It was the toughest decision on a nightmarish day -- to shoot down civilian airliners if they threatened the US Capitol or White House after attacks on New York and Washington, Vice President Dick Cheney said on Sunday.
"The toughest decision was this decision of whether or not we would intercept commercial aircraft on the day of the attacks," Cheney told NBC's Meet the Press program.
PHOTO: REUTERS
The interview was his first appearance since being whisked away on Thursday to the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, to keep him at a safe distance from Bush.
The two were reunited at Camp David for weekend government meetings on the crisis, ignited last Tuesday when hijackers slammed jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.
Cheney said he was physically picked up and rushed by Secret Service agents to an underground shelter at the White House in response to fears of an airliner attack on the building.
"They came in and said, `Sir we have to leave immediately' and grabbed me. Your feet touch the floor periodically, but they're bigger than I am and they hoisted me up and moved very rapidly down the hallway," he said.
He then urged Bush not to return to Washington from Florida immediately. "I said, `Delay your return. We don't know what's going on here, but it looks like we've been targeted,'" Cheney said.
He said he discussed with Bush what the president should say in his first statement describing the attacks as apparent terrorism, and kept in frequent contact with the president.
Cheney said he is convinced a phone threat against Air Force One was credible, but acknowledged it "may have been phoned in by a crank."
"But in the midst of what was going on there was no way to know that," he said.
Bush has been criticized for delays in returning to Washington and for the White House's handling -- seen by some as overly political -- of its belated disclosure of the threat against Air Force One. The White House has said the caller used code words that raised the credibility of the threat.
Cheney said he also ordered the evacuation of Cabinet members and was involved in the evacuation of House of Representatives Speaker Dennis Hastert, second in line for the presidency after Cheney.
After leaving the emergency shelter to which he was first taken, Cheney said, he worked out of "the Presidential Emergency Operations Center." He and top officials kept in contact with Air Force One, the Pentagon, CIA and other agencies, including over video links.
Cheney said he rejected Secret Service suggestions that he leave the White House.
But Cheney said the hardest choice was the evidently unprecedented decision to shoot down, if necessary, a commercial aircraft within the US -- a decision he said Bush made on Cheney's recommendation. All four hijacked planes crashed before the order could be executed.
"The president made the decision ... that if the plane would not divert, if they wouldn't pay any attention to instructions to move away from the city, as a last resort, our pilots were authorized to take them out," he said.
"People say that's a horrendous decision to make. Well it is. You've got an airplane full of American citizens, civilians captured by terrorists, and are you going to in fact shoot it down, obviously and kill all those Americans on board?" Cheney asked.
Bush said later that never in "anybody's thought process about how to protect Americans did we ever think that the evildoers would fly not one, but four, commercial aircraft into precious US targets."
"... When I was informed that an unidentified aircraft was headed to the heart of the capital I was concerned. I wasn't concerned about my decision, I was more concerned about the lives of innocent Americans."
The US "absolutely" would have been justified in shooting down the two aircraft that hit the World Trade Center or the one that hit the Pentagon, which have left more than 5,000 missing, Cheney said.
"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that authorization," he said. "But there were a few moments when we thought we might, when planes were incoming and we didn't know whether or not they were problem aircraft until they had diverted and gone elsewhere."
He said the fourth plane that crashed near Pittsburgh was headed for Washington, possibly the US Capitol, and went down after passengers struggled with hijackers.
But the plane that hit the Pentagon had been on course for the White House, then diverted, circled, and slammed into the headquarters of the US military, he said.
Cheney speculated that the plane, on approach from the west, diverted after encountering difficulties locating the White House from the air. The White House is nestled between the larger Eisenhower Executive Office building to the west and the Treasury Department to the east.
"When it entered the danger zone, it looked like it was headed for the White House, is when they grabbed me and evacuated me to the basement," he said.
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