Red Alert! Where's the Captain?

Here's conservative commentator Joe Scarborough: "I don't get it. All of America is glued to their TV sets . . . you've got people rushing out of government buildings all across Washington, D.C., and you don't notify the president of the United States? For an hour? Until after it's all over? Because, what, you don't want to disturb his bike ride in Maryland? I'm sorry, I just don't get it. . . .

"After I watched '[Fahrenheit] 9/11,' one of the parts that made me the angriest was the part about 'My Pet Goat.' I thought it was a cheap shot. I said, seven, eight, nine minutes, big deal. But here you have an attack going on -- or something most Americans thought was an attack -- for 15, 20, 30 minutes and the president of the United States not notified. Why?"

What Happened

Michael E. Ruane and Spencer S. Hsu write in The Washington Post: "Two lost aviators flying with outdated maps from a rural Pennsylvania airstrip triggered a red alert at the White House yesterday, along with the frantic evacuation of the Capitol and the Supreme Court, before they were intercepted by Air Force jets lobbing warning flares. . . .

"As the aircraft bore down on Washington from the north and officials could not contact the pilot, the White House's internal threat level went from yellow to orange and then to red within four minutes, fighters were scrambled and occupants and visitors to the Capitol, the Supreme Court and the White House were sent scurrying for safety."

Reuters reports: "President Bush was not told for nearly an hour while he finished a bike ride about a breach in White House airspace on Wednesday that prompted the highest alert since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, the White House said.

"The White House said the Secret Service held off informing the president because he was not in danger and White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was satisfied with how the situation was handled. . . .

"McClellan said the president's Secret Service detail was informed about the plane at about 11:59 a.m., when the decision was made to raise the threat level at the White House to 'yellow.'

"Fighter planes were immediately scrambled to intercept the plane, and the threat level at the White House was raised all the way to 'red' before the 'all clear' was given at 12:14 p.m.

"McClellan said Bush was informed about the incident around 12:50 p.m. at the end of his ride. . . .

" 'The president was never in danger and the protocols in place after September 11 were followed,' McClellan said. 'The president has a tremendous amount of trust in his security detail and they were being kept apprised of the situation as it developed.' "

Here are competing timelines, from The Washington Post,  the New York Times, the Associated Press and ABC News. Still unclear, for instance, is precisely where the plane was when the White House went to red alert at 12:03 p.m.; and when the Cessna was at its closest point to the White House, reportedly about three miles away.