I am writing today to announce the closure of the New Mexico Independent. After three and a half years of operation in New Mexico, the board of the American Independent News Network, has decided to shift publication of its news…
While environmental activists played their part yesterday during demonstrations at the capitol building, going so far as to dress up as solar panels and to sing the tune of “You Are My Sunshine,” their counterparts, the anti-cap-and-trade contingency who has…
Roughly one quarter of University of New Mexico students are unimpressed with the state’s flagship public school, according to a survey that questioned college students about their higher education experiences.
Louis Caldera, the outgoing director of White House Military Office, has taken full responsibility for the April 27 747 jumbo jet flyover which caused panic in New York City where memories of the 9/11 terror attacks are still fresh.
Now the New Mexico Independent has the report (pdf) from the White House Counsel’s Office on the White House photo-op gone terribly wrong that ultimately cost the former UNM president his job.
Caldera’s resignation is effective May 22.
The report outlines how the flyover came to be under Caldera’s watch. It shows a string of miscommunication as well as plans that were made but were never implemented.
For example, Caldera failed to inform White House Deputy Chief of Staff Jim Messina and White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs about the flyover. Caldera did not consider it a conscious decision according to the report, but he instead suggested, according to the report, that it “that it may have been an oversight.”
Also, neither Caldera nor George Mulligan, the deputy chief of staff of the White House Military Office, were on an April 3 conference call where the idea was hatched. Representatives of the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the Presidential Airlift Group (PAG) were on the call.
At the time of the call, Caldera was out of the country, first in Europe then in Trinidad and Tobago and Mexico, traveling with President Obama.
The public was supposed to be informed about a flyover by a “DOD aircraft” — but even the mayor of the city was surprised by the flyover.
According to an e-mail from PAG commander, Colonel Scott Turner, to Mulligan, coordination with the “general public” would begin “on or after 26 Apr.” The coordination never happened.
Even the scope of the media reaction surprised the White House Military Office.
Part of an April 24 e-mail from Mulligan to Caldera read,” Will probably receive some local press, but WH shouldn’t catch any questions about it.”
According to the New York Times’ City Room blog, however, Gibbs did get some questions about it.
Robert Gibbs, the White House press secretary, said Monday afternoon that he was unaware of the flyover. At his daily press briefing, Mr. Gibbs initially referred questions to the F.A.A. and the Air Force. When told that those government offices were referring questions to the White House, Mr. Gibbs said: “I have no information on this other than what I saw.”Mr. Gibbs, pressed by reporters, said he had seen news reports of the flyover, but declared: “I was working on other things. You might be surprised to know that I don’t know every movement of Air Force One.” Later, he added that he would look into the matter.
Caldera told White House investigators that he did not read the e-mail until the afternoon of April 27 — after the flight had already happened.
There were two potential reasons given by Caldera for this oversight.
He explained to us that he did not see the email because it was sent to his WHMO email account — the Director has two email accounts and he checks his White House Office account more frequently. During our interview, the Director also offered another explanation for his failure to read the email. When he returned from Mexico, he was suffering from severe muscle spasms in his back. Doctors prescribed pain medications, he had difficulty walking around the office, and he went home early a couple days.
Also, the details regarding a number of conversations between Mulligan and Caldera were in dispute.
For example, on April 20 Mulligan “believes that he notified the Director for the first time about the proposed flyover.”
In this conversation, the reports says that Mulligan “believed that Mr. Messina would want notice because the plan involved the use of the Presidential aircraft and because it was unusual — i.e., it was a photo shoot near New York City and it required a high degree of coordination.”
Caldera, however, didn’t recall the conversation according to the report. Instead, he “characterized it as one of multiple things that were happening at the time.”
Caldera told investigators that the conversation “didn’t register as a big deal” and characterized it as “an aside.”
Mulligan says that while the conversation only lasted about 30 seconds, the conversation was direct and could not be characterized as an “aside.”
From the beginning, it looks like Caldera took responsibility for the mistake of not informing Messina about the flight.
The report suggested “a comprehensive study resulting in recommendations to the President regarding” structural issues within the WHMO.
