US was prepared to shoot down airliner, says Cheney

4.30 pm

WASHINGTON - 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, says US Vice President Dick Cheney.

"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 programme on Sunday (US time).

His interview was his first appearance since he was whisked away on Thursday to the presidential retreat of Camp David, Maryland, to keep him at a safe distance from Mr Bush.

The two were reunited at Camp David on the weekend for meetings on the crisis set off Tuesday when hijackers slammed jetliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon.

Recalling last Tuesday's attacks, 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 don't ... ask politely, 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 said he then urged Bush not to return to Washington from Florida immediately after the attacks.

"I said, 'Delay your return. We don't know what's going on here, but it looks like we've been targeted,'" he said.

He said he discussed with Bush what the president should say in his first statement acknowledging the possibility of a terrorist attack.

Cheney said he is convinced that a telephone threat against Air Force One was credible, but acknowledged it could have been a hoax.

"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."

Bush has been criticised for delays in returning to Washington and for the White House 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.

But Cheney said the hardest choice was the evidently unprecedented decision to shoot down, if necessary, a commercial aircraft within the United States -- a decision he said Bush made on Cheney's recommendation. All the 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 authorised to take them out,"

"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 said.

But he said the United States "absolutely" would have been justified in shooting down the two aircraft that hit the World Trade Centre or Pentagon, which have left more than 5000 dead or missing.

"As it turned out, we did not have to execute on that authorisation," Cheney 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 a fourth hijacked plane which crashed near Pittsburgh was headed for Washington, possibly the US Capitol, and came down after passengers struggled with the hijackers.

"I think the Washington part of the attack was significantly interfered with," he said.

But the plane that hit the Pentagon had been on course for the White House, then diverted, circled, and slammed into the Pentagon, he said.

"As best we can tell, they came initially at the White House."

He 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 ... is when they grabbed me and evacuated me to the basement," he said.

- REUTERS

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