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11 September 2001: with the President (C) Approved for Release: 2014/09/10 C01407035 SECRE I hNOFORN The Turn to War 11 September 2001: With the President (C) Michael J. Morell I slept fitfully, tossing and turn­ (b)( 1) ing, setting and resetting the pil­ lows and blankets. As the time on the hotel alarm clock ticked toward 3:30 a.m., the time I needed to get up, I became even more restless. This was not unusual. I had slept poorly dur­ ing the previous eight months of this assignment because one of the many things I did not As I waited, want to do was to sleep through two young'' men an alarm and rush, unprepared, checked out of the into my 8:00 a.m. briefing of the Comfort Inn in president of the United States. Portland, Maine. (C) After pulling myself out of bed a few minutes before the alarm was to go off, I quickly show­ waite an wmte ; : a.m. ered dressed marin nnfl4=~LU_~ wai~d (b)( 1) came and went; then 4:30. I'm '' not patient by nature, and my to bring me the classi- impatience was getting the bet­ ~-e~m-a--cterials from which I would ter of me. I paced the room, fashion the briefing looked at the clock, paced some for the president. Th"'""' materi­ more, and checked the clock als were to arrive [(b)( 1) I again. I called CIA Headquar­ from CIA Headquarter~ through ters to ask if there was a prob­ the Situation Room at the White lem there. "Nope," I was told, the House and on to the WHCA com­ material had been sent mand post at the Colony Beach C(b)(1 )~as we h_'-a----c-d­ and Tennis Resort near Sara­ agreed, at 3:30 a.m. I phoned the sota, Florida, where the presi­ command post at the resort. dent was spending the night. (C) "Yes," I was reassured, the brief­ ing was just coming over and the would brin it o'--v-er__ _j (b)( 1) (b)(3)(c) All statements of fact, opinion, or analysis expressed in this article are those oft he author. Nothing in the article should be construed as asserting or implying US government endorsement of an article's factual statements and interpretations. Studies in Intelligence Vol. 50, No. 3 SECRE'F!INOFORN 23 Approved for Release: 2014/09/10 C01407035 Approved for Release: 2014/09/10 C01407035 SECRET//NOFORN With the President Twenty-one years into my career, I was a doing a job that fe(b )( 1) would ever have. And I was having the time of my life. I didn't know it then, but as I serving as the deputy director waited, two young men checked for intelligence, responsible for out of the Comfort Inn in Port­ all of the Agency's intelligence land, Maine, a hotel I had stayed analysis, I considered this the in two months earlier, when the best assignment a CIA analyst president spent a long weekend at could have. Carrying the his father's oceanside summer Agency's best information and home in Kennebunkport. Now, as analysis to a president and help­ It was my job to decide both what I was sitting in Sarasota, 1,500 ing to shape his view ofthe world to show the president and how to miles from Portland, these men is a deep honor and an even brief it so that he took away the took a short drive to the Port­ deeper responsibility. Twenty­ key points. I would usually "tee­ land International Jetport, where one years into my career as an up" each item in the briefing book they boarded a 6:00 a.m. flight to analyst, I was a doing a job that with a few words-for example, Boston. In Boston, they would few would ever have. And I was the last thing we had told him board American Airlines Flight having the time of my life. (C) about the topic, how this new piece 11, bound for Los Angeles. Their advanced the story, and a preview names were Mohamed Atta and I saw the president every morn­ of the key points. The president Abdul Aziz al Omari. (C) ing, Monday through Saturday. I would read the piece, often quite briefed him whether he was work­ carefully. He would then either ask Air Force One had left Andrews ing in the Oval Office or whether me questions about the item's sub­ Air Force Base, just outside he was spending the weekend at stance or, more frequently, ask the Washington, DC, the previous Camp David. I traveled with him senior officials in the room with us morning. The president's sched­ on domestic as well as interna­ questions about the policy implica­ ule called for him to fly to Jack­ tional trips, including on family tions. When that discussion ended, sonville, Florida, to participate in vacations. Indeed, on 10 Septem­ we would move to the next item in a variety of political events to pro­ ber, I was just two weeks removed the binder. Fifteen minutes were mote his recently announced edu­ from having spent most of the usually allotted for the briefing, cation bill. After the events in month of August briefing the but it would frequently run much Jacksonville, he was to fly to president at his ranch in Craw­ longer. (C) Sarasota, arriving early in the ford, Texas. I had logged over evening. On the morning of the 100,000 miles in the air during Other officials in the room usu­ 11th, the president would join my year with the president. Many ally included Vice President children in a classroom at the of those miles came on Air Force Cheney, Chief of Staff Andrew Emma E. Booker Elementary One, but many more were logged Card, National Security Advisor School in Sarasota. From there, on American Airlines flights Condoleezza Rice, and Director of he was to fly back to Washington between Washington and Dallas. Central of Intelligence George and be back in the Oval Office by (C) Tenet. The presence of these early afternoon. As the presi­ people made my job even more dent's intelligence briefer, I was on A briefing would generally challenging because they were­ board Air Force One as it went include seven or eight items, as they should have been­ "wheels-up" on 10 September. each of them placed in a three­ intensely focused on whati was (C) ring blue leather binder, with the presenting to their boss. Occa­ words "President's Daily Brief­ sionally, one of them would At this point, I was eight months ing" embossed on the cover. disagree with points in a piece into what I was told would be a (b)( 1) and would say so in plain, direct one-year assignment. Next to language. (C) 24 SECRET//NOFORN Studies in Intelligence Vol. 50, No. 3 Approved for Release: 2014/09/10 C01407035 Approved for Release: 2014/09/10 C01407035 SECRET//NOFORN With the President On arguably the most important day of President Bush's Because the president was trav­ tenure, his intelligence briefing was uneventful. eling, the briefing on 11 Septem­ ber would include only one of the other usual participants, Chief of Staff Card. The national secu­ show her what I would be On arguably the most important rity advisor or deputy national briefing. Loewer wanted to be day in President Bush's tenure, security advisor often traveled prepared, and I wanted to his intelligence briefing was with the president, but this time accommodate her. She had been uneventful.\ (b)( ) the senior National Security in Kennebunkport, and I found 1 Council official present was Cap­ her both friendly and helpful. (C) tain Deborah Loewer, USN, the '--~~-~J One issue in the brief- director of the White House Situa­ At 7:55a.m., Loewer and I went ing did catch the president's tion Room. (C) up the stairs to the president's attention and caused him to suite, passing through Secret Ser­ pick up the phone to call Dr. Rice As the NSC representative, vice checkpoints on the way. We in Washington. The briefing was over by 8:25 a.m. Only four min­ Loewer would join the briefing. waited in the hallway outside the utes earlier, the transponder on Her job was to obtain answers to president's room. The president American Flight 11 stopped policy-related questions the had just returned from a four transmitting its Identification president might raise and, more and a half mile run around the Friend or Foe beacon. (C) importantly, to communicate golf course at the Colony Resort, things of interest back to Rice and and he was showering and dress­ her deputy, Stephen Hadley. On ing. While we waited and chat­ Captain Loewer and I left the the flight from Jacksonville to ted with the president's personal president's suite and quickly took Sarasota, I had told Loewer that aide, American Airlines Flight the elevator down to take our I would meet her at 7:30a.m., 30 11-a Boeing 767 with 92 passen­ places in the motorcade that would minutes before the scheduled gers and crew members aboard­ take the president to Booker meeting with the president, to took off from Boston's Logan Elementary. Airport. Flight 11 was the first (b)( 1) of the four hijacked flights to take to the air. (C) A little after 8:00 a.m., Chief of Staff Card opened the door, said "good morning," and motioned us in. We found the president seated at a table with a cup of coffee and a newspaper.
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