The Untold U2 Spy Plane Story: The plan failed!

[shraby]

According to this, Bush DID try the U2 trick that was spoken of in the memo....

(snip)

First of all, what do we know about the January 31st White House meeting between Bush and Blair? We know that they discussed their doubts about being able to finding evidence of WMD, that they both agreed that the decision to go to war had already been made, that the targeted start date was March 10, and that the British were highly concerned about finding a valid legal basis to argue for war.

So what happened on March 11, 2003?


WASHINGTON -- The United States suspended U-2 surveillance flights over Iraq Tuesday after Iraq threatened two of the American spy planes, forcing them to abort their missions and return to base, senior U.S. officials said.
The officials stopped short of saying the Iraqis threatened to shoot down the aircraft.
A Pentagon official said the decision to end the mission was made "in the interest of safety."
In Baghdad, Iraqi officials said the aerial confrontation was a "technical mistake" resulting from a mistake on the part of U.N. weapons inspectors, who the Iraqis said have apologized to Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Hossam Mohammed Amin, the chief Iraqi liaison with U.N. weapons inspectors, told reporters that the second flight by the American U-2 had not been scheduled.
He said both flights took place Tuesday morning and it was the U.N. inspectors who ordered the two planes to leave Iraqi airspace.
Amin said the second plane's entry point was over the Iraqi-Saudi border and not from Kuwait, as has been the custom since the flights began last month.

<http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2006/4/1/182512/3999>

[TomInTib]

1. "it was the U.N. inspectors who ordered the two planes to leave "

Would that be because they were painted in UN colors?

[mtnester]

2. I must be tired, for the stupidest longest time I thought this thread was

about the band U2. I had to reread the first sentence of the second paragraph before I realized what U2 they were referring to.

Time for beddie by for me.

[shraby]

3. I fixed the title to be more

descriptive of what the article is about.

[BuyingThyme]

4. Matadorph has nailed it.

It went down, painted or not.

[Kagemusha]

5. I'm amazed it took three years for people to catch on.

I had no easy means of putting together sources for it but I knew just from memory that there'd been a U-2 incident that fit with the downing street memo stuff.

Not that anyone's gonna end up caring it seems.

[Mnemosyne]

6. .