Andrew Card, President Bush’s chief of staff, is told that a second plane has crashed into the World Trade Center and immediately thinks Osama bin Laden and al-Qaeda are responsible for the incident. [NBC News, 9/10/2009; BBC, 9/9/2011] Card, along with a number of other White House staffers, is in the “staff hold,” a room located next to the classroom at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, where Bush is currently participating in a reading demonstration. [McClellan, 2008, pp. 101; Rove, 2010, pp. 250] He learned about the first crash at the WTC from Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, director of the White House Situation Room, when he arrived with Bush at the school (see (8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Associated Press, 11/26/2001; Dayton Daily News, 8/17/2003] Since then, he has been told, apparently by Loewer, that the aircraft that hit the WTC was a commercial jetliner rather than a small, twin-engine plane. [NBC News, 9/10/2009; BBC, 9/9/2011] Loewer now informs him that a second plane has crashed into the WTC. [McClatchy Newspapers, 8/29/2011; Dayton Daily News, 3/16/2013]
Situation Room Director Decided to Tell Card about the Crash – Loewer, who is in the staff hold, apparently learned about the second crash from Rob Hargis, the senior duty officer in the Situation Room, while she was on the phone with him. She heard the people in the Situation Room over the phone, shouting, “Holy shit!” presumably after they saw the second crash on television, at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). The president’s staffers, according to protocol, are meant to avoid distracting the president’s on-camera activities except when there is an emergency. Loewer was sure the current situation justified interrupting Bush’s activities and immediately decided to tell Card what had happened. [Bohn, 2015, pp. 214; Priess, 2016, pp. 240-241]
Card Thinks Al-Qaeda Is Responsible for the Crash – She says to him: “A second plane has impacted the towers. The nation is under attack.” [Dayton Daily News, 3/16/2013] Card is unaware that the planes that hit the WTC are suspected of having been hijacked. But, he will later comment, “I knew that [the second crash] couldn’t have been a coincidence.” [White House, 8/7/2002] He immediately thinks bin Laden and al-Qaeda are to blame for the crashes. [NBC News, 9/10/2009; Tiger Times, 9/12/2016] “My mind flashed to three initials: UBL. Usama bin Laden,” he will recall. [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] “My mind focused on the al-Qaeda network because I knew that they had attacked the World Trade Center before,” he will say. “I don’t know why I thought that, but I did and I just presumed that it was an Osama bin Laden or an al-Qaeda attack.” [NBC News, 9/10/2009]
Card Decides He Must Tell Bush about the Crash – A White House chief of staff frequently has to decide whether the president needs to know about something. [Eagle, 4/16/2012; Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] Card determines right away, on this occasion, that Bush needs to be told what has happened. [NBC News, 9/10/2009; BBC, 9/9/2011] “I was very uncomfortable about interrupting the president during one of his events,” he will say. “But,” he will add, “I felt if I were president, I would want to know.” [White House, 8/16/2002] He will therefore enter the classroom where Bush is participating in the reading demonstration, and tell the president about the second crash and that America is under attack (see (9:07 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [White House, 8/7/2002; NBC News, 9/10/2009; BBC, 9/9/2011]
Between 9:03 a.m. and 9:35 a.m. September 11, 2001: Rumsfeld Aides Discuss Pentagon as Possible Target
Navy Vice Admiral Edmund Giambastiani Jr., who is Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld’s senior military assistant, returned to his office after attending a breakfast meeting hosted by the secretary of defense (see (8:00 a.m.-8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After learning the second WTC tower has been hit, he says, he realizes “it [is] no longer an accident.” Stephen Cambone, who is Rumsfeld’s closest aide, comes to Giambastiani’s office, which is located near to the defense secretary’s office. Reportedly, he is there “to discuss the Pentagon as a potential target and their course of action if it was attacked.” Then, “Minutes later,” the attack on the Pentagon occurs. [American Forces Press Service, 9/8/2006] Cambone is also reported as being at the Pentagon’s Executive Support Center (ESC), located down the hallway from Rumsfeld’s office, some time between when the attacks on the South Tower and the Pentagon occur (see Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Clarke, 2006, pp. 219-220] It is unclear whether he goes to the ESC before meeting with Giambastiani, or afterwards. Despite Cambone’s concern that the Pentagon could be a target, no attempt is made to evacuate the place before it is struck (see Before 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001), and it does not appear that any alarms are sounded either. [Newsday, 9/23/2001]
Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: FAA Administrator Garvey Arrives at FAA Headquarters and Learns of Second Attack
FAA Administrator Jane Garvey arrives at her office at FAA headquarters in Washington, DC, and is informed that a second aircraft has just hit the World Trade Center. [Spencer, 2008, pp. 88] Garvey learned of the first crash while at the nearby Department of Transportation, where she had been in a meeting with Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta and the Belgian transportation minister (see (8:48 a.m.-9:05 a.m.) September 11, 2001). She had phoned FAA headquarters and was told by a supervisor, “We know a plane has just gone in, but we’re also tracking a hijacking.” She immediately went out to her car and headed back to headquarters, which is located two blocks away from the Department of Transportation. [Boston Globe, 11/4/2001] When Garvey arrives at her office on the 10th floor of the headquarters, she finds Monte Belger, her acting deputy, there. She asks him, “What do we know?” and he replies: “[T]his is something beyond a hijacking. This is not an accident. There is something here. [The Department of] Defense is going to be taking the lead.” Belger also informs Garvey that, just before she arrived, a second plane hit the WTC. Garvey heads across the hall to the Operations Center, where security personnel have already established a “hijacking net”—a teleconference that includes several agencies, including the Defense Department (see (8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). According to author Lynn Spencer, Garvey “understands that it will be her job to pull information from the [FAA] Command Center in Herndon and forward that information as quickly as possible up the chain, to the Department of Transportation and any other agencies requiring it.” [Spencer, 2008, pp. 88-89] Garvey and Belger spend the next 40 minutes going back and forth between their offices and the Operations Center. Staffers keep them informed about decisions being made by Ben Sliney, the national operations manager at the FAA Command Center. [USA Today, 8/12/2002]
Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Army’s Crisis Team at the Pentagon Is Activated
The Army’s Crisis Action Team (CAT) at the Pentagon is activated in response to the attacks on the World Trade Center. It is activated on the orders of Major General Peter Chiarelli, the Army’s director of operations, readiness, and mobilization.
General Instructed Colleague to Activate Crisis Team – At around 9:00 a.m., while he was preparing to go to a scheduled meeting, Chiarelli was called by Major General Julian Burns, deputy chief of staff for operations of the US Army Forces Command. Burns asked him if he had seen what had happened at the WTC on the news. Chiarelli looked up at the muted television in his office and then, after turning up the volume, watched the coverage of the crash at the WTC on CNN. He also called to his office Lieutenant Colonel Kevin Stramara, his chief of operations, who is responsible for the CAT. When Stramara arrived, Chiarelli told him, “We need to look at standing up the CAT because I believe we’ve got ourselves a possibility of a mass casualty [incident].” Although Chiarelli was uncertain whether what happened at the WTC had been a terrorist attack, he told Stramara: “Kevin, it’s time to activate the CAT. Get it set up.”
General Said Pentagon Had to Be a Potential Target – As Stramara was about to leave the room, the two men saw the TV coverage of the second hijacked plane, Flight 175, crashing into the WTC (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). Realizing this was a terrorist attack, Chiarelli pointed out, “If there are other aircraft up there that have been hijacked or if there are other aircraft getting ready to do this, this building [i.e. the Pentagon] has got to be a target.” He asked Stramara, “Who has responsibility for this building?” Stramara responded: “I don’t know. I will check, but first I’ll stand up the CAT.” [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 95-97]
Crisis Team Assembles in Army’s ‘Command and Control Center’ – The CAT, according to author Robert Rossow, is “an organization of subject matter experts from throughout the Army staff who assemble in times of emergency in a special area within the AOC”—the Army Operations Center. [Rossow, 2003, pp. 64] The AOC is located in the basement of the Pentagon, inside a bunker reinforced by steel and concrete 60 feet below the parking lot, and is equipped with state-of-the-art communications equipment, as well as television sets for monitoring news coverage. Chiarelli will describe it as “the Army’s command and control center.” [Washington Post, 8/25/1995; Soldiers, 9/2004] It is “the place that people will migrate” to during an emergency, according to Brigadier General Clyde Vaughn, the Army’s deputy director of operations, readiness, and mobilization. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/12/2002]
Crisis Team Members Are Summoned to Operations Center – When the CAT is activated, according to Rossow, its members “are called to the AOC to man their battle stations.” [Rossow, 2003, pp. 64] A piece of equipment called a “dialogic machine” sends out a telephonic alert to summon Army personnel to join the CAT. The machine automatically calls these people and gives them a prerecorded message, instructing them to report immediately to the CAT floor. [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 100] Their mission, according to Rossow, is then “to provide information from their organizations and work issues within their particular area of expertise.” [Rossow, 2003, pp. 64]
Crisis Team Is Activated to Provide Assistance in New York – Chiarelli will subsequently be phoned by General Eric Shinseki, the Army chief of staff, and will only head to the AOC to join the CAT after the call ends (see (Shortly Before 9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 98] He will tell Shinseki that he has activated the CAT to provide assistance in New York if requested by state and local officials, since he anticipates that the disaster at the WTC will require significant rescue, firefighting, and recovery efforts. [Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 134] The CAT will be “formally stood up” at 9:43 a.m., according to Rossow (see 9:43 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Rossow, 2003, pp. 66] It will become “a focal point for all Pentagon activities,” according to Lieutenant Colonel Richard Kotch, who is working in the AOC this morning. [St. Louis Jewish Light, 9/8/2011] Army officers are in fact currently preparing for a CAT exercise, which is scheduled to take place during the forthcoming week, based on the scenario of a plane crashing into the WTC (see (September 4, 2001)). [US Army Center of Military History, 2/5/2002; Lofgren, 2011, pp. 96-97]
After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Military Personnel Are Preparing for an Exercise in Europe Based on Terrorists Threatening to Attack the US
Hundreds of US military personnel are preparing for a major exercise in Europe, which is based around the scenario of terrorists threatening to attack the United States with a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon, but the exercise is canceled in response to the real-world attacks in the US. The exercise, which is run by the US military’s European Command, is called Ellipse Charlie, according to journalists Eric Schmitt and Thom Shanker. [Schmitt and Shanker, 2011, pp. 22-23; Naylor, 2015, pp. ix] Ellipse Charlie, however, is run by the Pacific Command. The exercise is therefore likely to be Ellipse Bravo, a European Command exercise. [Arkin, 2005, pp. 359; GlobalSecurity (.org), 4/27/2005; GlobalSecurity (.org), 4/27/2005]
Participants Have to Stop Terrorists Who Have an ‘Unconventional’ Weapon – The exercise is set to take place in six European and Mediterranean countries, and on a ship at sea, and is meant to last 16 days. The goal is for participants “to find and thwart terrorists who [have] captured an unconventional weapon”—i.e. a nuclear, chemical, or biological weapon—“and threatened to use it against the United States,” according to Schmitt and Shanker. About 1,800 Special Operations personnel, along with “a handful of other secret government operators,” are set to take part. [Schmitt and Shanker, 2011, pp. 22-23] A smaller exercise called Jackal Cave, which is run by the Joint Special Operations Command and is currently taking place in several European countries, is “nested” in Ellipse Bravo, according to journalist and author Sean Naylor (see (8:46 a.m.-9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [Naylor, 2015, pp. ix-x]
Al-Qaeda Is the Mock Enemy in the Exercise – The hypothetical enemy in Ellipse Bravo appears to be al-Qaeda or a similar terrorist group. Although Naylor will claim that the mock terrorists in Jackal Cave are “not Islamist,” according to Schmitt and Shanker, Ellipse Bravo is going to involve “a complicated mock attack from a foe like al-Qaeda.” [Schmitt and Shanker, 2011, pp. 23; Naylor, 2015, pp. 441] Furthermore, al-Qaeda was apparently the hypothetical enemy in a previous Ellipse Bravo exercise, held in late August to early September 1998. The scenario for that exercise, according to a report by the US Department of Energy, was that “[d]ue to the United States’ continued presence in the Arab world, international terrorist financier Osama bin Laden had called upon the Muslim community to strike back at the United States.” [US Department of Energy, 12/3/1998 
]
‘Ellipse’ Exercises Involve Weapons of Mass Destruction – Further details of the current Ellipse Bravo exercise are unclear. “Ellipse” exercises, which are led by the Joint Chiefs of Staff, are “highly classified, interagency, major crisis action and management” exercises that involve weapons of mass destruction, according to military analyst William Arkin. [Arkin, 2005, pp. 358] The Ellipse Bravo exercise held in 1998 was intended to “evaluate and validate the US federal response to a radiological weapon of mass destruction in an international environment.” That exercise, which took place outside the US, involved representatives of the US Special Forces and the US Army’s 52nd Ordnance Group, along with personnel from the Department of Energy, including members of its Nuclear Emergency Search Team. [US Department of Energy, 2/1999, pp. 121 ; Richelson, 2009, pp. 172] The current Ellipse Bravo exercise is called off during its final planning stages in response to the terrorist attacks in the US and the commandos involved in it then hurry back to their normal bases. [Schmitt and Shanker, 2011, pp. 23]
Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Members of President Bush’s Traveling Staff Learn of the Second Crash and Then Fetch a Television to See the Coverage of It
Members of President Bush’s staff who are with Bush at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida, are informed of the second plane crashing into the World Trade Center but then have to find a television in order to see the coverage of it. [White House, 8/12/2002; Rove, 2010, pp. 250; KFDI, 12/11/2012] While Bush goes into a classroom to participate in a reading demonstration (see 9:02 a.m. September 11, 2001), several members of his traveling staff stay in the “staff hold.” [Rove, 2010, pp. 250] The staff hold, according to deputy White House press secretary Scott McClellan, is “a private room set up as a quiet work space with secure and non-secure phones for us to use during a presidential visit.” [McClellan, 2008, pp. 101] If you pick up one of the secure phones, Bush’s senior adviser, Karl Rove, will later write, “someone with a quiet military voice answers, you make a request, and a moment or two later, you’re talking to anybody you want, anywhere in the world.” [Rove, 2010, pp. 250] The staff hold, on this occasion, is next to the classroom where Bush is participating in the reading demonstration. [McClellan, 2008, pp. 101]
Staffers Think the First Crash Was an Accident – Members of Bush’s staff who stay in the staff hold while Bush joins the reading demonstration include White House chief of staff Andrew Card, White House communications director Dan Bartlett, White House staff secretary Harriet Miers, and Rove. [Rove, 2010, pp. 250] Also in the room, according to Rove, are Major Paul Montanus, one of the president’s military aides, and “the military doctor, the surgeon, and the surgical nurse with a full operating kit” who “stand ready to go to the aid of the president if he falls ill or is shot or somehow injured.” [KFDI, 12/11/2012] These individuals are aware of the first crash at the WTC. “All of us are still trying to find out information about that, to confirm what our instincts were,” Bartlett will recall, “and our instincts were that this was a tragic accident.”
Staffers Learn about the Second Crash – After the second plane hits the WTC at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), the staffers quickly learn about the incident in calls to their cell phones or pager messages. “[Y]ou could see it, the rippling effect of people being informed about what was happening,” Bartlett will recall. However, he will say, “most of the tone was disbelief and not knowing what was going on.” Bartlett learns about the crash in a call from his assistant at the White House, who tells him, “You’re not going to believe this, Dan, but the other tower was hit.” Bartlett asks his assistant what she means and she says, “Another plane, another plane hit the other tower, World Trade Center.” [White House, 8/12/2002; White House, 8/12/2002] Rove learns about the crash when Susan Ralston, his executive assistant, calls him with the news. [New Yorker, 9/25/2001] Card, meanwhile, learns about it from Navy Captain Deborah Loewer, the director of the White House Situation Room, who is traveling with the president in Florida and is with Card in the staff hold (see Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Dayton Daily News, 3/16/2013; Priess, 2016, pp. 240-241]
No Television Has Been Set Up in the Staff Hold – Unusually, a television has not been set up in the staff hold, so the staffers there are initially unable to see the coverage of the second attack. “Normally there’s a television in the staff hold,” Rove will comment. “But for some strange reason, this morning at Booker Elementary there was no television in there.” Rove therefore has to go out of the room, and run “up and down the hallways of the elementary school trying to find a television.” He eventually finds one in a classroom and then hurriedly rolls it into the staff hold. But he then has trouble connecting it to cable. The first socket he plugs it into doesn’t work. But after he plugs it into another socket, he gets a signal and the TV starts showing footage of the second crash. [KFDI, 12/11/2012; LBJ Presidential Library, 9/3/2013] Around the same time, those in the staff hold make contact with their colleagues at the White House and work with them on coordinating a response to the attacks. [White House, 8/12/2002; White House, 8/12/2002]
Between 9:04 a.m. and 9:36 a.m. September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney’s Special Assistant Is Worried that the White House Might Be Attacked
Ashley Snee, Vice President Dick Cheney’s special assistant, becomes concerned that terrorists might attack the White House after she sees the second hijacked plane crashing into the World Trade Center on television. [KMAX-TV, 9/11/2016] Snee is in Cheney’s outer office in the West Wing of the White House with Debbie Heiden, another assistant to the vice president. The television there was on and the two women consequently saw the news that a plane had crashed into the WTC when it was first reported (see 8:48 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Baker, 2013, pp. 121; Sacramento Bee, 9/8/2013] Heiden called Cheney and told him: “Sir, something’s happening in New York. Turn on your TV and so you can see what’s going on.” Cheney subsequently saw the second hijacked plane crashing into the South Tower on television, at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). He promptly came out of his office and told his two assistants, “They hit the second tower.” [Cheney and Reiner, 2013, pp. 189; KMAX-TV, 9/11/2016] There is now “a flurry of activity in the otherwise quiet halls of the West Wing,” Snee will later describe. The special assistant notices “senior staff” going “in and out of the vice president’s office.” [Sacramento Bee, 9/8/2013] She and Heiden realize the crashes must have been intentional. Snee therefore starts worrying that the White House might be attacked. “It started to set in that if this was an attack, I’m sitting in probably a pretty high-level target,” she will recall. “We got a little nervous,” she will comment. [KMAX-TV, 9/11/2016] She assumes, however, that since Cheney is being allowed to stay in his office, the White House must have been determined to be safe. “I took solace [from thinking] that if he was safe in his office, just steps away, surely we were too,” she will remark. Cheney will remain in his office until around 9:35 a.m., when the Secret Service learns a suspicious aircraft is flying toward the White House and agents consequently move him to a safer location (see (9:35 a.m.) September 11, 2001 and (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 39-40; Hayes, 2007, pp. 333] Snee will be “overcome with panic” when she sees him being hurried away from his office. At that point, she will recall, “What I feared all morning became obvious: we’re not safe here.” [Sacramento Bee, 9/8/2013] “Well, it’s not safe for him, it’s probably not safe for us,” she will think. [KMAX-TV, 9/11/2016]
Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: FAA’s New York and Washington Center Controllers Told to Watch for Suspicious Aircraft
After the second World Trade Center crash at 9:03 a.m., air traffic controllers at the FAA’s New York Center are told by their supervisors to watch for airplanes whose speed indicates that they are jets, but which either are not responding to commands or have disabled their transponders. Controllers in Washington receive a similar briefing, which will help them pick out hijacked planes more quickly. [New York Times, 9/13/2001] Whether controllers at other FAA air traffic control centers receive similar instructions at this time is unclear, but those at its Indianapolis Center, which is handling Flight 77, are apparently not informed by their supervisors of the unfolding crisis. [9/11 Commission, 6/17/2004 ; Spencer, 2008, pp. 105-107]
After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Air Force One Personnel Receive Confusing Reports and One Officer Wonders if a Nation-State Is behind the Attacks
Personnel on Air Force One, the president’s plane, are unclear about what is happening in the United States and receive a number of incorrect reports about the terrorist attacks, leading one officer to wonder if a nation-state is responsible for the attacks. [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016] Air Force One is currently on the ground at Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport in Florida. [US President, 9/2001; US Air Force, 2/29/2012 ] Master Sergeant Dana Lark, superintendent of communications on the plane, followed the television coverage of the first crash at the World Trade Center and then saw the second plane hitting the WTC live on TV, at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). However, she and her colleagues are unable to acquire precise information about what is happening. She will later recall: “We still didn’t know what the hell was going on. We’re just monitoring the Secret Service and staff radio channels. It was chaos. What’s next?” They subsequently receive inaccurate reports about the attacks. “All of a sudden, other reports start coming in—explosion at the White House, car bomb at the State Department” (see (Between 9:50-10:40 a.m.) September 11, 2001), Lark will say. In the confusion, Lark wonders if a nation-state such as Russia is responsible for what is happening. “I’m thinking Cold War, the big bad Soviet bear,” she will recall. “This was an extensive attack. Could this be a nation-state?” Even after Air Force One takes off from the Sarasota airport, at around 9:55 a.m. (see 9:54 a.m. September 11, 2001), personnel on the plane continue receiving incorrect reports and remain unclear about what is going on. “As we’re taking off, you’re still getting all this misinformation” and “[y]our head was spinning, trying to figure out what had actually happened,” Lark will describe. “The only thing we knew for sure, because we’d seen it with our own eyes,” according to Lark, “was that the World Trade Center had been hit.” [Politico Magazine, 9/9/2016]
Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Defense Secretary Rumsfeld Is Told of the Second Crash but Continues with a Routine Briefing
Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld is told that a second plane has crashed into the World Trade Center by Vice Admiral Edmund Giambastiani Jr., his senior military assistant, but continues with a routine intelligence briefing. [Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 7/18/2002 ; 9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 37; Goldberg et al., 2007, pp. 130] Rumsfeld learned about the first crash at the WTC during a meeting in his private dining room at the Pentagon, but he assumed it was an accident (see Shortly After 8:46 a.m. September 11, 2001). [Vogel, 2007, pp. 428; Rumsfeld, 2011, pp. 334-335] After the meeting ended he returned to his office to receive his daily intelligence briefing. [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 37] Giambastiani was at the meeting in Rumsfeld’s private dining room and similarly returned to his office when it ended—apparently around 9:00 a.m.—to continue with his regular work. The television in his office was on and so he saw the second hijacked plane crashing into the WTC live, at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). He apparently realized right away that the incident was a terrorist attack. “Then there was absolutely no doubt in anybody’s mind that it was not a random event or an accident,” he will later comment, adding, “There was absolutely no doubt in my mind.” He goes to tell Rumsfeld what has happened. “I went in and informed the secretary [of defense],” he will say. [Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 7/18/2002 ] “Someone came in and said that another plane had hit a different tower of the World Trade Center,” Rumsfeld will recall. [US Department of Defense, 8/12/2002] The two men apparently now realize the seriousness of the crisis. “When the second plane hit the World Trade Center, it became clear that it was more than an accident,” Rumsfeld will comment. [CBS, 9/8/2002] “We knew there was a problem here,” Giambastiani will say. [Historical Office, Office of the Secretary of Defense, 7/18/2002 ] However, Rumsfeld continues with his intelligence briefing. “[H]e resumed the briefing while awaiting more information,” the 9/11 Commission Report will state. He will still be in his office receiving the briefing at 9:37 a.m., when the Pentagon is attacked (see 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [9/11 Commission, 7/24/2004, pp. 37; Vogel, 2007, pp. 438-439]
