- WASHINGTON (Reuters) - In
another White House correction, the Bush administration on Wednesday changed
its story of a British Airways pilot's spotting of Air Force One during
the president's stealth trip to Iraq last week.
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- The original story -- which held that the airline's pilot
had talked to Air Force One and that he kept the secret of President Bush's
Thanksgiving Day flight to Baghdad -- had been told by White House Communications
Director Dan Bartlett to reporters as he sought to portray the drama of
Bush's trip.
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- But after British Airways denied such a conversation
took place, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said on Wednesday the
airline's pilot never contacted Air Force One. "The conversation was
between the British Airways plane and the London control tower," McClellan
said.
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- It was also the London control tower, not an Air Force
One pilot as in the original story, that misidentified Air Force One as
a much smaller "Gulfstream 5" aircraft, McClellan said.
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- He said Air Force One pilots overheard the conversation
while flying over the west coast of England, and the British Airways plane
could be identified by its call sign when it spoke to the tower.
- McClellan declined to say whether Air Force One had sent
a false electronic identification or whether controllers were in on the
deception.
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- British Airways said it could not confirm the new account.
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- White House officials have said the elaborate secrecy
surrounding the trip was needed to ensure Bush's security in Iraq, but
some critics accused the administration of dramatizing the trip for political
purposes.
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- CHANGE OF STORY
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- McClellan explained the change in the White House story
by saying, "I don't think everybody was clear on exactly how that
conversation happened."
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- The White House has come under criticism for backtracking
on its account of other high profile events.
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- In October, it conceded it had helped with a large "Mission
Accomplished" banner on an aircraft carrier where Bush announced in
May that major fighting had ended in Iraq.
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- Bush had initially said his advance team did not put
up the banner, whose message critics viewed as premature given continued
attacks on occupying forces in Iraq.
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- Also, the White House had initially said Bush needed
to fly to the carrier on a jet because the vessel would be hundreds of
miles offshore. But the administration later acknowledged that Bush decided
on flying by jet, even through the carrier had ended up within easy helicopter
range, because he wanted to share in the pilots' experience.
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- British Airways said it could not confirm the White House's
new version of the Air Force One story. "We've had no reports from
any of our pilots with regard to Air Force One," airline spokeswoman
Honor Verrier said.
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- Copyright © 2003 Reuters Limited.
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