Security at red alert for hopscotching Bush

WASHINGTON - US President George W. Bush crisscrossed the country under tight security and near total secrecy yesterday as the White House scrambled to protect him.

Flying at times with a fighter at each wingtip, Mr Bush's Air Force One aircraft took him from Florida to Air Force bases in Louisiana and Nebraska and on to Washington as the Government tried to keep him safe using combat troops, an armoured vehicle, an underground bunker and, above all, the element of surprise.

Mr Bush learned of the first aircraft to slam into the World Trade Center in a telephone call at a Sarasota elementary school and, minutes later, of the second plane to smash into the landmark when an aide whispered into his ear as he sat with a group of second-graders. His face turned grim.

Within minutes, the President appeared before television cameras describing the events as "an apparent terrorist" attack, and vowing to punish the perpetrators.

Mr Bush immediately headed to Air Force One but it soon became clear to reporters on board that the plane was not flying up the eastern seaboard to Washington, as roughly 20 minutes into the flight the Boeing 747 veered to the west.

White House aides, Air Force staff and Secret Service agents at the back of the plane said they did not know where it was headed.

About an hour and a half into the flight, a White House official, insisting that his remarks could not be reported to the public, said the destination was Barksdale Air Force Base, near Shreveport, Louisiana.

Determined to keep Mr Bush's whereabouts secret, the aide barred reporters from calling their news organisations and even from turning on their mobile phones to prevent anyone from tracing their signals and pinpointing Mr Bush's location.

White House spokesman Ari Fleischer later said Mr Bush had hopscotched from one airport to another "for obvious security reasons". The Secret Service had been constantly assessing data, including the crash of a fourth plane in the rough vicinity of the Camp David presidential retreat.

Even on the tarmac at Barksdale the White House took no chances, with soldiers in full battle gear with automatic weapons drawn surrounding the plane as it came to a stop.

After huddling with his aides, Mr Bush went to a windowless conference room, where airmen scurried to set up a podium and two American flags so he could give a second statement on the attacks. "Make no mistake, the US will hunt down and punish those responsible for these cowardly acts," he vowed.

Mr Bush then climbed into an armoured, camouflage-painted Humvee vehicle to drive back to Air Force One, which took off to a destination which the White House again refused to disclose.

An hour and a half later, he surfaced at Nebraska's Offutt Air Force Base, headquarters of the US Strategic Air Command, where Mr Bush went to an underground bunker for a teleconference with his national security team. That lasted just over an hour.

By late afternoon, the US Government decided it was safe for Mr Bush to return to the White House, where he arrived in the early evening and began work on the prime-time address, in which he promised to hunt down those responsible for the attacks.

- REUTERS

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