Early Tuesday morning, a local Afghan news station tweeted that Obama landed in Afghanistan aboard Air Force One, according to Buzzfeed Politics.
The problem with the tweet? The journey was supposed to be kept secret for security reasons. If an enemy of the U.S. got ahold of Obama's itinerary, it could give them advance notice to set up some kind of attack on the president.
The tweet was first noticed in the American media by The Huffington Post's Joshua Hersh.
Is this right? RT @TOLOnews BREAKING: United States President Barack Obama has arrived in Kabul to meet Afghan President Hamid Karzai.— Joshua Hersh (@joshuahersh) May 1, 2012
The U.S. Embassy in Kabul quickly tweeted a denial of TOLO's report, while the White House reached out to members of the press to quell the rumors.
Reports that President Obama is in Kabul are false.— U.S. Embassy Kabul (@USEmbassyKabul) May 1, 2012
But Hersh kept on the story.
The whole is he or isn't he game continues! RT @Pressistan: All roads leading to Wazir akbar khan, US embassy blocked by police— Joshua Hersh (@joshuahersh) May 1, 2012
Eventually, The Associated Press broke the story: Obama did indeed land in Afghanistan on an unannounced visit.
BREAKING: President Obama in Afghanistan on an unannounced trip to sign agreement on US post-war role.— The Associated Press (@AP) May 1, 2012
The Afghan station that originally tweeted the report, TOLOnews, has since deleted that tweet and replaced it with a report that the original story was false.
Obama will address the nation from Afghanistan at 7:30 p.m. ET Tuesday. His speech can be watched live at WhiteHouse.gov.