They Keep Trying

Boy, did the Leftists hate President Bush’s Excellent Thanksgiving Adventure or what? They hated it so much that this story was floated (like a turd) in Reuters yesterday.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - British Airways says that none of its pilots made contact with President George W. Bush's plane during its secret flight to Baghdad, contradicting White House reports of a mid-air exchange that nearly prompted Bush to call off his trip.

Honor Verrier, a spokeswoman for British Airways in North America, said on Monday two BA aircraft were in the area at the time and neither radioed the president's plane to ask if it was Air Force One.

But today we have this story reported by AP:

He [White House communications director Dan Bartlett] said the pilot of the British Airways plane radioed the tower in London and reported the apparent sighting of Air Force One. The tower, apparently relying on phony flight-plan information filed to protect Air Force One's identity, radioed back that it was a Gulfstream Five, a much smaller plane.

Bartlett said he had left the wrong impression Thursday that the conversation had taken place between the British Airways pilot and the pilot of Air Force One, Col. Mark Tillman.

British Airways spokesman Jeff Angel said the airline has hundreds of planes in the air in the United Kingdom and around London and none of their pilots had come forward indicating they made the comments or overheard them. "We are not going to be asking every single one of our pilots" about the exchange, he said.

Bartlett said Bush and his senior aides were not aware of the spotting until Air Force One was on its way home from Baghdad.

A simple mis-telling of a story as second-hand stories often are; the British Airways pilot talked to the tower, not to Air Force One’s pilot. Nit-picking it is.

But, consider how the Leftist knuckleheads at certain websites are floating theories such as the president’s Iraq visit being staged in some secret studio in Alaska. The fact that such people don’t want that visit to really have occurred shows how powerful a symbol the visit was.

The Reuters story was just another attempt to cast doubt, throw dirt, besmirch and otherwise urinate on something good and incredibly cool. Pathetic, isn’t it?

UPDATE: No, no. THIS is really pathetic. (Michele expounds on just how pathetic it is; Thanks to Neal Boortz)

Comments

[King of Fools]

Methinks they doth protest too much!

[Serenity]

"Staged in a secret studio in Alaska" ???

Excuse me...give me a moment to roll around on the floor with laughter.......................................

Whew! They really ARE wearing tin foil hats aren't they? What the hell are they putting into marijuana these days?

No wonder there are so many liberal Hollywood types...the stories they come up with...amazing! Abosofrickenlutely amazing.

[homebru]

"...the British Airways pilot talked to the tower..."

Probably not.

An airport control tower (the man-rated glass birdhouse on a pole at all major airports) talks to and advises aircraft within normally five to twenty miles of that airport.

There is no reason that Air Force One would have come within fifty miles of London while enroute Bagdad, so either the British pilot was in English airspace and saw something else, or, more probably, the radio contact was with an "enroute center" while somewhere over the Atlantic.

By saying "radioed the tower in London", someone is either handing out dis-information or trying to over-simplify what really happened.

And, in either case, people who keep questioning "tower" operators will never find an answer. Not because the trip didn't happen, but because they're looking in the wrong place.

[baldilocks]

homebru: No one quoted in the second article said that AF1 talked to the tower in London. Barlett said that the BA pilot reported about AF1 to the tower in London, presumably later when the BA pilot was in range.

[Sharon]

No, the really pathetic part is that Dan Bartlett felt the need to lie about something that could be so easily fact checked.

[baldilocks]

Sharon:

1. Provide well-reasoned proof that this is a lie.
2. Provide reasonable motivation--speculation is acceptable--for the lie after you prove that it is a lie.

[Sharon]

Jeeze, I don't know. How about the Reuters' story quoting folks at British Airways? You know, that little part that says they couldn't find the pilots that contacted AF1.
There were plenty of heartwarming, but true anecdotes that Bartlett could have peeled off about the President's trip to the troops on Thanksgiving. I was talking about the first breathless report that Bartlett gave to the media. You'll note in the AP story that the Brits still can't find a pilot to confirm the second version of the story.
Oh, btw, I'm one of those Bush-hating-lefties and I believe that he made it to the airport in Iraq.
OK, I'll ammend the comment. He conflated an incident that can't be confirmed by anyone.
I'm sure Mr. Bartlett was a bit giddy after the visit. Maybe he was riding a rush after meeting the guys/gals who are putting themselves in harms way? Maybe he's seen one too many Roger-Moore-era James Bond movies?
I'm glad Bush made the visit. Those guys need some support, they've been given an almost impossible assignment.

[baldilocks]

AP also quoted a spokesman from BA, Jeff Angel . And if it hadn’t, how does that prove that Barlett was LYING, i.e. purposely saying something that he knew to be an untruth? Give me some verifiable facts.

Oh, btw, I'm one of those Bush-hating-lefties

I figured that out from your last comment here. That’s your business, not mine. And it’s also not relevant to what we’re discussing.

and I believe that he made it to the airport in Iraq.

If you want to dispute, argue, etc. logically and rationally here, I’m all for it. However, if you want to spout things that you cannot back up with fact, get your own blog.

[Fred Jacobsen]

The sound studio was not in Alaska. I believe it was at NASA in Huntsville, Alabama where we faked the moon landing, the morgue photos of Uday and Qusay, the fall of the Berlin Wall and every other 'success' that the United States has achieved for the past fifty years (oh, we faked the Japanese 'surrender' on the Missouri, too, or didn't you know that Tojo was still in charge).

Pardon me, I've got to adjust my tin foil hat (put it on again with the dull side out -- doesn't reflect the CIA rays unless the shiny side is on the outside).

[triticale]

Uh, Fred? The "dull" side is just as reflective, and safer for those around you. It scatters what it reflects, which is why it appears dull.

[HH]

The NATS out of London confirmed the story checks out, it's just that they got the British Airways part wrong. Another phony scandal.