T O P A N D B O T T O M : N A T I O N A L A R C H I V E S A N D R E C O R D S A D M I N I S T R AT I O N
“If a plane hits the White House– it’s over–it’s not safe here.”
meeting he held with his team. His assistant Cindy Mendel called over to the meeting to inform him that the Situation Room had reported a plane hitting the World Trade Center. Albert continued the meeting and had Ali Tulbah, a member of his staff whose portfolio included the Department of Transportation, call Transportation Secretary Norm Mineta’s chief of staff, John Flaherty. “We’ve got a situation,” Flaherty said, and told Tulbah to get Hawkins “on a secure phone” to give more information. Hawkins and his team saw the second plane hit on the TV in the office where they were meeting. Hawkins and Tulbah went immediately from the OEOB to the Situation Room to ask the duty officer to connect with Secretary Mineta’s office on secure line to get more information on the situation that was unfolding. While at the Situation Room door that faces the Mess, they were interrupted by the shouts of Secret Service agents directing staff to go into the Mess. Tulbah followed others to the Mess, while Hawkins went in a different direction up to the first floor West Wing “to Josh Bolten’s office who was Acting Chief of Staff that day since Andy was in Florida and was sharing what I had learned from DOT with Josh and Condi until the USSS escorted them away and left me standing there.” Hawkins evacuated from the White House complex and found himself in the group in Lafayette Park. He remembers “gratefully follow[ing] [McBride] and others to the office building. I had no idea what office it was we were going to, but remember being told your husband [Timothy McBride] officed there.” Hawkins later explained, “After the
9/11 experience, there was a secure line installed in my office.” Ali Tulbah, who had held onto his list of cabinet officials and the principal points of contact, also evacuated to the DaimlerChrysler office. “We remained there for a while and begin planning for what would be needed when POTUS returned. Tucker [Eskew, deputy assistant to the president for media affairs] and other communications folks there began framing the president’s remarks and Clay [Johnson] began thinking through the continuity of government and Larry [Lindsey] the economic ramifications, especially the market impact.” After the list of staff at the DaimlerChrysler office was received at the Situation Room, I got an anxious call from Hector Irastorza saying that an escort was coming to bring the most senior staff—the assistants to the president, Calio, Hawkins, Johnson, and Lindsey—back to the White House. With the largest number of staff assembled in an outside location at the DaimlerChrysler office, an agent was also sent to stand post outside the building, allowing only staff members with White House passes to enter. Special Agent Myles (“Colin”) Johnson came to the DaimlerChrysler conference room to brief us all before he and other heavily armed Secret Service agents escorted the senior staff back to the White House and down to the PEOC. Clay Johnson recalls Colin Johnson as “the biggest man I ever saw” and says they felt safe as they “walked the streets with him, empty at every intersection.”39
A COMMAND POST Early that morning, Ken Mehlman, who served as deputy assistant to the president for political affairs, one of Karl Rove’s deputies, had been in the White House Mess hosting several members of Congress, including Rob Portman (R.-Ohio), Bob Ehrlich (R.-Md.,), and Paul Ryan (R.-Wisc.), to “continue the budget surplus debate.”40 When they left the West Wing, the congressmen went back to the Hill. Mehlman saw two people running into the Situation Room and heard a young West Wing staffer say a plane hit the World Trade Center. Mehlman returned to his first floor OEOB office. He recalls: “We had a big meeting scheduled that day with Teamsters President James Hoffa. We wanted to talk to him about a big initiative the Vice President was leading to expand domestic energy activity; this would mean a lot of teamsters jobs. It was part
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