8:56 a.m.-9:30 a.m. September 11, 2001: President Bush’s Secret Service Agents Have a Poor Awareness of the Attacks on the WTC

Members of the Secret Service who are traveling with President Bush are unable to obtain information about the attacks on the World Trade Center. Apparently describing events after Bush and his entourage arrive at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida (see (8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001), Dave Wilkinson, assistant special agent in charge of the presidential protection division, will later recall, “We began speaking to experts back at the White House.” However, he will say, “No one knew anything.” [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] Other members of Bush’s entourage are also apparently poorly informed about the terrorist attacks. While Bush is at the school, “No one in the [president’s] traveling party had any information… that other aircraft were hijacked or missing,” the 9/11 Commission Report will state. Furthermore, although members of Bush’s traveling staff are in contact with the White House Situation Room, no one with the president is in contact with the Pentagon. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39]