Washington: The ongoing Chilean mine
rescue is a tremendous inspirational story, believes US
President Barack Obama, who watched live the great rescue
operation, as a third of the 33 miners trapped below ground
for weeks savoured their first tastes of freedom on Wednesday.
"I talked to him (Obama) about this, this morning.
He was watching last night. I asked him what he was thinking
about when he watched it. He said obviously this was a
tremendously inspirational story, a story with a happy
ending," the White House Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, told
reporters at a press gaggle.
"As a parent, to watch a miner's son waiting for him
to come out of a mine that he'd been trapped in for almost 70
days, when people for a long time thought they might be lost,
was tremendously inspirational," Gibbs said when asked about
Obama's reaction to the rescue operation currently underway in
Chile.
"Watching people come together to put their best
effort forward to save these miners was inspiring. We've had
companies in the United States that have assisted the
government of Chile in this effort. We have had government
agencies like NASA who have also been involved," he said.
The President is enormously proud of their efforts,
of the efforts of the government of Chile, and hopefully will
be in contact with some of the CEOs of those companies and the
government shortly, Gibbs said.
The White House Press Secretary said US President
would be talking to the Chilean President soon on this.
More than a third of the 33 Chile miners trapped below
ground for weeks savoured their first tastes of freedom today,
rising from the depths to a hero's welcome.
Rescue workers had lifted 12 men to safety from the
underground caven which so nearly became their final resting
place, in an historic and complex operation carried off like
clockwork, without a hitch.
PTI
First Published: Thursday, October 14, 2010, 00:02