00:00Turkey last month as part of an elaborate ruse in response to a possible Iranian attack threat.
00:04The US president boarded Air Force One in full view of the TV cameras before then being transported
00:10to a different presidential aircraft while being stowed away in a catering truck. But White House
00:16staff, the flight crew and a host of journalists remained on board the original aircraft completely
00:21unaware that the president had been smuggled off, leaving them on a plane potentially that
00:26was still under threat. Let's talk to this now, talk about this now with former Secret Service
00:32officer under President Bush and Obama, Barry Donadio. Barry, welcome to the programme.
00:38Thank you for having me.
00:39What did you make of this story when you heard it today? Did it ring true with you?
00:44Well, quite an interesting story. I'm not quite certain if it's true. I mean, it's coming out of
00:49the New York Times. It's an anti-Trump paper. So look, let's speak to the Secret Service itself and
00:58the means that they go through to protect the president. They use all technological, all method
01:04and methodologies, all intelligence, even deception to protect the president. So this would be nothing
01:12new. Even in the 1860s, there was deception used to protect President Abe Lincoln. It would not
01:18surprise me if something like this could occur. In this case, I'm not quite certain. What I am certain
01:27of, if it's true and it was leaked, whoever leaked it will probably get criminally charged because that
01:34would be highly top secret information, as you could imagine, if they went through such lengths to do
01:41that. The other thing that this event points to is the severity of the threat from Iran, the Iranian
01:48regime. It is being reported that somebody in the Iranian parliament is voicing that there is a hundred
01:55million dollar bounty on the president's head. And that, too, would make sense to me on what's going on after
02:05the U.S. military strikes took out their general, Soleimani, as well as the supreme leader of Iran.
02:12That's not going to go untouched. They're going to reply in some way. That's not going to be negotiated
02:21away, in my opinion. We'll talk about the fact that journalists and other members of his team were
02:28left on the original plane first. But I'll ask this question, although I think I know the answer. Can you
02:32tell us about any similar or sneaky-beaky business that you were involved in with President Bush and
02:38Obama? I only wish I could. I only wish I could. But what I can say to the first point
02:45is those aircraft
02:48have countermeasures. You know, the full might of the U.S. Air Force, the Secret Service. And let's not
02:55forget the Turks are a very great ally, native ally of the United States. So every countermeasure
03:02from the Turkish military, Turkish intelligence services, the Americans, and any other allies in
03:09the region are all combining forces to protect the leader of the free world, which is President Trump.
03:15Although, as I understand it, the reason the initial switch took place is because he had this jet that
03:20was donated from Qatar, but it didn't have the anti-attack weaponry that the original Air Force
03:26One had. So he was going to be moved onto that, or he was moved. And then he actually ended
03:30up on a
03:31third jet, which is usually used for carrying the Vice President. So it was kind of a double decoy
03:35in a way. What do you make, if it did happen, what do you make of the fact that there
03:40was the
03:41entirety of the press corps and other members of his team left on the original jet, which was
03:48potentially a target? Well, I think the President's plane is always potentially a target. And those that
03:59are on it know that, especially when we're at war with Iran. You're in the Middle East, you're in
04:08Turkey. I think people understand that if they're on that plane, they understand the dangers. So I
04:15would say that. I would also say that plane is not left unprotected. If the story, let's just pretend
04:20everything that's being reported is true. It's not like that plane is unprotected. You still have
04:26U.S. military flying that plane, and they certainly don't want to be shot down, for instance. So I would
04:33say the plane is protected. If the President was not on it, and a decision was made to have him
04:39fly
04:40on another plane, it could also have been having nothing to do with an Iranian threat at all. It
04:45could have been something else that we don't know. I guess the point, and I do take the point that
04:49when
04:50you're in a certain job doing a certain thing, that there is an expectation of risk. But when we talk
04:55about the press on board, for instance, this was a NATO summit. It wasn't flying into an actual
05:02war zone. And also, if there was a credible threat, shouldn't the journalists and other
05:06people on that plane have been given an opportunity to decide whether they want to fly on that plane or
05:12not? I mean, why wouldn't you tell them that there is a potential threat?
05:17Yeah, that I don't have an answer for. If, again, yeah, I mean, who can defend that? Yeah,
05:22of course, if I were a journalist on that plane, I would want to know. Yes, I would agree with
05:27you.
05:27I would also say, look, if I'm a journalist, and I become a war correspondent, which essentially,
05:33the U.S. is at war with Iran, whether anybody says it or not, there is active military operations
05:40going against each other, right? And I decide to get on Air Force One and fly to Turkey,
05:46which borders Iran, I have to come up with the conclusion that there is a certain amount of
05:52risk there, whether I'm on Air Force One, a civilian plane, whatever example you want to use. So I'm
06:00pretty sure the members of the White House press corps that I know understand that, that, you know,
06:08if they go do that, there is risk, no matter who you're with, where you're flying or what you're
06:12doing, there is a certain risk. So, but I understand your point too, and your point is valid.
06:20And if I could ask you a point about, drawing on your experience, Barry, what would your reaction be
06:27if this had, if this got out under your watch? I mean, how, what would your reaction be? What would
06:33the Secret Service's reaction be to this? What would the President's reaction be to this? Because
06:37presumably publicizing security measures like this could have an impact on future operations.
06:43Right. So I'm, even now, right, I've been out of the Secret Service since 2010, and I'm still bound
06:51by anything I say. I can, you know, if I were to say something, the specific operations and security
06:57measures at a White House or the President, I could very well end up in a jail cell, right? So,
07:02which that behooves me to think that somebody, if all this is true, they're actually going to the
07:08press. Or maybe the press somehow overheard this, and somebody had loose lips. And that's a possibility
07:13too. But I'm reasonably certain the Trump administration is probably conducting an investigation
07:18on this to get to the bottom of it. Now, as far as the President, look, the Secret Service's job
07:24is to protect the President of the United States in all domains. If he decides to go to Turkey,
07:31and that is literally on the border of a war zone, it is the job of the Secret Service to
07:38make him safe
07:39and secure, okay? And the President decides where to go. The Secret Service doesn't necessarily tell
07:46him where to go. Let's use the example when he visited Kim Jong-un on the border of North Korea,
07:53right? That is a very, very dangerous place. I'm certain that they probably advised him
07:58not to go there. He went there. It was a success. He should get a Nobel Peace Prize for it.
08:04But ultimately, it was the job of the Secret Service to make sure that he was safe, secure,
08:09have a plan, have a means of egress, have some idea of what's going on with security measures,
08:16and be able to protect him to the level of President, which is what they've done successfully.
08:21So I imagine the same thing happened in Turkey.
08:24Okay. Barry, we'll leave it there. But it's been a really fascinating insight. Thank you very much.
08:27Take care. That's for me.
