WASHINGTON – The White House and Air Force One were targets of Tuesday's
terrorist strikes, an administration spokesman said Wednesday.
"We had specific credible information that both were intended terrorist
targets, and that the plane that hit the Pentagon may have been headed for the
White House," said Sean McCormack, spokesman for President Bush's National
Security Council.
The White House confirmed reports that the executive mansion and presidential
jet had been threatened.
That helped to explain why Bush did not immediately return to Washington from
Florida on Tuesday morning and take charge of crisis operations run from the
Situation Room in the White House basement.
Bush, who had been in Sarasota, Fla., for an education speech, first flew to
an Air Force base in Louisiana and then to one in Nebraska before returning to
the White House at dusk.
His Boeing 747, operating as a kind of airborne White House, was escorted by
military fighter jets.
There was some criticism of Bush's movements, but until Wednesday afternoon,
the White House had refused to discuss why Bush had flown from one undisclosed
location to another. White House officials said only that they were deferring to
Secret Service and military counsel.
Amid the chaos, White House press secretary Ari Fleischer appeared sensitive
to any appearance the president was in hiding and not in charge.
At midday Tuesday, as Air Force One left Louisiana, Fleischer told reporters:
"The president is looking forward to returning to Washington. He understands at
a time like this, caution must be taken, and he wants to get to back to
Washington."
Hours before Bush's return, the White House was evacuated and Secret Service
agents with automatic rifles sealed off a two-block perimeter around the
mansion.
Vice President Dick Cheney and Condoleezza Rice, the national security
adviser, joined by a few aides, were the only ones to remain at the White House.
They worked from the Situation Room, in touch with Bush by telephone and
videoconference.
Throughout Tuesday, images of the Pentagon in flames – smashed by a hijacked
airliner – and White House aides fleeing across Pennsylvania Avenue provided a
sharp contrast with pictures of Bush headed into a small underground bunker at
Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska.
When Bush returned to Washington, he took a helicopter from Andrews Air Force
Base, arriving on the South Lawn of the White House under cover of three decoy
Marine choppers.
AP-WS-09-12-01 1525EDT