9/11 from inside the White House as staff react to news of the attack

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The emails were obtain through an open-records request by The New York Times
One received by Mary Matalin, the counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, said: 'Today is Pearl Harbor'
Joshua B. Bolten, a deputy chief of staff, received an email from a colleague that read: 'Strength to You'
The George W. Bush Presidential Library refused to release many of the emails under law, The Times reported
In July photos from inside the White House on 9/11 were released by the National Archives following a FOIA request
One showed Dick Cheney with his feet on his desk watching footage of the planes going into the Twin Towers

Published: 01:19 EST, 11 September 2015 | Updated: 08:51 EST, 11 September 2015

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A cache of never-before-seen emails sent and received from within the White House on September 11, 2001, has shed new light on how the country's leaders and their staff first reacted to the horror of the terror attacks.

On the eve of the 14th anniversary of 9/11, the emails were released by the George W. Bush Presidential Library to The New York Times through an open-records request.

The release of the emails comes just weeks after never-before-seen images of then-Vice President Dick Cheney's reaction to the attacks were also made public following a Freedom of Information request.

With then-President Bush away on an education trip in Florida at the time of the attacks, the email exchanges between White House staff were typical that morning, discussing meetings and the news of the day.

However, at 8:56 a.m., just after a plane crashed into one of the Twin Towers at the World Trade Center at 8.46 a.m., the first change in tone came from Tucker Eskew, director of the White House media affairs office, who emailed three colleagues saying: 'Turn on CNN.'

Suddenly two meetings were cancelled.

At 9.20 a.m., Mary Matalin, the counselor to Vice President Dick Cheney, was sent an email from political writer David Horowitz saying: 'Today is Pearl Harbor.'

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Taking it in: Then-Vice President Dick Cheney rests his feet on his desk as he watches a live TV news report of the 9/11 attacks on the morning of September 11, 2001. The first plane hit the WTC's North Tower at 8.46am. A second jet struck the South Tower at 9.03am

On September 11, 2001, two hijacked passenger planes crashed into two World Trade Center towers (pictured) in New York, another jet struck the Pentagon and a fourth crashed in a Pennsylvania field. The attacks killed a total of 2,996 people, including the 19 hijackers

Minutes later, Joshua B. Bolten, a deputy chief of staff, receives an email from a colleague that read: 'Strength to You.'

At 9.51 a.m., Bolten received an email from Jay Lefkowitz, a White House lawyer, that said: 'Precedent for Coordinated National Emergency Response.'

In the hours that followed, staff were inundated with messages of concern from friends.

During 9/11, Bush spent most of the day flying to different bases on AIr Force One, out of fear for his security.

He then landed in Washington D.C. and addressed the nation from the Oval Office.

At 6.23 p.m., before the speech, Karen Hughes, the president’s counselor, received an email titled 'Verses' from Stuart Bowen, the deputy White House staff secretary, who includes psalms, proverbs and verses from Isaiah, Job and Matthew.

At 7:59 p.m., following the speech, Hughes receives another email from Bowen that said: 'the speech was extraordinarily good. Even more impressive is that you wrote it under unprecedented constraints, given the time and nightmarish circumstances involved.'

In publishing the small collection of emails - not all of which appear here - The Times noted that they did not receive all of correspondence from that day, with the George W. Bush Presidential Library withholding many, 'citing exceptions under the law, like national security'.

The images of Cheney and other officials' reactions to 9/11 - released in July - were captured by Cheny's staff photographer, according to PBS .

In one photo, rests his feet on his desk as he watches a live TV news report of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Ready to speak: Bush is pictured clutching a piece of paper as he speaks to Card, Cheney and Rice ahead of his address to the nation

In another, he sits beside his wife after they were both frog-marched by Secret Service agents to a secure basement in the White House.

And in a later shot, he takes his glasses off and clasps his hands together before he and his spouse are flown to an undisclosed location.

They also show the horror felt by other senior government officials, including then-President George Bush and his wife Laura, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, CIA Director George Tenet, Cheney's top lawyer, David Addington, and Chief of Staff Andrew Card.

In the photos, Bush looks tense and even bites his lip as he confers with officials in the President's Emergency Operations Center (PEOC), a highly-secure underground bunker below the White House's East Wing that can withstand nuclear hits and other devastating attacks.

The then-President would shortly address the nation about the day's atrocities, which were aired live on TV screens across the world.

The same evening, Cheney and his wife, Lynne, were flown via Marine Two to a secret destination, revealed in the photos to be Camp David. They were later moved to other undisclosed sites as thousands of rescue workers descended on the wreckage of the WTC towers.

On the day of the attacks, Cheney, now 74, was in charge at the White House, with Bush visiting a school in Sarasota, Florida, at the time.

Cheney has since defended the harsh interrogation techniques used by the CIA in the wake of the plane attacks, which included the waterboarding of 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed a total of 183 times, declaring that he 'would do it again in a minute'.

The photos were released by the National Archives following a FOIA request by FRONTLINE filmmaker Colette Neirouz Hanna.