The administration issued what was later revealed to be a fake presidential schedule, having the president and vice president in meetings throughout the day at the White House.
Early Tuesday morning, an Afghan official told CNN that the palace staff in Kabul was instructed to go home at noon local time, 3:30 a.m. ET, sparking rumors of a VIP visit to the city.
But, at 9:32 a.m, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul announced via Twitter:
@USEmbassyKabul "Reports that President Obama is in Kabul are false."
"Where is Obama," read a headline on The Drudge Report.
"We landed at Bagram Airfield at 1020p local and got onto Chinook helicopters that were waiting with rotors spinning," reported pool producer Richard Coolidge of ABC News. "The short flight to Kabul was also in blackout -- no use of any flashlights or even phones due to their backlit screens. Pilots and gunners used night vision goggles."
Total time on the ground was six hours and five minutes.
Afghanistan is still a war zone, thus the use of ground transportation is off limits.