Officials believe White House, Air Force One were terrorist targets

By RON FOURNIER
AP White House Correspondent

WASHINGTON – Hopscotching across half the country while America was under attack, President Bush vented his frustration with Secret Service officials telling him Air Force One was at risk of a terrorist assault.

"I'm not going to let some tinhorn terrorist keep the president of the United States away from the nation's capital," he said during the six-hour flight that took him from Florida to Louisiana and Nebraska before returning to the White House. "The American people want to see their president and they want to see him now."

White House counselor Karl Rove read the quote from several pages of notes he took on a legal pad while Bush dealt with attacks in Washington and New York.

Rove and other White House officials have slowly revealed details of the journey to counter critics who have questioned whether Bush overreacted by touching down at two Air Force bases before returning to Washington.

Bush's top political strategist said some people raised questions with him, but their doubts were dispelled "when they were told there was specific and credible evidence of a threat" against the White House, Air Force One and the president himself.

Bush was in Florida, visiting a second-grade class, when White House chief of staff Andrew Card told him two planes had crashed into the World Trade Center in New York. Bush stepped outside the classroom to get briefed on the events, then spoke publicly to condemn the terrorist strike.

Soon after, a plane slammed into the Pentagon. Bush and his entourage were rushed aboard Air Force One.

Within the hour, the Secret Service received an anonymous call: "Air Force One is next." According to a senior government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, the caller knew the agency's code words relating to Air Force One procedures and whereabouts.

"We want to get the plane up and we want to get it up very high," the head of the Secret Service detail told Bush, according to Rove's notes. They wanted to head toward the Florida panhandle to pick up fighter jets scrambling to give Air Force One air cover.

Bush told Card, "I want to move on to Washington."

Vice President Dick Cheney, holed up in a secure bunker beneath the White House, told Bush the threat should be taken seriously and he should not return to Washington just yet.

Bush was told there were six planes unaccounted for, all potential missiles. "The situation is not stable," the head of Bush's detail told the president.

After landing at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Bush scheduled a national security meeting at 4 p.m. – several hours away.

"I want to go back home as soon as possible," Bush said, according to Rove, who was with the president all day Tuesday.

Replied the agent: "Our people are saying it's unstable still."

The president was told he could get to Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska more quickly than to Washington, thus allowing him to conduct the national security meeting at a secure location and address the public for a second time.

Off he went.

APNP-09-13-01 0928CDT