Report Questions Accuracy Of Kirk, Duckworth 9/11 Stories

Mark Kirk, Tammy Duckworth 9/11 stories embellish their roles

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/l...921-story.html

Jeff Coen and Rick Pearson
9/23/2016

Both major candidates for U.S. Senate in Illinois are using their military backgrounds to bolster their campaigns, but they each have embellished their account of where they were and who they were with when terrorists attacked on 9/11.

For Republican U.S. Sen. Mark Kirk, it was his suggestion he was with Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld when the Cabinet member learned a second plane had struck in New York and those in the room came to the realization that America was under attack.

But Rumsfeld learned of the second attack on the World Trade Center during a different meeting.

For Democratic challenger U.S. Rep. Tammy Duckworth, it was her suggestion she was at Midway Airport readying to defend Chicago with a Black Hawk helicopter unit.

But Duckworth was in Scotland on vacation.

In a political climate where defending the U.S. from terror threats here and abroad remains a pivotal issue, both Senate hopefuls have tried to stress the importance of their roles on one of the country's most tragic days. Each has shared an account that contains a few facts but also omits some details or isn't entirely accurate.

It's not the first time Kirk has embellished his life story, something Duckworth has used against him in the campaign. But Duckworth's retelling of what she was doing on 9/11 raises questions about how effective she can be in attacking Kirk's credibility.

Kirk at the Pentagon
From the first hours after the attacks, then-U.S. Rep. Kirk has said his day started at a meeting with Rumsfeld and other members of Congress at the Pentagon to talk about a Defense Department spending bill. It was during that meeting that an aide appeared with a note telling Rumsfeld the first plane had struck the World Trade Center in lower Manhattan, Kirk has said.

It is there that versions of the story diverge. As recently as a 9/11 event this month marking the 15th anniversary of the attacks, Kirk suggested he was still in that meeting with Rumsfeld when more bad news arrived.

"A couple of minutes later, they said another aircraft has hit the World Trade Center," Kirk said at a deployment ceremony for an Illinois National Guard company headed to Afghanistan. "At that point, even all of us in the — we hadn't been briefed — knew that America was under attack."

After winning the U.S. Senate seat to fill President Barack Obama's unexpired term, Kirk told a similar story in his farewell address to his colleagues Nov. 17, 2010.

"I started the day on Sept. 11, 2001, in the Pentagon having breakfast with Secretary Rumsfeld. The meeting broke up early when the secretary was notified that a second plane hit the World Trade Center," Kirk said, according to the Congressional Record.

On the first anniversary of the 9/11 attacks, Kirk wrote about his experience in the Rumsfeld breakfast meeting.

"We talked about the upcoming debate on our Armed Services Committee bill until an aide placed a Post-it note in front of Rumsfeld. A 'twin-engine aircraft' hit the World Trade Center," Kirk wrote in a remembrance published by the suburban Daily Herald.

"It appeared this was a civil air disaster, so we continued. Rumsfeld's aides interrupted with news of the second impact. Breakfast was clearly over. Rumsfeld moved to the Command Center across the hall while I walked to my car."

And in 2001, on the day of the attacks, Kirk told the Tribune that shortly after 8:45 a.m. Washington time, an aide interrupted the Rumsfeld meeting and handed the defense secretary a note. Rumsfeld allowed the meeting to proceed. Kirk later surmised the note informed Rumsfeld that an airliner had crashed into one of the two towers of New York's World Trade Center.

"As we were filing out of the breakfast, he got word of the second attack ... clearly demonstrating that there was an attack against the U.S.," Kirk said. Rumsfeld "was very calm."

But the 2004 report of the 9/11 Commission that studied national security failures that day includes information on Rumsfeld's precise whereabouts. The document states Rumsfeld had left the meeting Kirk was in before Rumsfeld was told of a second plane.

"On the morning of September 11, Secretary Rumsfeld was having breakfast at the Pentagon with a group of members of Congress," the commission report states. "He then returned to his office for his daily intelligence briefing. The secretary was informed of the second strike in New York during the briefing; he resumed the briefing while awaiting more information."

Asked about the discrepancy this week, Kirk campaign manager Kevin Artl said Kirk attended the first meeting as a member of the House Armed Services Committee, and that by the time it was over he knew two planes were involved in New York. Artl did not specifically address whether Kirk still was in Rumsfeld's presence for the news of the second plane.

"His recollection is that as the briefing was ending people knew the second plane had hit and that it was an act of terrorism," Artl wrote in an email, noting there were 17 minutes between the two passenger jets striking the towers. Artl also pointed to issues with Kirk's opponent's own memory of the day.

Duckworth in Scotland
Duckworth's 9/11 account has centered on her being on active duty as the attack unfolded. As recently as Monday, she recalled that morning for reporters at an unrelated event.

"I was in command of the Black Hawk unit at Midway on 9/11," she said. "I was in command of the only military aviation asset in the Chicagoland area. No one knows better than me the fear, the preparation and what we were willing to do to protect Chicago 'cause we were the only military aviation here. And I was there on that day, I've been there every single day since and I will be there well into the future."

Duckworth also gave an interview for the Army as part of a 2013 "educational package" on female patriots about her activities on 9/11.

"On 9/11 I actually was in command of the Black Hawk Helicopter Company in Chicago when we were not sure if Chicago would be the next place hit. So I was the first female commander of that company and there we were, in one of the major cities in America, wondering if we were going to be next."

But in a 2011 interview with Time, Duckworth said she was in Scotland, backpacking with her husband and his younger sister when the nation was attacked.

Asked about that discrepancy this week, the candidate clarified her account.

"I was in Scotland. I was in command," she said. "I was on the phone trying to desperately get back on 9/11 itself when it happened. I was in command. I got the notice called in and immediately sat down and started alerting my unit. So I was desperately trying to get back to Illinois."

Military records show Duckworth was assigned as a company commander in the 106th Aviation Regiment at Midway as of December 2000.

She often speaks of her military background on the campaign trail, a history that includes losing her legs after the Black Hawk she was co-piloting was shot down by a rocket-propelled grenade in Iraq in 2004. Duckworth said she still sometimes lapses into military-speak, and blamed it for the way she describes what she did on 9/11.

"'We' as in 'we were here in a major city,' meaning the unit was here in a major city and we were on the phone trying to pull everybody together is what I meant, and I've always talked about it and maybe it's because it's more Army lingo when you think of the unit as you, and all I was saying is that here we were in Chicago," she said.

Duckworth said she was "not trying to obfuscate" her whereabouts on 9/11 but acknowledged she didn't know "if there's anything recently" in which she described herself as being in Scotland that day.

Past embellishments
In the past, Kirk has been criticized for overstating parts of his background, including an account of a near-drowning on Lake Michigan when he was young. Kirk has said his rescue by the Coast Guard inspired him to pursue a career in public service.

Kirk also has accepted responsibility for a series of misstatements about his Navy Reserve career, including that he served in the Gulf War, that he once commanded the Pentagon war room, that he came under fire while flying intelligence missions over Iraq and for claiming an award for his intelligence unit as his own. He blamed several of the inaccuracies on his attempts to translate "Pentagonese" for voters or on inattention by his campaign to the fine points of his 21-year military career.

On Tuesday, CNN reported that Kirk's campaign website falsely asserted that he was an Iraq War veteran, an embellishment that was raised during his successful 2010 Senate campaign against Democrat Alexi Giannoulias. Kirk stayed in the U.S. during the war serving in the Naval Reserves.

Kirk campaign officials said the website page listing Kirk erroneously as a "veteran of the Iraq war" was supposed to have remained private while editing was done to language supplied by a third-party vendor.