Posted on 05/05/2009 9:13:52 AM PDT by Nachum
You paid $328,835 for the Air Force mission that forced the evacuation of Goldman Sachs and sent Jersey City office workers fleeing for their lives and now you'll never get the lousy snapshots that formed the entire rationale for buzzing lower Manhattan.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessinsider.com ...
Somebody better sue to get them released. Tax payers paid for this bullsh!t flyover.
-PJ
If we are going to use the word, why not spell it out?
I guess only the privledged ones who were on the flight get the photos? In these tough economic times they should be very careful I’m sure those photos are worth a fortune to any news organization.
I think you've hit on the truth. This wasn't for photos - it was a joy ride for someone, apparently. The audacity of arrogance of these people. Seems like every African country freed from colonial rule ends up with a tin pot dictator and I guess BO figures this is his due.
Check out this scenerio -
Not an innocent photo-op flight, but an information gathering operation. Two flights were
planned, one over Wall St. and one over the capital building (Why not one over the Whitehouse?)
One scenerio: to gather timing, fueling, and flight co-ordinates on these two sites.
Posible purpose: Plans to fly ordinary 747’s into these buildings and they needed preliminary
flight specs.
Since there are no Americans crazy enough to do a suicide mission, the only way to
accomplish these attacks would be to provide Obama’s suicide crazy new friends (our enemies)
with the information. The reason: Destroying Wall St. and the US Capital would truly appear to
be a grand scale national emergency, allowing Obama to be president indefinately.
“Too dangerous to risk an election”
Laugh if you want, but does anybody who thinks, really think that this was just an innocent
$330,000 “photo-op” that nobody at the Whitehouse knew about? If anybody can come up with
another logical, non-conspiracy reason for this secret air-show, I’d like to hear it.
Think this sounds uncomprehendable that anyone would consider such a thing?
Remember Obama and Michele are close friends with people who got away with,
and don’t regret, bombing the pentagon and police stations. “The end justifies the means.”
Anything for their cause.
You seem to have a pretty vivid imagination... a little off the deep end. However, I do agree with you completely.
I think Michelle and Grandma were on that plane. Michelle says she likes to sneak out and do different things. Grandma is so busy with sightseeing she can't take care of her grandkids.
Seems to me the 9/11 terrorists did a pretty good job without a test run.
My husband is a pilot - you don’t need to fly to a place to gather timing, fueling etc. This sort of thing is available via aviation software.
"A *secret* publicity stunt?"
I think a suit should be filed, perhaps under the Freedom of Information Act, to release the pictures. At least the videos from private citizens should be bought by the GOP for future campaign commercials.
Look for the photos to be used during 2011 - Re-Election Ads.
Glen Beck has filed a FOIA request for these photos.
It will require a whole school of law professors to stop that from being fulfilled.
We have Classified picture of the 747 joy ride...
Yet we De-Classified the method and means of getting information out of enemy non-combatants which gives ou enemy a leg up on our efforts.
Ok... Tell me where the common sense in these three examples.
You can't because their is no common sense beam me up Scotty...
OK, 1 question................where’s the photo plane?
Do you honestly think this was no more than an innocent, non-thinking joyride for grandma. I might be all wrong about my scenerio and the motive, but I’d bet anything there was secret dirty-work afoot with a motive that has to be kept secret from the people.
ding, ding, ding!
we have a winner.
FOIA the hell out of those photos. :)
>OK, 1 question......
>wheres the photo plane?
The answer lies in this April 30th Wall Street Journal piece...
“I don’t know what their rationale was for wanting a photo op,” Mr. Morrell said. “This originated in the White House Military Office, so I am assuming it was at the behest of the White House and it was their idea of something they wanted to take place.”
The three-hour round-trip flight from Andrews Air Force Base in Washington, D.C.’s Maryland suburbs cost more than $300,000, according to an Air Force estimate. Mr. Gibbs said the president didn’t believe it was an appropriate use of money at a time of austerity and asked a deputy chief of staff, Jim Messina, to head the review.
“The president was furious upon learning of this decision,” Mr. Gibbs said.
The 747-200B aircraft, one of two used as Air Force One, was accompanied by two F-16 fighters from the D.C. Air National Guard, which operates out of Andrews.
“We’ve never been asked to do this before,” said Capt. Byron Coward, a spokesman for the guard unit.
While the F-16s were flown by guard pilots, the photographs were taken by Master Sgt. Andrew N. Dunaway, a specially trained Air Force photographer based with a combat camera squadron at Charleston Air Force Base, S.C.
Only one of the F-16s was involved in the photo shoot; the other peeled off once the 747 reached New York, but both accompanied the plane back to Andrews. According to Vicki Stein, an Air Force spokeswoman, the cost for the fighters, both of which flew nearly two hours, was $28,000.
Despite the cost of an Air Force One flight, both White House and Air Force officials said the flyover also served as a routine training mission, allowing the 747’s pilots to log sufficient flight hours.
“The crew on these aircraft have to maintain their proficiency,” said Gary Strasburg, an Air Force spokesman.
A White House spokesman said, “They took that opportunity to marry up the two missions to take the photo,” adding, “The president thinks there is nothing wrong with the previous official photo of Air Force One.”
“I think it’s symptomatic of being new,” one former Bush administration official said of the flap over the Manhattan flight.
A former Bush White House aide said he didn’t recall any Air Force One trips specifically for publicity. A handful of documentaries about Air Force One were produced during President George W. Bush’s tenure, and the production team flew along on a few presidential trips to shoot footage.
A production crew also flew along on some Air Force One trips with President Bill Clinton for one of the documentaries, which straddled the two presidencies.
Mr. Caldera occupies a position overseeing various military units that provide services to the president such as transportation, communications and medical personnel. The White House declined to make Mr. Caldera available for an interview.
Asked if the judgment error might lead to Mr. Caldera’s dismissal, Mr. Gibbs said the decision would wait until Mr. Messina’s review is complete. Following the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the Bush administration effectively converted the job of head of the Military Office from a political appointment to a Defense Department post. It was filled by a series of active-duty admirals under Mr. Bush.
The aim was to maintain high readiness levels in light of the new terrorism threat. But it was also a recognition of the overall importance of White House military personnel: There are several thousand whose jobs bring them in close proximity to the presidency, from the squad that carries the nuclear-weapons “football” to Marines who tend the West Wing’s front door. The head of the Military Office coordinates all of it.
The Obama administration decided to switch the post back to a political job, despite some concerns that Bush administration officials conveyed during the transition planning.
Former Pentagon officials who worked with Mr. Caldera when he was Army secretary said the East Los Angeles native came to the job with a “bullet-proof resume,” having graduated from West Point and earning law and business degrees from Harvard University.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124093288256863979.html
I think that they’re not telling us the real reason but I have no idea of what it was except maybe taxpayer funded payback for Obama’s supporters. Yes, they were up to no good.
Bleeping tin pot dictator!
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