Against All Enemies
White House veteran Richard Clarke made headlines with the release of his 2004 book, Against All Enemies.
The mainstream media focused on the book's accusation that George W Bush's administration didn't take al Qaeda or the threat from terrorism seriously, and after the attacks turned their attention almost entirely to Iraq.
Within 9/11 "inside job" theories, however, the book is most often referenced for its timeline of events on the morning of the attacks:
"Right. Activate the CSG on secure video. I'll be there in less than five," I told her as I ran to my car. The CSG was the Counterterrorism Security Group, the leaders of each of the federal government's counterterrorism and security organisations. I had chaired it since 1992. It was on a five-minute tether during business hours, twenty minutes at all other times. I looked at the clock on the dashboard. It was 9:03 am, September 11, 2001."
As I drove up tp the first White House gate Lisa called again: "The other tower was just hit." "Well, now we know who we're dealing with. I want the highest-level person in Washington from each agency on-screen now, especially the FAA," the Federal Aviation Administration.
As I pulled the car up to the West Wing door, Paul Kurtz, one of the White House counterterrorism team, ran up to me. "We were in the Morning Staff Meeting when we heard. Condi told me to find you fast and broke up the meeting. She's with Cheney."
Bursting in on the Vice President and Condi - Condoleeza Rice, the President's National Security Advisor - alone in Cheney's office, I caught my breath. Cheney was famously implacable, but I thought I saw a reflection of horror on his face. "What do you think?" he asked.
"It's al al Qaeda attack and they like simultaneous attacks. This may not be over."
"Okay, Dick," Condi said, "you're the crisis manager, what do you recommend?" She and I had discussed what we would do if and when another terrorist attack hit. In June I had given her a checklist of things to do after an attack, in part to underline my belief that something big was coming and we needed to go on the offensive.
"We're putting together a secure teleconference to manage the crisis," I replied. "I'd like to get the highest-ranking official from each department." My mind was already racing, developing a new list of what had to be done and done now.
"Do it," the Vice President ordered.
"Secret Service wants us to go to the bomb shelter," Condi added.
I nodded. "I would and... I would evacuate the White House."
Cheney began to gather up his papers. In his outer office the normal Security Service presence was two agents. As I left, I counted eight, ready to move to the PEOC, The Presidential Emergency Operations Center, a bunker in the East Wing.
Just off the main floor of the situation room on the ground level of the West Wing is a Secure Video Conferencing Center, a clone of the Situation Room conference room except for the bank of monitors in the far wall opposite the chairman's seat. Like the conference room the Video Center is small and paneled with dark wood. The presidential seal hangs on the wall over the chair at the head of the table.
On my way through the Operations Center of the Situation Room, Ralph Siegler, the longtime Situation Room deputy director, grabbed me. "We're on the line with NORAD, on an air threat conference call." That was a procedure instituted by the North American Aerospace Defense Command during the Cold War to alert the White House when Soviet bombers got too close to U.S. airspace.
"Where's POTUS? Who have we got with him?" I asked, as we moved quickly together through the center, using the White House staff jargon for the President.
"He's in a kindergarten in Florida. Deb's with him." Deb was Navy Captain Deborah Lower, the director of the White House Situation Room. "We have a line open to her cell."
As I entered the Video Center, Lisa Gordon-Hagerty was taking the roll and I could see people rushing into studios around the city: Donald Rumsfeld at Defense and George Tenet at CIA. But at many of the sites the Principal was traveling. The Attorny General was in Milwaukee, so Larry Thompson, the Deputy, was at Justice. Rich Armitage, the number two at State, was filling in for Colin Powell, who was in Peru. Air Force four-star General Dick Myers was filling in for the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, Hugh Shelton, who was over the Atlantic. Bob Mueller was at the FBI, but he had just started that job.
Each Principal was supported by his or her member at the CSG and behind them staffs could be seen frantically yelling on telephones and grabbing papers. Condi Rice walked in behind me with her deputy, Steve Hadley. "Do you want to chair this as a Principal's meeting?" I asked. Rice, as National Security Advisor, chaired the Principals Committee, which consisted of the Secretaries of State and Defense, the CIA Director, the Chairman of the Join Chiefs, and often now the Vice President.
"No. You run it." I pushed aside the chair at the head of the table and stood there, Condi visibly by my side.
"Let's begin. Calmly. We will do this in crisis mode, which means keep your microphones off unless you're speaking. If you want to speak, wave at the camera. If it's something you don't want everyone to hear, call me on the red phone."
Rice would later be criticised in the press by unnamed participants of the meeting for just standing around. From my obviously partial perspective, she had shown courage by standing back. She knew it looked odd, but she also had enough self-confidence to feel no need to be in the chair. She did not want to waste time. I thought back to the scene in this room when the Oklahoma City bombing took place. President [Bill] Clinton had walked in and sat down, chairing the CSG video conference for a few minutes. While it showed high-level concern and we were glad to have him there, it would have slowed down our response if he had stayed.
"You're going to need some decisions quickly," Rice said off camera. "I'm going to the PEOC to be with the Vice President. Tell us what you need."
"What I need is an open line to Cheney and you." I turned to my White House Fellow, Army Major Mike Fenzel. The highly competitive process that had selected White House fellows had turned out some extraordinary people over the years, such as another army major named Colin Powell. "Mike," I said, "go with Condi to the PEOC and open a secure line to me. I'll relay the decisions we need to you."
Fenzel was used to pressure. As a lieutenant, he had driven his Bradley Fighting Vehicle down the runway of an Iraqi air base shooting up MiGs and taking return fire. As a captain, he had led a company of infantry into war-torn Liberia and faced down a mob outside the US embassy. [Eighteen months after 9/11, Fenzel would be the first man to parachute out of his C-17 in a nighttime combat jump into Iraq.]
"OK," I began. "Let's start with the facts. FAA, FAA, go." I fell into using the style of communication on tactical radio so that those listening in other studios around town could hear who was being called on over the din in their own rooms.
Jane Garvey, the administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, was in the chair. "The two aircraft that went in were American flight 11, a 767, and United 175, also a 767. Hijacked."
"Jane, where's Norm?" I asked. They were frantically looking for Norman Mineta, the Secretary of Transportation, and, like me, a rare holdover from the Clinton administration. At first, FAA could not find him. "Well, Jane, can you order aircraft down? We're going to have to clear the airspace around Washington and New York."
"We may have to do a lot more than that, Dick. I already put a hold on all takeoffs and landings in New York and Washington, but we have reports of eleven aircraft off course of out of communications, maybe hijacked."
Lisa slowly whispered "Oh shit." All conversation had stopped in the studios on the screen. Everyone was listening.
"Eleven," I repeated. "Okay, Jane, how long will it take to get all aircraft now aloft onto the ground somewhere?" My mind flashed back to 1995 when I asked FAA to ground all US flights over the Pacific because of a terrorist threat, causing chaos for days. It had taken hours then to find the Secretary of Transportation, Federico Pena.
"The air traffic manager," Jane went on, "says there are 4400 birds up now. We can cancel all take-offs quickly, but grounding them all that are already up ... nobody's ever done this before. Don't know how long it will take. By the way, it's Ben's first day on the job." Garvey was referring to Ben Sliney, the very new National Operations Manager at the FAA.
"Jane, if you haven't found the Secretary yet, are you prepared to order a national ground stop and no-fly zone?"
"Yes, but it will take a while." Shortly thereafter, Mineta called in from his car, and I asked him to come directly to the Situation Room. He had two sons who were pilots for United. He did not know where they were that day. I suggested he join the Vice President.
Roger Cressey, my deputy and a marathoner, had run eight blocks from his doctors office. Convincing the Uniformed Secret Service guards to let him into the compound, Roger pressed through to the situation room. I was pleased to see him.
I turned to the Pentagon screen. "JCS, JCS. I assume NORAD has scrambled fighters and AWACS. How many. Where?"
"Not a pretty picture, Dick." Dick Myers, himself a fighter pilot, knew that the days when we had scores of fighters on strip alert had ended with the Cold War. "We are in the middle of Vigilant Warrior, a NORAD exercise, but... Otis has launched two birds toward New York. Langley is trying to get two up now. The AWACS are at Tinker and not on alert." Oris was an Air National Guard base on Cape Cod. Langley Air Force Base was outside Norfolk, Virginia. Tinker AFB, home to all of America's flying radar stations, was in Oklahoma.
"Okay, how long to CAP over D.C."?" Combat Air Patrol, CAP, was something we were used to placing over Iraq, not our nation's capital.
"Fast as we can. Fifteen minutes?" Myers asked, looking at the generals and colonels behind him. It was now 9:28.
I thought about the 1998 simultaneous attacks on the American embassies in Kenya and Tanzania. There was the possibility now of multiple simultaneous attacks in several countries. "State, State. DOD, DOD. We have to assume there will be simultaneous attacks on us overseas. We need to close the embassies. Move DOD bases to combat Threatcon."
The television screen in the upper left was running CNN on mute. Noticing the President coming on, Lisa turned on the volume and the crisis conference halted to listen: "... into the World Trade Centre in an apparent terrorist attack on our country."
During the pause, I noticed that Brian Stafford, director of the Secret Service, was now in the room. He pulled me aside. "We gotta get him out of there to some place safe ... and secret. I've stashed FLOTUS." FLOTUS was White House speak for Mrs Bush, first lady of the US, now in a heavily guarded, unmarked building in Washington. Stafford had been President Clinton's bodyguard, led the presidential protection detail. Everyone knew that, despite the Elvis hairstyle, Stafford was solid and serious. He told presidents what to do, politely and in a soft Southern drawl, but in a way that left little room for discussion.
Franklin Miller, my colleague and Special Assistant to the President for Defense Affairs, joined Stafford. Frank squeezed my bicep. "Guess I'm working for you today. What can I do?" With him was a member of his staff, Marine Corps Colonel Tom Greenwood.
"Can you work with Brian," I told Miller. "Figure out where to move the President? He can't come back here until we know what the shit is happening." I knew that would not go down well with the Commander in Chief. "And Tom," I directed at Colonel Greenwood, "work with Roger - Cressey - on getting some CAP here - fast."
Stafford had another request. "When Air Force One takes off, can it have fighter escorts?"
"Sure, we can ask," Miller replied, "but you guys know that CAP, fighter escorts, they can't just shoot down planes inside the United States. We'll need an order." Miller had spent two decades working in the Pentagon and knew that the military would want clear instructions before they used force.
I picked up the open line to the PEOC. I got a dial tone. Someone had hung up on the other end. I punched the PEOC button on the large, white secure phone that had twenty speed dial buttons. When Major Fenzel got on the line I gave him the first three decisions we needed. "Mike, somebody has to tell the President he can't come back here. Cheney, Condi, somebody. Secret Service concurs. We do not want them saying where they are going when they take off. Second, when they take off, they should have fighter escort. Three, we need to authorize the Air Force to shoot down any aircraft - including a hijacked passenger flight - that looks like it is threatening to attack and cause large-scale death on the ground. Got it?"
"Roger that, Dick, get right back to you." Fenzel was, I thought, optimistic about how long decisions like that would take.
I resumed the video conference. "FAA, FAA, go. Status report. How many aircraft do you still carry as hijacked?" Garvey read from a list: "All aircraft have been ordered to land at the nearest field. Here's what we have as potential hijacks: Delta 1989 over West Virginia, United 93 over Pennsylvania ..."
Stafford slipped me a note. "Radar shows aircraft headed this way." Secret Service had a system that allowed them to see what the FAA's radar was seeing. "I'm going to empty out the complex." He was ordering the evacuation of the White House.
Ralph Siegler stuck his head into the room. "There has been an explosion in the Pentagon parking lot, maybe a car bomb!"
"If we evacuate the White House, what about the rest of Washington?" Paul Kurtz asked me. "What about COG?" Continuity of Government was another program left over from the Cold War. It was designed to relocate officials to alternate sites during periods of national emergency. COG was also planned to devolve power in case the President or key cabinet members were killed.
Roger Cressey stepped back into the video conference and announced: "A plane just hit the Pentagon." I was still talking with the FAA, taking down a list of possibly hijacked aircraft. "Did you hear me?" Cressey was on loan to the White House from the Pentagon. He had friends there; we all did.
"I can still see Rumsfeld on the screen," I replied, "so the whole building didn't get hit. No emotion in here. We are going to stay focused. Roger, find out where the fighter planes are. I want combat air patrol over every major city in this country. Now."
Stafford's order to evacuate was going into effect. As the staff poured out of the White House compound, the residence, the west wing and the Executive Office Building, the uniformed Secret Service guards yelled at the women, "If you're in high heels, take off your shoes and run - run!" My secretary, Beverly Roundtree, was on the line to Lisa, telling her that she and the rest of my staff were still in our vault in the Executive Office Building. "Okay, okay," Lisa was saying, knowing she could not persuade her to leave, "then bring over the chem-bio gear."
Our coordinator for Continuity of Government [we will call him Fred here to protect his identity at the request of the government] joined us.
"How do I activate COG?" I asked him. In the exercises we had done, the person playing the President had always given that order.
"You tell me to do it," Fred replied.
At that moment, Paul handed me the white phone to the PEOC. It was Fenzel. "Air Force One is getting ready to take off, with some press still on board. He'll divert to an air base. Fighter escort is authorized. And..." He paused. "Tell the Pentagon that they have authority from the President to shoot down hostile aircraft, repeat, they have authority to shoot down hostile aircraft."
"Roger that." I was amazed at the speed of the decisions coming from Cheney and, through him, from Bush. "Tell them I am instituting COG." I turned back to Fred: "Go."
"DOD, DOD." I tried to get the attention of those still on the screen in the Pentagon. "Three decisions. One, the Pentagon has ordered the use of force against aircraft deemed to be hostile. Two, the White House is also requesting fighter escort of Air Force One. Three, and this applies to all agencies, we are initiating COG. Please activate your alternate command centers and move staff to them immediately."
Rumsfeld said that smoke was getting into the Pentagon secure teleconferencing studio. Franklin Miller urged him to helicopter to DOD's alternate site. "I am too goddamn old to go to an alternate site," the Secretary answered. Rumsfeld moved to another studio in the Pentagon and sent his deputy, Paul Wolfowitz, to the remote site.
General Myers asked, "Okay, shoot down aircraft, but what are the ROE?" ROE were Rules of Engagement. It was one thing to say it's okay to shoot down a hijacked aircraft threatening to kill people on the ground, but we needed to give pilots more specific guidelines than that. I asked Miller and Greenwood to make sure DOD had an answer to that question quickly. "I don't want them delaying while they lawyer that to death."
Lisa slipped a note in front of me: "CNN says car bomb at the State Department. Fire on the Mall near the Capitol."
Ralph Siegler stuck his head around the door: "Secret Service reports a hostile aircraft ten minutes out."
Beverly Roundtree arrived and distributed gas masks. Cressey suggested we activate the Emergency Broadcast System.
"And have them say what?" I asked.
"State, State..." I called to get Rich Armitage's attention.
The Deputy Secretary of State had been a Navy Seal and looked it. He responded in tactical radio style: "State, here, go".
"Rich, has your building just been bombed?"
"Does it fucking look like I've been bombed, Dick?"
"Well, no, but the building covers about four blocks and you're behind a big vault door. And you need to activate your COG site."
"All right, goddamn it, I'll go look for myself," Armitage said, lifting himself out of the chair and disappearing off camera. "Where the hell is our COG site..."
Fred returned. "We have a chopper on the way to extract the Speaker from the Capitol. Did you want all the departments to go to COG or just the national security agencies?" The Speaker of the House, Dennis Hastert, was next in line to the Presidency if Bush or Cheney were killed or incapacitated. Soon, he would be skimming across the backed-up traffic and on his way to a cave.
"Everybody, Fred, all departments. And check with the Capitol Police to see if there is a fire."
"Already did, " Fred replied. "It's bogus. No fires, no bombs, but the streets and Metro and jammed with people trying to get out of town. It's going to be hard to get people to alternate sites."
Siegler was back: "Hostile aircraft eight minutes out."...Against All Enemies, Richard Clarke