WH Press Pool's Challenges in Covering President Obama in Iraq

Members of the pool, the members of which rotate more-or-less daily, are charged with covering the president's every move and reporting back to the larger media community. My job was to represent all five television networks. Our video was to be shared for all events that President Obama participated in that day.

For one thing, the sun was in the wrong place as I looked out the window. Several of us speculated that we were heading to Iraq, but nothing had been officially confirmed to us. The onboard TV monitor in our cabin normally shows a map of where we are, but this had been disabled for security purposes.

After about 90 minutes we took a sharp turn and it began clear that we were now heading south. We most certainly had to be headed to Iraq, we realized. We saw some major rivers below. Could one be the Tigris or perhaps the Euphrates?

Our approach to Baghdad airport was rather steep. I assumed this unusual landing technique was for security reasons as it was daylight and Air Force One is rather visible in its markings compared with civilian and military aircraft.

On the ground, with the embargo broken, I immediately informed the U.S. networks we had made a "surprise" landing in Baghdad. For the next four hours or so we accompanied the President to a number of events at Camp Victory. This was the old Aw Faw Palace once occupied by Saddam Hussein, now taken over by the U.S. military.

President Obama then met with the Iraqi leadership in the residence of General Odierno at Camp Victory. The Iraqis had to be brought to Camp Victory as we could not fly to them in the so called "Green Zone" of Baghdad.

One of the more challenging aspects of this short visit was communicating with the outside world. I normally send out notes of what the president is saying and what he is doing in real time via email on my Blackberry.

But cell signals are intermittent at best in Camp Victory. I suspected there may have been signal jamming devices in place for security during our visit. We also tried using a satellite phone. When you use a satellite phone you have to be in an open sky environment and stand still. We were often in thick walled marble palace locations and or on the move so this technology was of limited value. And it was nearly impossible to get any calls out on cell phones.

The experience reminded me just how immediate the spread of news has become and how powerless I felt without my normal communication devices working.

The whole visit to Iraq only lasted about four hours. It was a fascinating end to a marathon trip that left those of us lucky enough to be a part of it both exhausted and exhilarated.