Debbie Schlussel: Even the Air Force Was Fooled by Ecko "Air Force One"
Some liberal websites attacked me for asking whether hip-hop designer Marc Ecko's video--of him graffiti-ing ("tagging") Air Force One--was for real.
But I was not the only one who asked whether it was the real thing. As AP reports, even top brass at the U.S. Air Force were doing a double take:
A startling Internet video that shows someone spraying graffiti on President Bush's jet looked so authentic that the Air Force wasn't immediately certain whether the plane had been targeted. . . ."We're looking at it, too," said Lt. Col. Bruce Alexander, a spokesman for the Air Mobility Command's 89th Airlift Wing, which operates Air Force One. "It looks very real."
Alexander later confirmed that no such spray-painting had occurred.
In fact, the plane looked so real, it was a hoax only a gazillionaire and punk, like Marc Ecko could afford to pull off. AP reports that Gecko rented a jumbo jet that looked like Air Force One and had it painted that way:
The pranksters responsible for the grainy, two-minute Web video - employed by a New York fashion company - revealed Friday how they pulled it off: a rented 747 in California painted to look almost exactly like Air Force One. . . .Ecko acknowledged Friday that his company had rented a 747 cargo jet at San Bernardino's airport and covertly painted one side to look like Air Force One. Employees signed secrecy agreements and worked inside a giant hangar until the night the video was made. Ecko declined to say how much the stunt cost.
"It's not cheap," he said. "You have to be rich."
But if a rich hip-hop prankster could make a mock Air Force One that can fool the Air Force, can't the terrorists do the same for a more nefarious purpose?
Posted by Debbie on April 24, 2006 12:48 PM to Debbie Schlussel