Laura Bush about 911 on Jay Leno's Tonight Show

LAURA: FALSE ALARM ON 9/11 SENT US RUNNING FOR COVER

By DAVID K. LI

February 12, 2002 -- BURBANK, Calif. -

"..A false alarm prompted frantic Secret Service agents to rush President Bush and his wife into a bunker deep beneath the White House the night of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, the first lady revealed yesterday.
Responding to reports of a suspicious plane headed toward the White House, Secret Service agents burst into the presidential bedroom and rushed the Bushes into the basement, Laura Bush said on the "Tonight Show."

It turned out the plane was a U.S. fighter jet.

"I was sound asleep and he [President Bush] was almost asleep when the Secret Service agent, breathing heavily, burst into our room and said, ‘Mr. President, Mr. President, there's a plane on its way,' " Mrs. Bush told host Jay Leno.

"We got the animals. I didn't have my contacts on. I was totally blind.

"We walked down into the basement - in our pajamas with the pets - then we get down there to this fold-out couch. Just as someone starts to fold out the couch, they identified the plane as one of our fighter jets."

Mrs. Bush also poked fun at her husband's recent life-and-death struggle with a pretzel.

"You'll be glad to know the president will be practicing safe snacks," she quipped..."