EXPERIENCES don't get any more surreal than standing in a phone box outside the Pentagon, questioning its senior spokesman on missile defence.

I wasn't allowed in and my interviewee, Lieutenant-Colonel Rick Lehner, wasn't allowed out - for "security reasons".

I had decided to take the opportunity to quiz America's military top brass about the controversial Son of Star Wars missile project after booking a five-day break to Washington.

Why not take our Evening Press campaign to a five-star General face-to-face? Admittedly phone-to-phone to a Lieutenant-Colonel was the best I could do, but I wasn't complaining.

President Bush had failed to reply to the two letters I had sent him from our Walmgate offices.

One of my first ports of call after landing in the capital was to the Washington Foreign Press Center, where I vaguely knew a correspondent through a friend of a friend. After buttering him up with a cold beer and the biggest cheeseburger in the world, he supplied me with the necessary contacts.

"The White House is out of the question," he said, "but you may get into the Pentagon." I could live with that.

Between visits to Washington's brilliant tourist sites, I eventually spoke to the officer from the Pentagon call box, via various other important-sounding people.

"Can you reassure the people of North Yorkshire that your missile defence programme ...."

I had plenty of change.

Updated: 11:17 Tuesday, February 26, 2002