Mum’s the word on Bush’s secret mission

The president of the United States, wearing a beat-up work coat, jeans, cowboy boots and a baseball cap pulled down over his face, left his ranch Wednesday night and climbed into an unmarked car with tinted windows.

He then secretly commuted to a Texas airport, impeded for the first time in three years by traffic lights and stop signs.

President Bush’s destination: Baghdad. Not even the Secret Service agents who guard his ranch in Crawford knew their ward had slipped away undetected.

“If you were sitting outside the ranch waiting for the president, you would not have known the president had just left,” White House communications director Dan Bartlett said.

The trip to the Texas State Technical College airstrip, where Air Force One is stowed during such home visits, normally takes less than 20 minutes in a presidential motorcade. This time it took 45.

Mr. Bush joked during the drive about battling “Thanksgiving traffic” for the first time since taking office.

“There were plenty of vehicles out there,” Mr. Bush recounted later, talking with reporters aboard Air Force One on his way home from Baghdad.

At the airport on his way out, the president pulled down his cap even further to keep from being recognized by a guard at the gate.

“Pulled ‘er down,” he recalled.

National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice, along for the ride, also wore a baseball cap.

“We looked like a normal couple,” Mr. Bush said.

The president’s parents, former President George Bush and his wife, Barbara, didn’t know about their son’s trip until after they arrived at the ranch for Thanksgiving dinner yesterday morning.

By that time, the president was close to Baghdad. First lady Laura Bush, who knew about the secret plans, found out Wednesday night that the trip was on. Their two daughters were told just hours before he left. They loved the idea, he said.

At the airport, Mr. Bush climbed up the plane’s back stairs — normally used only by the press and Secret Service agents. White House staff had concocted a cover story: The plane was going back to Washington for maintenance. With the Bushes expected to spend the holiday weekend at the ranch, few suspicions were raised.

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