I read the article. But that place was CRAWLING with SS agents I will guarantee you. They shook down every inch of that place hours before the arrival and were there at numerous strategic locations along the President's path from the limo to the banquet hall. These guys aren't palookas.
I don't mean to be surly with you, but I guarantee you that by midnight CST this is going to transition into an assasination attempt that should bring Bush immediately home, and by 1 am the border wedgies will be here tying this Chilean outrage into some byproduct of illegal Hispanic immigration.
The initial takes on this event were the right ones. Now all the paranoics are going to show up to escalate the outrage and danger.
I see your point and I agree this should not be blown out of proportion.
What is disturbing is this -
This is a foreign country. Not our "home turf".
And the President was easily and very quickly separated from all of his guards. These Latin nations have a tradition of violent attacks on heads of state. They know how to do it.
And the SS let itself be separated, neutralized, and distracted.
Watch the video. The huge crowd of photogs, military, and obvious hangers on should NEVER have been allowed near GWB as he gets out of his limo. His head of detail should have stopped the exit from the limo when he SAW that mess and made them use another entrance.
What a disaster - just barely avoided.
LOL, great term. I'm gonna have to steal it...
And so they were. The President however was inside the hall when this CF started.
The Chileans are saying the the Secret Service folks were supposed to go in the side door, the front being reserved for the principals involved in the conference. You would think there would be Secret Service already inside, but some countries are pretty hinky about armed foreigners in their country. Like us for instance, so they may have only allowed the armed detail inside when the President was inside.