Above the Law

Bush’s showy and controversial Thanksgiving Day flight to Baghdad has created a stir in Great Britain, where Air Force One — in its haste and demand for discretion — ignored international law:

    Of more concern, air traffic controllers in Britain are seething over the flight, in which the president’s 747, falsely identified as a Gulfstream, traveled through British airspace. Prospect, the controllers union in the United Kingdom, says the flight broke international regulations, posed a potential safety threat and exposed a weakness in the air defense system that could be exploited by terrorists.