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White House operators have special phone numbers for some world leaders. They might use the cell-phone number of a leader's aide in one place, and call the number for a situation room in another. In some cases, they could go through the main switchboards like everybody else.

Some leader-to-leader calls apparently do arrive via the listed phone numbers. On Jan. 27, Jacques Chirac received a call from a radio DJ in Quebec who had convinced the French operators that he was Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper. According to the DJ, he called Chirac's office and was told that the president would call him back. Chirac did so half an hour later.

World leaders have to put up with prank calls all the time. As a general practice, one leader's staff members will arrange to call back the staff members of another. (If someone claiming to be from the White House called Buckingham Palace, for example, the queen's staff could call the White House back to confirm.)

Sometimes a legitimate call from a world leader doesn't go through. Following the Soviet coup in 1991, newspapers reported that President Bush made at least two attempts to check in with Mikhail Gorbachev by phone. The operator at the Kremlin told the one at the White House that Gorby wasn't available.

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