Free 500 Days by Kurt Eichenwald Page B

in. The Russian president, Vladimir Putin, had already called. “He understands that, if this can happen to us, it can happen to him as well,” Bush said.
    On to the intelligence. Tenet reported that the first indications suggested that al-Qaeda was almost certainly the group behind the strike. Known associates of the terrorist group had turned up on the passenger manifests forAmerican 77. The attacks displayed both al-Qaeda’s trademark meticulousness and its practice of launching multiple, simultaneous strikes against related targets.
    Bush ended the call with the message he had been delivering by phone to his subordinates all day.
    “Somebody has declared war on America,” he said. “We are at war.”
    This would entail a lot of actions and decisions by officials throughout the administrations. It would be demanding and involve taking a lot of risks.
    “And if it comes a cropper,” he said, “I’ll be behind you.”
    •  •  •  
    John Ashcroft had arrived in Washington a few hours earlier aboard a Cessna Citation V. An armored SUV had attempted to drive him away from downtown to a secure classified site but was blocked by a traffic jam. The attorney general told the driver to turn around and take him instead to FBI headquarters, where he could join other top law enforcement officials in the command center.
    By the time Ashcroft arrived, the FBI had culled data on the hijackers and their connections to al-Qaeda. A senior agent briefed Ashcroft; Mueller, the FBI director; Michael Chertoff, the head of the criminal division; and other officials of the findings. As part of the presentation, photographs of the hijackers were shown on a television screen. By the end, no one in the room harbored any lingering doubts that these attacks had been acts of Islamic terrorism.
    Evidence usually led to decisions. But they needed to be coordinated, and a number of Justice officials were across the street at headquarters, so an order from Ashcroft went out: Everyone was to drop whatever he was doing and report to the FBI command center.
    Attorneys from the Office of Legal Counsel walked over to the Hoover Building together and took an elevator upstairs. As the group headed into the complex, John Yoo glanced into an adjoining office. He saw one of Ashcroft’s top aides sitting in a chair and reading a book.
    The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Understanding Islam.
    Omigod. That’s not a good sign.
    •  •  •  
    Alberto Gonzales’s mind was racing.
    The White House counsel had flown to Washington by helicopter an hour earlier from Norfolk, Virginia, where he had given a speech to government ethics advisors. His return had taken a little longer than it might have; he overruled his pilot’s suggestion that they land on the White House lawn. That, he said,was the prerogative of the president. Instead, they flew to Andrews Air Force Base, a twenty-minute drive away in good traffic.
    A van picked him up and ferried him straight to the White House, where he was rushed to the PEOC. SWAT teams armed with pistols and machine guns lined the tunnel, the highest level of security at the bunker since the crisis began. The conference room was in an uproar, with phone calls, videoconferences, and individual meetings. Things were bad but not out of control.
    There wasn’t much for him to do at the PEOC, Gonzales decided, but there were certainly legal matters that he and his lieutenants needed to tackle. He called his deputy, Flanigan, who was still in the Situation Room.
    Flanigan saw the caller ID. “Hey, Al.”
    “Timmy,” Gonzales said, “let’s go upstairs.”
    They headed to the west lobby and met in front of the elevator. From there, they hiked upstairs to Gonzales’s office. Flanigan dropped onto a couch beside a coffee table. Gonzales sat in his usual wing chair.
    “Okay, what else needs to be done?” Gonzales asked.
    The two men discussed what were emerging as the key legal issues— Was this a war? How could