▲ President Trump speaks in front of Air Force One on the runway at Ankara Airport in Turkey on July 8 of last year
Controversy is growing over U.S. President Donald Trump allegedly using aides and reporters as "decoys" and exposing them to danger when he switched planes due to an Iranian assassination threat.
According to foreign media reports on the 11th (local time), President Trump boarded an older model Air Force One when leaving Turkey on July 8 after attending the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) summit, but then covertly got off and used a catering truck to transfer to another aircraft.
While President Trump secretly slipped away from his aircraft, more than 100 aides, government officials, and journalists remained on board the plane heading to Britain, unaware of the threat facing the aircraft.
Reporters aboard Air Force One were reportedly instructed to pull down their window shades at the time, completely missing President Trump's plane switch.
The operation was executed so precisely that not only reporters but even some White House staffers believed President Trump was still on board Air Force One.
Steven Cash, a former CIA intelligence officer, told the British daily The Guardian regarding this operation, "It looks like offering up about 100 people to die in Iran's place under the guise of reducing President Trump's risk."
He also pointed out that intelligence authorities failed to comply with Intelligence Community Directive 191 (ICD 191), which mandates notifying individuals who become targets of specific and credible threats.
U.S. Democratic lawmakers called the incident a shocking deception operation and demanded congressional briefings to uncover the truth.
Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal urged in a CNN interview that the operation was "unprecedented, bizarre, and chilling," and added, "Because the safety of not just the president but all passengers is at stake, a congressional briefing must be held."
The Guardian noted that doubts are indeed being raised over whether the level of threat posed to President Trump was serious enough to justify the "secret plane switch."
Ankit Panda, a researcher at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, pointed out, "From Iran's perspective, launching a targeted attack on the presidential aircraft this deep inside is extremely unrealistic," adding, "Carrying out this attack would require a covert operative on the ground equipped with a portable anti-aircraft missile system."
Dr. Jeffrey Lewis of the Middlebury Institute of International Studies at Monterey (Note: referring to FPRI as in original) also pointed out, "Iran does not possess surface-to-air missiles capable of striking a plane taking off from Ankara."
He added that while Iran could theoretically strike a plane on the runway with a ballistic missile, "that possibility seems very low."
However, he speculated that U.S. officials may have worried about terrorist-style attacks utilizing Chinese- or Russian-made anti-aircraft missiles.
The past administration of Bill Clinton carried out a similar operation, but at that time, the details were disclosed to the media, drawing further criticism toward the Trump administration's response.
According to the Washington Post, in March 2000, then-President Clinton executed an operation to conceal his actual aircraft for personal safety when moving to Islamabad, Pakistan, after visiting India.
White House officials briefed Susan Page, then-president of the White House Correspondents' Association (WHCA), in advance about the operation, informing her of the president's actual location and security measures for the accompanying reporters.
Page told the Washington Post, "They explained to me the special security procedures being taken, including the use of a decoy plane, due to the risks involved in flying there."
(Photo: AP, Yonhap News)
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