Rumsfeld's Travels: Taking the 'Silver Bullet' to Iraq
April 26, 2006 — -- Americans awoke to the news this morning that Donald Rumsfeld and Condoleezza Rice had arrived in Baghdad on yet another "surprise visit." Today's joint journey highlights the high level of security that goes into keeping secret the travel plans of a Cabinet VIP to Baghdad, not to mention two Cabinet VIPs.
On this trip, Rumsfeld flew to Iraq on a C-17 military transport plane equipped with a "silver bullet" in the middle of the aircraft. The silver bullet is a metallic box reminiscent of a 1950s Airstream trailer, where Rumsfeld and his staff can find privacy during the flight. Since the C-17 is a transport plane, passenger comfort isn't a priority. Reporters accompanying Rumsfeld sit in jump seats along the sides of the plane's fuselage, just as paratroopers would on their way to an airdrop. Not the most comfortable arrangement for a transcontinental flight.
The switch to nondescript C-17 military transport planes is done for security reasons, as the official planes might stand out too much in Baghdad's skies, making inviting targets for insurgents armed with shoulder-fired surface-to-air missiles.
A missile strike is a real threat, as witnessed a few years back when a DHL plane was forced to make an emergency landing at the airport after a surface-to-air missile hit one of its engines. In an effort to stymie any such attacks, military flights into Baghdad usually undertake evasive corkscrew maneuvers -- steep circles on the way to the runway, quite a harrowing experience for some passengers -- when landing at the airport.
Diplomacy in the Aisle
On her earlier trip this month with Jack Straw, Rice willingly took a more spartan path to Iraq. As her official aircraft traveled to Kuwait to join the military aircraft that would take them to Baghdad, Rice generously offered Straw the bed in her quarters. Straw awoke in the morning to learn that Rice had slept on the floor in the aisle outside the cabin.
When Mother Nature is involved, even the best planning can go awry. Upon landing in Baghdad today, Rice and Straw emerged from the plane to face a torrential rainstorm. Suddenly, plans to helicopter to the Green Zone were nixed for a riskier motorcade along the city's airport road, one of Baghdad's most dangerous routes. At one point, the motorcade of armored vehicles was forced to wait on the road for 20 minutes because of an unrelated roadblock ahead. Eventually, after an hour-long trip, the motorcade arrived at the heavily fortified Green Zone.
As the Bush administration shows its commitment to Iraq by sending top Cabinet members there, Rice and Rumsfeld have become frequent visitors. Today's visit is Rice's second this month, and Rumsfeld's 12th overall.
It's one reason the media labels the trips "surprise visits." Knowledge of the trips is tightly held among a small number of staffers at the State Department and Pentagon. Logistics are often undertaken in extreme secrecy to prevent any leaks of a pending visit.
Reporters who routinely accompany Rice and Rumsfeld abroad are often given advance schedules, but for trips to Iraq quite the opposite happens. Reporters are often kept in the dark until just before departure. Visits to Iraq are sometimes tacked on to existing trips, as was the case with Rice's visit today and her earlier visit this month with British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw. At other times the trips seem to come out of the blue. Usually, a small number of reporters are sworn to secrecy and told they'll be accompanying the Cabinet official to Iraq.
For the Iraq trips, Rice and Rumsfeld give up the creature comforts of their official planes for the more austere accommodations of the military aircraft.
And the secret trips aren't just limited to Iraq; the same goes for other hot spots like Afghanistan and Lebanon. Rice and Rumsfeld have made surprise trips to Afghanistan to visit with U.S. troops and Afghan leaders, and Rice has twice paid unannounced visits to Lebanon to confer with leaders there.