He doesn't state whether the door was also closed when the flight was about to leave Andrews for Baghdad, but if it was closed, perhaps the Prez boarded in view of the press, and then got back off and boarded a Gulfstream? Otherwise we'd have to believe the entire pool of reporters agreed to not report the fact that they switched planes somewhere along the journey.
Also in the account, the pool reporter describes a question of the Communications Director regarding what designator the plane was flying under (Air Force 1 or something else). The Comm. Dir. responded to the effect that this plane was not flying as AF1. Perhaps the conspiracy theorist in me is reading to much into his use of this...or am I missing something else?
Yes, I agree. In the transcript of a discussion with reporters on board AF1 he said this...
"I even went up to the cockpit and watched Tillman bring it in -- which, had the security been broken there would have been the time that we would have been most vulnerable. However, the plane -- that's why Colonel Tillman's judgment was so important to this -- this plane is protected, it's protected against the kinds of things that could be used against it. It also -- we obviously flew in, in the dark, precautions were taken."
He certainly seems to be implying that he was aboard AF1 when they landed in Baghdad. I wouldn't think that he would lie about something like that after the fact. It would serve no good purpose that I can discern. In fact, it could be used against him if it can be proven that he lied like that.