Cameron, CNN's Clarke obscured White House role in "Mission Accomplished" banner
SUMMARY: Fox News chief White House correspondent Carl Cameron and former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke both obscured the role the White House played in the display of the "Mission Accomplished" banner that appeared behind Bush on May 1, 2003, when he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. Cameron referred to the banner as a "Navy banner," while Clarke claimed "it's still a matter of debate" who printed and put up the banner, despite a 2004 report that a White House spokesperson confirmed that White House staff had the banner made.
On May 1 -- the three-year anniversary of President Bush's 2003 speech in which Bush declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq while standing under a large banner reading "Mission Accomplished" -- Fox News chief White House correspondent Carl Cameron and former Pentagon spokeswoman Victoria Clarke both obscured the role the White House played in the display of the banner. On the May 1 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, Cameron reported that President Bush stood "beneath a Navy banner" when he declared an end to major combat operations in Iraq. On the May 1 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, Clarke claimed that "it's still a matter of debate who actually printed the banner and who actually put it up." The Associated Press, however, reported in 2004 that a White House spokesman confirmed that White House staff had the banner made.
From the May 1 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume:
CAMERON: Meanwhile, Democratic Senate leader Harry Reid [NV] emerged on the Senate floor with a poster of the president's speech, three years ago today, in which Mr. Bush declared major combat operations in Iraq were over, while standing beneath a Navy banner reading: "Mission Accomplished."
From the May 1 edition of The Situation Room:
WOLF BLITZER (anchor): Torie, whose idea was it for the president to land on the Abraham Lincoln aircraft carrier under that "Mission Accomplished" banner?
CLARKE: I'll tell you what -- I'll take some responsibility for this.
BLITZER: You were the Pentagon spokesman.
CLARKE: I was at the Pentagon at the time. And I was very eager to have lots of senior officials greet the troops as they were coming home from various missions, and that aircraft carrier had been out for over six months. So I was all for that. I think it's still a matter of debate who actually printed the banner and who actually put it up.
But, as Media Matters for America noted during the 2004 presidential campaign, when Bush was trying to distance himself from the banner, the Associated Press reported on April 16, 2004:
The banner, which has been a source of controversy for the Bush administration, has been mocked many times over the failed search for weapons of mass destruction and the continuing violence in Iraq.
Bush said in October that the White House had nothing to do with the banner; a spokesman later clarified that the ship's crew asked for the sign and that the White House staff had it made by a private vendor. It was not clear who paid for the sign.
So they are still trying to convince the distracted public that the stunt that GWB participated in wasn't his fault? Good friggin' luck. In a rational discussion of that event the focus should be on the failure to accomplish the mission not whether who placed the banner. A typical Rove marching order turned into news.
Soon these guys'll be saying things like "Despite democrats' assertions to the contrary, we've never found the WMD's that the liberal wing insisted we in Iraq in the lead up to the war."
Just in case some cons point to "the ship's crew asked for the sign and that the White House staff had it made by a private vendor" and shout that the Navy did it, we must recognise that even if the Navy asked for it, the WH had it made, which is a tacit "Yes! That banner is a GREAT idea!"
Someone created a HUGE banner with the words "Mission Accomplished" on it. They made it past security on an Aircraft Carrier, also Managed to hang it in place where it could be seen by everyone watching the president. And now the spokesperson for the Pentagon can't explain anything about how it came to be?
Seriously? would you allow your Son or Daughter to join a military that appears so incompetent and unaware of what's happening around them?
No we can't explain how the banner got up there but when we tell you what's happening thousands of miles away ...why don't you believe us?.........geeeee and I wonder why so many people think these spokepeople are so full of dung.
What banner? I am enamored with the presidential package.
G. Gordon Liddy.
when Iraq would have been a success. Everything to creat and save the image as 'Bush the Manly-man and Hero'.
These people are apologists and liars.
End of story.
"All Hail Captain Codpiece!"
Blame the navy for the banner. In fact, go all the way to the top and blame the commander-in-chief.
On the contrary, it's perfectly clear:
2,000 soldiers paid for it with their lives after the speech.
I suspect it was the same people who made them turn the Aircraft Carrier 180 degrees around to avoid having the city of San Diego show up in the background of Bush's speach.
remember, this was the stunt in which Bush could have easily flown a helicopter to the ship but instead took an expensive (but more impressive) fighter jet... showmanship over substance - typical! the ship was just off the coast, not out in the middle of the ocean, as some reported... surely the White House had a big role in that, too...
Yes, the crew of the ship may have asked for it, but since when does the military get what it asks for--automatically--from the White House, such as body or vehicle armor?
The WH staff ought to've burned the midnight oil, not for the benefit of ExxonMobile, but to knit every soldier and marine with boots on the ground in Iraq a new Kevlar sweater. Screw the photo op banner for #43 to strut and swagger in front of with that humongous fighter pilot dress up cod piece. What a jerk.
The pilot should have let our ne’er-do-well Commander-in-Chimp take the stick then hit the silk. Well out to sea, of course.
It would be interesting to track down that banner. I imagine it would a great tool to further mock this pathetic president and his admin. Or, it could be used to raise money for the families of dead U.S. vets.