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'Bannergate' bashes Bush
30/10/2003 08:14 - (SA)
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Mission, what mission?
(Scott Applewhite, AP) |
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Washington - The White House is scrambling to put out a media flare up over the latest revelation involving Iraq.
Dubbed Bannergate, it revolves around a sign hanging behind President George W Bush when he declared an end to major combat on May 1 from the USS Abraham Lincoln off the California coast.
Written on the red, white and blue banner was "Mission Accomplished", a notion that has since been challenged by the rising death toll on American troops occupying the country amid growing suicide attacks.
On Wednesday, the Pentagon released figures showing 117 US troops have died in hostilities in Iraq since May 1, three more than were killed during the war.
Bush unleashed the Bannergate fury during a press conference on Tuesday, when he sought to distance himself from the infamous sign.
Some ingenious advance man
"The 'Mission Accomplished' sign - of course - was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln saying that their mission was accomplished," Bush said.
The US Navy concedes the banner idea was cooked up by the Abraham Lincoln crew, and the White House admits it approved the idea and helped the Navy get the sign.
"Did you not have anything to do, though, with the placement of the banner?" queried one White House reporter during Wednesday's White House press corps briefing. "I mean, I know the White House often makes sure that things are placed right behind the president."
Bush's spokesperson, Scott McClellan, responded that White House "advance people" work closely with people at event sites when the president is participating.
"But again, this was an idea that was suggested by those on board the ship," he said.
"And he never knew that would be the interpretation, that his mission was accomplished?," asked another reporter.
"The mission for those people on board the ship was accomplished," McClellan said.
The Navy says the crew of the ship wanted a banner to recognise its 290-day deployment that started with Operation Enduring Freedom in Afghanistan.
On its way home from deployment during the Afghan war late last year, the vessel was ordered to turn around and head to the Gulf in preparation for war with Iraq, and the deployment would become the longest ever for an American nuclear-powered aircraft carrier.
Senator Tom Daschle said the matter is one of the most embarrassing so far in the invasion and occupation of Iraq.
Significant embarrassment
"I'm sure they would love to extricate themselves from this whole affair," he told reporters. "It's got to be one of the most significant embarrassments of the entire Iraqi experience so far."
White House communications director Dan Bartlett addressed the issue earlier this month, foreshadowing what would come when Bush addressed the reporter's question during the press conference.
"Sometimes pictures have a way of coming back that is very difficult," he said at a forum in Washington.
Sapa-DPA
- SAPA
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