A collection of images featuring then-Vice President Dick Cheney on September 11, 2001 have recently been released to the public in response to a Freedom of Information Act request.
Part of the National Archive, the images are available on Flickr and show Cheney and other senior Bush administration staff reacting to events in the President's Emergency Operations Center (PEOC) deep under the white house. Other shots show Cheney and his family being evacuated from the White House lawn on Marine Two, en route to Camp David.
The contrast between the well-known and horrifying imagery from Ground Zero and these somewhat banal photos is fascinating. Even on days that turn out to be historic, plates of cookies and sandwiches are laid out on conference room tables. While the furrowed brows and solemn gazes speak volumes, if you didn't know when they were taken it would be easy to assume that these pictures showed business as usual on just another day in government.
Shot on film (remember that?), many of the pictures are underexposed, slightly blurry, and feature dust and fluff spots and drying marks. In our opinion, the images provide an interesting glimpse behind the curtain on a day that changed the world.
I mean, would you be expecting the government to not be calm, somewhere crying in a corner, and going wild
yes but sis, he looks like he is just watching his favourite simpsons episode after a long day tending to his garden, with his foot up like that, all thats missing is the potato chips and a beer
It's weird how calm they look, but considering they could've have done much but make phone calls in a bunker is a a thought. I vaguely remember this day; I had just started Kindergarten.
surely, no one would react like this ever.
