Whoever came up with the idea of the "Mission Accomplished" banner that has so plagued US President George W. Bush remained as elusive last week as the White House leaker. But here, so far, is the story of "Bannergate" and the hunt for the person or persons behind the two words.
Bush got the story rolling in a Rose Garden news conference on Tuesday, when he distanced himself from the exultant "Mission Accomplished" declaration that his critics increasingly cite as hubristic and premature. As anyone who has watched television lately now knows, the enormous red, white and blue banner served as the backdrop to Bush's May 1 landing in a flight suit on the carrier Abraham Lincoln and his speech on the open deck declaring major combat in Iraq at an end.
PHOTO: AP
"The `Mission Accomplished' sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished," Bush testily told reporters at the news conference, on another day of violence and death in Iraq. "I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff. They weren't that ingenious, by the way."
After the news conference, the White House press secretary, Scott McClellan, tiptoed around the president's words. The banner "was suggested by those on the ship," McClellan said. "They asked us to do the production of the banner, and we did. They're the ones who put it up."
The Democratic presidential candidates immediately pounced, saying that Bush was blaming the Navy for something his advance team had staged. General Wesley Clark told reporters that Bush's comments were "outrageous" and added: "I guess the next thing we're going to hear is that the sailors told him to wear the flight suit and prance around on the aircraft carrier."
So who on the ship came up with the idea for the banner? How involved were White House imagemakers, who embedded themselves on the Lincoln before Bush's speech and were at least present when the idea first surfaced? In short, was there truth to Clark's contention that Bush was unfairly implicating the sailors for a sign at an event that has appeared more and more untimely, particularly after the attack on an helicopter on Sunday that killed 16 American troops in Iraq?
McClellan referred the questions seaward, where the first stop was Commander Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman in Washington.
"I'll give you the whole scoop," Chun said. "The ship came up with the idea, and thought it would be good to have a banner, `Mission Accomplished.'" The idea popped up in one of the meetings aboard the ship preparing for its homecoming, Chun said, and the sailors then asked if the White House could get the sign made.
But Chun said he was not in any of those meetings, and did not know who had come up with the banner idea.
Next stop was Lieutenant-Commander John Daniels, the public affairs officer aboard the Lincoln, which is now in dry dock in Bremerton, Washington, for maintenance and repairs.
"The sailors came up with an idea of a banner, and they said, `Hey, is there any way we could get a `Mission Accomplished' banner made?'" Daniels said.
But Daniels acknowledged that he, too, was not in any of the meetings preparing for the president's landing and did not know the name of anyone from the Navy who was.
Next stop was again McClellan, who was told that so far the Navy had not produced a "Mission Accomplished" accomplice. McClellan said he would see what he could do.
Soon enough, Daniels called to say that one person in the meetings preparing for the ship's homecoming was Commander Ron Horton, the executive officer of the Lincoln and No. 2 in the ship's command.
Horton was too busy to come to the phone, Daniels said, but he recounted what he said Horton had told him about a shipboard meeting in late April between officers of the Lincoln and members of the White House advance team. The team, some 75 to 100 people strong including security, had boarded the ship in Hawaii around April 28 to make preparations for the president's speech.
"The White House said, `Is there anything we can do for you?"' Daniels said. "Somebody in that meeting said, `You know, it would sure look good if we could have a banner that said `Mission Accomplished.'"
And who was that someone? "No one really remembers," Daniels said.
One of the White House communications people in the meeting, Daniels said, was Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer who oversaw the production of the sign. Sforza did not return telephone calls seeking comment last week.
In any case, Daniels said that it was not uncommon for a ship to have a homecoming banner. "Having a banner hanging off the ship is not unheard of," Daniels said. "Does it happen every single time? No. Does it happen every third time? Probably."
Meanwhile, Republicans said that it was increasingly unlikely that Bush would use the footage of his "Top Gun" landing on the carrier in a campaign commercial.
But would the Democrats consider using it in an attack ad?
"Yes," said Jim Margolis of GMMB, who is making television commercials for the presidential campaign of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese
RIVER TRAGEDY: Local fishers and residents helped rescue people after the vessel capsized, while motorbike taxis evacuated some of the injured At least 58 people going to a funeral died after their overloaded river boat capsized in the Central African Republic’s (CAR) capital, Bangui, the head of civil protection said on Saturday. “We were able to extract 58 lifeless bodies,” Thomas Djimasse told Radio Guira. “We don’t know the total number of people who are underwater. According to witnesses and videos on social media, the wooden boat was carrying more than 300 people — some standing and others perched on wooden structures — when it sank on the Mpoko River on Friday. The vessel was heading to the funeral of a village chief in