SEPTEMBER 25, 2001 – WHAT A REAL PRESIDENT WOULD
HAVE SAID
A real president would have glanced at Cicero’s orations against Catiline, with which that
orator had gone into the Roman Senate to stop the impending coup d’etat of the bankrupt
aristocrat Lucius Sergius Catilina in 63 BC, who had planned to seize power through a
massacre of Roman political leaders. He would have been mindful of General de Gaulle’s
1962 speech in which he expressed his determination to defeat the coup attempt of four
fascist generals in Algiers.


My fellow citizens:Tonight I would like to present, as promised, a progress report on the investigations into the events of September 11, investigations which have been the main task of your government over the past several weeks. The tidings I bring you this evening are very
grave, and they are related to the tempestuous events of the last few days which are
known to you in whole or in part.
As many of you may know, during the morning of 9/11 the White House received a
telephone call saying, “Angel is next.” “Angel” was the top-secret code word
designating my official aircraft, Air Force One, so this was a threat to shoot down Air
Force One. It was also something more: as I realized immediately, it was quite possible
that this telephone call had indeed come from the authors of the 9/11 terror attacks. If
that was so, there existed the definite possibility that this group, whoever they were, also
had access to other top-secret code words used by our government. This meant that there
was imminent danger that the terrorist group might possess the code words and related
signals that could be used to target thermonuclear ballistic missiles on targets in foreign
countries – or even here at home. A duplicate of the briefcase known as “the football,”
which follows me everywhere, might be in the hands of the plotters. I decided at once to
proceed as quickly as possible to the headquarters of the Strategic Air Command in
Nebraska with a small force of bodyguards for the purpose of countermanding, by the
immediate physical presence of the commander in chief, any and all illegal attack orders
that might be issued by the rogue terrorist network which had so plainly declared war on
our country. My intent was to assume direct personal control over the nuclear deterrent
forces of this country, wherever they might be located.
During my flight to Nebraska, I received a phone call which presented this threat in the
most concrete form. The call came from a man who identified himself as the spokesman
for a secret organization of clandestine operatives and special forces – clearly a
subversive and insurrectionary group acting as a tool for a coterie of very powerful,
wealthy, and ruthless persons. This spokesman told me that his organization had
orchestrated the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon as a means of
reversing the inexorable decline of American power in the world – a process which I and
my elected predecessors had been wholly negligent in allowing, he asserted. He also
demanded that I immediately make a televised public statement identifying al Qaeda,
Osama Bin Laden, Afghanistan, and Iraq as those responsible for the terror attacks, and
announcing our government’s plans to invade and occupy these two countries. Iran,
Pakistan, and Saudi Arabia, he added, might have to come later. If I failed to accept this
ultimatum, the conspirators were determined to use the nuclear launch code words in
their possession to destroy Cairo, Baghdad, Teheran, Rabat, Tunis, Karachi, Jakarta,
Damascus, Pyongyang, Riyad, Havana, and possibly other cities. That would start 100
years of war of civilizations, they told me, and once it had started, nothing could stop it. I
told this spokesman that he and his group, in addition to being guilty of high treason,
were courting suicide. The Russian Federation might interpret the missile firings as the
beginning of a US first strike against Russian targets, and might respond by initiating
procedures for launch under attack, in an attempt to use their nuclear assets against us
before they were destroyed on the ground. The People’s Republic of China might respond
in the same way. These countries might also conclude that our government had been
taken over by madmen, and that their only hope of safety might lie in the use of military
means against us. The spokesman for the group of plotters replied that those dangers
were real, but that it was up to me to avoid this danger by granting the demands of the
terrorist controllers, which came down to US attacks on Afghanistan, and Iraq, with the
overthrow of the government of Saudi Arabia likely along the way. The terror group, he
boasted, welcomed the bloody global conflict that I seemed to fear, and even regarded
the prospect of world war engulfing this planet as preferable to the relative decline of the
United States for which he said I and those like me were responsible.
At this moment, our country faced the greatest danger in our entire history. To accept the
ultimatum of the plotters and to wage war against their target list of Arab and Islamic
states would have cast the United States adrift on an ocean of blackmail, lies, and
adventures. Blackmailers always escalate their demands, and the addiction to terrorism
of the victorious criminal network might have poisoned our national life for decades, or
even for centuries. If I had capitulated, I would have been a puppet of the plotters for as
long as I remained in office, indeed for the rest of my life. On the other side, the danger
of world war was immediate. I decided that the only honorable course coherent with my
oath to preserve, protect, and defend the Constitution was to defy the terrorists. At this
point we had reached the SAC headquarters in Nebraska. I terminated my conversation
with the spokesman for the plotters.
At this point, I activated several units of the Secret Service and Army intelligence under
hand-picked officers whose constitutional loyalty I knew I could trust. I briefed them on
what I knew so far, and gave them the task of finding the rogue terror network and
rooting it out. These fine patriotic men and women went to work at once, and within 72
hours the main outlines of the plot were evident. Let me sum up what we have learned so
far.
A group of al Qaeda operatives, manipulated by a cabal of rogue CIA case officers, had
chosen September 11 to hijack several aircraft, force them to land, and use the
passengers as hostages to extort the liberation of certain prisoners being held in Egypt
and Saudi Arabia. Among these al Qaeda operatives were several double agents, also
under the control of rogue elements in our own intelligence community. These were
dissolute and evil persons, who had been trained using the infrastructure left over from
the Iran-contra affair.
Air defense that day was completely absent, in part because of four air exercises which
were taking place at the same time in various parts of North America. A number of
officers in critical positions at NORAD, its regional office in Rome, New York, and in the
FAA appear to have been party to the plot. By a kind of collective inertia, they ignored
the well-known and long-established standard operating procedures which govern the
cooperation of FAA and NORAD, and were able to misdirect our few remaining fighter
interceptors, out over the Atlantic Ocean in one case. More arrests are imminent as a
result of ongoing investigations in this area.
What the al Qaeda operatives apparently did not know was that the aircraft they had
chosen to hijack had been equipped with a new technology making it possible to seize
control of these aircraft and operate them by remote control from a command center on
the ground. It was this new technology, and not the dubious skills of the hijackers, which
allowed the planes to hit their targets with such precision.
But even direct hits by the two planes could not have been enough to bring down the
towers. According to the information we have developed, the collapse of World Trade
Center buildings one, two, and seven was the direct result of controlled demolition – the
result of explosive charges which had been placed in these buildings over the previous
days and weeks by the terror network, who infiltrated the buildings in the guise of
cleaning and security personnel. We have not yet been able to solve all the problems
posed by the collapse of the twin towers, since energy sources appear to have been at
work which go beyond the realm of today’s conventional technology. I will have more to
report on this later. In the meantime, I regret to report that I have had to order the arrest
of the Mayor of New York, who repeatedly attempted to bring about the destruction of
evidence at the crime scene.
As for the Pentagon, it was struck by a US Air Force cruise missile fired from an aircraft
above West Virginia, and not by one of the hijacked airliners. We have not yet been able
to determine what happened to American flight 77, and we call on citizens to come to our
aid in this matter. The launch of the cruise missile was the work of an entire Air Force
unit in Ohio, and these traitors have all been taken into custody.
The airplane that crashed in Shanksville was cynically shot down through the actions of a
rebel mole placed in a highly sensitive position at NORAD. This mole was aware that the
passengers had retaken control of the aircraft from the lightly armed hijackers, and
realized that the interrogation of the hijackers on board would have revealed critical
dimensions of the real plot in which the hijackers, although certainly acting with criminal
intent, were ultimately mere expendable pawns. The NORAD mole also feared that an
examination of the aircraft might reveal the presence of the remote control technology,
which had for some reason failed to function. Accordingly, the mole cynically directed jet
interceptors to destroy this airplane, even though it was far away from any target of
interest to the hijackers.
Several FBI officials and agents have been indicted for obstruction of justice; they have
been accused of destroying security camera tapes at the Pentagon, and intimidating
witnesses at the Pentagon and in Shanksville. Members of the FBI crime lab and the
NTSB team have been discovered attempting to sabotage the cockpit voice recorders of
the planes in question; the recordings we have heard are consistent with the account of
the 9/11 events I have just described.
Sadly, I must address the three mysterious suicides from the highest ranks of our own
government which have caused so much speculation over the past several days. The vice
president was found dead in his bunker at Site R last Thursday; the coroner has ruled this
a suicide, and has established that the cause of death was a potassium cyanide pill. The
same finding has been delivered in the case of the former deputy secretary of defense
some hours later on that same day. The death of the Vice Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of
Staff by a gunshot wound to the head in the Pentagon at around that same time has also
been ruled a suicide. I can only confirm that arrest warrants for all three had been issued
by a federal grand jury empanelled to investigate the tragic events of September 11.
The mutiny of the Delta Force battalion based near Fort Bragg, North Carolina, has
been quelled by loyal troops and planes. The appeal of the rebel commander for a
military rebellion against the legal government and for a military coup has been ignored.
As you may also know, a top former anti-terror official and several other high officials of
the CIA and FBI have been missing for over two weeks, and are presumed to have fled
abroad. I can confirm that arrest warrants have been issued for these persons. A number
of journalists have also disappeared, and this may also be related to the recent upheaval.
I can assure you that our constitutional procedures are just as vigorous as they have ever
been, that habeas corpus remains alive, well, and in full force. We have no secret prisons
and no secret prisoners, and I will tolerate none. Our open courts continue to function,
and they will continue to do so.
We have uncovered complicity between the rogue network in this country and a number
of foreign intelligence agencies. One of these is the British MI-6. After the raid by
Scotland Yard on the headquarters of MI-6 in Oxford Circus, and after the resignation of
Mr. Blair, I look forward to working with the new Labour Party prime minister to
eradicate any remaining insurrectionary elements. We continue to observe the situation
in several other countries we believe may have been involved in the 9/11 plot. I regret
that General Sharon has refused to cooperate, and I invite the Congress to consider what
response may be required.
I would like to thank President Putin of the Russian Federation and the leadership of the
People’s Republic of China for their wisdom and restraint, especially during the morning
of 9/11, when the rebel network engaged in visible preparations for a nuclear launch. I
am certain that the great powers, having weathered this storm, will be able to return to
the path of confidence building measures at our summit next week.
More details will be announced as soon as practicable. In conclusion, let me say a few
words about the state of the world.
I do not assert that terrorism is a spontaneous outgrowth of poverty and misery. In fact, I
assert the opposite: terrorism is usually organized by an outside agency, often by a
government or a network operating inside a government. But it is certainly true that
poverty and misery provide the indispensable environment in which terrorist groups can
recruit, or be created by intelligence agencies. In today’s world, there are about 2 billion
people who are attempting to get by on less than $1 per day. There are some 600 million
homeless – that is equal to about the entire population of Europe. About one and one half
billion people do not have clean water to drink. With about one billion people
unemployed, the unemployment rate in our world is about 33%, about one third. When
that happened in our own country during the 1930s, we called that a great depression,
and we must therefore acknowledge the existence of a world economic depression of
unprecedented severity today. Two thirds of the people in the world – 65% -- have never
made a phone call. About 40% do not have access to electricity for household use; I
would call that a clear need for rural and urban electrification. Every day in this world
of ours, some 40,000 human beings perish from malnutrition and from easily treated
diseases like diarrhea. Another 40,000 lose their lives each month as the result of
warfare, all of which is absolutely futile and which has often been cynically fomented by
foreign economic interests; I am thinking here of the crisis in Africa most specifically. In
Africa, the standard of living of the average family has declined by 20% over the last
twenty years. Eighty-nine countries are now worse off than they were at the beginning of
the 1990s. 175 million people leave their home countries every year in the desperate
search for jobs and food – about 3% of humanity. The price of a human slave on the
slave markets of southern Europe at this very moment is about 4,000 euros. In the midst
of all this, the two hundred fifty-eight richest persons in the world own more in the way of
assets and other property than the poorest 3 billion persons. When two hundred fifty
eight own more than half of the human population of the world, I hope you will agree
with me that such a world cannot be stable. Yet, this is the world that lies before us. I
plan to use my powers as president to ameliorate this situation with every means at my
disposal, and I call upon the Congress and upon all citizens to support these steps for a
new world economic order that will be more just, more equitable, more prosperous, and
more dynamic.
We have now been tested in the crucible of a brutal crisis. From this experience we must
take renewed devotion to our best values. The decade of globalization has been revealed
as a colossal failure, for ourselves as well as for others. We must find a better, more
humane, more equitable way of organizing the affairs of this planet. To do this, we must
work closely with almost two hundred sovereign states, and work out the details with
them, since every country has an inherent right to economic development, science,
technology, and dignity. The old imperialism denied these, and the old imperialism is
now on the junkheap of history. In the days to come, my two lodestars will be peace and
economic development, seen as the two sides of the same coin. Our world has turned over
several times in the past month, but I am more certain than ever that I can count on the
support of the American people in getting the world back on the right track. I ask you
once again to remember the victims of the recent tragedy in your prayers. Good night.