This Internet video image provided by Marc Echo Enterprises shows the words 'Still Free' painted on what appears to be President Bush's jet. The plane, was a hoax, the pranksters responsible for the grainy, two-minute Web video _ a New York fashion company _ revealed Friday how they pulled it off: a rented 747 in San Bernardino, Calif. and painted to look almost exactly like Air Force One. (AP Photo/Marc Echo Enterprises)I've seen this picture on the blogosphere, where some graffiti artists supposedly spray painted Air Force One. This picture was quickly determined to be a hoax, but that hasn't stopped this urban legend from spreading. And now, I've learned that there is a video of Air Force One being tagged.
Here's the story from Yahoo News:
WASHINGTON - 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.
t was all a hoax. No one actually sprayed the slogan "Still Free" on the cowling of Air Force One.
Here's the video of the prank:
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.
"I wanted to do something culturally significant, wanted to create a real pop-culture moment," said Marc Ecko of Marc Ecko Enterprises. "It's this completely irreverent, over-the-top thing that could really never happen: this five-dollar can of paint putting a pimple on this Goliath."
The video shows hooded graffiti artists climbing barbed-wire fences and sneaking past guards with dogs to approach the jumbo jet. They spray-paint a slogan associated with free expression.
After the video began circulating on the Web on Tuesday, the Air Force checked to see whether the plane had been vandalized.
"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.
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."
I have to admit, this was a very slick prank. Very nice.
This is the link to a video of Marc Ecko explaining why he "tagged" the president's plane.
Looking at this prank, I can say that there is a political message here. President Bush promised in his 2000 presidential campaign to be a "uniter," and yet throughout his administration he has consistently divided this country among politically partisan, social, religious, and economic lines. He has imprisoned hundreds--perhaps thousands--of individuals in secret prisons in Iraq, Eastern Europe, and Afghanistan without any legal rights, or even a trial. President Bush and his PNAC neocons have made the U.S. into the world's foremost bully. These pranksters had created this video to show Bush and his neocons that the United States is a nation of rights and freedoms--something Bush can never take away, no matter how hard he is trying to convert the U.S. into a fascist dictatorship, or how many times he calls the Constitution a "god-damned piece of paper." This was also a message to the rest of the world, telling the world that half of the U.S. population doesn't support or believe in President Bush or his failed policies--they tagged the greatest symbol of presidential power that George Bush can use when he travels throughout the world. It is a message to the world saying, "Don't give up hope, for there are still some of us who are 'still free' of President Bush's neoconservative ideology."
The struggle for this country is not over yet.
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