Safe to say that we all recall where we were when the attack on the United States took place on September 11, 2001.
It was exactly two days after my 28th birthday, and I was in Columbus, Georgia, visiting family and doing some work for a candidate who was thinking about running for a Congressional seat in North Carolina. I was online, sending an email, when my cell phone rang. It was my brother calling me from out of state. He asked if I was watching TV and I said I wasn’t. He told me to turn on CNN.
I did, and my heart sank. I felt like I’d been punched in the gut. A short while later, the first of the World Trade Center towers collapsed, and I felt tears running down my cheeks.
But I’ve always kind of wondered one thing: What was happening that day at the White House? President George W. Bush was out of state and the person in charge at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue was Vice President Dick Cheney. How did he react? Well, now we know.
In never-before-seen photos just released by The U.S. National Archives, we can plainly see how Cheney reacted at the time of the attacks. And his seemingly serene acceptance of the day’s news is, to me, enough to both enrage and nauseate me at the same time. Here are some of them:
Other images show Cheney with National Security Advisor Condoleezza Rice and other officials, and were taken in the the President’s Emergency Operations Center (PEOC).
Once President Bush finally arrived back at the White House, the photos continue to show one thing: Cheney is the one doing the planning and most of the talking. So it appears that what we always suspected is true: Cheney was in charge, and Bush was merely following his lead and, perhaps, his direct orders.
If you want to see the full collection of photos from the White House on 9/11, you can click below:
h/t Addicting Info
