September 11 Commission Report - Gnostic Liberation Front

incoming missile attack had been planned for the next day." Weinberger agreed with General David
Jones, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, that this exercise should be cancelled. [fn 12] ]
[George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -
XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991] (Note: “Richard Bartholomew, a researcher in
Texas, told me that he himself talked to Strategic Air Command bomber pilots who, like the pilots I
talked to that were in the air the hour of the Kennedy assassination, told him that on March 31 they had
no code books aboard.” [John Judge November 2000 Interview])
“Weinberger also recalls that the group in the Situation Room was informed by James Baker that
"there had been a FEMA [Federal Emergency Management Administration] exercise scheduled for the
next day on presidential succession, with the general title 'Nine Lives.' By an immediate consensus, it
was agreed that exercise should also be cancelled." [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography , by
Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin, Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30,
1991]
“As Weinberger recounts the same moments: "[Attorney General Bill French Smith] then reported that
all FBI reports concurred with the information I had received; that the shooting was a completely
isolated incident and that the assassin, John Hinckley, with a previous record in Nashville, seemed to
be a 'Bremmer' type, a reference to the attempted assassin of George Wallace." [fn 16] Those who
were not watching carefully here may have missed the fact that just a few minutes after George Bush
had walked into the room, he had presided over the sweeping under the rug of the decisive question
regarding Hinckley and his actions: was Hinckley a part of a conspiracy, domestic or international?
Not more than five hours after the attempt to kill Reagan, on the basis of the most fragmentary early
reports, before Hinckley had been properly questioned, and before a full investigation had been
carried out, a group of cabinet officers chaired by George Bush had ruled out a priori any
conspiracy.” [George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin,
Chapter -XVII- The Attempted Coup D'Etat of March 30, 1991]
In the following months, while Reagan was recovering, Bush would be granted even
more power over foreign policy and intelligence operations by a ‘secret memorandum’
from the President that was signed “for the President” by NSA Advsor William C Clarke.
“Bush's position as chief of all covert action and de facto head of U.S. intelligence--in a sense, the
acting President--was formalized in a secret memorandum. The memo explained that `` National
Security Decision Directive 3, Crisis Management, establishes the Special Situation Group (SSG),
chaired by the Vice President. The SSG is charged ... with formulating plans in anticipation of crises. ''
It is most astonishing that, in all of the reports, articles and books about the Iran-Contra covert actions,
the existence of Bush's SSG has received no significant attention. Yet its importance in the
management of those covert actions is obvious and unmistakable, as soon as an investigative light is
thrown upon it. The memo in question also announced the birth of another organization, the Standing
Crisis Pre-Planning Group (CPPG), which was to work as an intelligence-gathering agency for Bush
and his SSG. This new subordinate group, consisting of representatives of Vice President Bush,
National Security Council (NSC) staff members, the CIA, the military and the State Department, was
to `` meet periodically in the White House Situation Room.... '' They were to identify areas of potential
crisis and `` [p]resent ... plans and policy options to the SSG '' under Chairman Bush. And they were to
provide to Bush and his assistants, `` as crises develop, alternative plans, '' `` action/options '' and ``
coordinated implementation plans '' to resolve the `` crises. '' Finally, the subordinate group was to give
to Chairman Bush and his assistants `` recommended security, cover, and media plans that will
enhance the likelihood of successful execution. '' It was announced that the CPPG would meet for the
first time on May 20, 1982, and that agencies were to `` provide the name of their CPPG representative
to Oliver North, NSC staff.... '' The memo was signed `` for the President '' by Reagan's national
security adviser, William P. Clark. It was declassified during the congressional Iran-Contra hearings.”
[George Bush: The Unauthorized Biography, Webster G. Tarpley & Anton Chaitkin , Chapter -XVIII-
Iran- Contra]
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