White House spokesman Scott McClellan told CNN that in preparing for the speech, Navy officials on the carrier told Bush aides they wanted a "Mission Accomplished" banner, and the White House agreed to create it.
"We took care of the production of it," McClellan said. "We have people to do those things. But the Navy actually put it up."
The banner has been used by critics of the Bush administration as evidence of bravado and an unclear sense of how dangerous the postwar conflict in Iraq would be.
Assigning responsibility elsewhere, especially to the military, is not a typical move for the Bush administration and raised suspicions among critics.
Cmdr. Conrad Chun, a Navy spokesman, defended the president's assertion.
"The banner was a Navy idea, the ship's idea," Chun said.
"The banner signified the successful completion of the ship's deployment," he said, noting the Abraham Lincoln was deployed 290 days, longer than any other nuclear-powered aircraft carrier in history.
acxswitch on May 1st, 2024 at 18:39 UTC »
Any time you see a custom designed banner created by the government, you're being sold some bull shit.
EnamelKant on May 1st, 2024 at 19:15 UTC »
And nothing bad ever happened in the Middle East again.
non-number-name on May 1st, 2024 at 19:51 UTC »
-Dana Bash CNN Washington Bureau 29OCT2003
Thanks to u/roberttylerlee for providing the link.