Veteran White House reporter breaks 26-year silence on Clinton’s 2000 Pakistan decoy plane

Washington: A veteran White House reporter has broken a 26-year silence to reveal that the Clinton administration briefed journalists before using a decoy aircraft during the US president’s high-risk visit to Pakistan in 2000.

Susan Page, then president of the White House Correspondents’ Association, said officials summoned her for an off-the-record briefing before President Bill Clinton flew from India to Pakistan, according to The Washington Post.

“They told me about the extraordinary security procedures being taken because of the dangers in flying there, including use of the decoy plane,” Page said. “Of course, the dangers threatened the journalists covering the trip as well as President Clinton.”

The disclosure followed a Post report that President Donald Trump secretly changed aircraft while leaving Turkey last month because of a credible Iranian threat. Journalists and some White House staff believed Trump remained aboard the former Air Force One.

Trump was moved in an airport catering truck to an unmarked Air Force C-32A, while the presidential aircraft carrying the press and staff served as a decoy, the newspaper reported. The White House had publicly said Trump left Turkey aboard the former Air Force One.

Page, now USA Today’s Washington bureau chief, said she decided to discuss the Clinton-era briefing because more than 25 years had passed and the deception became apparent when Clinton arrived in Islamabad.

“I haven’t spoken about this episode before, because of the off-the-record ground rules of the discussion,” Page said. “But since more than a quarter-century has passed — and since the ruse became evident as soon as President Clinton disembarked in Pakistan — I think it’s OK for me to relay it now.”

In March 2000, an aircraft bearing the markings of Air Force One landed before television cameras in Islamabad. A Secret Service agent resembling Clinton emerged. An unmarked aircraft then landed and the president disembarked.

The Trump operation was conducted without journalists being told about the aircraft change or the extent of the threat, The Post said. Reporters aboard the decoy plane had been instructed to keep their window shades closed.

White House communications director Steven Cheung defended the security measures without addressing the reported deception.

“As the President has said recently, there are many enemies of America who seek his demise, and we use every tool at our disposal to address those threats,” Cheung said.

Trump later told reporters he faced a continuing threat from Iran. “But if I go, you go. Right?” he said. “Perhaps someday you want to change professions.”

The White House press pool is a rotating group of journalists who travel with and report on the president on behalf of the broader news media. The arrangement provides an independent account of presidential movements and activities when access is restricted.

IANS