Never-Before-Seen Handwritten Notes Tell Compelling Story Of How George W. Bush Reacted To 9/11 – ‘Somebody Is Going To Pay’

On the eve of the 15th anniversary of the terrorist attacks on September 11th, previously unreleased handwritten notes documenting the reactions and conversations that President George W. Bush made on 9/11 have been made public. The never-before-seen notes describe the frantic scene hours after two planes smashed into the North and South towers of the World Trade Center in New York City, a third commercial jetliner crashed into the Pentagon, and a fourth plane slammed into the ground near Shanksville, Pennsylvania.

President Bush was reading books to students at the Emma E. Booker Elementary School in Sarasota, Florida on that fateful morning 15 years ago. The President was notified of the attack and he left the school and boarded Air Force One. Bush’s reactions to the harrowing events on that tragic day were written down on six pages of notes by Ari Fleischer, Bush’s press secretary at the time. The notes are handwritten on a legal pad and provide a verbatim account of the tense and terrifying atmosphere that day.

The notes begin at 8:45 a.m. with top political adviser Karl Rove telling the President about the first plane crashing into the World Trade Center. Get your dicks out 9/11 truthers and prepare to masturbate feverishly because 8:45 a.m. was actually one minute BEFORE the first attack. SEE 9/11 WAS AN INS…. We get it.

(The photos in this article were originally released in May and show George W. Bush on 9/11, there are also photos of how the Bush Administration reactions on September 11th.)

Bush is on board Air Force One by 9:45 a.m.

“Sounds like we have a minor war going on here. I heard about the Pentagon,” Bush tells Vice President Dick Cheney.

“We’re at war,” Bush tells congressional leaders by phone a few moments later. Hanging up and turning to his aides, he added, “When we find out who did this, they’re not going to like me as president. Somebody’s going to pay.”

“I can’t wait to find out who did it,” President Bush said. “It’s going to take a while and we’re not going to have a little slap on the wrist crap.”

“I want to get home as soon as possible,” Bush said. “I don’t want whoever this is holding me outside Washington.”

An aide responded, “Our people are saying it’s too unsteady still.”

Bush chief of staff Andy Card said, “The right thing is to let the dust settle.”

Fleischer told Yahoo News that two sections are redacted, at 10:37 a.m. and 10:41 a.m., when he wrote down the location of secure facilities where Bush daughters, Barbara and Jenna, were taken.

At 10:37 a.m., Bush asked about his beloved Scottish terrier, and Card said, “He’s nipping at the heels of Osama bin Laden now.”

At 11 a.m., Bush makes the decision to take US forces to the increased DEFCON 3 state of readiness.

At 12:25 p.m., while at Barksdale Air Force Base in Louisiana, Bush tells Cheney, “I think it’s important 4 ppl 2 see the gov is functioning because TV shows our nation has been blasted and bombed. Gov is not chaotic. It’s functioning smoothly. We’re going 2 get the bastards.” And, later, the president declares, “It’s the new war. It’s the faceless coward that [attacks].”

At 1:35 p.m., he says “this administration will spend whatever is necessary 2 find, hunt down, and destroy whoever did this.”

One of the more ironic tidbits from the letters is that even the President of the United States is at the mercy of advertisers. The POTUS and his top aides were watching a news broadcast of the horrific events of the terrorist attacks and attempting to assess the destruction of the country while on board Air Force One. The 9/11 coverage was interrupted for a hair-removal commercial. Advertisements. Even the President has to deal with them.

“I always took notes. It’s how you do your job,” Fleischer said. “But on September 11 it was instantly clear how much more important it was to have a record of what the president did and said. I basically glued myself to his side almost the entire day and remained in his cabin on Air Force One to listen and take notes.”

At 4:39 p.m., Bush speaks to first lady Laura Bush, “I’m coming home. See you at the White House. Love you … go on home.” He adds, “If I’m in the WH and there’s a plane coming my way, all I can say is I hope I read my bible that day.”