The entire administration's credibility is up there with flying pigs.
Posted on 04/28/2009 2:57:15 PM PDT by Fred Nerks
A perfect storm of idiocy led to a frightening 9/11 flashback for thousands of New Yorkers Monday when a jumbo jet and an F-16 fighter jet buzzed lower Manhattan without warning. (video -- flyby) (video -- panic) (video -- Ground Zero)
A "furious" Mayor Bloomberg denounced the dunces who dreamed up the stunt.
Bloomberg said, "Why the Defense Department wanted to do a photo-op right around the site of the World Trade Center catastrophe defies imagination. Poor judgment would be a nice ways to phrase it, but they did. I also think that once they had told us, we should have done a better job. Had I known about it, I would have called them right away and asked them not to. It is the federal government and they can do in the end what they please, but I would have tried to stop it. I don’t know there’s a lot else to say other than they shouldn’t have done it."
An Obama administration official said the mission was classified "Top Secret." "The mission was to send [the aircraft] up to get a picture of it flying around the Statue of Liberty."
By day's end, an obscure City Hall deputy named Marc Mugnos, took the hit in New York City and Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office, was identified as the White House's scapegoats for the stunt.
The planes appeared on the horizon around 10 a.m. and sent a chill through the city. Flying in as low as 1,000 feet to 1,500 feet above New York City, they circled the Statue of Liberty before flying over Manhattan, Staten Island and New Jersey. Before they vanished, hundreds of frightened people had jammed emergency phone lines, and thousands of terrified people evacuated from buildings in the city and across the river in New Jersey.
"People came pouring out of the buildings, the American Express Building, all the buildings in the financial district by the water," said Edward Acker, a photographer who was at the building, 3 World Financial Center. "And even the construction guys over by 100 North End Avenue area, they all got out of their buildings. Nobody knew about it. Finally some guy showed up with a little megaphone to tell everyone it was a test, but the people were not happy. The people who were here 9/11 were not happy."
Mr. Acker added: "New York City police were standing right there and they had no knowledge of it. The evacuations were spontaneous. Guys from the floor came out, and one guy I talked to was just shaking."
"I was crying and praying to God to forgive me my sins because I thought I was going to get killed," said Kathleen Filandro, who fled from One New York Plaza when she spotted the planes.
"It's like someone coming up to you, sticking a gun to your head for 15 seconds, walking away and hearing 20 minutes later it was an undercover cop posing for a photo," said Wall Street worker Bill Privett. "I am still shaking," he said.
White House spokesman Robert Gibbs appeared taken aback as reporters peppered him with questions about the incident.
"I have no information beyond what I saw" on news reports, Gibbs said at his afternoon press conference.
A "Top Secret" photo opportunity using Air Force One and an F-16. This is a laugh riot. Obama has no hesitation unclassifying and releasing the nation's "Top Secret" documents, to the benefit of our enemies during wartime, but keeps secret a photo op for the purpose of making souvenir tie-clasps. Obama proves he is a genius with this stunt -- a first-class commander-in-chief.
One observer suggested that Obama might want to do a photo op with a Ryder rental truck in Oklahoma City next.
And who takes the hit? Some guy nobody has ever heard of. If you believe approval for this idiocy was made by a low-level bureaucrat, I have a bridge to sell you. I'll bet it takes twenty-six pounds of documents to get clearance for Air Force One -- just think about it -- the White House, the Pentagon, the Air Force, Andrews Air Force Base, the flight crew, the ground crew, the tactical fighter support, the Secret Service, the FAA, etc, etc, etc. -- when asked about the stunt, Obama's Press Secretary lied and said, "I did not see that before I came out here." -- The AP's Jennifer Loven shot back, "Well, it's been in all the stories all day."
I wonder what the auto CEOs who got their asses chewed out by Obama for using their private jets to fly to Washington think of this stunt -- and then, there's the cost in dollars and cost to the environment. For souvenirs, the cost was enormous. It costs $60,000 per hour to operate Air Force One, plus the operating costs for an F-16 escort -- we're looking at a quarter-of-a-million dollars, and up -- for a photo!
Wouldn't PhotoShop have been cheaper? It's not like Obama isn't familiar with the popular graphics editing program.
~~~BAFB~~~CAP~~~/~Hi-Lo~\~~~ADIZ SECURE~~~01:56~~~
I REALLY hate to say this, but I wouldn’t put anything past Obama...
The one thing that gets me about the coverage of this incident. If they were “taking pictures”... where is the helicopter/plane with the photographer... Does anyone REALLY think the F-16s were taking PICTURES???
Don’t know exactly what happened here, but I don’t believe a word that comes out of Gibbels’ (Press Sec. Gibbs) mouth.
The entire administration's credibility is up there with flying pigs.
WOW... That shot at :50-:55 would’ve scared the daylights out of me, and I can’t imagine what that would make those in New York on 9/11 feel like...
Can’t believe someone would be that stupid, honestly — not even Obama’s folks...
Plus, as someone points out — you don’t take pictures on such a hazy & overcast day to make a PR statement! And, again — where’s the plane or helicopter taking the pictures? The military jet(s)?
Definitely fishy...
I like to call him “Gibbels”. After all, he himself defined his job as — and I quote — “Keeper of the Image”.
LOL — Like he couldn’t have logged hours in a rural area? Does his training include making dangerous turns close to buildings in a metro area?
At first I thought it was pure idiocy. It’s looking far more bizarre now...
I also find it very very hard to believe.
If you want more information, research weather information for New York City and find a day that the altimeter was 30.36 at 13:48 Greenwich Mean Time.
I'm an Australian, wouldn't know how...maybe another FReeper can research for that information?
I think Fred was referring to Cocaine that Obama has admitted to using in the past, and others have accused him of using in more recent years (Larry Sinclair, for the most recent accusation, IIRC).
I wouldn’t surprise me if he still used marijuana (even on occasion). Obama looked either drunk or stoned in some of the pictures from St. Patrick’s Day I saw — the eyes looked more stoned than drunk, IMHO. LOL
However, marijuana doesn’t usually make people crazed like cocaine addiction does (even if it’s “long term effects” and the person isn’t still abusing).
Unfortunately, they only use call sign “Venus” when there are no big wigs on board. VIPs get call sign “SAM 28000” or “SAM 29000” (Special Air Mission, the number is the tail number of the plane). Low-level VIPs get call sign “Executive [tail number]”.
Savage had two interesting callers, they may have just been making up stories, but they made sense (and I imagine could be researched).
One guy said he worked on AF1. He said AF1 is either on the ground with the President in case he needs to escape (nuclear attack/AF1 as command center, etc.) or, is in the air with the President on board.
The backup plane (AF1b) is just that - a backup. It is on the ground when AF1 is on the ground, and in the air when AF1 is in the air. Makes some sense I guess.
The second caller said he had been an Interceptor pilot, and he had seen a little bit of some cell-phone video. He said the F16 was always in a classic intercept position. Either behind and below AF1 to shoot it down, or - slightly along side of it to “herd” it - away from the city perhaps?
I have not seen any video yet so don’t know it the F16 was always in that position.
The caller also said that in an intercept, there would be another F16 hanging back ready to go if the first guy had problems. Was there one or two F16’s??
I read early reports that mentioned TWO fighter jets...yet the images all show just ONE. There’s a video, wide angle from a German website you might find interesting:
When citizens looked up and saw a Boeing 747 flying just above the city rooftops yesterday morning, followed in hot pursuit by a F-16 fighter jeT...
Unfortunately there is no way I can think of to establish if that communication supposedly between the flight control and the aircraft identified by the call sign Venus actually related to the subject flight we are discussing.
See comment #87 - you may be able to help establish if there is any connection.
Communication Source:
Check this LiveATC.net Forum. There is discussion of “Venus One.”
http://www.liveatc.net/forums/listener-forum/air-force-one-t3039/
short answer=YEP!
VENUS ONE HEAVY
Last entry from your link:
Old post but I would like to mention that one of the two 747's was at MDT today doing touch-and-go's (like it does often), and it was "Venus One Heavy".
Well...Venus One Heavy might be the same aircraft...but how can we ascertain when that communication as transcribed at #72 took place?
Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
That is what I thought too, and I work with the DoD, so I wasn't buying into the "official" explanation. Thanks for putting the info out.
BO was born to lie. There is no way he did not know about this.
Does anyone know if there were any sudden changes in the take off & landings in the NYC area that morning?
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