Switching Presidential Planes in Ankara

 What was it all about and who did what to whom?

Philip Giraldi • August 13, 202

Hardly a week goes by when Donald Trump is not the centerpiece and source of a lie so outrageous or an accusation so heinous that one has to sit back gazing at one’s computer screen, stunned by the audacity and shaking one’s head in disbelief. But even after what is now more than a year and a half of exposure to Trumpism, there is sometimes an insult, or a gesture, or an insane narrative that moves one to something beyond that, akin to shock in the realization that it is our country and even a large part of the world that is being damaged by the asinine performance. Last week’s exposure of the presidential airplane switching performance in Ankara Turkey a month ago is one such wake-up moment that is by its very absurdity revealing of everything that has gone crazy off-the-charts during the past year or so.

Even given Trump’s ignorance and demonstrated lack of empathy for anyone else but himself, this Prisoner of Zenda-like escape from Air Force One through a cart used to deliver meals to the plane reminds one of how a somber Rod Serling used to intone “We have now entered the Twilight Zone.” The escape was reportedly arranged to avoid what has been described as a possible assassination attempt by Iran, the details of which that did actually occur nevertheless taking one’s credulity relating to all things “DT” to a new and much lower level.

The story of what went on in Ankara is still emerging, but the basic tale is as follows: There was, in short, according to an intelligence report, a plot to assassinate President Donald Trump by using some form of missile to blow up Air Force One as Trump and party were departing from a NATO conference in Ankara. Several accounts claim that there was plausible and “credible evidence” that Iran was behind the scheme, presumably acting to obtain revenge for the killing of its own Supreme Leader Ali Khameini in February. For what it’s worth Iran and Turkey share a long and largely uncontrolled border through which smuggling a missile or missiles would have posed little in the way of a problem if one were seeking to smuggle weapons in.

The intelligence report, which CIA regarded with “low confidence,” nevertheless led inevitably to a security alert and warning concerning the planned departure of the US delegation by air. Complicating the situation is the apparent fact that, as some have asserted, the intelligence that led to the alert came from Israel. Turkish officials suspect that the intelligence report was, in fact, in origin an Israel fabrication, a ruse primarily designed to terrorize the president enough to derail diplomacy between the US and Iran. Israel has other motives beyond that for wanting to kill Trump, including that he had just agreed to sell US made F-35 fighters to Turkey, which Israel, seeing Ankara as a future enemy, opposed. Also, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and America’s Israel Lobby have been pressuring Trump because they fear he has “gone soft” on continuing the aggressive war against Iran,

So there are several possible angles to consider about the source of the “threat” to blow up the US plane. Given the Israeli possible connection, if that is demonstrated, it might be suggested that even if the plot was genuine and therefore “real”, rather than by Iran it might have instead been a false flag designed to bring down the plane by Israel and blame it on the Iranians. But what follows is the part that many would consider unconscionable. Trump predictably persists in blaming what took place on a “security” decision by the Secret Service but since the president controls the Secret Service that might be called a “cover story.” Why the logical route to eliminate the threat was not pursued, i.e. evacuating the plane and removing the passengers and crew to a safe distance away, is not clear. The numerous media, crewmen and assorted other travelers who had already boarded the plane were unaware of the situation and, uninformed of the threat, proceeded to settle in and get ready to depart for the UK, which apparently later took place. Some of them wondered where President Trump was as he usually wandered through the plane pre-flight selling his usual line of BS.

The not-present Trump was engaged in what I prefer to call the “Chickenwalk Crawl” but the “Daily Beast” prefers the “Presidency’s Profile in Cowardice.” He and a select few staffers including his omnipresent blonde bombshell “special aide” Natalie Harp and Secretary of War Peter Hegseth were secretly removed from the plane using an airport catering service cart that normally was used to carry food and other supplies to replenish stocks on the passenger planes. Presumably they might have been delivering a load of BigMacs to Air Force One. The transplants eventually wound up at a US Air Force C32A which was also parked at the airport. Be that as it may and the whole story is full of contrivance and spin, but it is clear that eventually the president and his friends were safe but what about the others on the plane? Even Trump’s Chief of Staff Stephen Miller, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Secretary of the Treasury Scott Bessent were on board Air Force One and apparently unwitting of what thereby became a “decoy” flight to attract any missiles that might be fired in the flight path. Even though Trump had changed aircraft the pretense that he was on board was retained with Air Force One keeping the original “call signal” it used despite the President’s exit – thereby deliberately becoming a decoy to anyone who might be listening in to its communications, confirming that the “target” was still on board.

A senior Trump administration official conveniently and predictably claimed to journalists on Wednesday that the “decoy” Air Force One “was protected by US fighter jets on its flight back from Ankara” though there has been no indication from the Turks controlling the airspace that that was the case. Trump is also now claiming that he was himself at “greater risk” than those on the decoy flight, a ludicrous transparently lying defense but one that is similar to so much that comes out of the White House. Perhaps he should talk to his Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, who resigned 24 hours after the “decoy” story broke. She was on the “decoy” plane and might have emerged from the experience just a bit upset. Nevertheless, no matter how one spins it, it would seem that if the plan to bring down the plane had been both real and successful, all those people still on board would have died.

So, the Iran-Turkey-Israel plane ruse, now that it is ended and is being lied about, is pretty much a dead end and no one will be punished or cross-examined for it. Just wait until next week! The Pentagon, with Israeli controlled Donald Trump’s finger on the nuclear trigger, is looking at ways to simplify engaging in regional nuclear wars that The Defense Post is reporting on. Per their account “Officials maintain that the doctrine is designed to expand the president’s range of credible response options during an allied crisis, mitigating the need to resort to a full-scale nuclear intervention. ‘If you actually want extended deterrence to be credible, you have to provide the nation’s political leadership with nuclear capabilities that common sense indicates you could actually use,’ a defense insider told the outlet. ‘Otherwise you’re reducing our leadership’s options to extreme choices that the adversary won’t find credible.’” Wow! “nuclear capabilities” that our “leadership…can actually use!” Can’t wait for that with Trump at the helm!

Philip M. Giraldi, Ph.D., is Executive Director of the Council for the National Interest, a 501(c)3 tax deductible educational foundation (Federal ID Number #52-1739023) that seeks a more interests-based U.S. foreign policy in the Middle East. Website is https://councilforthenationalinterest.org address is P.O. Box 2157, Purcellville VA 20134 and its email is inform@cnionline.org.                 

https://www.unz.com/pgiraldi/switching-presidential-planes-in-ankara/