But take heart, at least somebody in the White House press corp is on it. They lightly hectored Robert Gibbs today:
Q A quick follow on something else. There was a report this morning suggesting that the White House doesn’t want to release the photos from the Air Force jet fly -- over Manhattan. Why wouldn’t you release those photos? And what's the status of the President's review of what went wrong here at the White House?Pretty good answer--for a ten year old. One might think the White House would have briefed Gibbs since it was an aide to Obama who said yesterday they wouldn't be released. Doesn't he have Obama's Blackberry number? The reporter continued with a follow up:
MR. GIBBS: We anticipate the review will be done this week. I've watched CNN -- I didn’t notice a lack of archival material from that flight. I can --
Q No, from inside the plane, from -- the photos they took, we haven't seen those.
MR. GIBBS: I don't know where those are.
Q Robert, can you try and get us an answer as to why the White House doesn't want to release those Air Force One photos?This has been one weird trip, however in all honesty it could be explained by Obama's willingness to admit every mistake short of his own.
MR. GIBBS: Sure.
Q Is that definite, you're just not going to --
MR. GIBBS: Wait a minute, Mark said would I try, and I said, yes. So you're -- let me find Mark's answer before you follow up with the negative.
MORE 5/6/09
A new day, a new way:
Q You took Mark's question yesterday on the status of the video flyover. What's the status?Interesting the first words out of his mouth were "the President" when asked about the status. But OK, now a photo. They've probably concluded that the anger has subsided enough. Also, as Debbie mentioned in comments it would be highly hypocritical to release more Abu Ghraib detainee torture shots and not the tortured citizens of New York running for their lives from Air Force One on a 30 degree bank at 1200 feet.
MR. GIBBS: The President -- I'm sorry -- the report I believe will be concluded at some point this week. We'll release its findings and release a photo.
Chances are both the report and picture will be released simultaneous to something much more sensational or perhaps on Friday evening.
MORE 5/7/09
Gibbs was at his best today. Let's go to the transcript:
Q Robert, on the Air Force One Manhattan fly-by, I just wanted to clarify, are you guys going to be releasing the picture from that?"6:31 on Friday", gotta love that comment. And he certainly didn't deny it.
MR. GIBBS: Yes.
Q And when will that be?
MR. GIBBS: Sometime this week.
Q Sometime this week, okay.
Q It's Thursday. (Laughter.)
MR. GIBBS: You can't get anything by you guys, can you? (Laughter.)
Q At 6:31 p.m. on Friday?
Q Not necessarily today?
MR. GIBBS: Not necessarily today.
Q Okay.
Q Can you rule out today?
MR. GIBBS: I can -- hence not necessarily today.
Q So then it's tomorrow.
MR. GIBBS: Man, I'm telling you what, these guys -- (laughter) -- go slow writing this transcript. (Laughter.) There's a lot of knowledge.
4 comments:
//Since they originally said the mission was to update the PR photos (somebody said for the White House gift shop) the entire thing has seemingly become an even bigger waste of taxpayer funds than first imagined.//
The money has already been blown, there's no changing it now. The smart thing would be to sell the damn things on postcards or something, to recuperate some of the cost. It's how private sector businesses would do it.
But I am sure, it would remind people of how inept this administration really is and they can't have that with 2010 looming in the backdrop..
But I am sure, it would remind people of how inept this administration really is and they can't have that with 2010 looming in the backdrop..That makes sense, but how could they not have factored that into their pre-flight discussions?
Unless they were thinking that when people saw AF1 passing low over Manhattan they would run with anticipation to the river's edge screaming "yes we can"...
I think they have agreed to release the photos now. There are more questions... Who took the pictures? Were they taken from different points on the groupd? Were they taken from the military jets tracking the plane? What will the pictures be used for???
The pressure comes from those saying, "You will release pictures of terrorists being interrogated, tortured, images that can damage America ... but you won't release these??? Where's the transparency???
Debbie Hamilton
Right Truth
The pressure comes from those saying, "You will release pictures of terrorists being interrogated, tortured, images that can damage America ... but you won't release these??? Where's the transparency???Good point--the pictures of terrorized tortured New Yorkers have to be fair game..
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