Awaited Air Force One Photo - Louis Caldera Falls On Sword For Administration

White House aide Louis Caldera loses job over 

Manhattan flyover fiasco involving Air Force One

White House Handout

The $329K publicity photo of Air Force One flying over the Statue of Liberty that sparked the flyover controversy.

WASHINGTON-The White House aide who authorized the controversial Air Force One photo-op flight last week around the Statue of Liberty is out of a job.

President Obama has accepted the resignation of Louis Caldera, the director of the White House Military Office, the Daily News learned Friday.  (Do any of us really believe that he did this all on his own and that nobody else in power knew about it?)

A secretary of the Army in the Clinton administration, Caldera took the fall for the public relations fiasco arising from the April 27 flyover, which was designed to replace a publicity photo of Air Force One flying past Mount Rushmore with a similar shot of Obama's 747 jumbo jet over the Statue of Liberty.

The photo session cost taxpayers $329,000.

Caldera's office insisted the flyover was a "classified" mission and should not be disclosed to the public, ensuring that thousands of New Yorkers would be blindsided by an event eerily reminiscent of the 9/11 terror attacks against the Twin Towers.

Federal officials notified Mayor Bloomberg's office and NYPD officials in advance, but Bloomberg was not informed, infuriating the mayor.

Caldera shoulders the blame in deputy White House chief of staff Jim Messina's review into how the decision was made to go ahead with the photo mission.

"The FAA warned the Military Office that the media needed to be advised of the flight. There were red flags," said an administration source.

Many White House officials were angry at Caldera over the stunt. "This (incident) was just plain stupid," one Obama aide said.

Secretary of Defense Robert Gates apologized for the flyover in a letter Tuesday to Sen. John McCain, who posted the memo on his Senate Web site Friday.

"I am concerned that this highly public and visible mission did not include an appropriate public affairs plan nor adequate review and approval by senior Air Force and DOD [Department of Defense] officials," Gates said in the letter.

"We deeply regret the anxiety and alarm that resulted from this mission," he added

Hmmm... We, the American Public pay $325,000 for publicity photos... After begging, the White House releases "1" photo, that could have been created using PhotoShop, and now states they won't be using the photos anyway...  And for this fiasco they let an aide take the rap and fall on his (their) sword. :-(

BY: KENNETH R. BAZINET

DAILY NEWS WASHINGTON BUREAU

Updated Friday, May 8th 2009, 5:51 PM

Read more: 

White House Aide Louis Caldera loses job over Manhatten Flyover

Create-your-own NYC Air Force One flyover photo ... we did...

Examples of PhotoShopped Photos:

Daily News photo illustration (Getty/News)

We doctored this shot of Mayor Bloomberg marching in a St. Patrick's Day parade so the sleek blue-and-white jet seemingly heads to the mayor's outstretched hand.

Daily News photo illustration (Getty/News)

A second mock-up captures Air Force One inside a whirling Hula Hoop on a beautiful day in Central Park.

Daily News photo illustration (Getty/News)

And in a third image, the same plane can be seen zooming by as a giraffe sticks its neck out to greet admirers at the Bronx Zoo.

PhotoShop Winner...

20 minutes and a cost of $0.00, if our government would have asked me, I would have done it for one tenth of what they paid, Submitted April 30, 2009 - Dally News Your New York

Obama Team: Yes to Interrogation Memos, No to 'Flyover' Pictures

Amazing… Flyover photos that scared New Yorkers and cost the American taxpayer $328,000+ are classified now, but Interrogation Memos that could harm our troops, hamper future terrorist interrogation, and thereby could endanger all Americans are declassified and released…  As quoted in the New York Times, “The sole purpose of the secret photo-op, which sent thousands of New Yorkers running for cover, was to take new publicity shots of the presidential jet over the city.”  HMMMM…???  M~

Barack Obama and his team in Washington sure have a strange way of promoting full disclosure, openness, and transparency in government. Give them an opportunity to trash the previous administration and those who worked for our national security, and they are all for it. But, ask them to come forward with pictures and a full explanation of a so-called public relations assignment, and they clam up.

In a pathetic display of both arrogance and indifference to America's safety and peace of mind, we see in two events everything we need to know about Obama. Just look at how differently he and his team handled the release of CIA interrogation memos and how they are handling the non-release of photos taken during their flyover photo op in New York City.

As many of you know, Obama decided last month to release previously classified memos which detail the interrogation techniques used in questioning terrorists. (Yes, I still use the word "terrorist" at GOPUSA.) The release of these memos was stunning in that it serves absolutely no useful purpose other than to make America less safe and to allow Obama to continue his message that America is bad.

I discussed the memos at length in my post Mr. Obama... How far would you go to save an American life?, and I came to one conclusion: It was strongly believed that certain high-ranking terrorists knew of another large-scale terror plot against the United States. Traditional interrogation methods were unsuccessful against these three terrorists, so they (and only they) were subjected to waterboarding. The result was that they produced information on a plot to fly at least one airliner into a building in Los Angeles. This plot, known as the Second Wave, would have certainly resulted in the loss of hundreds or thousands of American lives.

However, Obama apparently feels differently. He could have stated his case and his opinions without releasing the memos, but instead of just making a point, he'd rather see American security jeopardized and the careers and private lives of those involved suffer.

As noted in an AP story running on GOPUSA, although the attorneys responsible for approving the interrogation techniques used to obtain the information on the Second Wave will not face criminal charges, they will likely face professional sanctions.

Officials conducting the internal Justice Department inquiry into the lawyers who wrote those memos have recommended referring two of the three lawyers ... to state bar associations for possible disciplinary action, according to a person familiar with the inquiry. The person, who spoke on condition of anonymity, was not authorized to discuss the inquiry.

The person noted that the investigative report was still in draft form and subject to revisions. Attorney General Eric Holder also may make his own determination about what steps to take once the report has been finalized.

Now, let's contrast these actions with the Obama team's handling of the idiotic and suspicious "flyover" that was approved in which the 747 used as Air Force One and a few F-16s flew ridiculously close to buildings in Manhattan... causing a panic. Under the pretense of a "photo op," the aircraft flew close enough to send a chilling reminder to people of the events of September 11, 2001.

In case you missed the video: 

YouTube - Air Force One Flyin Low Over New York Caused Panic HD

Apparently, the photo-op cost the American taxpayers $328,835. The administration was looking for a good pic of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background. However, as FOXNews.com reports, the general public was not warned in advance, even though it is obvious that this could cause a panic.

Now, the White House is saying it will not release the photos taken during the flyover. When asked about the photos during Tuesday's White House press briefing, spokesman Robert Gibbs, first tried to joke about it, saying, "I've watched CNN -- I didn’t notice a lack of archival material from that flight."

When pressed about the photos taken from inside the aircraft, Gibbs responding by adding, "I don't know where those are." The White House spends over $300k on photos, and not only will they not release them to the public, but they don't know where the photos are? What is going on here?

In the New York Post story referenced by FOXNews.com, an Obama aide told the paper, "We have no plans to release them." The report added: "The photos have not technically been 'classified,' a White House aide said, but they are being kept from public view."

So, this is the way the Obama administration works: Release secret interrogation memos but withhold wasteful taxpayer-funded promotional pictures. Can someone please explain that one to me?

Source:  The Loft – Posted by Bobby Eberle – May 6, 2009

Posted:  Daily Thought Pad –  by Ask Marion