Gobble gobble-dygook

The Washington Post reports that

In the most widely published image from his Thanksgiving day trip to Baghdad, the beaming president is wearing an Army workout jacket and surrounded by soldiers as he cradles a huge platter laden with a golden-brown turkey. ...

But as a small sign of the many ways the White House maximized the impact of the 21/2-hour stop at the Baghdad airport, administration officials said yesterday that Bush picked up a decoration, not a serving plate.

So there's actually only one real turkey in that picture?

Footnote: The same article says the White House has revised its account of the supposed exchange between a British Airways pilot and Air Force One. Now they say it was actually between the BA pilot and an air traffic controller.

British Airways said it has been unable to confirm the new version. "We've looked into it," a spokeswoman said from London. "It didn't happen."

The Daily Mislead, "A daily chronicle of Bush administration distortion," has more on the whole business.

Update December 9: So does CounterSpin, which adds the important (but unsurprising) detail that the soldiers at the dinner were "pre-selected" by "their chain of command."

Another Update: The White House now has a third version of the mid-flight exchange, and this one just may check out. They now say it was between a non-BA pilot and an air traffic controller. The pilot asked if it was AF1 and the controller answered "Gulfstream V" because that was on the flight plan filed by the White House. That, however, still leaves the question of how that got translated into an exchange between the pilot of AF1 and a BA pilot complete with dramatic pauses and quick thinking by the American pilot.

One last thing: The White House is claiming that they assumed the other pilot was with British Airways because he spoke with a British accent. Just now the hell insular are these people?