Scare Force One — Another Look

I’d really like more background and details on this reported price tag. Was this the actually “over-cost”, ie. what this “photo op” cost over and above the normal operations of Air Force One (which, as I understand, is required to perform a certain number of training hours).
Or is this a matter of the Pentagon reporter simply asking how much it would cost to fly Air Force One to New York and back? Whichever it is, we deserve to know because those are two VERY different questions. I hope you in the media are aware that viewers are not stupid and can tell when an answer to a question is not necessarily the full truth.

“should only be shared with persons with a need to know”…
Yeah, like ALL residents of the NYC region! That’s who “needed to know”. What stupidity.
For a photo-op? Ever heard of Photoshop morons!

The white house is LYING as per usual for Obama

What did Bush know? And when did he know it????

“They’ve found explosives in WTC dust.
Report it.”
Oh dear God! ACORN is here!

This was just so incredibly stupid. Whoever wrote and approved that memo should be granted a brain transplant.

I was referring to findings of Danish scientist who discovered the traces of explosives in WTC dust.
Their study is peer reviewed and published by source which is endorsed by Nobel Laureates.
It was widely reported in Europe.

Obama doesn’t have no foreign policy. His foreign policy is so ‘weak’. He has a ‘lack’ of inexperience and leadership.

You really think Obama didnt know about this…Give me a break people and wake up and enjoy the sickle on the flag. We have an usual country now.

Obama would have stopped Scare Force The One from flying over NY if the teleprompter didn’t get ahead of him. The teleprompter needs to be fired (after it recovers from swine flu).

Are we supposed to believe that Obama didnt know about this in advance? Yeah, right. Just like he wasn’t aware of the tea parties. What a farce!

I think he knew about it all right; I think it was preparing for his 2012 campaign…just imagine “keeping Americans safe”…ad nauseum.

Since this “Scare Force One” incident was all about getting a photo of Obama’s plane flying next to the Statue of Liberty, then it only makes sense that either Obama himself, or one of his closest aides, say David Axlefraud, ordered this event.
They were most likely going to use footage of this for an Obama commercial in which the theme was “President Obama is really, really good for our Liberty”.

I was willing to give Obama a chance but must say that his first 100 days have been a disaster. I hope he ups his game in the 2nd 100.

Well, we’re not speaking about those torture memos or utter lack of suspects.
Eh?

I can’t watch Obama anymore on TV. It’s not that I don’t like him but I can’t get that telepromter out of my mind. The way he looks back and forth at that thing is just to weird. What I thought was a gift turned out to be a crutch.

Jake, I’m still not buying your Pentagon reporter’s estimated price tag. It sounds to me like he asked the Air Force “how much would it theoretically cost to fly Air Force One and a fighter jet from DC to NY and back?” Please, Jake, if there was more in-depth reporting (were these regularly scheduled flight hours? How much did the “photo op” aspect of it add to the cost, if so?) I would love for you to prove me wrong. I strongly suspect I’m not wrong, though. If I’m not wrong, can you explain to me how this is responsible journalism?
Awaiting your detailed explanation…

Responsible journalism?
lol!

jhw: Are you playing dumb or do you really not have any experience with the military?
=========
The FAA demanded secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.
I have no idea what you are referring to when you talk about experience with the military.
We regularly know when the real AF1 with POTUS aboard is going to be leaving and arriving at a given city. This empty flight was to be kept even more secret than that. I don’t know why, do you?

I just want to know three things. Who was on the plane besides the pilot? Where were the photographers located on the ground to take the photos? And, where are the photos now?

The default position of the military is secrecy. This is not new.
I have not noticed AF1 scheduling be released – events are, but the flight movements are typically not released until day of movement, if then.
==========
This isn’t a military issue.
Nobody needed to know the military flight movement.
Whoever planned it just had to see to it that it was announced on television and radio, “You are going to see AF1 and some fighter planes flying around Manhattan today. Don’t be alarmed, it is a filming and training exercise”.
People know the general whereabouts of the real AF1 every time the President goes somewhere. An empty one shouldn’t require threats of secrecy.

People are overreacting, and Obama is giving into it. He’s more follower than leader. All he has to say is that he’s sorry if anybody was frightened, but since this was NOT an attack, there is no reason for alarm.
Case closed.

Mitch in SC:” Then why has he broken his promise about posting bills for 5 days before they are voted on?”
That’s your proof of incompetence? That he hasn’t stuck to the letter of a pledge (which had a big ‘ol ‘except emergency legislation’ escape clause)?
Talk about a petty and irrelevant opposition party.

Mr. Transparency should have no problem telling us who was on that jet. Heck, it can’t even be classified.
If he doesn’t it would prove what a lying hypocrtical Obama is.

Let me clarify this for people who seem obsessed to know who was actually on the Boeing plane involved in the NYC flyover …
2 Pilots …
Clear enough … ?
Now after y’all get your panties out of the bunch it is, you can go on obsessing about the American President’s Birth Certificate …
At least that tinfoil argument was nuttier for us observers …

NY Post: AIR HEADS IN DC TERRORIZE CITY
NY Daily News: President Obama calls Air Force One flyover ‘mistake’ day after low-flying plane terrifies New York

Several businesses were evacuated
From NBC NY”
Jumbo Jet, F-16 Buzz Lady Liberty, Put New York on Edge
At least two people were treated for minor injuries at Jersey City Medical Center after falling during the rush to exit their buildings.
“Everybody panicked,” said Daisy Cooper, a Merrill Lynch worker in Jersey City, who lost a nephew on 9/11. “Everybody was screaming and we all ran downstairs. I’m devastated…Everybody was running, we didn’t know why we were running. We just knew it was a plane, there we go, 9/11 again.”
“It’s completely asinine after 9/11 to do that,” said Keith Mercantine, who witnessed the chaos in Jersey City. “I saw ambulances out here with pregnant women.”

Well, jhw, if President Obama (who is reportedly furious) reads the review he’s ordered and finds the NYPD at fault for not pushing back against the federal government’s plans for the AF1 flyover, I hope he makes that very public.

What am I afraid of ?
ABSOLUTELY NOTHING !
I LIVE in NY. And i find it quite disingenuous for people who will wish that liberal state did NOT exist as part of the Union to argue so vehemently for something that should NOT be a big deal as a Nation compromising it’s values and engaging in a practice that we will prosecute other nations for taking part in, TORTURE …
Now IF you can prove that you REALLY feel the need to know who actually was on a Plane and HOW that information is somehow going to “absolve” some form of contempt you hold towards the new Administration , MAYBE I will find your inquiry credible …
Until THEN, I will suggest you hold a Tea party Protest decrying Obama’s “NY Scare” and see if THAT produces ANY results ( since your last one was so successful /sarc )

Just a few of Obama’s 1st 100 days…
ELEVEN TRILLION DOLLAR DEFICIT $11,000,000,000,000.00 That’s $26,000 per person, but only 50% pay taxes, so EVERY WORKING PERSON IN AMERICA will owe $52,000. That’s Hope?
“What?? They get Bonuses??”
“That wasn’t a bow, he was reaching down ‘cos the King is short.”
“Veterans returning from Iraq are considered a threat to US security”
“Get me to the CIA right NOW so I can mend fences over this release of interrogation techniques and explain my way out of a MAJOR BREACH OF NATIONAL SECURITY”
“Air, er… SCARE Force One flew over WHERE with an F-15 in chase!!!???”
“B’du-b’du-b’du-hamina-hamina… I don’t know!”
The Messiah is proving to be nothing but a greenhorn Chicago politician in WAY over his head, and all his bad choices for cabinet posts are screwing up everything they touch.
Change = The monkeys are now running the zoo. Obama (alleged zookeeper) cannot control his own people. (No offense to monkeys).
A friend of mine walked over to me during a break the other day and sarcastically asked if I was glad “we” voted for the president. I had to remind him of the day I tried to talk him out of it as he repeated: “8 years of Bush is enough, we gotta give him a chance”, but he didn’t remember anybody who wasn’t for Obama. The blindness over Obama has been astounding, but there’s light at the end of the tunnel. The entire administration are waving flares.

Just a few of President Obama’s 1st 100 days …
* Confidence in direction of country soaring back up …
* Dow higher than when Boosh left office …
* The USA is claiming back the moral high ground when it comes to Torture …
* The views of the international community towards the USA are significantly being repaired …
* All natural disasters are receiving the most prompt of attentions from the Federal Government …
* The LOSERS are STILL WHINING … ( I’m loving it … )
CHANGE = Oh Yes! It Already Started …
If you are one of the few in the minority that think the Administration is “waving flares”, just wait till you see a McSame/Flailin administration where both the leaders and the staff have ABSOLUTELY ZERO control of their operations … ( thank goodness we NEVER had to witness THAT ! )

JPT:
Here’s fodder for a question or two, from “A Blog For All” although I can’t vouch for its accuracy:
“Joey Devilla, meanwhile, quotes Chris Taylor who seems to have come across a very curious line of questions – why was a F-16 chosen as the platform from which to take the photos, given that the F-16 is normally a single seat aircraft – there is a two-seat trainer version, but the plane doesn’t appear to be that version. More to the point, the F-16 was repeatedly shown trailing the VC-25, meaning that they wouldn’t be getting the most prominent view of the plane.”
Back on the mondo bizarro front, apparently a second shoot, now scrapped, was scheduled to take place over Wash. DC!

Well, Jake, I just found the full Air Force statement about the “cost” of this photo op and it seems your report is indeed disingenuous. You state the “cost of the terrifying photo op” was $328,835. But was that really the cost of the photo op? The Air Force statement says that “the flights were a training mission and the hours would have been flown regardless…” So the cost incurred was actually the cost of a regularly scheduled, and budgeted for, training mission, NOT the cost of the “photo op”.
So what, if anything, was the ADDED cost of the photo op aspect of this? That’s the only question you should be asking. Unless your point is that all regular training missions should be abolished.

Good Grief, if George Bush had made a blunder like this the media would have gone ballistic and pictures would be all over the front pages of every liberal rag in the country. I find it incredulous that Obama didn’t know about the Photo Op and I think he should have said more about it than the arrogant statement he made this morning. Another thing, Rober Gibbs performance at the Press Conference was total insanity….this ignorant boob is unbelievably dense, arrogant and snippy. He has to go!!!

“if you really want to get into the ‘what are they afraid of’ state of mind lets review:”
Obamatons cannot resist moral equivalence. They cannot evaluate an OBama blunder without going right for the “Well Bush did….”
It’s a sad comment for you guys and Obama when you feel you have to go back to Bush as a comparison. It means Obama really is as bad as we thought he was.

“President Obama’s media cheerleaders are hailing how loved he is. But at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.”
Washington Times
heh

I would not drop the soap around these guys if I were you

Mr. Tapper, good luck tonight. I hope you get to ask some questions to the big guy. But be careful. His boy Gibby has tried to intimadate you and others in the past and we don’t want you to back down from these clowns. you are one of the only “reporters” who ask Barry/Totus hard questions. Hopefully Barry won’t talk to ‘prompter totus out loud tonight. maybe he will be on the lowdown.

Please complain some more about calling it “Scare Force One.” This will of course discourage people from doing so.

“Let’s see any of you find an example of a VC 25 sent out without the President’s knowledge.”
No. That’s a ridiculous request and you know it. How about you provide proof that he’s lying, instead. How about somebody on the record saying that the President has to okay all movements of the planes. Shouldn’t be that difficult to find, it it’s the case. Otherwise, it’s just more right wing baseless speculation and lies. How do you people look yourselves in the mirror when you so regularly are blatantly dishonest? You don’t care about honesty on the road to political points. It’s sad.

“”President Obama’s media cheerleaders are hailing how loved he is. But at the 100-day mark of his presidency, Mr. Obama is the second-least-popular president in 40 years.”"
According to what poll? What was the question? Not that I would be all that surprised considering the unparalleled challenges that moron left him. But I’d like to know the details supporting that claim.

“Well, Jake, I just found the full Air Force statement about the “cost” of this photo op and it seems your report is indeed disingenuous. You state the “cost of the terrifying photo op” was $328,835. But was that really the cost of the photo op? The Air Force statement says that “the flights were a training mission and the hours would have been flown regardless…” So the cost incurred was actually the cost of a regularly scheduled, and budgeted for, training mission, NOT the cost of the “photo op”.”
THIS BEARS REPEATING.

The difference, Silky, is that they’re not blaming Obama personally for it, but his underling Caldera.
If Bush had done it, the personal attacks and insults would have been endless.
Speaking of which, isn’t a uniformed military person supposed to be in charge of the White House Military Office? Why is a civilian running it? Maybe that’s the problem.
A uniformed head for the office might have a more realistic, un-Hollywood idea of how to use military assets.

Wasn’t Obama asking suggestions a few days ago on how to save money?
Here’s some…
Stop wasting our money to make yourself look good with AF1 glamour shots.
Try to get control of your staff.

“Wasn’t it Michelle who said something like–if you can’t control what goes on in your own house how can you control the WH?”
I don’t know, but if you’re going to imply she said this, you should have the quote.

“Stop wasting our money to make yourself look good with AF1 glamour shots.”
Ha! Glamour shots? He wasn’t lying across the roof of the plane, rocking blue steel. In fact, he wasn’t even on the plane.

$300K for a photo op.
Two sets of rules in the Obama administration.
One for them one for the people.

Silky:
Because you asked and because I should have provided the quote.
Michelle was ripping Hillary about Bill.
“If you can’t control your own house how can you run the White House?”
So I say to Michelle–have a talk with your husband.
How can he run the country when he can’t even control his own staff?
My quote.

Silky, the “poll” they’re talking about is a bogus Washington Times editorial that claimed his Gallup “approval rating” was 56% (when it’s actually in the low to mid 60s). It was a misinterpretation of a Gallup poll that had 56% saying Obama is doing an “excellent” or “good” job. That wasn’t his “approval rating” because there was also a category that said he was doing an “okay” job (which would be included as “approval”). The righties are running with this bogus “56%” number and claiming that makes him the second least popular Pres. at this point in his term or some such nonsense. It’s all based on a bogus misreading of a poll.
Whatever helps them sleep at night while their party crumbles, I guess. ;-P

A plane flew near Manhattan; the FAA and air traffic controllers knew about it and approved it; the NYC Police knew about it; the White House knew about it and approved it; but Obama didn’t know and wouldn’t have approved? I don’t get this. No harm was done. A NY Mayor with Presidential ambitions whines to the press and Obama treats it like a National Emergency. This is as dumb as it gets. At least now we know that when Michael Bloomberg says “jump”, Obama will ask “how high”. I am disappointed to say the least. I don’t think Obama is being sensitive to my feelings. :)

I agree. Where were the photographers located and where are the pictures from this “Photo Op”? As taxpayers we should at least see what we paid for. Also, who was in the plane besides the pilots?

I flat out don’t believe that Obama didn’t know this was going to happen. I think he wanted trinkets to hand out, his ego demanded new photos and the cost — of all kinds — be damned. I believe he knew about it and authorized it. His “fury” is all for show.

Keep spinning, Silky.

“ABC News’ Pentagon reporter Luis Martinez reports that this afternoon the Air Force estimated the cost of the terrifying photo op at $328,835.”
It was a training exercise. So, now we want price tags on all training exercises? Attributing the cost of this to “a photo op” is not only incorrect, it is blatantly irresponsible journalism.

Hummm…..who was taking the pictures?
Was a helicoptr involved?
Oh..I bet George Bush took the photos.

Do they actually do training flights around Washington and New York?
One would think that that area is too populated.

When did the “‘Photo-Op’ to update pictures of the standby Air Force One near American landmarks” become a “Training Mission”? That my dear boy, is SPIN. We still haven’t seen the photos from this “Photo-Op” paid for by taxpayers like me and, maybe, depending on your income, you.

Hmmm… a “training” flight flying at low altitudes near lower Manhatten (which just happens to be near Ground Zero/Statue of Liberty). What on earth would they do if the “training mission” went wrong? Ditch it or shoot the plane down over a heavily populated area? Was Cap’n Sully on board? Nah, this wasn’t a “training mission”, this was a big ole Obama mistake, but why? For a campaign shot? (“I won.”) Where are the pictures?

In the tailing fighters?
===========
You think there was a photographer in the second seat of an f-16 taking still photographs of the plane in front of it?
I don’t.
I’m going with the theory that this was for a movie, and the film crew was on the ground or in a nearby building somewhere.

That’s not spin, that’s the truth.

Silky:
Think you mean, a cost would have been incurred no matter where this aircraft was going whether it be training or a photo-op. My question is: what was the real reason for it being in that area?
Just because it can…and it was a ha, ha I can do what I choose, it is my toy,
and folks didn’t take it as being funny.
I sure don’t.

“I’m going with the theory that this was for a movie, and the film crew was on the ground or in a nearby building somewhere.”
If it were for a movie, they would have done CGI.

“Think you mean, a cost would have been incurred no matter where this aircraft was going whether it be training or a photo-op. My question is: what was the real reason for it being in that area?”
Lol. Okay, let’s try this again. The plane would have been on a training exercise, no matter what. The costs would have been incurred regardless where the exercise took place. It was going to be in the air flying around anyway. Caldera decided to kill two birds with one stone and have them do the exercise where they could get a good new stock photo for Air Force One. Is that clear?

Think. If the idea was to update file photos of Air Force One flying by national monuments (in this case, The Statue of Liberty), the pictures would not be taken from the air. They would be taken from the ground or from a building. Where are the pictures, where were the photographers?

They would not fly a training mission over lower Manhatten. That is just nonsensical SPIN.

Hey Jake,
I think I can see what you are about now. But that is okay because everyone is entitled to their opinions.

“They would not fly a training mission over lower Manhatten. That is just nonsensical SPIN.”
Please actually read the posts if you’re going to throw around accusations based on them. This *was* a training mission, something that has been confirmed by the Air Force, and it wasn’t “over” lower ManhattAn (“a”, not “e”). It was over the Hudson River and New Jersey.

“They would have, would they.”
What realistic scenario can you come up with where what your suggesting could come to fruition? No freaking way.

What realistic scenario can you come up with where what your suggesting could come to fruition? No freaking way.
==
Why is it less believable than using a training mission to fly low over NYC and DC for a standard photo op? It was a bad call either way.
All the production company would have to do is ask some liaison if they can film AF1 flying over the city. The military has allowed jets and other equipment to be used for movies before- Top Gun for example, and other Michael Bay movies.
So the liaison likes the idea and says yes, figuring…what can go wrong?

And Salt and Transformers have the same production company, Di Bonaventura Pictures.
So it isn’t really an outlandish theory.

To my knowledge, the military doesn’t rent out AF-1 to Hollywood.
==================================
The military didn’t make the arrangements. A political appointee did.

“So you think the thing that makes it far-fetched is that it was AF1. Like that is a line that wouldn’t be crossed.”
That is a line that’s never been crossed and never will be crossed.
“But you would also think buzzing tall buildings in NYC with a low-flying presidential jet and fighter planes trailing is a line that wouldn’t be crossed. Yet it was, for one reason or another.”
It didn’t fly over Manhattan. And it certainly didn’t fly low over buildings in Manhattan.
“I could be wrong, but since we’ve already seen the bad judgment in action on this incident, I don’t think “that would be bad judgment!” is compelling enough argument.”
This is completely a hindsight deal. It’s reasonable to not forsee people freaking out. Planes fly over the Hudson all day long and the President’s plane is instantly recognizable. It’s simply an unfortunately thing.

“The people that evacuated their buildings in lower Manhattan surely seemed to think so.”
They did? How do you know that? And if they did, that’s odd, because nothing I’ve seen indicates the planes flew over Manhattan at all. Certainly, none of the video I’ve seen.

The NYTimes said:
But the exercise — conducted without any notification to the public — caused momentary panic in some quarters and led to the evacuation of several buildings in Lower Manhattan and Jersey City. By the afternoon, the situation had turned into a political fuse box, with Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg saying that he was “furious” that he had not been told in advance about the flyover.

Obviously, there are many psychological reactions in us that not even we could predict of ourselves. Once a year or so we get a low-flying jet over our neighborhood, and children run out yelling for adults to come and have a look. To me, it says a lot about the good quality of our civilian life and security that so many Americans are so sensitive to sights and sounds that many people in the world live with everyday. It also says a lot about the quality of our highest levels of organization, that a digital mock-up is not good enough for a presidential photo. It’s also a relief to know that We the People are not ashamed of being human, and making (and exposing) mistakes from time to time. Out of my poor estate, I would be happy to take on 1/20th of the expense for all of that.

Get a map. The first line in the article says Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty is located just offshore of lower Manhattan.
We took our children to NYC in the summer of 2000 and kept missing the exit for The Statue of Liberty. We kept circling by the World Trade Centers to try to take the right exit. We laughed about it at the time. Not so much anymore.
There is also lots of video and pictures available of workers on Wall Street who had evacuated their buildings (also lower Manhattan).
To deny it is ridiculous. This was an insensitive selfish act by the White House. I wonder if they will ever release the photographs…

NYTs:
At 1 Liberty Plaza, according to another person who works in Lower Manhattan, a loudspeaker announcement said at 10:55 a.m., “Planes were observed flying low over Lower Manhattan, but were part of an approved federal action.”
Johnny Villafane, 42, of the Upper West Side, said, “The plane did a 360. There was a vibration. The glass in the skyscrapers was shivering.” He added, “It sounded like the building were cracking, everything started shaking. I thought the plane was coming down.”
Sidney Bordley, a floor director in an office building at 1 Battery Park Place, said, “People were running out of the office, claiming they saw a commercial flight being pursued by F-16’s.” He added, “There was some confusion and a little excitement.”
A group of financial services workers, who were gathered outside the same building but declined to give their names, described their reactions. “I saw the landing gear and I was out of here,” one said. Another said: “There were people in my elevator, sweating and shaking.

Silky-
1 Liberty Plaza- Manhattan
1 Battery Park – Manhattan
area of ground zero = Manhattan

“Get a map. The first line in the article says Manhattan and the Statue of Liberty is located just offshore of lower Manhattan.”
I don’t need a map. I know exactly where the Statue of Liberty is in relation to downtown. MayBee indicated they flew low OVER downtown. I have seen nothing indicating that is the case. That’s an entirely different thing than banking around the Statue of Liberty over the Hudson.

what would this guy do if someone misplaced one of his ‘prompters. I bet he’d be really mad then, spitin’ mad