9/11 Within The White Household Emergency Bunker

On July 24, the US National Archives released a series of 356 never-before-seen photos, most of them taken on September 11, 2001 within the emergency bunker nether the White House.

The bunker is officially called the Presidential Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), but White House officials also telephone telephone it the shelter. It was constructed inward 1942 underneath the East Wing of the White House, which was primarily built to comprehend the edifice of the bunker. It is said the PEOC tin withstand the nail overpressure from a nuclear detonation.

One of the real few photos from within the PEOC available earlier the recent release
(White House photograph - Click to enlarge)

The photos were released inward answer to a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) asking filed yesteryear Colette Neirouz Hanna, coordinating producer for the FRONTLINE documentary celluloid team. They focus on the reaction from then-vice president Dick Cheney too other Bush direction officials during the terrorist attacks.

How Cheney reached the White House emergency bunker was reconstructed inward the official written report of the 9/11 Commission, which was issued on July 22, 2004:

American 77 began turning south, away from the White House, at 9:34. It continued heading southward for roughly a minute, earlier turning due west too starting fourth dimension to circle back. This intelligence prompted the Secret Service to guild the immediate evacuation of the Vice President only earlier 9:36. Agents propelled him out of his chair too told him he had to acquire to the bunker.The Vice President entered the subway scheme tunnel leading to the shelter at 9:37.

Once inside, Vice President Cheney too the agents paused inward an surface area of the tunnel that had a secure phone, a bench, too television. The Vice President asked to speak to the President, but it took fourth dimension for the telephone telephone to survive connected. He learned inward the tunnel that the Pentagon had been hit, too he saw tv coverage of smoke coming from the building.

The Secret Service logged Mrs. Cheney’s arrival at the White House at 9:52, too she joined her hubby inward the tunnel. According to contemporaneous notes, at 9:55 the Vice President was soundless on the telephone alongside the President advising that 3 planes were missing too 1 had hitting the Pentagon.We believe this is the same telephone telephone inward which the Vice President urged the President non to render to Washington. After the telephone telephone ended, Mrs. Cheney too the Vice President moved from the tunnel to the shelter conference room.

The Vice President remembered placing a telephone telephone to the President only later entering the shelter conference room. There is conflicting prove well-nigh when the Vice President arrived inward the shelter conference room. We remove keep concluded, from the available evidence, that the Vice President arrived inward the room before long earlier 10:00, perchance at 9:58. The Vice President recalled beingness told, only later his arrival, that the Air Force was trying to found a fight air patrol over Washington.

Conference room

The newly released photos render an almost 360-degree take in of the conference room inward the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. It appears to remove keep 2 installations for secure videoconferencing: 1 at the long side of the room too 1 at the curt side, so it tin survive used from either the long side or the curt side of the table.

In the motion-picture exhibit below nosotros take in the videoconference set-up at the long side of the room. Within a wooden paneling in that location are 2 tv screens alongside the photographic tv camera inward between. Right of the paneling are 4 digital clocks showing the fourth dimension for diverse places roughly the globe, too there's also a wall map of the United States:

(White House photograph yesteryear David Bohrer - Click to enlarge)

On the concealment on the far left nosotros take in a videoconference taking house alongside 4 participants, including the CIA too the Department of Defense. Reports well-nigh the events on 9/11 tell in that location was a secure videoconference inward which the White House, the CIA, the State Department, the Department of Justice too the Department of Defense participated.

The adjacent motion-picture exhibit shows the videoconferencing monitors at the curt side of the room, which tin also survive used for normal television: other photos exhibit feeds from CNN too Fox. In the corner on the correct there's a wooden door alongside a (mirror?) window. Next to the door on the long side wall, there's a large mirror:

(White House photograph yesteryear David Bohrer - Click to enlarge)

The wall at the long side of the room reverse to the videoconferencing installation has the presidential seal, which appears behind the someone leading a videoconference from the chair inward which vice president Cheney was sitting, inward guild to exhibit that this is the White House:

(White House photograph yesteryear David Bohrer - Click to enlarge)

Looking to the correct provides a take in of the other corner, where nosotros take in 2 doors: foremost there's a heavy metallic door opening to a room alongside pinkish light. Next to it, at the curt side of the room, there's some other door which opens to what looks similar a corridor alongside blueish light. Some people seem to come upwards inward through that door, so maybe that corridor leads to the entrance of the bunker:

(White House photograph yesteryear David Bohrer - Click to enlarge)

At 6:54 PM inward the evening, president Bush arrived dorsum at the White House too joined vice-president Cheney inward the Presidential Emergency Operations Center. This was captured inward some other serial of photos. In the motion-picture exhibit below nosotros take in Cheney too Bush, alongside on the correct side a practiced take in of the vault-like door, which has 3 heavy-duty hinges too a long downward pointing door handle:

(White House photograph - Click to enlarge)

Exactly the same type of white metallic door alongside the long door handle, tin survive seen inward a picture from 1962 of an business office adjacent to the Situation Room inward the basement of the West Wing (maybe a door to the tunnel leading to the bunker? The electrical flow entrance to the PEOC is soundless a well-kept secret).

Viewing from a dissimilar angle, nosotros take in to a greater extent than of the wall at the other curt side of the room, which was in all likelihood never seen before. At the left it has the door to the corridor, too inward the middle in that location are wooden folding doors alongside handles too a lock. As in that location are already 2 banks of monitors for videoconferencing, these doors in all likelihood enshroud something else:

(White House photograph - Click to enlarge)

At 9:00 PM president Bush gathered his National Security Council for a coming together inward the subway scheme shelter, equally tin survive seen inward the motion-picture exhibit below. This makes a 360-degree take in of the conference room almost complete:

(White House photograph - Click to enlarge)

H5N1 unopen hold off at this photograph shows that something is mirrored inward the drinking glass pane for the photographic tv camera of the videoconferencing organization inward the curt side wall of the room. It clearly looks similar a footing map, to a greater extent than specifically similar an automatic daylight map, which must survive at the reverse wall, correct of the wooden folding doors:

Telephone equipment

The newly released photos exhibit the people inward the PEOC conference room regularly making telephone calls, using telephones that are somewhat hidden inward drawers underneath the conference table. Probably only similar the tabular array itself, the drawers are custom made for a device that tin survive recognized equally a little version of the Integrated Services Telephone (IST):

The IST was designed yesteryear Electrospace Systems Inc. too manufactured yesteryear Raytheon equally a dedicated device for the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN) too hence was called a "red phone". The DRSN is the chief secure telephone network for state of war machine command too command communications too connects all mayor US command centers too many other state of war machine facilities.

The criterion version of the IST has twoscore programmable buttons for access to both secure too non-secure lines (therefore sometimes called IST-40). Encryption isn't done yesteryear the telephone itself, but yesteryear a network encryptor, later the switch separated secure too non-secure traffic. Although the IST telephone had real futuristic looks, it was gradually replaced yesteryear the IST-2 since 2003.

The telephone nosotros take in inward the drawers of the PEOC conference room tabular array are well-nigh one-half the size of the criterion IST: instead of the twoscore straight business buttons, in that location are only 6, replacing some of the especial role buttons inward a higher house the AUTOVON keypad alongside the 4 crimson keys for the Multilevel Precedence too Preemption (MLPP) function.

This little version of the IST is rarely seen, but it was inward the collection of the JKL Museum of Telephony inward Mountain Ranch, California, which unfortunately was completely destroyed yesteryear a wildfire finally week.

The little version of the IST displayed
inward the JKL Museum of Telephony

The ultimate exam for these sort of communications systems is a existent emergency situation. However, during 9/11, it came out that the Defense Red Switch Network (DRSN) didn't piece of job similar it should have. The 9/11 Commission written report said:

On the forenoon of 9/11, the President too Vice President stayed inward contact non yesteryear an opened upwards business of communication but through a serial of calls. The President told us he was frustrated alongside the misfortunate communications that morning. He could non accomplish fundamental officials, including Secretary Rumsfeld, for a menses of time. The business to the White House shelter conference room too the Vice President kept cutting off.

Besides the ISTs nether the table, there's also a dark telephone set, which sits on a shelf or a drawer underneath the wall map of the US. This telephone is a mutual Lucent 8410, used inward numerous offices all over the world. Here, it is share of the internal telephone network which is used for all non-secure calls both within the White House equally good equally alongside the exterior world.

Vice-president Cheney using the Lucent 8410. On the conference table
at the correct there's the thick laptop-like device
(White House photograph - Click to enlarge)

On the corner of the conference table, there's also some other sort of communications device: a dark box, of which the upper share tin survive opened upwards similar a laptop. The bottom share soundless is higher than normal notebooks, fifty-fifty for those days. It's also connected to a large adapter. Maybe it's a rugged and/or secure laptop for state of war machine purposes - readers who powerfulness recognize the device tin postal service a reaction downwards below this article.

All 3 communications devices: the dark Lucent 8410, the black
notebook-type of matter too the little version of the IST.
(White House photograph - Click to enlarge)

Mysterious marking

H5N1 terminal photograph shows then-Secretary of State Colin Powell sitting at the tabular array inward the PEOC conference room, reading a document which has a cover sheet for classified information:

The comprehend sail seems of low-cal yellowish newspaper too has a wide night crimson border, which is a mutual characteristic for these sheets. Most of the text isn't eligable, but the lines inward the upper one-half read like:

TOP SECRET//[....]

CRU

EYES ONLY [...]

The lines inward the bottom one-half are in all likelihood the criterion caveats too warnings that tin survive found on such comprehend sheets. With Top Secret beingness the classification level, too Eyes Only a well-known dissemination marking, the most intriguing are the letters CRU.

On Twitter it was suggested that CRU stands for Community Relations Unit, an FBI unit of measurement responsible for transmitting data to the White House. However, the website of the FBI says that this unit of measurement is genuinely share of the Office of Public Affairs, too equally such is responsible for relationships alongside local communities too minority groups. Although that unit of measurement could stumble upon suspected terrorists, some other alternative seems to a greater extent than likely:

After a 2009 FOIA asking yesteryear the ACLU, a 2004 memo from the Justice Department's Office of Legal Counsel well-nigh the CIA's detention computer program too inquiry techniques was released. The classification mark of this memo was blacked out, but on 1 page this was forgotten. It read: TOP SECRET/CRU/GST.

In a undertaking posting this was written similar "CRU-GST", which indicates GST is a compartment of the CRU command system. Meanwhile nosotros also know that GST is the abbreviation of GREYSTONE, which is a compartment for data well-nigh the extraordinary rendition, inquiry too counter-terrorism programs, which the CIA established later the 9/11 attacks.

Because Powell is reading the CRU-document on September 11, 2001 itself, the CRU parent-program must remove keep been established somewhere earlier that day. It's soundless a cloak-and-dagger what CRU stands for, but it in all likelihood covers data well-nigh highly sensitive CIA operations.