Correcting Arabesque

Posting over at Truth Action Forums, he (I presume) says:

The fact that the Pentagon was not evacuated is critical. The White House WAS evacuated, so there are no excuses for the fact that this did not happen at the Pentagon. This is treason. You don't even have to agree about what happened at the Pentagon to understand this.

Well, let's go to the Terror Timeline to find out when the White House was evacuated:

(9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001: White House Evacuated after Secret Service Learns of Plane en Route to Washington

The White House is evacuated after the Secret Service receives what the Associated Press describes as a credible threat of a terrorist attack against it. [Associated Press, 2001 pdf file; CNN, 9/11/2001; CNN, 9/12/2001] Minutes earlier, in the White House Situation Room, Secret Service Director Brian Stafford informed counterterrorism “tsar” Richard Clarke that an aircraft was heading in their direction, and said he was going to order the evacuation of the White House (see (9:37 a.m.) September 11, 2001).

So the White House was evacuated after the Pentagon was hit. Now, in fairness, some evacuation of the White House was going on earlier, as noted:

In a 9:52 a.m. report, CNN White House correspondent John King will state that, “about 30 minutes ago,” the White House had begun slowly evacuating. This evacuation proceeds in an orderly fashion. But later on, around 9:45 a.m., those evacuating will be ordered to run (see (9:45 a.m.) September 11, 2001).

So I fail to see how this proves anything. Remember, it was quite easy to assume at 9:30 that morning that the WTC strikes were the entirety of the attacks. The WTC was the only building attacked in 1993 by Yousef. And the time is really indeterminate, because King is simply making an estimate of how much time went by. It could have been 15 minutes earlier instead of half an hour, which would fit with the 9:37 report of a plane headed back towards Washington.

And as John Albanese points out, if they had evacuated the Pentagon, they would have had a PR disaster on their hands as well:

Regarding the Pentagon - Arabesque indictates that their failure to evacuate the building indicates something - maybe even treason. I disagree. The Pentagon is the military command center. It is ridiculous to assume that the military would abandon its command center at a time of war when the USA is clearly under attack. This is akin to suggesting that soldiers abandon their posts. THAT is treason.

Can you IMAGINE the press associated with videos of Pentagon workers fleeing when america is under attack? LOL!!!

Exactly.