AL-ASAD AIR BASE - President George W. Bush, bound on a secret trip to Iraq, slipped out of a side door at the White House Sunday roughly 18 hours before he had been set to leave for Australia, aides said.
Bush shed his usual motorcade, with its howling sirens and flashing lights, as well as the helicopter that usually ferries him to Andrews Air Force Base, taking just a two-car train to the base that is home to his Air Force One airplane.
With shades drawn, the blue-and-white liveried aircraft pushed back at 7:47 pm, an hour after a handful of reporters and staff had boarded in near-total secrecy, and took off for Iraq at 8:05 pm.
Planning for the embattled president's six-hour stay in Iraq began "five or six weeks ago" as Bush sought a way to save his beleaguered war strategy, said White House National Security Adviser Stephen Hadley.
Aides said the US president would spend roughly six hours on the ground and make a short speech to troops at this base in restive Anbar province, then head for Australia and arrive in Sydney on Tuesday as scheduled.
Bush spokeswoman Dana Perino said the president's trip, his third secret visit since the March 2003 invasion, was shrouded in secrecy even at the White House, where some aides did not find out until well after he had landed.
Reporters in the small "pool" that accompanies him everywhere were called over the weekend for face-to-face discussions with Perino or national security spokesman Gordon Johndroe to make arrangements for the visit.
Journalists could only tell their spouses and one editor at their news organization -- and not by cell phone -- as part of the cloak-and-dagger logistics, one reporter in the pool said in an official pool report.
Bush's secret service bodyguards took their luggage and seized their computers and other electronics, including telephones and handheld electronic mail devices, the reporter said.
Roughly thirty minutes into the flight, reporters were allowed to retrieve their computers and overnight bags, but were asked to disable the wireless function while in flight on the off chance that they could be tracked, he said.
The Secret Service returned the mobile phones and other electronics about a half-hour before Bush landed.
Reporters not in the pool learned of the trip shortly before their chartered plane landed in Honolulu, Hawaii, as Bush spokesman Scott Stanzel proclaimed over the public address that "the president is in Iraq."
"It's not news-free today," Stanzel joked. "The president has just arrived at Asad Air Base in Anbar province."
Bush faces an uphill fight centered on a critical progress report on the war, to be delivered next week by the US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus, and the US ambassador in Baghdad, Ryan Crocker.
The visit served to bring an element of drama to the president's battle with lawmakers looking to bring the curtain down on the US involvement in Iraq amid sustained bloody violence and sluggish efforts at forging national unity.
Bush still plans to leave Sydney, where he will attend the Asia-Pacific Economic (APEC) forum, early in order to be back in time for the Iraq report, aides said.
09/03/2007 14:54 GMT