Wednesday, May 06, 2009

One?
The Photo: Below - Two Versions, One "high-res"
Updates: 05/09/09 and 10, below:

That's it? . . . One unclassified photo?

Update: 05/09/09: Very late yesterday afternoon, Friday, May 8, 2009, the White House released a very limited "internal review" (ht. ABC coverage) attributed to the White House Counsel's Office about White House involvement in the scary flight incident, addressing "the facts and circumstances that led to the flyover of New York city on April 27, 2009." The memo states that the Deputy Director of the WHMO claimed to have notified Caldera on three occasions, twice verbally and one by e-mail, about the details of the flight, and suggesting that Caldera might want to run it past Deputy chief of Staff, Jim Messina, and Press aide, Robert Gibbs.

With respect to Director Caldera's actions, it then states, "Ultimately, the Director did not notify Messrs. Messina or Gibbs about the flyover."

The unsigned memo also goes on to address what were identified therein as perceived ambiguities in the reporting structure of the White House Military Office, and makes the suggestion that "structural and organizational ambiguities exist" therein, that can affect that "organization's ability to operate effectively."

The unsigned internal memo was dated May 5, 2009, three days prior to it's release.

Should we assume it was the White House version of a "per curium opinion" on the topic?

If so, that would not only make it unsigned, and therefore unattributable to any one person, but would also make it the agreed upon position of the White House.

Gee, the White House had previously said that Deputy chief of Staff, Jim Messina would be conducting that internal review, not some unidentified member of the Counsel's Office.

Where are the results of Messina's investigation?

ABC's Jake Tapper and Megam Chuchmach have posted about the resignation of the Director of the White House Military Office, Lou Caldera over the incident for which he had previously apologized.

And, in addition, the White House also released only ONE photo, obviously one taken from the accompanying F-16.

Here it is . . . the one photo.

So . . . where are the photo(s) taken from inside Air Force One during that flight?

Free Republic has held a funny "photoshop" contest of the incident, which is now up to about 600 pages long!

Finally, the Washington Post reports, per Scott Wilson, that the official estimated cost of the incident has now risen to $357,000, based on a letter from Sec. Defense Robert Gates to Senator John McCain in response to a McCain inquiry.

Below is the official "high resolution" version, from the White House site, here. Click on the photo to expand it to full size. It is also obviously an "uncropped" and "un-brightened" version, like the one above was.

That is a portion of Hudson and Essex counties in New Jersey in the background, including Liberty Park and Jersey City. In the upper left-hand corner, you can see the distinctive Newark Bay Bridge (officially the Vincent R. Casciano Memorial Bridge), and the railroad bridge just above it, connecting the cities of Newark and Bayonne via I-78 crossing Newark Bay. Above the cockpit are connectors like the General Pulaski Skyway, Routes 1 & 9, crossing the Passaic and Hackensack Rivers connecting Newark and Jersey City, and leading to the Holland Tunnel. Harrison and Kearney are in the background. Also visible are the NJ Turnpike connectors, eventually leading to the Bergen county area of New Jersey, I-80, and the George Washington Bridge.

The New York areas of Governor's Island, Brooklyn and the lower tip of Manhattan would have been quite clearly visible from the port windows you can see on that right side of Air Force One.








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