New Bush admin 911 photos

[Peter Lemkin]

Complete 911 Timeline

Dick Cheney's Actions on 9/11

Project: Complete 911 Timeline
Open-Content project managed by matt, Paul, KJF, mtuck, paxvector

add event | references

(Shortly Before 7:00 a.m.-7:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney Receives Daily Intelligence Briefing; Heads to White House

The Vice President's Residence. [Source: David Bohrer/ White House]Just before 7:00 a.m., Vice President Dick Cheney sits in the library of the vice president's residence at the Naval Observatory in Washington, DC, for his regular CIA briefing. His solo briefing is more detailed than the president's because he asks for more material. According to journalist and author Stephen Hayes, the briefing is "unremarkable." Cheney typically sets off for the three-mile drive to the White House at 7:30 a.m. He usually joins the president for his intelligence briefing, but with Bush away in Florida, there is no briefing at the White House on this day. [HAYES, 2007, PP. 327-328] According to David Kuo, a special assistant to the president, Cheney arrives at the White House at just after 7:00 a.m. this morning. Kuo will later recall that Cheney "looked like an absentminded professor, deep in thought, oblivious to the world." [KUO, 2006, PP. 183]
Entity Tags: Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Stephen Hayes, David Kuo
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]



[B][B][B](8:25 a.m.-8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Office of Management and Budget Deputy Director Speaks with Cheney; Neither Can Later Recall What They Discuss

Sean O'Keefe.[Source: Bill Ingalls / NASA]Sean O'Keefe, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget, stops by Vice President Dick Cheney's White House office for an unscheduled visit. According to journalist and author Stephen Hayes, Cheney's colleagues have learned to keep any impromptu sessions with him short and succinct. Yet O'Keefe spends more than 20 minutes with the vice president. Cheney is scheduled to meet John McConnell, his chief speechwriter, at 8:30 a.m. Yet McConnell is left waiting outside the office while the vice president is deep in discussion with O'Keefe. According to Hayes, while the topic of O'Keefe and Cheney's conversation seems urgent at present, "In time, neither man would be able to recall what it was that ha[/B][/B][/B] [B][B]d been so important." [HAYES, 2007, PP. 328-330] O'Keefe is a former Pentagon comptroller, and had been a close confidant of Dick Cheney's when he was the secretary of defense, in the early 1990s. He was also secretary of the navy from 1992 to 1993. [NEW YORK TIMES, 7/7/1992; NEW YORK TIMES, 2/3/2003]
[B]Entity Tags: Sean O'Keefe, John McConnell, Stephen Hayes, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]


[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](8:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Some US Leaders Are Scattered; Others in Washington

Secretary of State Colin Powell leaves his Lima, Peru hotel after hearing news of the attacks. [Source: Agence France-Presse]Just prior to learning about the 9/11 attacks, top US leaders are scattered across the country and overseas:
President Bush is in Sarasota, Florida.[WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
Secretary of State Colin Powell is in Lima, Peru.[WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
General Henry Shelton, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, is flying across the Atlantic on the way to Europe. [WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002; GIESEMANN, 2008, PP. 19-40]
Attorney General John Ashcroft is flying to Milwaukee, Wisconsin. [WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
Federal Emergency Management Agency Director Joe Allbaugh is at a conference in Montana. [ABC NEWS, 9/14/2002] Others are in Washington:
Vice President Dick Cheney and National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice are at their offices in the White House.[WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld is at his office in the Pentagon, meeting with a delegation from Capitol Hill. [WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
CIA Director George Tenet is at breakfast with his old friend and mentor, former Senator David Boren (D-OK), at the St. Regis Hotel, three blocks from the White House. [WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
FBI Director Robert Mueller is in his office at FBI headquarters on Pennsylvania Avenue, Washington, DC. [WASHINGTON POST, 1/27/2002]
Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta is at his office at the Department of Transportation. [US CONGRESS, 9/20/2001]
Counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke is at a conference in the Ronald Reagan Building, three blocks from the White House.[CLARKE, 2004, PP. 1]
Entity Tags: John Ashcroft, Joseph M. Allbaugh, Richard A. Clarke,Henry Hugh Shelton, Norman Mineta, George W. Bush, Donald Rumsfeld, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice,David Boren, George J. Tenet, Robert S. Mueller III
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, George Bush, Dick Cheney,Richard Clarke, Donald Rumsfeld[/B][/B]


[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](Between 8:48 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney Sees Footage of WTC Crash on Television, but Allegedly Does Not Realize It Is Terrorism

Vice President Dick Cheney later claims he learns of the first attack on the World Trade Center just before 9:00 a.m. He has just finished an impromptu discussion in his office at the White House with Sean O'Keefe, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget (see (8:25 a.m.-8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). His chief speechwriter John McConnell has come in for a meeting, when his secretary, Debbie Heiden, calls in and tells him a plane hit the WTC. Cheney recalls, "So we turned on the television and watched for a few minutes." However, journalist and author Stephen Hayes suggests Cheney learns of the attack earlier. He says that while McConnell is waiting for his meeting, O'Keefe comes out of the vice president's office. McConnell gestures at a television showing the burning WTC, and "O'Keefe nodded; they had been watching the reports inside." When McConnell enters Cheney's office, "The small television on the other side of the desk was tuned to ABC News." [MEET THE PRESS, 9/16/2001; HAYES, 2007, PP. 328-330] According to his own recollection, Cheney is puzzled by the reports: "I was sitting there thinking about it. It was a clear day, there was no weather problemhow in hell could a plane hit the World Trade Center?" [NEWSWEEK, 12/30/2001; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 35] He claims it is only when he sees the second tower hit at 9:03 that he realizes this is a terrorist attack, saying, "as soon as that second plane showed up, that's what triggered the thought: terrorism, that this was an attack." [MEET THE PRESS, 9/16/2001; CNN, 9/11/2002]
Entity Tags: Debbie Heiden, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, John McConnell,Sean O'Keefe
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]

[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](Shortly After 8:48 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney's Lead Secret Service Agent Sees TV Coverage of Crash at the WTC and Alerts Colleagues

James Scott, a Secret Service special agent assigned to the vice presidential protective division, sees the television coverage of the plane crash at the World Trade Center and alerts other Secret Service agents protecting Vice President Dick Cheney to the incident. Scott is the "on-duty shift whip" for Cheney's Secret Service detail. [UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 10/1/2001] His current location is unstated, but he is presumably at the Joint Operations Center (JOC) at the White House. The JOC monitors the White House complex and constantly tracks the location of every "protected person," including the president and the vice president. [NEW YORK DAILY NEWS, 12/22/1997; NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, 9/27/2004]After he sees "the aircraft crash on television network news," Scott will later recall, he "alerted the working shift." Presumably he does this in a phone call or over his radio. [UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 10/1/2001] The "working shift" includes the "body men" around a Secret Service protectee, according to journalist and author Ronald Kessler. "The normal working shift," Kessler will write, "consists of a shift leader or whip"in this case, Scott"and four shift agents." [KESSLER, 2009, PP. 80-81] However, although he contacts the members of the working shift at this time, Scott will only head to the West Wing of the White House and discuss the crisis with them in person at around 9:30 a.m. (see (9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). And he will not evacuate Cheney from his office in the West Wing until around 9:36 a.m., according to some accounts, after he learns of an unidentified aircraft flying toward the White House (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 10/1/2001; UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 11/17/2001 ; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 39-40; GELLMAN, 2008, PP. 115] Around the time that Scott alerts the members of the working shift to the crash in New York, a Secret Service agent posted at the door of Cheney's office (who is presumably a member of the working shift) also receives a phone call from the Secret Service's intelligence division, informing him that the aircraft that hit the WTC was a passenger jet, according to Cheney's chief speechwriter, John McConnell, who is with the agent (see (8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [HAYES, 2007, PP. 329-330]
Entity Tags: James Scott, US Secret Service
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]

[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](8:50 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Secret Service Agent outside Vice President Cheney's Office Learns Plane that Hit WTC Is Passenger Jet

John McConnell.[Source: University of Tennessee]While he is waiting outside Vice President Dick Cheney's office for a scheduled meeting, Cheney's chief speechwriter John McConnell has been chatting with Cheney's secretary Debbie Heiden and the Secret Service agent posted at the door. They all see the news about the first plane hitting the World Trade Center on the television above Heiden's desk. McConnell will later recall: "There wasn't any kind of alarm. It was just kind of, Oh man, look at that.'" The Secret Service agent then receives an urgent call from the agency's intelligence division. According to McConnell: "He put the phone down and told me: passenger jet. And that's when you go, Geez. And then you start getting a sick feeling. Because a passenger aircraft isnot going to crash into the World Trade Center." [HAYES, 2007, PP. 329-330] But, according to the 9/11 Commission Report, it is not until they learn of the second crash at 9:03 that nearly everyone in the White House realizes this is not an accident (see (Between 8:46 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 35]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, John McConnell, Debbie Heiden
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]


[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](After 8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Serious Communications Problems Experienced in Washington Area, Affect Key Government Officials

In the Washington, DC, area, members of the public, emergency responders, and government officials experience serious communications problems. Telephone and cell phone services around the capital remain unavailable to members of the public for most of the day. [VERTON, 2003, PP. 149]
Particular problems are experienced around the Pentagon. Reportedly, cellular and landline telephone communications there are "virtually unreliable or inaccessible during the first few hours of the response," after it is hit at 9:37 (see After 9:37 a.m. September 11, 2001). [US DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN SERVICES, 7/2002, PP. C36]
Some senior government officials also experience communications difficulties:
CIA Director George Tenet has problems using his secure phone while heading from a Washington hotel back to CIA headquarters, located about eight miles outside Washington (see (8:55 a.m.-9:15 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [INDEPENDENT, 11/6/2002; TENET, 2007, PP. 161-162]
Secretary of State Colin Powell has to take a seven-hour flight from Peru, to get back to the capital. He later complains that, during this flight, "because of the communications problems that existed during that day, I couldn't talk to anybody in Washington" (see (12:30 p.m.-7:30 p.m.) September 11, 2001).[ABC NEWS, 9/11/2002]
Between the time of the second WTC attack and about 9:45 a.m., Vice President Dick Cheney, who is at the White House, has problems reaching Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert at the US Capitol by secure telephone (see (9:04 a.m.-9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [DAILY HERALD (ARLINGTON HEIGHTS), 9/11/2002; HAYES, 2007, PP. 336-337]
Even President Bush experiences difficulties communicating with Washington after leaving a school in Florida, and subsequently while flying on Air Force One (see (9:34 a.m.-11:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [CANADIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, 9/10/2006]
A classified after-action report will later be produced, based on observations from a National Airborne Operations Center plane launched near Washington shortly before the time of the Pentagon attack (see (9:27 a.m.) September 11, 2001). According to one government official, the report indicates that the nation was "deaf, dumb, and blind" for much of the day.[VERTON, 2003, PP. 150-151] Members of the public in New York City also experience communications problems throughout the day, particularly with cell phones (see (After 10:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001).
Entity Tags: Colin Powell, Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Dennis Hastert,George J. Tenet, George W. Bush
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, George Bush, Dick Cheney,Pentagon[/B][/B]

[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B]Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Secret Service Learns of Additional Suspicious Planes, but Vice President's Agents Supposedly Not Alerted

Nelson Garabito.[Source: CNN]A senior Secret Service agent at the White House establishes a direct phone line with his counterpart at the FAA and is told there are more suspect planes that are unaccounted for, but this information supposedly does not lead to the evacuation of the vice president from his White House office.
Secret Service Liaison Calls FAA - Secret Service agent Nelson Garabito, who is responsible for coordinating the president's movements and is also the agency's liaison to the FAA, is at the Secret Service Joint Operations Center (JOC) at the White House, attending a 9:00 a.m. meeting. After seeing the second attack on the World Trade Center on television, he calls Terry Van Steenbergen, his counterpart at the FAA. According to Garabito, the TV's sound is off, so it takes a few minutes before he realizes a second plane has hit the WTC and makes the call. But Van Steenbergen, who is at FAA headquarters in Washington, DC, will say Garabito calls him "within 30 seconds" of the attack.
Warning Not Passed On - Shortly into the call, Van Steenbergen tells Garabito there are two unaccounted for planes that are possibly hijacked, in addition to the two that have crashed into the WTC. Garabito tells someone with him to run upstairs and pass this information on to other Secret Service agents, but, according to the 9/11 Commission, "it either was not passed on or was passed on but not disseminated." As a result, Van Steenbergen's information "failed to reach agents assigned to the vice president, and the vice president was not evacuated at that time." [9/11 COMMISSION, 7/28/2003, PP. 9-11; 9/11 COMMISSION, 3/30/2004; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 464]
Conflicting Evacuation Times - According to the 9/11 Commission, the Secret Service does not evacuate Vice President Dick Cheney from his office at the White House until "just before 9:36." [9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 39] However, some accounts will say Cheney is evacuated around the time of the second attack on the WTC (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001), which would suggest that Van Steenbergen's information is indeed passed on and disseminated. [NEW YORK TIMES, 9/13/2001; ABC NEWS, 9/14/2002] Garabito and Van Steenbergen will remain in contact over the phonevia a direct line, not a conference callfor the next 14 hours. Garabito feeds information to Van Steenbergen, though Van Steenbergen does not know how Garabito is getting this information. [9/11 COMMISSION, 3/30/2004]
Entity Tags: US Secret Service, Nelson Garabito, Terry Van Steenbergen, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney, Flight AA 77,Flight UA 93[/B][/B]


[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B]Shortly After 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney's Daughter Calls Father about Crash at the WTC

Liz Cheney, Vice President Dick Cheney's eldest daughter, calls her father and tells him a plane has hit the World Trade Center, but he is already aware of both crashes in New York. [HAYES, 2007, PP. 330-332] The vice president, who is in his office at the White House, was informed of the first crash at the WTC (see(Between 8:48 a.m. and 9:00 a.m.) September 11, 2001) and watched the second crash live on television. [MEET THE PRESS, 9/16/2001]Liz Cheney heard about the first crash on her car radio and now phones her father on his private line. She says to him, "A plane has hit the World Trade Center." He replies: "Two planes have hit. It's a terrorist attack." Dick Cheney tells his daughter, "I've got to go," before ending the call. The vice president then picks up a phone with a direct line to President Bush, according to journalist and author Stephen Hayes. He tells the person who answers, "I need to talk to the president," and then promptly hangs up. [HAYES, 2007, PP. 331-332]
Entity Tags: Elizabeth ("Liz") Cheney, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]

[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](9:04 a.m.-9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: House Speaker Hastert Has Problems Contacting Vice President Cheney; Receives Nuisance Call

Dennis Hastert.[Source: Congressional Pictorial Directory]Speaker of the House Dennis Hastert, who is third in line for the presidency, is in his office suite on the second floor of the US Capitol building when he sees the second plane hitting the World Trade Center live on television.[HASTERT, 2004, PP. 5] He is told that Vice President Dick Cheney will soon be calling him on the secure telephone in his office. [DAILY HERALD (ARLINGTON HEIGHTS), 9/11/2002] However, Cheney is currently having problems using secure phones, and Hastert is too. Hastert later recalls, "To use the secure phone, you have to push a button and turn a key. On that dreadful day I couldn't make the thing work. No matter what I did, I couldn't connect with the vice president. As the minutes passed, my frustrations grew." [HASTERT, 2004, PP. 6; HAYES, 2007, PP. 336] Several attempts to reach the vice president are unsuccessful. Hastert's later explanation is that "Anyone who has used a secure phone can tell you they do not work very well." However, numerous other people in the Washington area, including senior government officials, are also experiencing serious communications problems throughout the day (see (After 8:55 a.m.) September 11, 2001). Around the time the Pentagon is hit, the light on Hastert's regular phone starts flashing, but instead of being Cheney it is apparently a nuisance caller, who complains, "I can't get a hold of Jeb Bush, I can't get a hold of the president, I can't get a hold of Colin Powell. All this stuff is happening. What are you guys doing?" When Hastert asks the caller who they are, their reply is, "I'm just a citizen. Who is this?" [CHICAGO SUN-TIMES, 9/25/2001; DAILY HERALD (ARLINGTON HEIGHTS), 9/11/2002;ASSOCIATED PRESS, 6/16/2007] Shortly afterwards, the Capitol is evacuated (see 9:48 a.m. September 11, 2001) and Hastert's Secret Service agents hurry him out of the building. It is not until around 11 a.m. that Cheney finally speaks to him. [HASTERT, 2004, PP. 8-9; HAYES, 2007, PP. 337 AND 340-341]
Entity Tags: Dennis Hastert, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]


[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney's Lead Secret Service Agent Discusses Emergency Plans with Supervisor

James Scott, a Secret Service special agent assigned to the vice presidential protective division, learns of the second plane crash at the World Trade Center and realizes this is a terrorist attack, but reportedly makes no attempt to evacuate Vice President Dick Cheney from his White House office at this time. Scott is the "on-duty shift whip" for Cheney's Secret Service detail. He has seen the TV coverage of the first crash in New York and contacted Secret Service agents who are members of the "working shift" protecting Cheney to alert them to the incident (see (Shortly After 8:48 a.m.) September 11, 2001). After Flight 175 crashes into the WTC at 9:03 a.m. (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001), Scott confers with the on-duty supervisor who is with him. This is apparently Assistant Special Agent in Charge Scott Johnson. The two men are now "[c]ertain that the airplane crashes were terrorist activities," they will later recall. They therefore discuss "emergency contingency plans and a heightened security alert." [UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 10/1/2001]However, Scott will only head to the West Wing of the White House and join the shift agents there at around 9:30 a.m. (see(9:30 a.m.) September 11, 2001). And, he will say, he only evacuates Cheney from his office in the West Wing some time after that, apparently around 9:36 a.m. (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 10/1/2001; UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 11/17/2001 ]
Entity Tags: James Scott, Douglas Scott Johnson
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]

[/B][/B][/B]
[B][B][B](Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Officials Reportedly Converge on Vice President Cheney's Office, but Accounts Conflict

Vice President Dick Cheney sees the second plane hitting the World Trade Center live on television while meeting with his speechwriter John McConnell. He later claims that several other officials then come and join him in his White House office: National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, political adviser Mary Matalin, and his chief of staff, I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby, who has come across from the Old Executive Office Building next door to the White House. [MEET THE PRESS, 9/16/2001] According to journalist and author Stephen Hayes, "As word of the attacks spread throughout the West Wing, many White House officials migrated to Cheney's office." As well as Rice, Libby, and Matalin, these include Sean O'Keefe, the deputy director of the Office of Management and Budget; Josh Bolten, the deputy White House chief of staff; and counterterrorism "tsar" Richard Clarke. [HAYES, 2007, PP. 332] However, other accounts contradict this. Clarke claims that when he arrives at the White House shortly after 9:03, he sees the vice president and Rice, but the two are "alone in Cheney's office" (see (9:05 a.m.) September 11, 2001). (It is possible, though, that the other officials only arrive after Clarke ends his brief visit to the vice president's office.)[CLARKE, 2004, PP. 1-2] In numerous interviews where she discusses her actions this morning, Rice makes no mention of heading to Cheney's office after the second tower is hit. [O, THE OPRAH MAGAZINE, 2/1/2002; BBC RADIO 4, 8/1/2002 ; AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION, 9/11/2002;MSNBC, 9/11/2002; NEW YORK TIMES, 9/11/2002] Also, according to some accounts, the Secret Service evacuates Cheney from his office shortly after the second attack occurs (see (Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [NEW YORK TIMES, 9/13/2001; ABC NEWS, 9/14/2002]Cheney claims that President Bush phones him around this time, while he is still in his office. [MEET THE PRESS, 9/16/2001] But according to White House adviser Karl Rove, who is with the president in Florida, Bush is unable to reach the vice president because Cheney is being evacuated from his office (see (9:16 a.m.-9:29 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [MSNBC, 9/11/2002]
Entity Tags: Richard ("Dick") Cheney, Lewis ("Scooter") Libby,Condoleezza Rice, Mary Matalin, Richard A. Clarke, John McConnell,Joshua Bolten, Sean O'Keefe
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney, Richard Clarke[/B][/B]

[/B][/B][/B]

[B][B][B](Shortly After 9:03 a.m.) September 11, 2001: Vice President Cheney Evacuated from Office, Earlier than Some Accounts Claim

Ashley Estes.[Source: Eric Draper / White House]Vice President Dick Cheney is taken by the Secret Service from his White House office toward the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) below the East Wing of the White House around this time, according to some accounts, although other accounts, including the 9/11 Commission Report, will state that he is evacuated from his office about half an hour later. [NEW YORK TIMES, 9/13/2001; DAILY TELEGRAPH, 12/16/2001; ABC NEWS, 9/14/2002;CLARKE, 2004, PP. 1-2; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 39-40]
The Secret Service evacuates Cheney from his office "[j]ust after 9 a.m.," according to ABC News. At this time, "two or three agents came in and told him, Sir, you have to come with us.'" [ABC NEWS, 9/14/2002]
New York Times columnist William Safire will write, two days after 9/11, that Cheney is evacuated at 9:03 a.m., after he sees Flight 175 crashing into the World Trade Center live on television (see 9:03 a.m. September 11, 2001). "At that moment," according to Safire, "his Secret Service detail grabbed him and hurried him down to [the] PEOC." [NEW YORK TIMES, 9/13/2001]
Britain's Daily Telegraph will report that at about 9:05 a.m., around the time when President Bush is informed of the second plane crash in New York (see (9:06 a.m.) September 11, 2001), "a squad of Secret Service agents stormed into the office of Vice President Dick Cheney," seizes the vice president, and carries him down to the PEOC. [DAILY TELEGRAPH, 12/16/2001]
White House counterterrorism chief Richard Clarke will indicate that Cheney is evacuated shortly after the second plane hits the WTC. Clarke will write that after he learns of the second attack, he briefly talks to Cheney in the vice president's office (see (9:05 a.m.) September 11, 2001). As he leaves the room, he notices Cheney gathering up his papers and then sees eight Secret Service agents in Cheney's outer office, "ready to move to the PEOC." [CLARKE, 2004, PP. 1-2]
President Bush's personal secretary, Ashley Estes, will recall seeing Secret Service agents running down the hallway, carrying Cheney along, after she watches the second plane hit the WTC on television at 9:03 a.m. [WHITE HOUSE, 8/29/2002]
Cheney will describe the urgency with which his Secret Service agents move him out of his office, recalling that they "came in and said, Sir, we have to leave immediately,' and grabbed me… and they hoisted me up and moved me very rapidly down the hallway, down some stairs, through some doors, and down some more stairs into an underground facility under the White House." [MEET THE PRESS, 9/16/2001]
Some Accounts Consistent with Early Evacuation Time - Some accounts, while not specifically describing Cheney being hurried away from his office by the Secret Service, will be consistent with the vice president being evacuated around the time of the second attack in New York. White House adviser Karl Rove, who is with the president in Florida, will tell NBC News that when Bush tries phoning Cheney at around 9:16 a.m., he is unable to contact him because "the vice president was being… grabbed by a Secret Service agent and moved to the bunker" (see (9:16 a.m.-9:29 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [MSNBC, 9/11/2002] And Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta will say that when he arrives at the PEOC, between around 9:20 a.m. and 9:27 a.m., Cheney is already there (see (Between 9:20 a.m. and 9:27 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [MSNBC, 9/11/2002; 9/11 COMMISSION, 5/23/2003; ACADEMY OF ACHIEVEMENT, 6/3/2006] However, other accounts, including the 9/11 Commission Report, will state that Cheney is evacuated from his office a significant time after the second attack, at around 9:36 a.m. (see (9:36 a.m.) September 11, 2001). [UNITED STATES SECRET SERVICE, 11/17/2001 ; NEWSWEEK, 12/30/2001; 9/11 COMMISSION, 7/24/2004, PP. 39-40;GELLMAN, 2008, PP. 115]
Entity Tags: Norman Mineta, Karl C. Rove, Ashley Estes, Richard A. Clarke, US Secret Service, Richard ("Dick") Cheney
[B]Timeline Tags: 9/11 Timeline[/B]
[B][B]Category Tags: Key Day of 9/11 Events, All Day of 9/11 Events, Dick Cheney[/B][/B]


N.B. Second tower was hit at 9:03 EST.
[/B][/B][/B]