The View From The Obama Plane To Iraq
This post was written by CBS News Producer Jeff Goldman.
Members of the pool, the members of which rotate more-or-less daily, are charged with covering the president's every move and reporting back to the larger media community. My job was to represent all five television networks. Our video was to be shared for all events that President Obama participated in that day.
The other journalists in the pool included a reporter representing the wire services, one newspaper reporter, one magazine reporter, one radio reporter and agency still photographers.
Conscious of the likelihood of a surprise stop on the way back from Europe and Turkey to Washington, D.C., we all chatted that day about where we might end up flying. The vast expanse of the Middle East seemed the likely spot due to close proximity to our last stop, in Turkey.
When we took off from Istanbul, we were scheduled to fly non-stop to Andrews Air Force Base outside of D.C. I knew within a few minutes that we were heading to another destination - one that was east of where we started.
For one thing, the sun was in the wrong place as I looked out the window. Several of us speculated that we were heading to Iraq, but nothing had been officially confirmed to us. The onboard TV monitor in our cabin normally shows a map of where we are, but this had been disabled for security purposes.
CBS News White House correspondent Chip Reid had a world atlas with him. We looked at his maps of Turkey and looked for landmarks such as lakes and rivers. Sure enough, we figured out some clues down below as we headed east. After about 90 minutes we took a sharp turn and it began clear that we were now heading south. We most certainly had to be headed to Iraq, we realized. We saw some major rivers below. Could one be the Tigris or perhaps the Euphrates?
Finally, about fifteen minutes before landing, White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs came back in to our cabin to "officially" say yes, we are going to Iraq, and more specifically to Camp Victory near Baghdad. There was a last minute change, however. President Obama was due to talk to troops at Camp Victory after landing, then take a helicopter in to the center of Baghdad to meet with Iraqi leadership. Military officials on the ground deemed conditions to fly too dangerous to undertake that mission, however. No, this wasn't a security issue, he said - it was a weather issue. The cloud ceiling was too low and visibility minimums not acceptable as huge clouds of dust clogged the air.
Our approach to Baghdad airport was rather steep. I assumed this unusual landing technique was for security reasons as it was daylight and Air Force One is rather visible in its markings compared with civilian and military aircraft.
On the ground, with the embargo broken, I immediately informed the U.S. networks we had made a "surprise" landing in Baghdad. For the next four hours or so we accompanied the president to a number of events at Camp Victory. This was the old Aw Faw Palace once occupied by Saddam Hussein, now taken over by the U.S. military.
President Obama addressed about 500-600 troops from the four military services in an ornate marble foyer of one of the many grand buildings on the ground. The crowd was very charged up to see the new president and receptive to his message of getting them what they need both to do their mission and to help them and their families cope.
President Obama then met with the Iraqi leadership in the residence of General Odierno at Camp Victory. The Iraqis had to be brought to Camp Victory as we could not fly to them in the so called "Green Zone" of Baghdad.
One of the more challenging aspects of this short visit was communicating with the outside world. I normally send out notes of what the president is saying and what he is doing in real time via email on my Blackberry. Its convenient and all five networks receive the information at the same time.
But cell signals are intermittent at best in Camp Victory. I suspected there may have been signal jamming devices in place for security during our visit. We also tried using a satellite phone. When you use a satellite phone you have to be in an open sky environment and stand still. We were often in thick walled marble palace locations and or on the move so this technology was of limited value. And it was nearly impossible to get any calls out on cell phones.
Of course, I reminded myself that not so many years ago - before there were cell phones and blackberries - journalists relied on pay phones to get news to the outside world. The experience reminded me just how immediate the spread of news has become and how powerless I felt without my normal communciation devices working.
The whole visit to Iraq only lasted about four hours. It was a fascinating end to a marathon trip that left those of us lucky enough to be a part of it both exhausted and exhilarated.