NYC Flyby Photos & Report: What’s Taking So Long?

It’s been 10 days since an Air Force One backup and an accompanying Air Force fighter plane buzzed lower Manhattan frightening thousands and costing the taxpayers $300,000 plus.

Yet the Obama White House still hasn’t issued a report explaining the event, identified who was on board the 747 AF 1 backup, explained why an AF fighter was accompanying it, or released the photos taken of the two planes during what we’re being told was a “publicity event.”

It all stinks, doesn’t it?

From Michelle Malkin:White House press secretary Robert Gibbs stated at today’s press briefing that the Obama administration has reversed itself and will release “a photo” of the Scare Force One flyover.

Still does not satisfy even a minimum level of public disclosure. And no way in hell I’m withdrawing my FOIA requests.

More: Gibbs says its “review” of the incident will be concluded this week.

Bold prediction: Like all of Obama’s self-initiated reviews, this one will exonerate the White House of any wrongdoing or taxpayer malfeasance.

Just another shining moment in the short history of the presidency with the Greatest Transparency Ever.Keep checking in with Malkin. She won’t let Team Obama fob her off.

ABC News has just posted a lengthy story that doesn’t add anything to what we already know.

But it does include a link to photos viewers took of the flyby and sent to ABC.

Checkout photo #6 in which you can see the fighter’s tail is red.

On the thread of this post commenter Mike Williams explains why the Obama White House needs to explain that red tail even as the grade “A” Obama flacks in the WH press corps remain silent on the matter:

Blogger Spook86 at "In from the Cold" claims that the F-16s were from the Alabama ANG, and that at least one of them had the distinctive red tail markings of the WWII Tuskegee Airmen. Others have linked this to an upcoming George Lucas movie on the Tuskegee Airmen, Lucas being a big Obama supporter.

That said, if one of the F-16s was a B-model (which I've flown in), then a photographer could have been in the rear seat. But why use F-16s from Alabama? (And why use F-16s at all for that matter?)

Plus if the crews were all Air Force, why keep it secret from the public, especially if you knew beforehand that the flyby might scare people on the ground?

And finally, since the pics were reportedly PR shots, how come they're suddenly classified? This is after all the same Obama who released the so-called torture memos and is making public more prisoner abuse pictures a la Abu Ghraib.

Full disclosure: Mike Williams and I agree One Spook’s post says the AF has confirmed the fighter was from the Alabama ANG, but neither of us have been able to find such a confirmation. I’ve let a comment at One Spook asking for a link and will keep you posted.

With that said, the questions Mike Williams raises are important ones a WH report should answer. They are also ones Obama's MSM in the tank corp would be pursuing if they involved President Bush and his White House.

Final comment: Ten days is an awfully long time to go without releasing “publicity photos,” a passenger list and a report on the flyby.

The delay brings to mind that old political truism: a cover-up always takes time.