For instance early on it was assumed that the Langley Fighters were scrambled to intercept Flight 77 because of the fact that the assumed timing corresponded to about when that plane was hijacked, that the plane was heading for Washington, and because Langley being called by Cleveland to report 77's crash at about that time. It wasn't until the tapes were reviewed that it was found that the fighters from Langley were send after a phantom Flight 11 which was believed to be headed to Washington. This is far from unique. G. W. Chimp reported seeing TV coverage of the first plane hitting, something he couldn't have based on where he actually physically was at the time the plane hit (and that there was no TV coverage of the first plane.) Norman Mineta's testimony before the Commision is constantly 20-30 mins out of snyc with everything else including the live TV footage. People at GZ have reported strange inconsistancies as well, including Firefighters inside WTC 1 mistaking the collapse of WTC 2 as the second plane, and even in one high profile case getting the collapses about the wrong way (WTC 1 first followed by WTC 2.)
The thing is that it was a chaotic day, people weren't looking at their watches every second to figure out what was happening when. Often after the event people got confused over what was done, especially when trying to sort it all out and put together what everyone did (one of the reasons that the NY ATC recorded their thoughts before creating their written statements. Even in a few hours the memory starts to fail on things.) Expecting people to get it right first time, especially when recounting the events 2-3 years later, is rather hopeful. Unless you have a rigid routine, I bet you'd have trouble telling me exactly what you did on the 22nd January this year and at what time you did it, heck I have trouble doing that for last week!
I suppose if you believe the official 9/11 story then there is no way for George Bush to have seen the first plane, but I don't necessarily believe the official story. What time Norman Mineta got down to the PEOC is also a matter of debate. You are assuming that he is wrong. I could just as easily assume that the 9/11 Commission Report is wrong.
However, when we are dealing with the hijacked airliners and NORAD's response to them, the situation is completely different. We are not talking about one person being slightly off in remembering what time something happened. We are talking about a lot of people having the same "false memory", not just one person. This is a list of the people who remembered hearing about Flight 93 before it crashed: Colonel Alan Scott, General Larry Arnold, David Bohrer, Dick Cheney, Jane Garvey, Richard Clarke, General Montague Winfield, NEADS Commander Colonel Robert Marr, General Richard Myers, Paul Wolfowitz etc.
So how could all these people have remembered something that, according to the tapes, could not have happened? In fact, several people stated that planes were scrambled to shoot down Flight 93 if the circumstances called for it.
Regarding Phanton Flight 11, Richard Ben-Veniste asked General Larry Arnold, "
General Arnold. Why did no one mention the false report received from the FAA that Flight 11 was heading south during your initial appearance before the 9/11 Commission back in May of last year?"
Larry Arnold replied that he, "
didn't recall those facts in May of last year." Why didn't he recall those "facts"? If the NORAD tapes had been unchanged since day one then when he reviewed the tapes for his testimony in 2003, the Phantom Flight 11 story should have been obvious. As Michael Bronner wrote, "
Over the next quarter-hour, the fact that the fighters have been launched in response to the phantom American 11—rather than American 77 or United 93—is referred to six more times on Nasypany's channel alone. How could Colonel Scott and General Arnold have missed it in preparing for their 9/11-commission testimony?" The most likely reason is that those "facts" hadn't been invented yet. The 9/11 Commission states,
"
this response to a phantom aircraft, American 11, is not recounted in a single public timeline or statement issued by FAA or DOD. Instead, since 9/11, the scramble of the Langley fighters has been described as a response to the reported hijacking of American 77, or United 93, or some combination of the two.”
Thomas Kean and Lee Hamilton write in their book,
Without Precedent,
"
Fog of war could explain why some people were confused
on the day of 9/11. But it could not explain why all of the after-action
reports, accident investigations and public testimony by FAA and
NORAD officials advanced an account of 9/11 that was untrue."
Governor Kean stated in a Washington Post article, "
we, to this day don't know why NORAD told us what they told us, it was just so far from the truth ... It's one of those loose ends that never got tied".
As well, to say that a day is chaotic is a lot different than saying that the day was forgettable. I can remember the details of what I was doing on 9/11 better than I can remember some days last week. It was one of those days when everyone remembered where they were and what they were doing. Nevertheless, explain to me how so many different people remembered something that didn't happen? Kean and Hamilton can't explain NORAD's false statements, but maybe the folks on this forum can.