Where is the President?
Where is the President? Map of Camp David
I recently read an article by the Washington Post concerning the lack of journalists covering the Executive Branch, especially the President and Vice President when they are travelling.
To wit:
On one of the scariest days yet in the five-year battle with terrorists, President Bush prepared to make a speech to reassure the American people. But the White House press corps was 1,000 miles away in Texas.
Bush had left his ranch vacation and jetted north for a scheduled closed-door fundraiser. No press plane accompanied him. And so when news broke that Britain had broken up a major terrorist plot, the only ones there to convey the president's reaction were a handful of local reporters and a few pool journalists who ride in the back of Air Force One.
Because of increased expenses, and the constant budget cutting, combined with this administration's seemingly natural state of high secrecy, the pack of journalists who travel with the highest members of the Executive Branch are dwindling; so much so, that major events - such as the beginning of the Israel-Lebanon war - are covered by a skeleton crew of journalists.
In one frightening remark, the press actually "lost" Vice President Cheney:
Bush is not the only one to find ways of escaping much public notice as he flies around the country. Vice President Cheney manages to leave Washington for days, and sometimes weeks, at a time without public announcement. Few in the capital even knew he was in Texas in February, for instance, until he accidentally shot a companion while hunting quail. And he has been in Jackson, Wyo., since July 29 without any national news media mentioning it.
The Jackson Hole News & Guide found out Cheney was there only because it spotted his plane and the radar dish that serves an anti-missile battery that protects his house when he's in town. "In the past, they've been kind of weird about it," said Thomas Dewell, the paper's co-editor. "They'd say, 'His airplane's here and the missile base is here, but we can't tell you if he's here.' " This time, he said, Cheney's office confirmed his presence when asked.
Well, here's a suggestion to the major press organizations: why don't combine signal intelligence (especially traffic intelligence) and the FAA Temporary Flight Restrictions (TFR), especially the VIP TFR's to pinpoint where he will be? It is all there, secondary information which is needed for safe and effective flights. Information I totally stumbled upon, and thought was cool. If the FAA's TFR lists isn't pretty enough for you, you could always check out Runway Finder which is a Google Maps-Flight Chart mashup. It shows all sorts of TFR's (especially due to fire out west) and also shows which airports are using VFR, MVFR, or IFR rules.
Where is the Vice President? Map of Jackson Hole, WY.
I'm sure someone could write a screen scraper to read this and send email whenever certain keywords are present. Such as "Jackson Hole" and "Presidential Event" are found in the TFR. It took me all five minutes to figure out via Runway Finder that the President will be at Camp David in 18 hours and that Vice President Cheney will be in Jackson Hole in 2 hours.
This just goes to show that no matter how secretive an Executive can be, there will always be secondary intelligence available to third parties, regardless of intent.
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This is the permanent home of Where is the President?. I wrote this post at 20:11 on August 16, 2006. This post is part of grubbykid.com, a weblog. If you liked this entry, why don't you read some other posts such as Bush seeks political gains from foiled plot or Terrorist Hunting Permit? Or you could go to the site archives or return home. All are good choices.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: politics airplane flight maps secrecy intelligince SIGINT.
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Some descriptive tags for this entry are: airplanes, flight, intelligince, maps, politics, secrecy, SIGINT.
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