A former White House correspondent has revealed details of a secret briefing she received 26 years ago about an elaborate security operation used to protect President Bill Clinton during a trip to Pakistan — an operation bearing similarities to the aircraft deception used to protect President Donald Trump from an Iranian assassination threat in Turkey last month.

Susan Page, who was president of the White House Correspondents’ Association at the time, said Clinton administration security and communications officials privately briefed her ahead of the president’s March 2000 flight from India to Pakistan, according to The Washington Post.

The security plan involved sending a decoy aircraft into Islamabad in full view of the media while Clinton secretly arrived aboard a separate, unmarked plane. The decoy reportedly even carried someone posing as the president.

Page said she was informed in advance because administration officials recognized that the security threat potentially endangered not only Clinton but also members of the press traveling with him.

The disclosure comes amid criticism from some White House journalists over the Trump administration’s handling of a similar — but highly secretive — operation during the president’s visit to Turkey last month.

Trump faced a specific Iranian assassination threat during the July 8 NATO summit in Ankara, prompting U.S. security officials to secretly change the aircraft that would carry him out of the country.

Trump was seen by television cameras boarding the Boeing 747 that had previously served as the presidential aircraft. Minutes later, however, he was secretly removed through a door on the opposite side of the plane and concealed inside a catering truck.

The president was then transferred to a smaller C-32A aircraft operating under a secret call sign and without normal identifying signals.

The original presidential aircraft subsequently departed Turkey with members of the White House press corps and some administration personnel still aboard. Those passengers were reportedly unaware that Trump was not on the aircraft, which was being used as a decoy to conceal his actual location.

The operation followed intelligence indicating that Iran was plotting to target Trump. U.S. officials reportedly learned of a specific threat involving a possible surface-to-air missile attack against the presidential aircraft, while a man carrying what appeared to be a shoulder-fired missile was spotted near the NATO summit.

American intelligence also determined that the Iranians knew where Trump was staying in Ankara, including the specific floor of the building.

Some White House journalists have argued that, unlike the Clinton administration’s handling of the 2000 Pakistan operation, the Trump White House left reporters uninformed despite the security threat that prompted the deception.

Journalist and historian Garrett Graff described the incident as crossing a “new Rubicon,” arguing that the White House deliberately misrepresented the president’s location while journalists remained aboard an aircraft being used as a decoy.

The newly disclosed Clinton-era briefing demonstrates that presidential aircraft deception has been used before in response to serious security threats, though the handling of the accompanying press corps differed significantly between the two operations.

(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)