Posted on 11/21/2004 9:42:16 PM PST by Former Military Chick
SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 21 -- For President Bush, it must have been like going out without his wallet. He turned around and the presidential shadow -- his Secret Service agent -- was gone.
Moments later, Bush single-handedly rescued the agent from a boisterous scuffle between U.S. and Chilean security forces. The role reversal became the talk of an international economic summit that was studded with bizarre incidents in which diplomacy took a beating, in some cases, literally.
And in a final summit twist, Chilean authorities canceled an elaborate state dinner for 200 that had been planned for Sunday night as the summit's climax after President Ricardo Lagos would not agree to the Secret Service requirement that his guests pass through metal detectors. The event was downgraded to a small working dinner for the two presidents and their staffs.
The incident involving the bodyguard Saturday evening began when Nick Trotta, the number two agent on Bush's security detail, opened the door of a black Cadillac limousine for the president and first lady Laura Bush when they arrived at a former train station that was the site of the closing dinner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC) forum.
Bush and the first lady walked into the beaux-arts banquet hall, and Chilean officers, who appeared to be waiting for the moment, stepped in front of Trotta, blocking him from entering.
U.S. officials said Chilean police had been chafing for a week about a demand by Secret Service agents that they control the president's space, even when he was on sovereign turf. Now, it was payback time.
In the fracas that ensued, amid a flurry of half nelsons, one Secret Service agent wound up jammed against a wall. "You're not stopping me! You're not stopping me!
(Excerpt) Read more at washingtonpost.com ...
---"Chilean journalists were critical of Bush's actions. Marcelo Romero, a reporter Santiago's newspaper La Cuarta, said: "All of us journalists agree that President Bush looked like a cowboy. It was total breach of protocol. I've seen a lot of John Wayne movies, and President Bush was definitely acting like a cowboy." ---
Maybe us "cowboys" should just visit some other South American country this winter. Perhaps, oh let's say, Argentina, might be more friendly!
Bring back Pinochet.
Sheesh it's worse than the NBA.
Gosh, he says that as if it weren't a Good Thing. All my childhood heroes were Cowboys. (Well except for Zorro and the Swamp Fox. :) )
Chili wanted Bush to look like a jerk and did what they knew would cause a ruckus.
Marcelo cool your chiles man. I am glad you noticed the difference. You wished you were in our side huh? We serve 1 lb steaks not fish?
But he showed respect to his security detail.
Unlike...
DK
I agree. This was probably for internal consumption, to show the lefties El Presidente won't be pushed around by the gringos.
First I've read this: the Chileans were also involved in a shoving match with Chinese bodyguards accompanying Chinese President Hu Jintao. The Chileans won that round:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2004/11/22/wchile22.xml&sSheet=/news/2004/11/22/ixhome.html
"... Mr Bush waded into a crowd of Chilean security personnel to rescue his own chief bodyguard, Nick Trotta, who was being prevented from following his boss into a dinner for Asia-Pacific leaders, part of an Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (Apec) summit that preceded yesterday's brief state visit.
Mr Bush, hearing Mr Trotta's frantic protests, reached over two lines of people to grab him by the lapel, telling startled Chilean security: "He's with me". Mr Bush then walked into the dinner, shaking his head in disbelief, and straightening his right shirt cuff.
Chilean guards were also involved in a shoving match with Chinese bodyguards accompanying President Hu Jintao at the Apec summit, successfully preventing the Chinese guards from following their head of state into a meeting with Mr Lagos."
---Mr Bush, hearing Mr Trotta's frantic protests, reached over two lines of people to grab him by the lapel, telling startled Chilean security: "He's with me". Mr Bush then walked into the dinner, shaking his head in disbelief, and straightening his right shirt cuff. ---
That's my favorite part!
Chilean guards were also involved in a shoving match with Chinese bodyguards accompanying President Hu Jintao at the Apec summit, successfully preventing the Chinese guards from following their head of state into a meeting with Mr Lagos."
That's the difference between us and them. We LOVE our President and they tolerate their Premier.
GREAT work Mr. President!!
God Love Ya!
Notice the cheap shot by Mike Allen, scumbag reporter for the WP. Even when the President does something good out of loyalty to his SS detail the news media schmucks try to paint him in a bad light.
That is a great link because you can see the Chilean's intentionally separate the SS guy from the President.
First, as generally happens, I don’t believe this extraordinary event is being treated as seriously as it should be by the mainstream media. Although I have had little chance to keep track of news events over the weekend, I am willing to bet that there has been more coverage of the interminable Scott Peterson murder case and the brawl at the Pistons/Pacers basketball game than there has been of this odd, and highly suspicious security breach that involved a man entrusted with protecting the President of the United States. This incident, just as the human atrocities that are currently being perpetrated and uncovered (mutilated bodies, recent victims, torture chambers …) in Iraq, need to be burned into our national consciousness. And both are being artfully side-stepped, and covered almost as an obligatory afterthought.
If my assumption is correct, I’m not surprised at the relative invisibility of this story in the mainstream media, and hope (and suspect) that the administration and its security/intelligence forces are viewing the incident much more seriously than the media are.
President Bush is not beloved in Chile -- or anywhere else other than in red-state (and much of blue-state) America for that matter. Such is often the fate of leaders who act in the name of liberty and human dignity, when the rest of the world is noncommital, at best, about both. Demonstrations against the war in Iraq are commonplace in Chile. The President is despised by terrorist organizations worldwide, most of which have active, spiderlike cells all over the west. We all need to realize that this ‘odd’ incident may well have represented step one in a possible assassination attempt. And any American who has not had that instinctual thought cross his mind over the last twenty-four hours is not as cognizant as he needs to be of the ever-present threat, pervasiveness, and immoral, obsessive nature of the international terrorist ‘crusade’.
The other thing that immediately struck me when I saw the video of the President being separated from his security agent, and then backtracking to retrieve him, is that this President, for all his domestic policy shortcomings, is a genuine leader. He reacted completely instinctually, as a leader so often must. And his instincts revealed courage, a take-charge mindset, loyalty to those entrusted with his protection, and deep strength of character. In the nearly four years since this man has been my President, including his magnificent leadership immediately after the attack of 9/11, his impressive handling of the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and the forbearance he showed during the recent vicious campaign, I have been most impressed by this one small incident. There was no time to reflect, no time to consult, no time to debate, no time to delegate responsibility. This potential crisis required an instantaneous response, and President Bush responded in the way I would want my President to respond. I daresay that no one since Ronald Reagan would have handled the situation as courageously, or as skillfully.
I used to be lukewarm in my support of our President, and I still disagree with him on a number of extremely important issues. But, over the past year and a half, where matters of the most urgency are concerned, he has shown himself to be a giant among men. And the taller he grows, the more those (both foreign and domestic) who are ‘stature challenged’ are going to be attempting to place him in their crosshairs. He himself may well have foiled the first stage of just such an attempt on Saturday.
~ joanie
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