Precautions minimized risk of Bush’s trip

Friday, Nov. 28, 2003 | 11:05 a.m.

SUN WIRE SERVICES

WASHINGTON -- President Bush took a modest risk flying into Baghdad to visit U.S. troops on Thanksgiving, experts say.

Although insurgents have yet to shoot down a large civilian or military airplane, they've been trying. U.S. helicopters and airplanes have frequently been targeted. Insurgents have used everything from machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades to portable missiles to try to bring down a plane.

Last week they managed a hit. A civilian cargo jet operated by DHL was struck by a heat-seeking missile and forced to land at Baghdad's airport with part of its wing on fire.

But Bush was protected by a number of measures. The manner of the flight, the defenses of Air Force One and the secrecy of the mission all helped to minimize risk.

Bush, the first U.S. president to visit Iraq, was the surprise guest at a Thanksgiving dinner in the mess hall at Baghdad International Airport, where he told about 600 stunned, whooping soldiers from the 1st Armored Division and the 82nd Airborne that he was happy to be with them -- "I was just looking for a warm meal somewhere" -- and that he was grateful for their service.

As Bush spoke in Baghdad, eight hours ahead of Eastern Standard Time, his parents, wife and two daughters awoke at the president's ranch in Crawford, Texas, where they had gathered to spend Thanksgiving.

Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One as it returned from Baghdad on Thursday night that his parents, former President George Bush and Barbara Bush, had not known about his trip beforehand. White House officials said he told his twin daughters, Barbara and Jenna, only a few hours before he left. The president's wife, Laura, had been aware of the trip before that, White House officials said.

"I had to tell my family, that would be wife and daughters, that I would not be there for Thanksgiving today," Bush told reporters aboard Air Force One. "My mother and dad came over from College Station, thinking they would see me. They did not know that I was not going to be there."

His daughters, he said, understood, because a lot of the troops "are their age -- 22 years old, and younger."

Only a few reporters were allowed to accompany Bush. But a transcript of the comments made by the president and his aides was circulated to other reporters.

The administration did not announce the trip until Bush had left Baghdad, about midday Thursday. The president was expected to refuel in Washington about midnight, and then fly on to Texas, where he was to land sometime before dawn today.

The trip, which administration officials began planning about six weeks ago, came at a time when the president is under sharp criticism about the attacks on U.S. troops in Iraq and for his absence from the funerals of U.S. soldiers killed in the conflict. To that end, it showcased Bush's personal connection to the struggle.

But it also highlighted the continuing dangers of Iraq. Bush's trip was conducted under extraordinary security, even for a president who routinely travels under some of the tightest security in the world. Air traffic controllers in Baghdad did not know that the large plane heading for the runway was Air Force One, and the 747 then landed without its lights, in darkness but for a sliver of moon.

On the flight over, Air Force One had come within sight of a British Airways plane, Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director, told reporters on the trip, according to the transcript.

The British Airways pilot radioed over and asked, Bartlett said, "Did I just see Air Force One?" There was silence from the Air Force One pilot, who then replied, "Gulfstream 5."

There was a longer silence from the British Airways pilot, Bartlett said, who, seeming to get that he was in on a secret, then said, "Oh."

Bush, who spent only two and a half hours in Baghdad, all in the secure area around the airport, also met for about 20 minutes with members of the Iraqi Governing Council, including Ahmad Chalabi, the exile leader who is close to senior officials at the Pentagon.

The president's trip, which was a tightly held secret until the very end among only a few aides, began about 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday in Crawford. Bush left his ranch in an unmarked car, not the usual presidential limousine, for the private airport he uses near Waco, Texas Aides said they did not want to attract attention, so there was no motorcade and no blocked streets.

Bush said he even tried to disguise his appearance, as did his national security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, who accompanied him on the trip.

"They pulled up a plain-looking vehicle with tinted windows," Bush told reporters. "I slipped on a baseball cap, pulled 'er down -- as did Condi. We looked like a normal couple."

Bush also noted that without his usual motorcade, he experienced pre-Thanksgiving Texas traffic.

"The president encountered and witnessed traffic for the first time in three years," Bartlett told the small group of reporters, photographers and television technicians who accompanied Bush. "That was a little amusing to those who were riding with him."

Air Force One then left Texas for Andrews Air Force Base outside Washington, where Bush switched to another Air Force One, a refueled 747. The group picked up a few more reporters, bringing the total number of journalists on the trip, including camera crews, to 13. Reporters on the trip were instructed not to tell their families or their employers where they were going.

The president left Washington on Wednesday, and arrived in Baghdad about 10 hours later, around 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

Bush said the idea for the trip first came up in mid-October, when his chief of staff, Andrew H. Card Jr., suggested it.

"Andy said, 'Would you be interested in going to Baghdad?' " Bush told reporters. "I said I don't want to go if it puts anybody in harm's way. I said it's very essential that I fully understand all aspects of the trip, starting with whether or not we could get in and out safely, whether or not my presence there would in any way cause an enemy to react and therefore jeopardize somebody else's life."