As was reported widely, the backup Air Force One did a low fly-by over lower Manhattan yesterday, scaring the bejezus out of everyone. Early blame was placed on the White House Military Officer, but it’s coming out today from the FAA that the Feds knew the fly-over photo-op would cause a panic. They just didn’t give a damn.
CBS 2 HD has discovered the feds will have plenty to question.
Federal officials knew that sending two fighter jets and Air Force One to buzz ground zero and Lady Liberty might set off nightmarish fears of a 9/11 replay, but they still ordered the photo-op kept secret from the public.
Screen Cap Courtesy NY1
In a memo obtained by CBS 2 HD the Federal Aviation Administration’s James Johnston said the agency was aware of “the possibility of public concern regarding DOD (Department of Defense) aircraft flying at low altitudes” in an around New York City. But they demanded total secrecy from the NYPD, the Secret Service, the FBI and even the mayor’s office and threatened federal sanctions if the secret got out.
…
The flyover — apparently ordered by the White House Office of Military Affairs so it would have souvenir photos of Air Force One with the Statue of Liberty in the background — had President Obama seeing red. He ordered a probe and apologized.
“It was a mistake. It will never happen again,” President Obama said.
The NYPD was so upset about the demand for secrecy that Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vowed never to follow such a directive again and he accused the feds of inciting fears of a 9/11 replay.
“Did it show any insensitivity to the psychic wounds New York City has after 9/11? Absolutely. No questions about it. It was quite insensitive.”
A souvenir photo? A freakin’ SOUVENIR photo??? This is an unforgivable sin, and I doubt we’ve heard the end of it. After all, the buck stops with the president. I’m just waiting for that shoe to drop.
I saw this video segment in the History Channel special “102 Minutes That Changed America,” and Sky News today released it as a stand-alone video. It’s very graphic, powerful, but I feel it’s something that we must ALL see again, because we can never forget. We’re all going on about with our lives, thinking the economy is our only problem. What better time for them to strike again?
If you missed this special on TV, you must visit the site and view the interactive map and videos, including the one above. You can see it all here.
We can never let our guard down, and we must stay focused on the very real threat that remains – radical Islamofascist terrorism and their quest for Jihad.
This video also makes me ask the question again…. just why exactly are we closing Gitmo???
I am just speechless. I’ve long been a fan of Ron Silver, and he was one of the brave souls who came out as a 9/12/01 Conservative. This is an unbelievable loss to the country, and to the arts.
Ron had been fighting terminal stomach cancer for well over two years now as if it were some minor skirmish interrupting his otherwise important dedication to the future of this country. And what a dedication that was – twenty-four hours of every day, when they didn’t drag him into Sloan Kettering for treatment… the place Ron would call to his friends with characteristic gallows humor – Sloan Spa.
We all knew Ron had cancer and most of us, I suspect, had some idea how bad it was. The summer before last (I think it was then) I remember him telling me about his recent operation. He was out for about six hours, he told me, and when he woke up he looked at the doctor and asked her how it went. She told him she couldn’t take out the cancer. It had metastasized. The six hours were for nothing. She had to sew him back up. They gave him about three to four months to live at that point.
My heart went into my toes, but Ron told me that matter-of-factly and then he went on to apologize for not writing some article or other for Pajamas Media and then asked me how I was doing. That was Ron.
We had a close relationship that came from a strange confluence of events. Perhaps the best movie that either of us worked on was the same one. – Enemies, A Love Story. But that wasn’t the real reason – it was politics. We had stayed friends after Enemies, as movie folks sometimes do when they have worked on something together that was successful, critically or commercially. We discussed other projects, but our relationship was fairly superficial then and gradually we drifted apart during the nineties.
Then 9/11 came and Ron and I were thrown together once again. We were 9/11 Democrats. We talked on the phone about our journey and the alienation we were feeling from some our friends, but we didn’t come face-to-face until the Republican Convention of 2004. I was a blogger there and feeling rather weird – an old leftie gone right – but there was Ron, far more out than I was, speaking to the entire convention. And he was brilliant. The man could speak in public as well as almost any politician and he had more intellectual background than almost all of them too. He swept the convention audience off their feet.
I remember him best from his role in “Fahrenhype 9/11.” God rest your soul, my friend. You will be sorely missed. Prayers to your family in this tough time.
Breaking hard and fast, said not to be terror-related, but smoke can be seen for 7 miles after a small aircraft or helicopter crashes into an apartment building at 524 E. 72nd Street, near the East River. Story here.
A small aircraft crashed into a high-rise on the Upper East Side, setting off a fire and startling New Yorkers, police said. There were conflicting reports on whether the aircraft was a small plane or a helicopter.
Fire Department spokeswoman Emily Rahimi said an aircraft struck struck the 20th floor of a building on East 72nd Street. Witnesses said the crash caused a loud noise, and burning and falling debris was seen. Flames were seen shooting out of the windows. Video from the scene showed at least three apartments in the high rise fully engulfed in flames.
“There’s huge pieces of debris falling,” said one witness who refused to give her full name. “There’s so much falling now, I’ve got to get away.”
Pandemonium in the streets! Reportedly 1 person trapped, 2 killed… scroll for updates as they come in.
My apologies for the break in the video below, as I was watching a local Fox affiliate then switched but kept recording. This is just the initial video – am recording more.
Witness says she saw plane parts flying and falling everywhere. Man had to be subdued trying to rush into building. It took several police to subdue him as he was screaming that his pregnant wife was up in the high rise. Please God be with that man and those cops who had to do that for his own safety.
US authorities scrambled fighter jets above US cities as a precaution after a small plane crashed into an apartment building in New York, a top commander said.
Admiral Tim Keating, commander of the US Northern Command, would not say how many cities were under air cover but insisted there was no sign of terrorism in the accident on Manhattan’s post Upper East Side.
“Fighters, along with early warning systems, they’ve been up there for half an hour, 45 minutes,” Keating told CNN.
“There are no, repeat, no indications that there is anything underfoot beyond this one airplane or helicopter, whatever, light civil (aircraft) that flew into this apartment building in New York City,” he said.
“But … we reserve the right to exercise our capabilities, which is what we’ve done here.”
The two deaths were confirmed by the city police, and CBS-2 News has learned that there were apparently no other major injuries inside the building.
Large crowds gathered at the crash scene in the tony New York neighborhood, with many people in tears and others trying to reach loved ones by cell phone. Mayor Michael Bloomberg went to the site, where parts of the fuselage were falling to the ground.
“We have no reason to believe at this point that it is terrorist related, and our level remains the same,” said New York City Police Chief Michael Collins.
And Shephard closes out Studio B with this final video.
***UPDATE***
4:55 PM EST – Confirmed: Plane belonged to NY Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle, and reportedly he was flying it, killed on impact.
NEW YORK — A small plane piloted by New York Yankees pitcher Cory Lidle crashed into a 50-story condominium tower Wednesday on Manhattan’s Upper East Side, raining flaming debris onto the sidewalks below and rattling New Yorkers’ nerves five years after the Sept. 11 attack.
Lidle died in the crash.
The twin-engine plane came through a hazy, cloudy sky and hit the 20th floor of The Belaire — a red-brick tower overlooking the East River, about five miles from the World Trade Center — with a loud bang, touching off a raging fire that cast a pillar of black smoke over the city and sent flames shooting from four windows on two adjoining floors.
That brings a total of four deaths confirmed today. Very very sad.
7:34PM EST – Only 2 deaths now attributed to plane crash.
***UPDATE***
Courtesy of Reuters… “I’m Alec Baldwin…don’t you know who I am?”
Apparently Alec Baldwin was trying to convince emergency workers at the scene that he is a most exceptional construction worker, and demanding to be on-scene helping so he can be viewed as benevolent. Yeah, Alec… we know your radio gig didn’t go so well.
On a special edition of Special Report, the subject was today’s vote on the healthcare reform bill, a.k.a. “Obamacare.” Steve Hayes of the Weekly Standard gave a breakdown of past entitlement programs including Medicare and Social Security, what promises were made about them, and how they wound up affecting America in reality, fiscally speaking. Steve [...]
This morning on This Week, Obama advisor David Plouffe was on, along with Karl Rove, to discuss today’s healthcare reform bill vote. Rove tries to get Plouffe to stick to the facts, and pounded him on what the numbers actually are on this bill, the economy, our deficit and budgets, as well.
Partial transcript [...]
From Politico today:
Tea Party protesters disrupted Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s press stakeout at a House Office Building, yelling “you’re a disgrace to your office” and one protester yelled a gay epithet at Rep. Barney Frank again on Sunday, adding yet another layer of chaos to an already tense afternoon on Capitol Hill.
In a moment of [...]
Once again, Shepard Smith shows his utter disdain for the Tea Party movement. Today as Fox News was covering the healthcare reform vote and the protests outside, Shep remarks that the “leaders” on the right like Rush Limbaugh and others have been telling people to go out, make our feelings known, etc., so there we [...]
I found this wonderful blogger/cartoonist at DrawForTruth. This cartoon actually states in a picture what can only be described is how Americans feel today about the healthcare reform bill being crammed down our throats right now.
They reportedly have the votes for tomorrow, but it still doesn’t make the bill right for America. God help [...]
A good friend passed along this video to me today, and it couldn’t have come on a better day. Enjoy!
This video perfectly embodies the sentiment of those who oppose big government and unsustainable spending.
This is a country that runs on the consent of the governed – and I DO NOT consent to my [...]
Backpacker: This debate is completely unfair. Plouffe, a liberal, bases his views on what he wants things to be. Rove bases his on the truth and facts. Plouffe i...
thomthumb: Keep on praying...it's not going to happen. Can you back up any of your points?...
mark: Ms, you pay taxes AND you have representation. It's just that the people representing you in our government are in the minority. It's Democr...
vessel sink: marine hero protects the country from smuggler which are destroying the country from crisis.Hard to read. Had something well better....
mark: The health care bill received the required 60 votes in the Senate to overcome Republican opposition. Democracy isn't tyranny just because you are...
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