September 11, 2001 came after a “summer of threat” in which George W. Bush (and Condoleeza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush Administration principals), the FBI, CIA and Secret Service received increasingly dire warnings from counterterrorism experts. These included the August 6 PDB, which warned of “patterns of suspicious activity in [the US] consistent with preparations for hijackings or other types of attacks, including recent surveillance of federal buildings in New York.”

The Secret Service necessarily has the best communications systems and most up to date information, given that they are tasked with the security of the President of the USA. As documented in “Crossing the Rubicon” by Michael Ruppert and summarized in the linked article by Michael Kane, “It is the Secret Service who has the legal mandate to take supreme command in case of a scheduled major event - or an unplanned major emergency - on American soil; these are designated "National Special Security Events." The Atlanta Olympic Games and the Republican & Democratic National Conventions are notable examples of NSSE's. In preparation, the Secret Service runs training initiatives of simulated attacks and field exercises for such events. The Secret Service works with state and local authorities as well as the military to coordinate security efforts; it has the best communication system of any agency in the country; and its personnel are always present with both the President and Vice President - making it the perfect agency to take supreme command in case of a major emergency on American soil. When 9/11 occurred, the legal framework was in place to allow the Secret Service to take supreme command over any and all American agencies, including the Air Force.”

According to former Counterterrorism Tsar Richard Clarke in his book Against All Enemies, "Secret Service had a system that allowed them to see what FAA's radar was seeing." Also, Cheney admitted the Secret Service was in the loop to Tim Russert on Meet The Press September 16; “The Secret Service has an arrangement with the F.A.A. They had open lines after the World Trade Center was...”. When DCI George Tenet was informed about the first tower being hit at 8:50 am, he immediately connected it to Bin Laden, and speculated “I wonder if this has something to do with [Zacharias Moussaoui] who trained for a pilot’s license”. The 9/11 Commission Report doesn’t address these reports, or Tenet’s actions that morning.

The claim that the Secret Service was unaware that a plane had crashed into World Trade Center 1 is simply not credible. Even so, they allowed Bush to continue on to his heavily publicized photo op in support of the “No Child Left Behind Act”; reading “My Pet Goat” with an elementary school class. He sat in the classroom for 7 minutes after Andrew Card whispered in his ear about 9:05 am, “The nation is under attack”. After leaving the classroom, they still didn’t leave; he gave his first post-attack press conference at the school. The Secret Service allowed the President of the United States to remain at his publicized location for half an hour after the 2nd tower was hit, exposing himself and the children to danger; did they know he wasn’t a target? They didn’t leave until about 9:35 am, at which time they made a mad dash for the airport 4 miles away, and took off in Air Force One- without fighter escort. The 9/11 Commission Report explained this half-hour delay after Bush and the Secret Service had admitted they knew they nation was under attack by saying, “The President told us his instinct was to project calm, not to have the country see an excited reaction at a moment of crisis," and that the Secret service "told us they were anxious to move the President to a safer location, but did not think it imperative for him to run out the door." (for half an hour after they knew the nation was under attack)

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