Dang. My FOIA request was rejected.

[MGKrebs]

Some of you may remember that I submitted a Freedom Of Information Act request to the White House a couple of months ago. I was asking about the money involved in paying for the infamous aircraft carrier landing. I finally got a response.

"
I am in receipt of your request for information under the Freedom of Information Act. Please be advised that the White House Office is not subject to that Act. Thank you for taking the time to write.

Sincerely,
Jennifer R. Brosnahan
Associate Counsel to the President
"
Which I have since confirmed is true. Even though the lame-ass site I used to generate the letter listed the White House as a menu selection.

So I am contemplating my next step. Is their some other department that might have paid for the gig? Who handles travel arrangements/costs for the President? The Secret Service? The Secret service is subject to FOIA requests, but would they have paid for the "Mission Accomplished" banner? Does the White House have a budget for this sort of thing? Therefore they can hide their expenditures?

[Nlighten1]

1. Got a link to that website?

[MGKrebs]

11. Here ya' go.

http://www.rcfp.org/foi_lett.html

[bluestateguy]

2. Contact your congressperson?

Of course, if your congressperson is a Bush loyalist you may get nowhere, but if he or she is not, you might be able to get somewhere.

Perhaps that is the law, and if that is the case the law should be changed. Only matters of national security (and I define that term rather strictly) should be exempt from the FOIA. Our tax dollars paid for that whole campaign event and we have the right to know what it cost.

[Gman]

3. How about the GSA

don't they pay the bills?

[lcordero]

4. how about the GAO?

[Stephanie]

5. Here is my Mission Accomplished file, in case it can help you

=================================================
Bush's denial that the WH placed the banner on the carrier:

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/10/20031028-2.html

Q Mr. President, if I may take you back to May 1st when you stood on the USS Lincoln under a huge banner that said, "Mission Accomplished." At that time you declared major combat operations were over, but since that time there have been over 1,000 wounded, many of them amputees who are recovering at Walter Reed, 217 killed in action since that date. Will you acknowledge now that you were premature in making those remarks?

THE PRESIDENT: Nora, I think you ought to look at my speech. I said, Iraq is a dangerous place and we've still got hard work to do, there's still more to be done. And we had just come off a very successful military operation. I was there to thank the troops.

The "Mission Accomplished" sign, of course, was put up by the members of the USS Abraham Lincoln, saying that their mission was accomplished. I know it was attributed some how to some ingenious advance man from my staff -- they weren't that ingenious, by the way. But my statement was a clear statement, basically recognizing that this phase of the war for Iraq was over and there was a lot of dangerous work. And it's proved to be right, it is dangerous in Iraq. It's dangerous in Iraq because there are people who can't stand the thought of a free and peaceful Iraq. It is dangerous in Iraq because there are some who believe that we're soft, that the will of the United States can be shaken by suiciders -- and suiciders who are willing to drive up to a Red Cross center, a center of international help and aid and comfort, and just kill.

====================================================

The Banner, hung (and designed? and produced?) by the USS Lincoln crew, according to Bush. Looks suspiciously similar to backdrops we see at every Bush speech:

====================================================

Bush's speech on the carrier:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/01/bush.transcript/index.html

Bush makes historic speech aboard warship
Thursday, May 1, 2003 Posted: 9:48 PM EDT (0148 GMT)

ABOARD THE USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- The following is an unedited transcript of President Bush's historic speech from the flight deck of the USS Lincoln, during which he declared an end to major combat in Iraq:

Thank you. Thank you all very much.

Admiral Kelly, Captain Card, officers and sailors of the USS Abraham Lincoln, my fellow Americans, major combat operations in Iraq have ended. In the battle of Iraq, the United States and our allies have prevailed.

And now our coalition is engaged in securing and reconstructing that country.

Video of the speech linked here:

http://www.cnn.com/2003/ALLPOLITICS/05/01/sprj.irq.bush.speech/index.html

====================================================

Bush handlers stage manage every aspect of his appearances, including this one:

Keepers of Bush image lift stagecraft to new heights
By Elisabeth Bumiller
New York Times
Friday, May 16, 2003 Posted: 7:08 AM EDT (1108 GMT)

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

The president's image makers, Mr. Bartlett said, work within a budget for White House travel and events allotted by Congress, which for fiscal 2003 was $3.7 million. He said he did not know the specific cost of staging Mr. Bush's Sept. 11 anniversary speech, or what the White House was charged for the lights. A spokeswoman at the headquarters of Musco Lighting in Oskaloosa, Iowa, said the company did not disclose the prices it charged clients.

<snip>

The most elaborate — and criticized — White House event so far was Mr. Bush's speech aboard the Abraham Lincoln announcing the end of major combat in Iraq. White House officials say that a variety of people, including the president, came up with the idea, and that Mr. Sforza embedded himself on the carrier to make preparations days before Mr. Bush's landing in a flight suit and his early evening speech.

Media strategists noted afterward that Mr. Sforza and his aides had choreographed every aspect of the event, even down to the members of the Lincoln crew arrayed in coordinated shirt colors over Mr. Bush's right shoulder and the "Mission Accomplished" banner placed to perfectly capture the president and the celebratory two words in a single shot. The speech was specifically timed for what image makers call "magic hour light," which cast a golden glow on Mr. Bush.

"If you looked at the TV picture, you saw there was flattering light on his left cheek and slight shadowing on his right," Mr. King said. "It looked great."

The trip was attacked by Democrats as an expensive political stunt, but White House officials said that Democrats needed a better issue for taking on the president. A New York Times/CBS News nationwide poll conducted May 9-12 found that the White House may have been right: 59 percent of those polled said it was appropriate, and not an effort to make political gain, for Mr. Bush to dress in a flight suit and announce the end of combat operations on the aircraft carrier.

====================================================

Bush handlers admit that the event was SO stage-managed that the ship had to slow down so San Diego would not be visible to the cameras

http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn/A22502-2003May6?language=printer

Explanation for Bush's Carrier Landing Altered
By Dana Milbank
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, May 7, 2003; Page A20

President Bush chose to make a jet landing on an aircraft carrier last week even after he was told he could easily reach the ship by helicopter, the White House said yesterday, changing the explanation it gave for Bush's "Top Gun" style event.

Bush's televised landing on the USS Abraham Lincoln, for which the president wore a flight suit and a helmet and took underwater survival training in the White House swimming pool, was the dramatic start to a visit to the carrier that included an air show and a televised speech to the nation. In his address, the president declared victory in Iraq in front of cheering sailors and a banner proclaiming "Mission Accomplished."

White House officials had said, both before and after Bush's landing in a Navy S-3B Viking jet, that he took the plane solely to avoid inconveniencing the sailors, who were returning home after a deployment of nearly 10 months. The officials said that Bush decided not to wait until the ship was in helicopter range to avoid delaying the troops' homecoming.

But instead of the carrier being hundreds of miles offshore, as aides had said it would be, the Lincoln was only about 30 miles from the coast when Bush made his "tail-hook" landing, in which the jet was stopped by cables on deck. Navy officers slowed and turned the ship when land became visible.

<snip>

Citing Fleischer's revised explanation, Rep. Henry A. Waxman (D-Calif.) wrote to the General Accounting Office to ask for a "full accounting" of the cost of the trip.

After Fleischer's remarks, Sen. Robert C. Byrd (D-W.Va.) delivered an impassioned speech on the Senate floor, saying he was "deeply troubled" by Bush's actions, which he called "flamboyant showmanship." The octogenarian lawmaker criticized the White House for using the carrier "as an advertising backdrop" and the military "as stage props" for Bush's speech.

====================================================

An eerily similar backdrop:



Mission Accomplished:



Another flag backdrop:



One more:



They used the SAME flag graphic:

This...



Makes this:



====================================================

http://www.buzzflash.com/contributors/03/09/27_mission.html
'Mission accomplished': Bush brag or Demo fib?
U.S. News- Washington Whispers ^ | 09/29/03 | Paul Bedard

After weeks of Democratic assaults that President Bush was a nitwit for declaring "mission accomplished" in Iraq during his May 1 landing and victory speech on the USS Abraham Lincoln, the White House is bidding to set the story straight. The issue should be a simple one: Bush never uttered those words. "The president," argues communications boss Dan Bartlett, "said exactly the opposite: The mission continues." But Bush stood under a banner declaring "mission accomplished." Why? Bartlett says that the Lincoln's captain had the banner made up to thank his crew for the longest-ever carrier tour, not to declare the war over. "It is something the troops are really proud of," says Bartlett. "Of course they can hang the banner." But the picture was all the Demos needed. "On TV," he says, "they never play the bite of the president, they just show the image with the banner." Democratic polls show that the public buys their spin, which doesn't really surprise Bartlett. "Look, perception becomes reality," he says. "But the facts don't back it up."

==================================================

WAPO Editorial May 4, 2003
http://www.washingtonpost.com/ac2/wp-dyn?pagename=article&node=&contentId=A10976-2003May3¬Found=true

An Unfinished Mission
Sunday, May 4, 2003; Page B06

THE VICTORY celebration held aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday was well-deserved, both for President Bush and for the servicemen who cheered him. Thanks to those who gathered on the carrier's deck and their comrades in arms, Saddam Hussein's homicidal hold on Iraq was broken in three weeks, with relatively small, if painful, losses of Iraqi and American lives. None of the disasters feared before the war has come to pass: neither burning oil fields nor bloody street-to-street battles; neither Arab revolutions nor armed interventions by Iraq's neighbors. Mr. Bush acknowledged before the war that these risks were real, but argued that they were outweighed by the risks of not acting: So far, he has been proved right. Nor can there now be any doubt that most Iraqis welcomed the ouster of Saddam Hussein and the elimination of his apparatus of terror. When the horrors of the Baathist regime -- now being confirmed in terrible but necessary detail -- are set against even the destruction and deaths of the war, it's impossible not to conclude that the United States and its allies have performed a great service for Iraq's 23 million people.

Still, it's also impossible to agree with the banner that was draped near Mr. Bush on the carrier deck, proclaiming "Mission Accomplished." Aides say the slogan was chosen in part to mark a presidential turn toward domestic affairs as his campaign for reelection approaches.But neither Mr. Bush nor the American public can afford to put Iraq on the back burner. There is much to be done; the greatest tests and risks still lie in the future. Perhaps Mr. Bush understands that reality; yet his reluctance to fully explain it to Americans or to work for the support he will need is troubling.

==================================================

http://www.notinourname.net/resources_links/bush_image_may03.htm

.... First among equals is Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer who was hired by the Bush campaign in Austin, Tex., and who now works for Dan Bartlett, the White House communications director. Mr. Sforza created the White House "message of the day" backdrops and helped design the $250,000 set at the United States Central Command forward headquarters in Doha, Qatar, during the Iraq war.

Mr. Sforza works closely with Bob DeServi, a former NBC cameraman whom the Bush White House hired after seeing his work in the 2000 campaign. Mr. DeServi, whose title is associate director of communications for production, is considered a master at lighting. "You want it, I'll heat it up and make a picture," he said early this week. Mr. DeServi helped produce one of Mr. Bush's largest events, a speech to a crowd in Revolution Square in Bucharest last November.

To stage the event, Mr. DeServi went so far as to rent Musco lights in Britain, which were then shipped across the English Channel and driven across Europe to Romania, where they lighted Mr. Bush and the giant stage across from the country's former Communist headquarters.

A third crucial player is Greg Jenkins, a former Fox News television producer in Washington who is now the director of presidential advance. Mr. Jenkins manages the small army of staff members and volunteers who move days ahead of Mr. Bush and his entourage to set up the staging of all White House events. ....

==================================================

http://www.airforcetimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2346349.php

The president sought to distance himself from the upbeat message in the banner, explaining at Tuesday’s press conference that the idea for the sign came from the ship’s crew.

“I know it was attributed somehow to some ingenious advance man from my staff — they weren’t that ingenious, by the way,” he said.

Turns out they may have been that ingenious.

==================================================
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/news/archive/2003/10/28/national2020EST0815.DTL

After the news conference, a White House spokeswoman said the Lincoln's crew asked the White House to have the sign made. The White House asked a private vendor to produce the sign, and the crew put it up, said the spokeswoman. She said she did not know who paid for the sign.

Later, a Pentagon spokesman called The Associated Press to reiterate that the banner was the crew's idea.

"It truly did signify a mission accomplished for the crew," Navy Cmdr. Conrad Chun said, adding the president's visit marked the end of the ship's 10-month international deployment.

==================================================

http://www.navytimes.com/story.php?f=1-292925-2346349.php

==================================================

Bush also made the comment in Qatar a month later. No banner - just the quote:

"I am happy to see you, an so are the long-suffering people of Iraq. America sent you on a mission to remove a grave threat and to liberate an oppressed people, and that mission has been accomplished. (Applause.) "

http://www.whitehouse.gov/news/releases/2003/06/20030605-1.html

==================================================

"The president's image makers, Mr. Bartlett said, work within a budget for White House travel and events allotted by Congress, which for fiscal 2003 was $3.7 million."

http://www.cnn.com/2003/US/05/16/nyt.bumiller/

==================================================

Asked if Bush had misled people by appearing in front of the banner, McClellan said "the Navy put it up and it was the Navy at the -- asked us to take care of the production of the banner. And we said that yesterday."

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=1517&e=13&u=/afp/us_bush_iraq_mission

==================================================

http://www.buzzflash.com/analysis/03/10/ana03291.html

====================================================

http://www.nytimes.com/2003/11/03/national/03LETT.html

WHITE HOUSE LETTER
Two Words on a Banner That No Author Wants to Claim
By ELISABETH BUMILLER
Published: November 3, 2003

<snip>

"I'll give you the whole scoop," Commander 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, Commander Chun said, and the sailors then asked if the White House could get the sign made. But Commander 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 Lt. Cmdr. John Daniels, the public affairs officer aboard the Lincoln, which is now in dry dock in Bremerton, Wash., 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?' " Commander Daniels said. But Commander Daniels added that he, too, was not in any of the meetings preparing for the landing and did not know the name of anyone from the Navy who was.

Next stop was again Mr. McClellan, who was told that so far the Navy had not produced a "Mission Accomplished" accomplice. Mr. McClellan said he would see what he could do. Soon enough, Commander Daniels called to say that one person in the meetings preparing for the ship's homecoming was Cmdr. Ron Horton, the executive officer of the Lincoln and the ship's second in command.

Commander Horton was too busy to come to the phone, Lt. Cmdr. Daniels said, but he recounted what he said Commander Horton had told him about a shipboard meeting in late April with officers of the Lincoln and members of the White House advance team. The team, including security, had boarded the ship in Hawaii around April 28 to make preparations for the president's speech — some 75 to 100 people strong.

"The White House said, `Is there anything we can do for you?' " Commander 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," Commander Daniels said.

One of the White House communications people in the meeting, Commander Daniels said, was Scott Sforza, a former ABC producer who oversaw the production of the sign. Mr. Sforza did not return telephone calls seeking comment last week. <more>

[libview]

6. What will you do with the information if you get it?

give it to the media?
news flash.......nobody gives a shit

[Stephanie]

7. Not true

I give a shit.

[MGKrebs]

13. Depends what the info is, I guess.

If it turns out that the money trail shows that the banner was brought to the ship by another boat, or a helicopter ( as opposed to a jet), I think someone could make the case that the Bush* jet trip, the slowing down of the ship, the pay of all of the soldiers during the delay, etc, should be a campaign expense, not a tax funded photo op. A normal expense would be a helicopter trip, and a banner that was either made on the ship or brought along on the chopper. Everything else is extraneous to Presidential duties, and we shouldn't have to pay.


I would be happy if they just agreed to that and paid up, but if some activist wants to make an issue of it, that's fine too. So yes, I would publicize it to the best of my ability.

[tkmorris]

15. So do I

Don't you?

[DemoTex]

8. FOIA the US Navy

It's their budget that got hammered. Maybe that is the backdoor into this obscene gesture to the country. The info cannot possibly be classified.

Good luck,
Mac

[arcane1]

9. true, perhaps you can verify that the Navy does NOT..

have this very expensive banner-printing machine ON BOARD THE VESSEL.

thus, it has to come from somewhere, right? Who made it?

[Stephanie]

10. That's already been debunked

See my post above - the NY Times story at the end.

[MGKrebs]

12. Thanks, Stephanie.

It seems clear from your info that the White House Communications Office handled it, and that they have a budget for this sort of thing. I may try to contact John Lewis (my Congressman) about this, but I'm not sure. We shall see. I"ve already contacted him about a couple of other issues (Patriot Act, BBV), and I don't want to become a pest.

[scottcsmith]

14. Write to Abe's PAO

USS Abraham Lincoln (CVN-72)
FPO-AP 96612-2872
Attn: Public Affairs Office

Someone from the PAO shop should be able to answer your question, and I think they can give you a rough approximation of the event. I don't think they will tell you the exact cost, though.

But it's really, really important to put FOIA REQUEST on the outside of your envelope, and again in the lettter itself as the subject.

You may also want to shoot off a letter to the head PAO in Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

Public Affairs Officer
Commander in Chief, U.S. Pacific Fleet
250 Makalapa Drive
Pearl Harbor, HI 96860-3131

I used to answer FOIA requests and we took it pretty seriously.

Good luck.