BREAKING NEWS: D.C. Small Plane Incident Was An Exercise - Scott McLellan

[althecat]

Just heard on C-Span in the live coverage of the presser...

Scotty McLellan in the live press conference dropped a bombshell.

The reason the President wasn't nofified will after the event was that it was AN EXERCISE.. and * was the only person inside the White House that knew.

Aside from George Bush the only other cabinet member involved in the exercise was new Homeland Security Chief Michael Chertkoff.

Mclellan said Homeland Security wanted a real examination of the capitol's defences. "And they came up wanting".

McLellan said that in the forecase for the scenario the small plane had not been expected to get so close to the white house.

"If a slow moving cessna not responding to radio traffic can get this close to the Capitol then we are in trouble", he said. He went on to point out that a faster plane would have undoubtedly been able to deliver its payload to deadly effect.

Mr McLellan was clearly at pains to point out that the reason everybody was kept in the dark for so long about the true nature of these events was so that they could assess not only the preparedness of authorities to respond to such a threat, but also the media and political response to such an event.

"Fear is the stock in trade of the terrorist," he said. "Homeland Security want to be able to assess how people react to these events."

He would the Homeland Security service would not rule out holding further "live fire" exercises saying that the experience had been invaluable to the Homeland Security teams involved.



WOW!!!!

[mhr]

1. I Knew It! - All Contrived To Scare The Sheeple

eom

[MazeRat7]

2. Ok..that's it... I am calling BULLSHIT on that statement....

[IChing]

22. Is this here-say can we get a text?

Liar, scott, liar from yesterday. liar tomorrow.liar today.

[LeftCoast]

3. Translation: We played you suckas!

If they were real journalists they'd be pissed off by now...

[Oreo]

4. Get the hell out?!?!?

What if somebody got trampled?!?!? What if Cheney blew his ticker?

This is mind-blowing. Did he really say that?

They wanted to see the political and media response? What are they testing for? If this is true and people on both parties don't get pissed about it I'll be floored.

[TwilightZone]

5. I agree with your assessment - "wow" is right.

Just imagine if someone had made the decision to shoot the thing down.

[trotsky]

6. RIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIGHT.

They put a regular civilian and his son (wasn't it?) in possible danger (who knows if a fighter pilot might have had an itchy trigger finger?) just to conduct a test.

If the media swallows this one, there is NO HOPE for this country. NONE.

[Beelzebud]

7. "Fear is the stock in trade of the terrorst" Simple Scotty should know.

He and the administration he shills for, are the largest terrorist organization on the face of the planet today.

[NorCalDem]

8. Geez,

if it was really just a drill, then why did they need to hand-cuff the pilots upon dragging them outta the plane. Talk about selling it to the public. You think they could have simply escorted them to the airport and let them walk to the de-briefing under their own power. Right?

[DrDebug]

53. Good point. They are lying again

Lies, lies, and more lies...

[Generator]

9. More maniplulated reality huh?

Whatever the fuck. I don't believe a word they say anymore. It would be dangerous to do that. My best interests are not served by these cretins.

[paula777]

10. You cannot be serious .... if true this is an outrage

[UCLA Dem]

11. Nice.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

12. Bushit

And why didn't they at least find some reason to reschedule elderly Nancy Reagan's visit?

[Solly Mack]

13. what a crock of shit!

OMG!!! The nerve of these people...who taught them to lie? They lie so badly...

Hell, yeah...if you're going to lie to me at least make it interesting...sheesh

[DemBeans]

14. bullshit!

This is a cover for the fact that Bush was too busy riding his bike to be told of the threat. He's exposed as a fake Commander in Chief - which is devastating - so they come up with this massively fraudulent lie.

Sickening.

[TeeYiYi]

30. Exactly right . . .

. . . I hope those two Cessna pilots stay away from their small planes for awhile. :(

TYY

[northstar]

Ding Ding Ding

We have a winner!

[texanwitch]

82. Your are so right, the blowback on this story has gotten to hot.

Bush has been exposed for the non working President that he is.

Not telling the President of this plane, after 911.

As my Grandfather would say "This dog don't hunt".

I wonder do they think we are this stupid?

[ThoughtCriminal]

15. Fear

"Fear is the stock in trade of the terrorist," he said. "Homeland Security want to be able to assess how people react to these events."

Seems to be working fine doesn't it?

[Tesibria]

16. LINK ? ? ? nt

[Horse with no Name]

17. Umm yeah...right....BULLSHIT

They saw the direction this was taking about * being kept out of the loop and knew it was gonna tank in their faces.
Geezzz...but the sheeple will buy it.......nothing to see here, move along.

[Tesibria]

18. self-delete - dupe

[dweller]

37. no you ought to leave it

and keep asking . . .


LINK??

:popcorn:
dp

[Tesibria]

Hint #1: poster knew it would stay up longer in GD - rather than LBN

... ridiculous, frankly.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

19. So, the 'rusty' pilot from Latrobe PA was in on this drill?

C'mon, now. Nice spin. They interviewed the Latrobe flying club people who knew this pilot and admit that the guy needed help fueling up the plane because he flies so little.:crazy:

[Historic NY]

92. probably had some beers too.......

Latrobe is home to a few major brewery's.

[BurgherHoldtheLies]

104. LOL. Ya, you're right.

Home of Rolling Rock Beer...personally, it always gave me the 'axe through my skull' kind of headache.

[UdoKier]

20. Oh brother, another Rovian fearmongering ploy.

"Only Bush knew", yeah, right, so now all the corporate news can backslap him for his "brilliance" as a "tactician"

"Fear is the stock in trade of the terrorist,"

Ain't that the truth, SCOTTY! Too bad the only ones using fear CONSTANTLY on us are the BFEE.

[FinallyStartingToWin]

21. PLEASE TELL ME THIS IS SATIRE

No way this can be real can it? LOL

Whoever wrote it did a good job!

[tabasco]

67. If he really said this stuff ....

I am hopeful it is the beginning of the end for this utterly corrupt administration.

[nashville_brook]

23. you HAVE to be kidding! that's WEAK!

weak weak WEAK.

lame.

is there another word?

freakishly childish?
frighteningly reckless?

[SheepyMcSheepster]

24. no, can't be true?

any documentation of this?

[KansDem]

25. WHAAAAAAA?????

This stinks to high heaven. Could it possibly be the comparison with 9/11 was just a bit too much of a contrast?

On edit: Rather, was Bush's second no-show beginning to get people thinking about his first no-show?

[Walt Starr]

26. Link please, I'm calling bullshit

please provide a link.

[steve2470]

27. you are joking ??????????????????

[Blue_Roses]

28. this is just bullshit

I have never heard of such...:eyes:

what to believe, what to believe:shrug:

[Guckert]

29. I guess there is no link on this. It cant be true. the shit will hit

the fan if it was.
transcript or link??
didnt think so. :eyes:

[Walt Starr]

32. Precisely, such a revelation now, after the earlier news conference

would be a scandal of epic proportions.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

TODAY'S Press Conference, White House Link, So far this is BULLSHIT.

NO mention of this in the transcript:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2005/05/20050513-3.html

[Oreo]

Look what I just found from June 2003

http://www.virtuallystrange.net/ufo/updates/2003/jun/m05-009.shtml
Exercise Scrambles 2 F-16s Over D.C. Tonight

From: Joan Woodward <[email protected]>
Date: Thu, 5 Jun 2003 12:07:44 -0400
Fwd Date: Thu, 05 Jun 2003 15:56:16 -0400
Subject: Exercise Scrambles 2 F-16s Over D.C. Tonight


NORAD has a training exercise that will take place tonight (June
5) somewhere in the skies over or near Washington, D.C. Having
worked on a sighting involving a NORAD scramble and pursuit of
unidentified lights in the D.C. area last summer (see IUR,
Winter 2002-2003), I would love to see some of this action that
will take place tonight. However, NORAD will not give any
information about the location of the training mission.

I wanted to alert people in this area and to ask that if anyone
sees part of this exercise, I would love to have their
observations. The time is from 10:30 pm to midnight.

Two Cessna "invaders" will cause a scramble of two F-16's from
Andrews Air Force Base. If anyone sees the Cessna's, with or
without F-16s in pursuit, I would be extremely interested in
your observations in terms of lights, noise, anything usual or
unusual. Visibility should be good. This exercise was originally
scheduled for June 4 but was canceled because of an extremely
low ceiling.

The link to the Washington Post article is not working, but if
you go to www.Washingtonpost.com and search F-16 on their site
search, the article will come up: "Air Defense to the Tested
Tonight" by Spencer S. Hsu. The rescheduling article from
today's paper will also come up.


Joan Woodward
Fairfax, VA

[OldLeftieLawyer]

31. On a Friday afternoon -

the slowest news hours of the week.

Please. Oh, please tell me this is a joke.

I was in a restaurant in DC not far from the White House when all this took place. No one cared. No one moved. The noise level in the place never even changed.

Please tell me that's a joke, that McLellan quote.

[Pirate Smile]

33. I would think the media would actually be reporting this if it was true.

Linky or else this is BS.

[mike_c]

34. LOL-- which lie will they use to cover this one...?

The web gets more and more tangled every day!

[cdb]

35. bullshit!

This is ex-post facto spinning! Liars! Covering up their sorry asses!

[Bronco69]

36. I don't believe it for a second!

They got caught with their pants down (like the kid in junior high when he asks a question and then after you tell him he doesn't want to appear dumb so he tells you he knew the answer all along) What a bunch of dorks! How fucking stupid do they think we are?

[Walt Starr]

39. It's bullshit

The OP gave no link.

[GNM]

42. Not Valid Story

Q I did. There was -- there's some new information about the fly-over the other day that came to light, that, in fact, the plane had gotten closer, within a couple of miles of the White House. Is that an update that you've received, as well? MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know which report you're referring to. I'll be glad to look at it. I mean, I said within three miles, and that was the report that I got. I haven't received any additional report. Q Could I do a follow-up on that? MR. McCLELLAN: Sure. Q Now that the dust has settled from that incident David is talking about, has the President weighed in any more on this, regarding the controversy of whether he should have been notified or not? Has he looked over this and said, well, maybe I should have known about this? I mean, are there any second thoughts now? MR. McCLELLAN: Nothing has changed from what I said yesterday. It all remains the same.

[Carolab]

57. What do the PILOTS have to say?

That they were "in on it"? Or were they bribed?

[Jara sang]

38. Yes, yes, yes, I called this

I need to find a link to my post to prove it.

[FinallyStartingToWin]

48. HAHAHA This isn't real LOL

Prove what? LOL

[Jara sang]

63. What are you talking about?

[mopaul]

40. it's an unbelievable as anything else

[SheepyMcSheepster]

46. ha! love the updated sig pic!

:silly:

[Toby109]

41. I seem to recall that with Bush

out of the loop and Cheney whisked off to his underground lair, Rumsfeld would make the call to shoot down the plane. According to this, Rummy did not know, only Bush and Chertoff. Something very fish-like here.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

43. It stinks.......

it's bullshit and we all know it. It's spin designed to make * look less incompetent than he is,,,,,,,,,taking a 2 hour bike ride during the middle of the day and week! They know this looks bad and are trying to prop him up. The guy is on vacation more than a retired person.

[eleny]

44. Damage control - And they're getting really bad at it

Word is getting around

[IChing]

45. from whitehouse.org I don't see it.

David, you had a question.

Q I did. There was -- there's some new information about the fly-over the other day that came to light, that, in fact, the plane had gotten closer, within a couple of miles of the White House. Is that an update that you've received, as well?

MR. McCLELLAN: I don't know which report you're referring to. I'll be glad to look at it. I mean, I said within three miles, and that was the report that I got. I haven't received any additional report.

Q Could I do a follow-up on that?

MR. McCLELLAN: Sure.

Q Now that the dust has settled from that incident David is talking about, has the President weighed in any more on this, regarding the controversy of whether he should have been notified or not? Has he looked over this and said, well, maybe I should have known about this? I mean, are there any second thoughts now?

MR. McCLELLAN: Nothing has changed from what I said yesterday. It all remains the same.

Go ahead, David.

[Virginian]

71. whitehouse.org or whitehouse.gov? n/t

[IChing]

87. my quote is from .gov

and it doesn't show.

[wicket]

47. They are SPINNING hard!

[Walt Starr]

52. The OP spun hard, this story is BULLSHIT!

And you bit.

[Walt Starr]

49. THE ORIGINAL POSTER IS BULLSHITTING US!

This appears to be a case of somebody attempting to make DU look bad with a bullshit story posted as true.

[hiley]

59. agreed

"You Must be the Change you Wish to see in the world"
Mahatma Gandhi (1869-1948)
http://www.gandhiproject.org/project/project.html

These mid-wives are purported to have said they no longer look forward to births as.... "We don't know what's going to come out."
http://www.web-light.nl/VISIE/extremedeformities.html

[returnable]

73. Yep. No link, and the OP hasn't even bothered to defend the post

Pretty sad.

I feel a tombstone a-coming...

[IChing]

77. AGREED OR AN APOLOGY

But it would be a nice story if true.

[brettdale]

50. WTF

SO THEY SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF WASHINGTON DC, THEY SCARED THE CRAP OUT OF THE SENATOR'S FAMILY MEMBERS, THEY RUSHED DICK TO A SECRET LOCATION, THEY SENT SOME STOCKS LOWER ON THE STOCK MARKET FOR A FREAKIN EXERCISE, THIS IS BEYOND BELIEF, THIS IS DISGUSTING.

[althecat]

94. This post is very interesting....

... brettdale you hit the nail on the head. The previous explanation makes no sense. If you are busy scaring the shit out of 30,000 people and their families then would you or would you not NOTIFY THE PRESIDENT ON HIS BIKE RIDE.

[Turn CO Blue]

51. Oh, just bite me, Scott! You effing LIAR!!!!!

There is no WAY, on God's green earth, that this was a pre-planned "exercise". IT'S TOO STUPID FOR WORDS!

Bite me, Scott. You effing LIAR.

[Walt Starr]

56. IT WAS NEVER SAID, THE OP MADE THIS BULLSHIT STORY UP!

Look at the transcript, nothing of the kind was said.

[paula777]

80. I think your right - I really do. Why would a person with 1000+ posts

post something fake like this?

[IChing]

54. althecat can you find this talk, link, proof......afternoon/briefing?

Is this an afternoon press briefing or the morning briefing

[KamaAina]

55. OK, let's approach this rationally. Either it's true, or it's total B.S.

If it's total B.S., why the hell are they even bothering to feed it to us? Because they know the ho's will lap it up?

But if it's true?!

That would imply that they threw all of Washington into panic for nothing, that they put people in danger of having a plane shot down over their neighborhood, that they risked setting off a deadly stampede in someplace like a Metro station, and so on.

But remember, they're not so evil that they would have taken out the WTC on purpose, so stop saying that. :tinfoilhat:

[Walt Starr]

60. The Bullshit is the original post

Scott McClellan said nothing of the kind. It's bullshit. Go to the White House page and read the transcript of the press conference today.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

61. if this is BS shouldn't it be locked?

/me looks to the mods

[Walt Starr]

70. Where's the OP?

And where are the links?

It's bullshit. I read the transcript.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

84. i am not trying to argue the validity of this story

i like you assume that it is false and i would also assume a mod would lock this thread if indeed this is a bunch of BS.

however, with all that is going on with the lounge i can imagine the mods have had their hands full.

basically i am just wishing someone would lock this thread or pony up with some documentation.

[IChing]

100. lock it please

[chartresbleu]

58. twisting it around to hide bush's simplemindedness?

this new story reeks of bs. i think they are freaking because dubya came out it looking like the simpleton he is. as if cheney would not be at the center of something like this. and they wouldn't have scheduled it for when an elderly lady like nancy reagan was staying at the white house as a guest. also, when does anyone conducting a test go through the motions of press conferences etc. afterward, still maintaining that it was an unexpected situation, then 24 hours later try to say it was planned. if it had been a test that would have come out in the briefings afterward. finally, it is unconscionable to put unarmed, innocent citizens in that sort of test situation. unless those guys were undercover agents, and there is no evidence of that, they should sue the hell out of homeland security for using them as guinea pigs.
i suspect they have realized that many people from all sides of the political spectrum are asking why the hell george is out riding his bike wehn all hell is breaking loose. this episode has demonstrated his uselessness and the only way they can cover his ass is to try to pretend he knew all along.

[trumad]

62. God... I had to come back in for this thread

and say that I'm pleased to see that DU still has a few gullibles..LOL

[GNM]

65. ADMIN, PLEASE DELETE ORIG POST

BULLSHIT......

[Raksha]

64. I don't believe this latest b.s.

I think they're testing the political reaction, all right--but AFTER the fact! Scotty's statement (LIE) is a pathetic attempt at damage control. It sounds like somebody at the WH has been lurking at DU and reading all the notes saying things like, "WTF was Shrub doing on a BIKE RIDE? Doesn't he ever work? And why wasn't he told until after the fact?"

They know this isn't making them look very good, so they come up with this b.s. about how it was really a drill. Just how stupid do they think we are anyway?

[Walt Starr]

66. I AM FLABERGASTED AT THE NUMBER OF DUERS WHO BOUGHT THSI BULLSHIT

This did not happen. The OP made this shit up out of whole cloth and DUers bought it hook, line, and sinker.

Smile, because you're now appearing on multiple right wing web sites as actually buying this bullshit story made up by an internet poster.

[mhr]

75. I Believe The Whole Incident Was Staged To Rile Up Support

For a flagging presidency.

I have no trouble believing it to be true.

[Raksha]

91. You're right, Walt. The story needs to be verified.

I'll hold back any further comments until then.

[warrens]

68. Bullshit

I don't know WHY they're lying, but they're lying.

[Atman]

69. Why this can't be true...

"If a slow moving cessna not responding to radio traffic can get this close to the Capitol then we are in trouble", he said. He went on to point out that a faster plane would have undoubtedly been able to deliver its payload to deadly effect."

If this was an "exercise" then the pilots would have been in on it, and how they responded to the F-16's would have no relevance nor serve any useful training purpose. The F-16's wouldn't shoot down a plane that was part of an exercise; the pilot, knowing he's just part of an exercise, would not behave as a real pilot would, so again, this exercise would have been useless. The entire scenerio would be useless bullshit.

This story is as fake as Bush's re-election.

[stevedeshazer]

72. Whoa

Notice how they dragged Tom Ridge out of the woodwork, too.

These guys are good. Evil, but good.

[AngryAmish]

74. This shit is why we must destroy the republikkans

Lying bastards.

[IChing]

76. ALLTHECAT ......WE NEED A STATEMENT.

[steve2470]

81. I am 100% sure this is BS because cnn.com has nothing !

this kind of crap would make cnn.com for sure, because it would be a sensation...... press conference is on cspan2 now, so yes, I KNOW it's bullshit because cnn would make money off this.

[althecat]

85. As if that would prove anything!!!!

:)

[althecat]

83. There are some clues about this post elsewhere on this board...

And Mods... don't delete this the reaction to this response is very illuminating.

[SheepyMcSheepster]

89. what are you trying to prove?

just come out and say it.

this is lame.

[Bluebear]

90. Oh, is this some kind of "experiment"?

[erichzann]

95. What the hell? This isn't a game of clue.

Either your telling the truth or your lying. If you're telling the truth then we need to see something in print, or a scheudle of when we can catch this on C-span. Anything to verify.

If you're deliberately lying, well then...

[erichzann]

98. "Very Illuminating" Yes-- DU demands you BACK UP CLAIMS

Wow - amazing.

[IChing]

102. OR LOCK IT.....OR AN ANPOLOGY BEFORE IT IS LOCKED

[jean]

78. Lies, lying liars (thanks Al) pathelogical liars - I believe NOTHING from

this group of thugs. Why do they even go through the motions anymore?

[Jackpine Radical]

79. So 60% of the public is now living in Bizarro World.

They will all go "Duh, yup. Sure was clever to test our defenses that way." Another 20% are so numb that the story will make no impression whatsoever. The remaining 20% are us.

This country is now so divorced from rationality that they'll swallow 'most anything. I think that's why the fundies are having such a field day with their flat-earth theories.

[gordianot]

86. They are more stupid than I thought.

Show the world how we may react. Pure BS!

[EC]

88. YEAH, RIGHT

They're just covering their asses...couldn't explain why Bushy wasn't notified, so they come up with this.....I can just hear this meeting...Karl, get that guy that was flying the plane on the phone, tell him he will be helping us by saying it was a test...hurry, fix this...

[SlavesandBulldozers]

93. bullshit

n/t

it's going to take more than "i heard on cspan".

[LisaL]

96. An exercise? A student and his teacher participated in a

excesses that supposedly almost get them killed?
And if nobody else but Bush knew it was an exercise,why wasn't he notified? LOL.

[Moderator]

97. Is there a link to this info? Thanks. n/t

[Bluebear]

99. Kindly see this post for a "clue"

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=104&topic_id=3652981&mesg_id=3653166&page=

[onehandle]

101. I see this nowhere on TV or online. Bull. nt

[CBGLuthier]

103. If this were true it would be on the wires by now

Thanks for the chainjerking.

NOT

[Moderator]

105. Locking.

Please feel free to repost when you have a verifiable story to relate.

Thanks for your consideration.
DU Mod