MTP75 Archives — Full Episode: Dick Cheney's Post-9/11 Interview

Summary

Highlights

• Vice President Cheney confirmed the U.S. will pursue Al-Qaeda and Osama Bin Laden aggressively, marking a long-term strategy to counter terrorism. 🚀
• The discussion highlighted the need for constant vigilance and possible military action to dismantle global terrorist networks. 🌐
• Cheney detailed a possible link between Bin Laden’s organization and other terrorist groups, increasing the complexity of tackling terrorism. 🎯
• He shared insights on the necessity of gathering intelligence through unconventional means to combat terrorism effectively. 🕵️‍♂️
• Cheney retold the chaos of 9/11, emphasizing the immediate threat perception and the need for strategic leadership decisions. ⚡

Key Takeaways

• The 9/11 attacks marked a shift in U.S. national security strategy, with a strong focus on combating terrorism at its roots. 📌
• Vice President Cheney underscored the role of intelligence and military operations as critical to preventing future attacks. 🛡️
• The possibility of preemptive actions against countries harboring terrorists was emphasized, setting a tone for future U.S. foreign policy. 🔍
• The Vice President's reflections reveal the scale of coordination and decision-making on 9/11, illustrating the magnitude of the crisis management. 📘
• The interview conveyed the challenges of maintaining national unity and coordination between various sectors in combating terrorism. 🤝

Overview

Chapters

• 00:00 - 00:30: Introduction and Setting The chapter titled 'Introduction and Setting' begins with a special edition broadcast of 'Meet the Press' featuring an exclusive interview with Vice President Dick Cheney. The segment is filmed live from Camp David, specifically at a location called Green Top, highlighting the importance and significance of the conversation. The setting underscores the gravity of the topics to be discussed, involving both the President and the Vice President, marking it as the first television program to originate from this site, which emphasizes the seriousness of the dialogue.
• 00:30 - 01:00: Overview of Government Meetings Post-9/11 The chapter titled 'Overview of Government Meetings Post-9/11' covers the activities of the National Security team in the aftermath of the 9/11 attacks. They have been in intensive meetings for 36 hours to formulate plans and strategies moving forward. Initially, their focus was on managing the immediate crisis, but they are now starting to concentrate on future actions. The chapter reflects on the importance of these discussions and the challenges faced in prioritizing and orchestrating national security efforts.
• 01:00 - 01:30: Changed Terrorism Landscape In this chapter, the focus is on the strategic approach of the United States in response to the changing landscape of terrorism. The discussion revolves around planning and strategizing the nation's next steps after a significant terrorist event. The excerpt highlights a statement made by the President at the World Trade Center, assuring that those responsible would be addressed decisively. The anticipation of a substantial and swift response underscores the sentiment of urgency and determination.
• 01:30 - 02:30: Responsibilities and Challenges The chapter titled 'Responsibilities and Challenges' discusses the recent changes and challenges in the world, highlighting the impact of terrorism on the United States. It emphasizes that although the U.S. has been a target of terrorist attacks overseas before, the events in New York and Washington represent a new and different situation. The chapter also stresses that dealing with these challenges is a long-term proposition.
• 02:30 - 03:30: Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda The chapter discusses the difference between past military engagements, such as the Desert Storm, and the ongoing battle against terrorism. Unlike previous wars that had clear objectives and limited timeframes, the war against terrorism, particularly Al-Qaeda, is expected to take years. The focus of this fight is not limited to one individual but the broader problem of terrorism itself. Al-Qaeda, an organization led by Osama Bin Laden, is highlighted as a key group responsible for acts of terrorism. 'Al-Qaeda' translates to 'the base' in Arabic, indicating its foundational role in global terrorism.
• 03:30 - 04:30: Nature of the Terrorist Threat The chapter discusses the complex nature of terrorist threats, focusing on how these threats come from a loose coalition of various groups. These groups not only include forces from well-known organizations but also consist of others like Islamic Jihad from Egypt and a movement from Uzbekistan. Such terrorist organizations often share common ideologies and operate on a global scale. The main task at hand is dismantling these expansive networks, acknowledging that it will be a challenging and ongoing struggle.
• 04:30 - 05:30: Pakistan and International Relations The chapter 'Pakistan and International Relations' explores the ongoing involvement of the United States in international affairs, emphasizing the lack of a definitive end date and the necessity for continuous vigilance to prevent future issues. It discusses the potential for major efforts and military involvement. Additionally, the chapter touches on the uncertainties surrounding individuals who partook in recent events, with concerns over whether any suspects or supporters remain at large in the country.
• 05:30 - 06:30: Inside the White House During the Attacks The chapter titled "Inside the White House During the Attacks" focuses on the atmosphere in the White House following a major terrorist attack. There is concern over the possibility of additional terrorists who may have backed out of the operation or who may have been unable to participate due to unforeseen circumstances. The uncertainty extends to the fear of further planned operations by terrorists who have been residing and preparing in the United States for years. This indicates a heightened state of alert and the necessity for caution in assuming the existence of only the known assailants.
• 06:30 - 07:30: Response to the Hijackings The chapter discusses the U.S. government's response to a series of hijackings, focusing on its preparedness through military means. The president has called for uniformed personnel to be ready, indicating a possible large-scale mobilization of troops, including reservists. A specific call-up of 35,000 reservists is mentioned as a crucial step in the government's strategy. The discussion emphasizes the importance of targeting and identifying individuals directly involved in orchestrating the attacks, highlighting efforts to dismantle small groups or cells involved in planning, coordinating, and executing the hijackings.
• 07:30 - 08:30: Vice President's Role and Responsibilities The chapter titled 'Vice President's Role and Responsibilities' discusses the United States' approach to addressing global terrorism. It highlights a shift in U.S. policy under the president's leadership, focusing not only on finding and eliminating terrorists but also on targeting nations, organizations, and individuals who support terrorist activities. Afghanistan is mentioned as an example of a country that has provided sanctuary and facilities for terrorists, signaling a broader strategy to hold supportive entities accountable.
• 08:30 - 10:00: Air Travel and Economic Considerations The chapter discusses the United States' stance on countries providing sanctuary to terrorists, emphasizing the severe consequences for those nations. It highlights the U.S. government's commitment to aggressively pursue these countries to ensure they stop supporting terrorist organizations. The strong message was specifically directed towards Afghanistan, with Osama Bin Laden identified as the prime suspect at that time.

MTP75 Archives — Full Episode: Dick Cheney's Post-9/11 Interview Transcription

• 00:00 - 00:30 live from Camp David a special edition of Meet the Press with Tim Russert an exclusive interview with Vice President Dick Cheney and we are at Green Top in the shadows of the presidential retreat at Camp David Mr Vice President good morning and welcome morning Tim this is the first television program to originate from here which underscores the seriousness of our discussion this morning the president the vice president the
• 00:30 - 01:00 National Security team have been meeting for the last 36 hours what can you share with the American people this morning well Tim this is the first chance we've had really since the events this week to sit down and really focus on on various plans and propositions things we ought to be doing going forward up until now it's been focused very much on trying to manage the crisis and to deal with the problems the immediate situation but uh yesterday we've been able to come up and and get everybody together a lot of work done
• 01:00 - 01:30 staff work done in in preparation for it and sit down and really spend some time looking at what our strategy ought to be and how we ought to proceed when the president went to the World Trade Center on Friday he said the people who did this will hear from all of us soon there's an expectation in the country that we're about to pay back Big Time quickly what should the American people think or feel about that I think the important thing here Tim is for people to understand that things
• 01:30 - 02:00 have changed since last Tuesday the world shifted in some respects clearly what we're faced with here is a situation where terrorism has struck home in the United States we've been subject to targets of terrorist attacks before especially overseas with our forces and American Personnel overseas but this time because of what happened in New York and what happened in Washington it's um it's a qualitatively different set of circumstances it's also important for people to understand that this is a long-term proposition it's not
• 02:00 - 02:30 like well even Desert Storm where we had a build up for a few months four days of combat and it was over with this is going to be the kind of work that will probably take years because the focus has to be not just on one any one individual the problem here is Terrorism and even in this particular instance it looks as though the responsible organization was a group called Al-Qaeda it's a it's Arabic for the base that's Osama Bin Laden he headed it up and uh and organized it but it's a very broad
• 02:30 - 03:00 kind of loose Coalition of groupings it includes not only uh his forces but it also includes for example Islamic Jihad from Egypt it includes a movement from Uzbekistan the groups that are terrorist organizations people that oftentimes move around them sometimes share common ideologies that operate on a worldwide basis and what we have to do is take down those networks of terrorist organizations and as I say I think this is going to be a struggle that the
• 03:00 - 03:30 United States is going to be involved in for the foreseeable future there's not going to be an end date we're going to say there it's all over with it's going to require constant vigilance on our part to avoid problems in the future but it's also going to require a major effort and obviously quite possibly use the military for do you believe that anyone who participated in the events on Tuesday or in fact even a support role or on a plane that wasn't successfully hijacked are they still at large in the United States we don't know the the possibility clearly exists that there
• 03:30 - 04:00 could be additional uh terrorists out there that were part of this operation that maybe got cold feet and didn't get on the airplane or for one reason or another or were thwarted in their efforts we have to assume that possibility exists we had these 19 individuals in the United States some of them for several years training preparing getting ready for this operation and we can by no means assume now that that's all there is there may well be other operations that have been planned and and are in fact in the works
• 04:00 - 04:30 when the president said everyone in uniform get ready that that's does that suggest a massive call call up of Reserves we've had some Reserve call up we call up of course 35 000 reservists uh we felt that was important to do here I think that the way to think about it Tim is to think about the Target and what our objectives are here obviously we're interested in individuals who are directly involved in planning coordinating ordering the attack and uh but those tend to be individuals or small groupings of individuals sales
• 04:30 - 05:00 perhaps various places around the world we need to go find them and Route them out and but we also what's different here what's changed in terms of U.S policy is the president's determination to also go after those Nations and organizations and people that lend support to these terrorist operators if you've got a nation out there now that has provided a base training facilities a sanctuary as has been true for example in this case probably with Afghanistan
• 05:00 - 05:30 then they have to understand and others like them around the world have to understand that if you provide Sanctuary to terrorists you face the full Wrath of the United States of America and that we will in fact aggressively go after these nations to make certain that they cease and desist from providing support for these kinds of organizations full wrath that's a very strong statement to the Afghans this morning it is indeed the president said that Osama Bin Laden was the Prime Suspect why
• 05:30 - 06:00 there's just a lot of evidence to link his organization and the Al Qaeda organization and he's the head of Al Qaeda to this operation there's some ties for example to some of the people involved here back to the USS coal bombing Yemen were able to tell going back now looking at relationships and the way they've operated in the past we're quite confident that in fact as the president said he is the prime suspect that doesn't mean we know all there is to
• 06:00 - 06:30 know yet that doesn't mean there weren't others involved as as I mentioned the Egyptian Islamic Jihad has a very close working relationship with this organization so there may well be others we want to continue to investigate aggressively to make sure we've wrapped up and understand fully all who were involved but clearly the the evidence at this point takes us very much in that direction you have no doubt that Osama Bin Laden played some role in this I have no doubt that he and his organization played a significant role
• 06:30 - 07:00 in this were you surprised by the Precision and sophistication of the operation uh well certainly we were surprised in the sense that you know there had been information coming in that a big operation was planned but that's sort of a trend that you see all the time in these kinds of reports but we do no specific threat no specific threat involving really domestic operation or involving uh what happened obviously the city's airliner and so forth we did go on alert with our overseas forces a number of times during the course of the
• 07:00 - 07:30 summer when we thought the Threat Level had risen significantly so clearly we were surprised by what happened here on the other hand in terms of the sophistication of it it's interesting to look at because clearly what happened is you you got some people committed to uh to die in the course of the operation you got some visas got them entered to the United States they came here some of them enrolled in our commercial Aviation schools and learned to fly courtesy of our own capabilities here in the United
• 07:30 - 08:00 States then what they needed in order to execute was some degree of coordination obviously in terms of timing but they needed knives cardboard Cutters of racial blades whatever it was and an airline ticket that's it they then were able to take over the aircraft and use our own you know heavily loaded with fuel large aircraft intentionally choosing planes that had lots of fuel and a few passengers certainly looks that way and um the uh so the sophisticated in on the one hand it's
• 08:00 - 08:30 very simple and it doesn't involve a lot of Hardware or complex devices that they have to bring into the United States they in effect turn some of our own system against us but it's uh it's uh Simplicity uh does in fact also speak volumes in terms of planning creativity Ingenuity in terms of how they go about these kinds of operations we clearly will have to revisit our Visa procedures we've got to look at at all aspects of the operation here in terms of what happened clearly they're going
• 08:30 - 09:00 to be a lot of lessons to be learned from it but it's important for us to not to get trapped into thinking uh if we just guard against another situation where terrorists can hijack airplanes and use them to hit vital Targets in the U.S that we've dealt with the problem I'm sure they're out there right now thinking about new creative ways to come after us that don't involve any of those those techniques at all but something totally new Osama Bin Laden released a training video 100 minutes long which was
• 09:00 - 09:30 obtained by the Western media this summer and I want to show a portion of that to you and give you a chance to respond to it and we'll play it right now these are followers of his Channing we have to fight every day even to the shedding of blood in God's righteous path there he is himself with his own rifle they go on to say we thank God for granting us Victory the day we destroyed the coal and the Sea that's the USS Destroyer that was hit last year those are his supporters marching there you are as Secretary of Defense visiting
• 09:30 - 10:00 Saudi Arabia used in this video to Rally support for Osama Bin Laden and Bin Laden himself we have to practice the way of the suicidal Commandos of faith and the heroism of the resistance fighter and we refuse their culture and we will take advantage of their misfortunes and the blood of their wounded now he goes on the Mr say Mr secretary that with small capabilities we can defeat the U.S America is much weaker
• 10:00 - 10:30 than it appears what's your message this morning to Osama Bin Laden well I I think he seriously misreads the American people I think the um I mean you have to ask yourself why somebody would do what he does why have someone so motivated obviously he's filled with hate for the United States and for everything we stand for why freedom and democracy why does he hate us so much it must have something to do with his background his own uh upbringing he's the son of a prominent
• 10:30 - 11:00 Saudi family successful business group with significant wealth he went and served in Afghanistan with the mujahideen during the war against the Russians and he has for whatever reason developed his intense hatred of everything that relates to the United States and his objective obviously is to try to influence our Behavior to forces to withdraw from that part of the world and uh purely he's not going to be successful he has stated unequivocally
• 11:00 - 11:30 that he wants the United States out of the Middle East he no longer wants to the United States to be the Ally of Israel well our relationship with Israel change in any way shape or form because of this event no the fact of the matter is that the will not allow him to achieve his aims we're not about to change our policies or change our basic fundamental beliefs what we are going to do is aggressively go after Mr Bin Laden obviously and all of his associates and even if it takes a long time I'm
• 11:30 - 12:00 convinced eventually we'll Prevail there is an FBI wanted poster and there he is himself wanted for the murder of U.S Nationals offside the United States he's in under indictment for his involvement in blowing up embassies in Tanzania and Kenya could we say to the Afghanistan government you are harboring a fugitive from Justice give him over in 48 hours or we're coming in and taking him we could say such a thing legally well legally certainly uh the uh I simply restate again Tim I don't want
• 12:00 - 12:30 to get into the business of predicting what specific steps we will take but without question the president has been very very clear that to Harbor terrorists uh is to in effect accept a certain degree of guilt for the acts that they that they commit and the government of Afghanistan has to understand that we believe they have indeed been harboring a man who committed whose organization
• 12:30 - 13:00 committed this most recent egregious act you're convinced he's still in Afghanistan we don't know is there any international law or United States law which would prohibit us from killing him if we found him um not in my estimation Tim but I'd have to check with the lawyers on that obviously you've got a lawyers always have a role to play but one of the Intriguing things here is the way in which people are rallied around other governments have rallied around this
• 13:00 - 13:30 notion that in fact this is a war we've seen our NATO allies for the first time in history invoke Article 5 attack against one is an attack against all it's never before been done they unanimously agreed to that proposition earlier this week in in Brussels I think the world increasingly will understand that what we have here are a group of Barbarians that they threaten all of us that the U.S is the target at the moment but one of the things to remember is if you look at the roster of countries who
• 13:30 - 14:00 lost people in the bombing in New York over 40 countries have had someone killed or have significant numbers missing the British for example have an estimated 100 dead and five to seven hundred still missing so it's it's an attack just upon not just upon the United States but upon on you know civilized society a very important country in all this is Pakistan on the border of Afghanistan Pakistan there are reports on the wires today has sent a
• 14:00 - 14:30 delegation to the Taliban government in Afghanistan saying it's time to turn Osama Bin Laden over the Pakistan government is also saying to its people this morning we will get more aid from the United States the United States will lift economic sanctions against us and we've been given assurances that the Indian government and the Israeli government will not be part of any military operation based in Pakistan can you confirm that um I've seen some communication back and
• 14:30 - 15:00 forth at this point let me let me simply say we have had discussions with the Pacs uh President Bush called uh president Bashar just yesterday afternoon from Camp David they've had a good conversation we have made certain requests of the pakistanis they have agreed to work with us in this endeavor and some of that's covered in the statement they've made there they will get more assistance from us well we'd like to uh to be able to work for
• 15:00 - 15:30 them we don't remember Pakistan's been a close friend and Ally of the United States in the past the relationship's been somewhat strained in recent years primarily because congressionally imposed sanctions uh have had adverse effect clearly on the relationship and those sanctions were imposed as the pakistanis developed nuclear weapons but we're clearly in a situation here where that relationship is important it's important to us it's important to Pakistan Pakistan borders Afghanistan they one of only three countries that have diplomatic relations with the Taliban in Afghanistan they can be very
• 15:30 - 16:00 helpful in this case and we expect they will be and there's nothing wrong with providing economic rewards for helpful Behavior now I think we're going to want both the carrot and the stick approach Pakistan also has a nuclear capability how dangerous is it for that government to come out against Osama Bin Laden or be helpful to the United States are we concerned about destabilizing Pakistan with nuclear capability a capability that can fall in the hands of
• 16:00 - 16:30 the Taliban or Osama Bin Laden well we're we're clearly very sensitive to those kinds of problems anytime you're dealing in that part of the world in the Middle East the potential for instability always exists to get a change in government in relatively short notice and and we're well aware of all that but it also it's one of the reasons frankly you'll see the al-Qaeda organization Osama Bin Laden choosing to locate in that part of the world because it is a area of instability because there are places that nobody really controls and those
• 16:30 - 17:00 are the areas we're going to have to operate in if we're going to be successful and again the the key here to keep in mind is that what we're asking Nations to do and which the Pacs have clearly made a decision to do is we're asking Nations to do step up and be counted they're going to have to decide are they going to be a stand with the United States and believe in freedom and democracy and civilization or are they even the stand of the terrorists and The Barbarians if you will and it's a fairly clear-cut choice and I'm delighted to see that Pakistan has in fact stepped up to the
• 17:00 - 17:30 task Egypt Saudi Arabia Jordan three critical countries in the Middle East who have been somewhat supportive of the United States they also have segments of their population that look at Osama Bin Laden as a hero if we demand that they support us what do we risk destabilizing those governments no I think you've got to recognize standpoint of the Saudis for example they're a prime target for this organization of terrorists to
• 17:30 - 18:00 Osama Bin Laden he's adamantly opposes the Saudi royal family um probably second only to the United States would be his uh his hatred for uh for the current government in Saudi Arabia with respect to Egypt for example and the Egyptian Islamic Jihad the these are groups and organizations that have threatened the government of Egypt in the past president Mubarak has been the target of several assassination attempts during the course of his career some of them promulgated by these kinds of groups and organizations so I think uh
• 18:00 - 18:30 governments Friends of the United States the government she mentioned Jordan Egypt Saudi Arabia Etc they understand very clearly that it's as much in their interest as it is in ours that we end these kinds of activities and then we we put a stop to this kind of international terrorism and I think they'll be prepared to help us Mr Vice President how difficult and delicate is it to send this message that we're going to approve terrorism and Osama Bin Laden and some
• 18:30 - 19:00 other cells but that this is not a war against Islam and not a war against all Arab people we have to continually remind folks of that to the president's been very clear and it would be a huge mistake for We As Americans to assume that this represents some kind of or should lead us to some kind of condemnation of Islam that's clearly not the case this is a perversion if you will of some of these religious beliefs by an
• 19:00 - 19:30 extremist group we have extremists associated with you know every imaginable religion in the world um but this is by no means a war against Islam we've got a great many Arab Americans for example who are first class loyal American citizens we need to make certain that we don't make the mistake of assuming that everybody who comes from a certain ethnic group or certain religious background is somehow to be blamed for this clearly that's not the case they are as appalled by it as we are when Osama Bin Laden took responsibility for blowing up the
• 19:30 - 20:00 embassies in Kenya and Tanzania U.S embassy several hundred died the United States launched 60 tomahawk missiles into his training sites in Afghanistan it only emboldened him it only inspired him and seemed even to increase his recruitment is it safe to say that that kind of response is not something we're considering in that kind of minute magnitude I want to be careful here Tim because I clearly um would be inappropriate for me to talk about operational matters
• 20:00 - 20:30 um specific uh options or or the kinds of activities we might undertake going forward we do indeed though have obviously the world's finest military they've got a broad range of capabilities and they may well be given missions in connection with this overall task strategy we also have to work those sort of the dark side if you will we're going to spend time in the shadows and in the intelligence World a lot of what needs
• 20:30 - 21:00 to be done here will have to be done quietly without any discussion using sources and methods that are available to our intelligence agencies if we're going to be successful that's the world these folks operate in and so it's going to be vital for us to to use any means that are disposable the disposal basically to uh to achieve our objective there have been restrictions placed on the United States intelligence gathering or reluctance to use unsavory characters those who violate human rights to assist in intelligence gathering will we lift
• 21:00 - 21:30 some of those restrictions well I think so I think the one of the byproducts if you will of this tragic set of circumstances is that we'll see a a very thorough sort of reassessment of how we operate and the kinds of people we deal with there's if you're going to deal only with um sort of officially approved certified good guys you're not going to find out what the bad guys are doing you need to be able to penetrate these organizations you need to have on
• 21:30 - 22:00 the payroll some very unsavory characters if in fact you're going to be able to learn all that needs to be learned in order to Forest all these kinds of activities it is a mean nasty dangerous dirty business out there and we have to operate in that Arena I'm convinced we can do it we can do it successfully but we need to make certain that we have not tied the hands if you will of our intelligence communities in terms of accomplishing their mission these terrorists play by a whole set of different rules it's going to force us
• 22:00 - 22:30 and your words to get mean dirty and nasty in order to take them on right and they should realize there'll be more than simply a pinprick bombing and they I think it's um the thing that I sense and of course that's only been a few days but I have never seen such a determination on the part of my colleagues in government and the part of the American people and the part of our friends and allies overseas and even on the part of some who are not ordinarily deemed friends the United States
• 22:30 - 23:00 determined in this particular instance to to shift and not be tolerant any longer of these kinds of actions or activities even if we take out Osama Bin Laden that will not stop terrorism no no he's uh he's the target at the moment but I don't want to uh to convey the impression that somehow you know if we had his head on a platter today that that would solve the problem it won't you've got this organization as
• 23:00 - 23:30 I say called Al Qaeda so uh somebody described it the other day as a it's like an internet chat room the people who come and participate in it uh for one reason or another engage in terrorism they have sometimes different uh motives and ideologies but the tactics they use the way they operate their targets that'll continue until we go out basically and make the world unsafe for terrorists and that's a key part of the strategy in terms of working aggressively with those Nations that have previously provided support and
• 23:30 - 24:00 sustenance and Sanctuary to see to it that they no longer do that you wouldn't mind having a Sat on a platter I would take it today Saddam Hussein your old friend his government had this to say the American Cowboy is rearing the fruits of crime against humanity if we determine that Saddam Hussein is also harboring terrorists and there's a track record there would we have any reluctance of going after Saddam Hussein no
• 24:00 - 24:30 do we have evidence that he's harboring terrorists um there is uh in the past there have been some activities uh related to terrorism by Saddam Hussein but at this stage you know the focus is over here on Al Qaeda and the most recent events in New York Saddam Hussein's bottled up at this point but clearly we continue to have um fairly tough policy where the Iraqis are
• 24:30 - 25:00 concerned do we have any evidence linking Saddam Hussein or Iraqis to this operation no let me turn to the events of Tuesday where were you when you first learned a plane had struck the World Trade Center well I was in my office uh Tuesday morning Monday I'd been in Kentucky and the president been in the White House Tuesday our rules were sort of reversed he was in Florida and I was in the White House Tuesday morning and a little before nine my speechwriter came in we were going to go over some speeches coming up and my secretary
• 25:00 - 25:30 called in just as we were starting to meet just before nine o'clock and set up an airplane and hit the World Trade Center that was the first one that went in so we turned on the television and watched for a few minutes and then actually saw the second plane hit the World Trade Center and um the uh as soon as that second plane showed up that's what triggered the thought terrorism you sensed it immediately this is deliberate yeah then uh I convened in my office Conti rice came down her office is right in
• 25:30 - 26:00 their mind there in the West Wing the National Security advisor National Security adviser my chief of staff scooter Libby Mary Madeline it works for me uh convened in my office and we started talking about the getting the counterterrorism task force up and operating I talked to the president I'd given word to Andy card staff who's right next door to get hold of the Bandy and or the president and and uh that I wanted to talk to him as soon as they could hook it up this call came in and the president knew at this point about that we discussed a statement that he
• 26:00 - 26:30 might make in the first statement he made describing this as an act of apparent terrorism float out of those conversations while I was there over the next several minutes watching developments on television and as we started to get organized to figure out what to do My Secret Service agents came in and uh they under these circumstances they just move they don't say Sir or ask politely they came in and said sir we have to leave immediately and it grabbed me and
• 26:30 - 27:00 and uh literally grabbed you and moved you yeah and they're you know your feet touched the floor periodically but they're bigger than I am and they hoisted me up and moved me very rapidly down the hallway down some stairs through some doors and down some more stairs into an underground facility under the White House and it's an effect to Corridor locked at both ends and they did that because they'd received a report that an
• 27:00 - 27:30 airplane was headed for the White House this is flight 7700 left Dulles flown West towards Ohio been captured by the terrorist they turned off the transponder which led to a later report that a plane had gone down in Ohio but it really hadn't of course then they turned back and headed back towards Washington it's best we can tell they came initially at the White House and the plane actually circled the White House didn't Circle it but was headed on
• 27:30 - 28:00 a track into it the secret service has an arrangement of the FAA that had open lines after the World Trade Center tracking it by radar and uh when it entered the the danger zone it looked like it was headed to the White House was when they grabbed me and evacuated me to the basement the plane obviously didn't hit the White House turned away and and we think flew a circle and came back in and then hit the Pentagon and that's what the radar track looks like the result of that once I got down into the shelter uh the first thing I did is a
• 28:00 - 28:30 secure phone there first thing I did was pick up the telephone and call the president again who was still down in Florida at that point and strongly urged him to delay his return you told him to stay away from Washington I said delay your return we don't know what's going on here but it looks like you know we've been targeted and why did you make that judgment well it goes to you know I'm sort of my basic role as vice president is to worry about presidential succession my job above all other things is to be prepared to take
• 28:30 - 29:00 over if something happens to the president but over the years for my time with President Ford Secretary of Defense and the Intel committee and so forth I've been involved in a number of programs that were aimed at ensuring presidential succession we did a lot of planning during the Cold War gym with respect to the possibility of a nuclear incident and one of the key requirements always is to protect the presidency it's not about George Bush or Dick Cheney it's about the the occupant of the office and one of the things that we did later on that day were tied directly to
• 29:00 - 29:30 guaranteeing presidential succession and and that the our enemies whoever they might be could not decapitate the federal government and lead us leaderless in the moment of Crisis it's why for example when we have a state of the union speech and we've got the entire government assembled president vice president Congressional leaders cabinet and so forth we always leave a Cabinet member out it's always taken to a secure location and set up there in case something should happen in the house chamber so we still have a president did you have any role in
• 29:30 - 30:00 speaker speaker of the hospital being taken away yeah we evacuated speaker hastert to a secure facility and later the rest of the conventional leadership I also ordered the evacuation of cabinet members and so we sent Tommy Thompson and venomen Gail Norton also up to secure facility and in the days since we've always maintained and say I've spent a good deal of my time up at Camp David since the president returned to the White House just so that we weren't both together in the same place so we could ensure the survival of the government the president was was
• 30:00 - 30:30 on Air Force One we received a threat to Air Force One uh games an incredible threat to Air Force One You're convinced of that I'm convinced of that um now it you know it may have been formed in by a crank but in the midst of what was going on there was no way to know that I think it was a credible threat enough for the secret service to bring it to me once I left that that immediate shelter after I talked to the president urged him to stay away for now I went down into what's called a Pia the
• 30:30 - 31:00 presidential Emergency Operations Center and there I had normanetta uh Secretary of Transportation access to the FAA had candy rice with me and several of my key staff people we had access secure Communications with Air Force One with Secretary of Defense over the Pentagon um we had also the secure video conference that ties together the White House CIA State Justice defense very useful and valuable facility we had the counterterrorism task force up on
• 31:00 - 31:30 that and then and so I was in a position to be able to to see all the stuff coming in receive reports and then make decisions in terms of acting with it but when I arrived there within a short order we had word the pentagon's been hit we had the word the state department had been bombed and a Car Bomb had gone off at the state department turned out not to be true but we didn't know that we had a report that Norman provided that there were six airplanes that might have been hijacked and that's what we started working off of was that list of six now
• 31:30 - 32:00 we could account for two of them in New York the third one we didn't know what had happened to it turned out it hit the Pentagon but the first reports on the Pentagon attacks suggested a helicopter and then later a private jet and it was only after we got hold of some eyewitnesses that we knew it was an American Airlines flight so then we had three planes accounted for but we still had three outstanding we had reports of planes down in Ohio turned out not to be true down in Pennsylvania it turned out that was true and uh
• 32:00 - 32:30 excuse me added with the the report of a prospective attack on Air Force One itself uh we'd have been absolute fools not to go into button-down mode to make sure we had the successors evacuated make sure the president was safe and secure off it was a good location for that purpose and also in Nebraska in Nebraska are you convinced there were only four hijackings there were not other hijackings attempted we don't know about I don't know and we know there were four of course I don't think until we've
• 32:30 - 33:00 completed our investigation looked at all the ties and relationships we'll be able to say that there were no other plans for additional plans when you made the recommendation to the president stay where you are go to a secure facility in Nebraska were you ever concerned that it ever enter your thought process that there would be criticism of the president for not coming back to Washington during a crisis um I didn't really think about it I mean that it was such a clear-cut case uh in my estimation that the most important thing here is to preserve the presidency
• 33:00 - 33:30 we don't know what's happening we know Washington's under attack we don't know by who we don't know how many additional planes are coming we don't know what all uh is planned for us at that point within about uh 35 or 40 minutes we'd seen this unfolding of this uh monstrous terrorist attack and uh it was absolutely the right decision I have no qualms about it at all president wanted to come back we talked repeatedly during the course of the day he made it clear he wanted back as soon as we thought it made sense the Secret
• 33:30 - 34:00 Service did not want him back they even talked to me um to try to get me to evacuate a couple of times but I didn't want to leave the the node that we'd established there in terms of having all of this capability tied together by Communications where we could in fact make decisions and acts and if I'd left gotten on a helicopter and launched out of the White House all of that would have been broken down and we had the presidential succession pretty well guaranteed so I I thought it was appropriate for me to stay in the White House symbolisms are so important to
• 34:00 - 34:30 terrorists the fact that George Bush stayed at the White House you came to Camp David are you concerned that that sends a mixed message to terrorists that they could disrupt their government or do you err on the side of caution and safety and keep the two key leaders separated well we uh we aired on the side of I'd say responsibility the the when something like this happens you've got certain obligations and responsibilities you've got to carry out and uh those took priority they did for
• 34:30 - 35:00 the president that they did for me also with modern Communications I mean the president was in touch with me throughout the day we talked repeatedly he made some key decisions that were very important to the operation once he got to Offutt he convened to me to the National Security Council again using the secure video conference hookup and um what's the most important decision you think he made during the course of the day well the um I suppose the toughest decision was this question of whether or not we would intercept uh incoming commercial aircraft and you decided we decided to
• 35:00 - 35:30 do it we did in effect put a flying combat Air Patrol up over the city of f-16s with an a-wax which is an Airborne radar system and tanker support so they could stay up a long time it doesn't do any good to put up a combat Air Patrol if you don't give them instructions to act if in fact they they feel it's appropriate so if the United States government became aware that a hijacked commercial airline was destined for the White House or the capital
• 35:30 - 36:00 we would take the plane down yes the president made the decision on my recommendation as well wholeheartedly concurred in the decision he made that if the plane would not divert if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to to move away from the city as a last resort our Pilots were authorized to take them out now people say you know that's a horrendous decision to make well it is you've got an airplane full of American citizens civilians captured by hostages captured
• 36:00 - 36:30 by terrorists headed and are you going to in fact shoot it down obviously and kill all those Americans on the board and you have to ask yourself if we had had combat Air Patrol up over New York and we'd had the opportunity to take out the two aircraft to hit the World Trade Center would we have been justified in doing it okay absolutely we would have now it turned out we did not have to execute on that authorization but there were some a few moments when we thought we might when planes were incoming and we didn't know whether or not they were a problem
• 36:30 - 37:00 aircraft until they diverted and gone elsewhere and that will be the policy of the United States in the future well the president will sure make a decision if those circumstances arise again it's a presidential level decision and the president made I think exactly the right call in this case to say I wished we'd had combat Air Patrol in the program New York more and more Mr Vice President we're finding out it peers that the fourth plane that crashed in Pennsylvania crashed because of some real heroism by Americans Jeremy Glick
• 37:00 - 37:30 had received the called his wife to say you've been hijacked she informed him the two planes that struck the World Trade Center and he said I think we have to do something that's true um I think the I think the Washington part of the attack was significantly interfered with um I'm speculating some of this is informed speculation some of it's based on some evidence but clearly we know the plane that crashed outside Pittsburgh was headed for Washington uh we know it was part of the scheme Mr
• 37:30 - 38:00 Glick and others Mr Burnett were were very courageous when they made that decision knowing that that they were doomed and you've told his wife that haven't you I called Mrs Glick yesterday as a matter of fact haven't been able to reach Mrs Burnett yet but I want to call her too and I'm sure there were probably others on the aircraft who helped but what they did was defoil I think the attack on Washington my guess is speculation that uh Target probably would have been the Capitol building it's big it's easy to hit I think one of the reasons that the White House did not
• 38:00 - 38:30 get hit I think it turned out to be tougher to see than they had anticipated when you come in from the West as American 77 did um unless you get up the altitude away as you can't see the White House but there's your executive office building is there and treasury on the other side treasury on the other side I'm speculating that that um the lack of ability to be able to acquire it visually May in fact have led them to go back gave it up as a Target and went to the Pentagon which is clearly visible and speculation on my part we'll never know for sure but without question the the attack would have been much worse if
• 38:30 - 39:00 it hadn't been for the courageous acts of those those individuals on United 93. two important symbols should the World Trade Center be rebuilt I think we clearly want to redevelop that area exactly what it ought to what it ought to look like and what will go in there those are decisions are going to have to be made by by New York officials but the president's very interested in supporting those efforts and uh I'm absolutely convinced uh that uh that's the right thing to do we don't let terrorists Prevail in this day and age should Ronald Reagan National
• 39:00 - 39:30 Airport be reopened we've got to find ways to uh to deal with that problem it's been controversial from time to time over the years but of course we've always kept a ranking open because of its location it's very convenient for people living in Washington problem we have is of course and on the approach or takeoff from from Reagan you fly right up to Potomac and you're within seconds or a minute or two of being able to hit the White House the Congress important
• 39:30 - 40:00 facilities in Washington and finding a way to deal with those circumstances is going to have to precede I think are reopening the airport so it may be close for some time we don't know yet I mean Norm Annette is working aggressively on this and but we did especially this week we wanted to be super cautious as long as it was the possibility there might be other teams out there that uh in fact plan the same kind of operation that the terrorist undertook on Tuesday we thought it was prudent to keep it closed for now Mr
• 40:00 - 40:30 Vice President we have to take a quick break we'll be right back with more of our discussion of Vice President Dick Cheney we're at Green Top in the shadows of Camp David we'll be right back and we are back talking to Vice President Dick Cheney he's been here at Camp David speaking with the president and their security team for the last 36 hours at least Mr Vice President a lot of discussion as to our preparedness the first hijacking was confirmed at 8 20. the Pentagon was struck at 9 40 and yet it seems we were not able to scramble
• 40:30 - 41:00 fighter jets in time to protect the Pentagon and perhaps even more than that there have been at least five serious reports on domestic terrorism how to cope with it one given to you in May Cheney to lead anti-terrorism plan were we ready for this uh were we ready for it um I think the the agencies responded very well once it happened I think the the courage and The Bravery of uh the men and women of New York's for example the First Responders that we will fire and rescue teams many
• 41:00 - 41:30 of whom gave their lives when the towers collapsed uh was superb I don't think you'd take anything away from them but the problem we have here I mean if you think about it in the standpoint of aircraft do we train our Pilots to shoot down commercial airliners filled with American civilians no that's not a mission they've ever been given before now we've got to think about that with respect to the intelligence area there'll be I'm sure a lot of sort of Monday morning quarterbacking second guessing if you will about whether or not there was an intelligence failure clearly we did not learn of this
• 41:30 - 42:00 operation or we would have stopped it if we had but I think it's important to remember that our men and women in the intelligence business out there all over the world uh 365 days a year defending on protecting is oftentimes very successful oftentimes in ways we can never talk about but we clearly need to do everything we can to to Forest all those kinds of activities by improving our intelligence capabilities and this offers a lot of lessons learned at the same time the the key though to is to go eliminate the
• 42:00 - 42:30 terrorists we may never have 100 perfection in terms of our intelligence capabilities to to be able to penetrate and and know about all these kinds of operations of Timothy McVeigh for example in Oklahoma City but if we go after the terrorists if we denied him sanctuary if we take out their bases and their their locations where they operate that's probably the most effective way to deal with this threat but we have to recognize no matter how good we are no matter how aggressively we pursue this we're likely to be subject to that
• 42:30 - 43:00 partly by the very nature of our society we're an open Society we love it that way that's very important to preserve that and not to let the terrorists win by turning ourselves into some kind of police statement the chairman of the Senate intelligence committee said this is a failure of great dimension in terms of intelligence will George tenant remain as director of the CIA I think George clearly should remain as director of the CIA I think a great great confidence in him I've watched him Opera right now and work closely with him for the last seven or eight months uh I think he and his people do superb
• 43:00 - 43:30 Workforce and uh I think it'd be a tragedy if somehow we were to go back now in the search for scapegoats and say that George tanned or any other official ought to be limited at this point I don't think he can say that when Air Force One returned to Washington we saw it accompanied by fighter jets General Norman Schwarzkopf a man you know well has suggested that perhaps in the short term at least Air Force One should be accompanied by fighter jets while flying over the United States just as a
• 43:30 - 44:00 precaution uh perhaps um I don't know that we've made that judgment yet that decision yet and what happened on Tuesday of course once we get all the aircraft grounded that gave us a fairly High degree of confidence that we were in control problem was there were some 2000 aircraft up when when this operation started it took several hours to get them all down and as long as they were aircraft up and there was a report of a threat against Air Force One and there were aircraft we couldn't account for that might in fact have been taken by the terrorists uh flying cover for
• 44:00 - 44:30 Air Force One was very important would we consider using fighter jets to protect Air Force One for the short I think if we believe it's necessary we absolutely will in Europe the government provides security at the airports highly trained well-paid Specialists here in the United States it's a low paying job hired by the airlines would we consider having the government take over Airline security airport security we're clearly going to have to look at this whole question and find ways to improve and enhance our security
• 44:30 - 45:00 without doubt and it's going to be a Prime Focus for Norman Ed and the folks over the FAA exactly what the answer ought to be Tim I don't don't have enough information now to be able to judge that but without question this was a significant failure there in the sense that they were able to take for for aircraft but again they did it they didn't do it with guns or explosives they did it with knives the airline industry is losing 300 million dollars a day several catering on bankruptcy or at least chapter 11. would you support a federal bailout of both loans and grants
• 45:00 - 45:30 and assistance to the airline industry the president hasn't really taken a position on any particular piece of legislation I think we're we're very interested in finding ways to make certain that in this particular instance there's no sort of permanent damage if you will will to our civil aviation capacity it's very important we've got people normanez working on it to Larry Lindsay who has the Economic Council is heavily engaged in it we're working with the Airlines and I'm sure we'll come up so you're open to the concept absolutely
• 45:30 - 46:00 about a week ago we were all discussing the so-called Social Security trust fund and who's block box and the lock box and who spent the Surplus is that debate now moot I think so I certainly hope so I think you know we've all been concerned to make certain we protect Social Security but we clearly have a situation here and and that debate was a little bit fallacious anyway because in fact uh there was never any question about what the United States government was going
• 46:00 - 46:30 to pay its obligations to our seniors that we've never defaulted on a debt since Alexander Hamilton was a treasury secretary so that's never really been an issue but clearly at this stage we do have a surplus that's generated primarily by the payroll tax and as has been true oftentimes in the past that comes in we were using it to retire debt clearly some of it now is going to be used to meet this emergency the Urgent supplemental of Congress passed this weekend of some 40 billion dollars take those steps we need to take both to recover from this attack as well as to
• 46:30 - 47:00 do everything we can to prevent future ones the president said he would use the Social Security or Surplus in case of War and or recession right do we now have both war and recession uh quite possibly we clearly have a war against terrorism and uh we don't know yet what the third quarter is going to be like but if the economists come in and and revise the second quarter down into negative territory in terms of the gross domestic product growth and the third quarter fourth fourth quarter the third quarter of the calendar year fourth quarter and
• 47:00 - 47:30 the economic shock from this if that comes in negative then we'll have the definition to a negative quarters that would qualify as a recession what about the debate over missile defense many Democrats are saying this now proves that our focus should be on terrorism and counterterrorism and preparedness and that the primary threat is not something the missile defense could take care of well I just fundamentally disagree I mean there's no question of what there's a threat on the terrorist front and um we've got to deal with that we've been working it we'll continue to work it but they're also that this is not in
• 47:30 - 48:00 any way diminish the threat with respect to ballistic missiles down the down the road a ballistic missile equipped with a weapon of mass destruction a nuke for example a nuclear weapon would be far more devastating than what we just went through if one of those was to hit one of our cities or to hit a major base overseas where U.S forces are deployed the Casual lead list would be higher the consequences would be even greater than the terrible tragedy we've just been through so we
• 48:00 - 48:30 can afford this war on terrorism and a missile defense system I would see Tim how anybody can argue that we cannot afford to defend America and we're going to have to defend it against uh conventional threats we're going to have to defend it against ballistic missile threats we're going to have to defend it against the threat of terrorism and I think for public officials to argue because we got hit with a terrorist assault we should ignore the ballistic missile threat out there strikes me as as irresponsible the stock market has been closed since Tuesday it reopens
• 48:30 - 49:00 tomorrow are you concerned I think that our economy is strong I do believe the Market's going to open tomorrow that's clearly the current plan and expectation I would hope uh I'm not an investor anymore because I had to get out of the market since I'm now a public official but I would hope the American people would in effect stick their thumb in the eye of the terrorist and and say that they've got great confidence in the country great confidence in our economy and not let what's happened here in any
• 49:00 - 49:30 way uh throw off their normal level of economic activity we look forward to recovery later this year from The Slowdown period that we've been through and I have every confidence that that will in fact happen would you ever consider undoing or holding off or triggering part of the tax cut in the future if the resources were necessary no I think the uh I think the tax cuts crucial and uh that's exactly what we needed in terms of the Slowdown having the tax cut out there now means we're
• 49:30 - 50:00 going to have a more robust year than would have been the case without the tax cut it's a key piece of stimulus and uh I think the president did exactly the right thing there is such fervor such emotion such anger in the country right now and as we conduct this war against terrorism as you said it's going to take days months years what do we ask of the American people well they have to sacrifice in order to help win this war I guess I would ask vigilance
• 50:00 - 50:30 um be aware of what's going on around you don't operate on the assumption that somehow because we live behind two oceans we're immune to to attack we now know we're not um I would ask obviously that they'd be understanding if you will of the importance of the effort that we're going to have to undertake here we may end up you know with more stringent security measures at airports and things like that but I think there's a unity and a spirit out there that I've not seen for a long time in this country I
• 50:30 - 51:00 see it on Capitol Hill between Republicans and Democrats I see it the workers who were cleaning up the mess in New York where the president visited yesterday I see it and then the people I've talked with and I think we have to recognize we are the strongest most powerful Nation on Earth we've got a tremendous set of accomplishments and an enormously bright future ahead of us there are those in the world who hate us and we'll do everything they can to impose pain and we can't let them win and we'll find them we'll find him Mr Vice President we thank you for inviting
• 51:00 - 51:30 us up to the mountains here with you and we'll be watching you very carefully thanks Tim like all of you I've spent this week wiping my eyes and grinding my teeth and wondering why I've drawn strength from a story about a man I knew Father Michael judge the chaplain of the New York City Fire Department a Franciscan he raced to the World Trade Center after the explosion the Comfort the injured while administering the last rights to a dying rescue worker he himself was killed by flying debris New York's bravest physically carried
• 51:30 - 52:00 father Mike away they brought his body first to the altar of Saint Peter's Church where it would be safe then to their firehouse on 31st Street hook and ladder company number 24. directly across from the friary where he lived they wrapped them in sheets and placed them in one of their own bunks they asked his fellow franciscans to cross the street and join them together firemen priests and brothers wept and sang The Prayer of Saint Francis may the Lord bless and keep you and show his
• 52:00 - 52:30 face to you and have mercy on you that is the way of New York that is the spirit of America from February 1945 at Iwo Jima to September 2001. at the World Trade Center [Music]
• 52:30 - 53:00 thanks for watching our YouTube channel follow today's top stories and breaking news by downloading the NBC News app