Dh B5 Staff Statement 17 Comments Fdr- Outline- National Leadership- White House- Bush- Nmcc- Myers- Leidig- Faa- Rumsfeld

NATIONAL LEADERSHIP

THEMES: (1) Lower level officials performed admirably; failure at the management level (2) RE TELECONFERENCES: Right people from DoD/FAA not all congregated on one conference (3) Shoot Down Order Perspective of.... (1) White House (2) President in Florida (3) NMCC MYERS LEIDIG (4) FAA Headquarters - 10th Floor MONTE BELGER JEFF GRIFFITH National Military Command Center DDO/Asst DDO/senior operations officer/emergency action officers Substitute - fully trained - but his position in the NMCC was operations director Learn of attack from CNN Evidence thought terrorism immediately - first notification was to the J-34 Call to the FAA: Told there was a crash at WTC Discussion about which conference to convene; on 9/11 no conference designed for domestic event; "event" and "threat" conferences - Decide on a significant event conference - all purpose used before for traditional hijackings; didn't go to a threat conference because on 9/11 they had SIOP connotations; thought they were dealing with consequence management, not ongoing attack -- had to build, not preset, problems getting it up; doesn't start until 9:29 ~ briefed that American 11 airborne and heading to DC no one remembers having specific location information; didn't know where this came from; — conference adjourns, operators start building an Air Threat Conference, starts at 9:37, just as Pentagon was hit; FAA not on conference until 10:17 - then the wrong person

Myers on Capitol Hill Speaks to Eberhart while still on Hill Sees smoke from car as crossing over the bridge We estimate arrived around 9:55 Rumsfeld In office - not clear what he was doing between 2d strike and Pentagon Felt explosion; went out to the parking lot; far away, 5-6 minutes Helped with the rescue efforts Someone from OSD finally went out to get him Went first to his office Spoke to POTUS Then stopped by the Cables Room Then to the NMCC