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Questions Unanswered Following Caldera Resignation

On May 8, President Barack Obama accepted Louis Caldera’s resignation as director of the White House Military Office. That translates into “he was fired.”

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    On May 8, President Barack Obama accepted Louis Caldera’s resignation as director of the White House Military Office. That translates into “he was fired.”

    The circumstances stem from an expensive photo op authorized by Caldera for Air Force One over the Status of Liberty in New York City. The image of a big passenger plane appearing to be followed by military fighter jets scares the bejeezus out of people in Manhattan.

    The incident gained momentum as calmer people around the country were scratching their heads and asking, what knucklehead would send the specter of 9/11 over New York City using Air Force One? The scene seemed like a cynical reenactment — a flashback, an induced post-traumatic-stress episode for many people.

You could conclude that a prudent person would think it unwise to authorize a flyover like that, even if the intended purpose was innocuous enough, to take some official souvenir photos.

A so-called “White House official” told ABC News correspondent Jake Tapper the President was “furious” about the incident.

Louis Caldera, assistant to the President and director of the White House Military Office, took the rap. He issued a statement saying, “Last week, I approved a mission over New York.”   He became the face of the flyby authorization.

    Case closed, it would seem. After all, no one was hurt. Nearly eight years after 9/11, the injury is about a bad memory. But the rolling stone of outrage gathered public momentum and inspired some politicians, too.

    Caldera is the former president of the University of New Mexico who, during the Clinton administration, headed the Corporation for National and Community Service. Then, from 1998 to 2001, he was Secretary of the Army. He took a leave from the New Mexico law faculty to join the Obama team.

    According to a White House investigation into the matter, Caldera was first informed about plans for the photo opportunity from his deputy, George Mulligan, on April 20, a week before the flyby, It was Caldera’s first day back after accompanying Obama on trips to Mexico City and Trinidad-Tobago. He was also suffering from back pains, taking a medication, and evidently not paying close attention.

    Previously, the Federal Aviation Administration and local authorities had teleconferenced about the plan and “public affairs/outreach issues,” according to a summary of the call. The details were gone over, including the plane’s altitude and flight path, and they recognized “sensitivity of the aircraft involved.”

    On April 9, Col. Scott Turner had emailed Mulligan about it. Right before or after the email, Mulligan had told Turner to abort the plan if there were problems or objections.

    Several days later, Turner reported he was still working on it and coordinating with federal, state and local authorities.

    Mulligan reported all this to Caldera April 24 in an email saying the White House “shouldn’t catch any questions about it,” referring to the Air Force “operation, in close coordination with FAA.”

    Caldera’s mistake was evidently not notifying White House deputy chief of staff Jim Messina and Press Secretary Robert Gibbs. Caldera did not have a “coherent explanation” about that faux pas, according to the report. In other words, the White House did “catch questions” and they didn’t look good, as a consequence.

    That was the injury. Not the trauma in the streets of lower Manhattan, according to the report.

    The White House report clearly says it confined its inquiry to what Mulligan said and what Caldera said. It did not review other federal agencies. So evidently the inquiry was not about who to blame when the administration looked bad, not about the bad advice they got.

    Secretary Robert Gates says he is directing the Joint Chiefs to review the approval process for those kinds of flights. And the Air Force chiefs have also ordered a procedures and planning review.

    While Caldera may have been at fault for not letting two office mates know what was coming up, it makes you wonder whether heads will roll over there for passing on flawed recommendations to the White House. Or was he the fall guy for really serious insensitive thinking in other parts of the government?

 [José de la Isla’s latest book, Day Night Life Death Hope, is distributed by The Ford Foundation. He writes a weekly commentary for Hispanic Link News Service and is author of The Rise of Hispanic Political Power (2003). E-mail him at [email protected].]

   © 2009 

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