likely to become a boon for historians, a new source of concern for privacy advocates, and, depending on the details, a point of embarrassment or pride for the government agencies and corporations whose internal conversations have been divulged. The files were posted on WikiLeaks.org, which has made a speciality of disclosing confidential documents and boasts that it is "uncensorable."


Read more: http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/25/taking_liberties/entry5770280.shtml

[liberal N proud]

1. FEMA's less than organized?

Who would have guessed?

[Lerkfish]

2. I call bullshit

there was a plan and it was carried out.

the proof, if it was that scary on that day, the secret service would have whisked away Bush during the reading of my pet goat.

if they worried about multiple attacks from mutliple sources, NOT whisking him away would be dereliciton of duty for the SS.

[Jackpine Radical]

3. I think the "multiple threats…" served the same purpose as "chaff"

in a WWII air attack. Planes would release tinfoil to jam the defenders' radar by creating a whole mess of false signals. There were supposedly training exercises on that day, anyway. What better way to cover a MIHOP operation than by messing up defense communications with all sorts of crazy stories? In fact, I remember hearing various stories that morning of bombs going off here & there that were soon exposed as false reports.

[KoKo]

6. Yep....those glued to the TV that morning remember CNBC running with all those

fake alarms. The car bomb in DC was one that went on for a long time...the others were reported there and on MSNBC.

Interesting that about the "tinfoil jam in WWII air attacks creating a whole mess of false signals."

[KansDem]

9. There was a bomb scare in downtown KC that day...

See my post no. 12:

DU thread from 2005

[winyanstaz]

5. exactly...and when they didnt whisk him away...I knew then it was a set-up

the dog didnt bark...even without all those messages...the secret service did not do their job that day.
There was a highjacked plane headed his way and they let him sit there.

[catzies]

7. They let him sit there because it was his alibi...until he started flying around

and ended up in (IIRC) Omaha.

[KansDem]

10. He said he was "Gettin' out of harm's way"

DU thread from 2005

[defendandprotect]

14. Right . . . Cheney was running the show/MIHOP . . . and Bush would have been "in the way" . . .

[KansDem]

27. Hmmm...food for thought...

Maybe Cheney's code-name in all this was "Harm." He certainly has spread enough of it!

So when Bush said he was "gettin' out of harm's way," he really was saying "I was getting out of Cheney's way."

Such a slip of the tongue could have blown the whole operation. I always thought the "pretzel incident" was really some "enforcers" (Cheney operatives?) stopping in at the White House and slapping Bush around a bit as "a reminder" to stay with the script, and to stop doing or saying something stupid. If I ever have the time, I thought I'd examine public statements and actions by Bush just before his "accident" to see if he was indeed doing or saying something that might have exposed the PNAC/Neo-con operation.

[shadowknows69]

11. The dog didn't bark. Exactly.

[Politicalboi]

17. Yup

And putting the entire school at risk too. There are just too many failures that never should have happened, and nobody was to blame.

[Bucky]

18. This one little fuck up on a day full of fuck ups is your proof of a Bush Admin conspiracy?

Your faith in the Bush Administration's competence is charming, but sadly at odds with the historic record.

[Lerkfish]

20. um, yes it is.

do you even understand the secret service's mission concerning POTUS in times of danger?

[Lagomorph]

25. You have WAAAAY to much faith in the Secret Gov't...

From my experience, they get their intel from CNN and couldn't find their ass if they had both hands in their back pockets.

edit to deal with new blocking software....sheesh

[shadowknows69]

21. I think we're all agreed by now that Bush pulled few strings in office

And was bound to many. The VPOTUS was in a "secure location" within seconds I'll wager.

[vadawg]

24. nope, you keep the principal where he is as you know its secure

until you get the motorcade and other assets moving, as long as you can secure the principal in situ you leave them there, moving can play into the assassins hands, you are in a hurry, stuff gets missed, no you do what they did that day, you keep him there, get the assetts in place and then put the principall where he cant be reached...

[tanyev]

4. Interesting.

[raouldukelives]

8. Bush wanted to remain there

He felt safe using the children as a human shield.

[winyanstaz]

13. I am sure he did feel safe using the children as a human shield...

However, the other thing that gave it away that day?
When someone walks up to the Commander in Chief....
one does not tell him about a second attack..and then turn and walk away..
WITHOUT WAITING FOR ORDERS.
They knew he was not going to leave.

[RamboLiberal]

12. Getting away from the conspiracy stuff - here's an ouch page

* One message said: "#2 MCLL EXEC WAS ABOARD ONE OF THE PLANES. 1 OF THE ONES WHO BETRAYED HARRY. NO TEARS HERE." Metrocall founder Harry Brock had been ousted as president six years earlier. Metrocall chief operating officer Steven Jacoby died on Flight 77 that day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/11/25/taking_liberties/entry5770280.shtml

Hope there are none from Dems that day like this on Barbara Olson.

[defendandprotect]

15. Some msgs re the FAKE "threat" to Air Force One . .. interestingly, it was

right winger Wm. Safire -- Nixon's constant defender -- who ran that one down.

And made them take it all back!

[earcandle]

16. yuk! prosecute that bitch! this man and every other mattered and still matters as they are not at

rest. 

[Lagomorph]

26. uhhhhh, for what? nt

[47of74]

19. Twinkle and Turq???

Is that the best they could do when coming up with code names?

[Blue_Tires]

22. I'm more alarmed at the privacy angle and deeper questions:

Assuming of course they are all authentic...

Illegally intercepting and later distributing hundreds of thousands of messages?? Who did it and WHY? And why release them all now?? How many more messages in how many other cities or networks were intercepted??

And how many people were in on this? It's not like one person sifted through a database of millions of messages and sorted them according to key government officials and those who worked at or near the Towers and Pentagon...And the next question goes without saying: IF the scope of the intercepts is half as wide as I think it is, then I refuse to believe someone somewhere didn't send a message hinting at prior knowledge or involvement in the attacks...

The timing of the release is way too suspect...Do you realize if the intercept database were released in say, 2003, then the all the court cases against warrantless wiretapping take on a COMPLETELY different importance and spotlight...To say nothing of the potential intelligence that may have been known or ignored before the attacks...Maybe, just maybe the public wakes the fuck up a little earlier and Bush doesn't get a second term...Why wasn't it released in 2007 before Congress legalized it all? These are the questions I want answered...

[Ter]

23. Egads this is BS

Pun intended.