Posted on 11/21/2004 3:50:43 AM PST by crushelits
Bush Pulls Top Security Agent From Fracas
SANTIAGO, Chile (AP) - President Bush stepped into the middle of a confrontation and pulled his lead Secret Service
agent away from Chilean security officials who barred his bodyguards from entering an elegant dinner for 21 world
leaders Saturday night. Continues...
Ciao anche a te, paisa'.
Are you italian?
From this morning's powerlineblog.com
Dafydd ab Hugh writes:
Judging from your comments, I don't think you guys realize the seriousness of what happened in Chile. Let me put it into perspective: the president has been marked for death by hundreds of terrorist groups; he is in a foreign country, one where there have been near contintuous riots against America and against him, personally, over the Iraq War; as he's walking into a banquet hall, the local police intentionally cut him off from his security detail.
If the first thought that popped into your mind when you heard about that was not "assassination," then your mind is still laboring in a pre-9/11 world.
It's entirely possible that rather than "rescuing" his detained Secret Service detail, Bush in fact saved his own life. If there was a plan, if this wasn't just a random act of rudeness by the Chilean police (why would they do that?), then Bush's quick thinking may have forced the would-be attackers to abort the operation.
This little incident needs a thorough and complete investigation by Chile, as well as by the CIA. The incident the next day -- where the Bush team demanded everyone at the next banquet pass through metal detectors -- shows that they had the same thought I did (and we all should have had); the fact that Chile refused, even to the point of scuttling the party, is troubling, to say the least.
There are a lot of people out there who want to see George W. Bush dead; alas, there are a lot of heads of state who would not shed a tear. In this day and age, when armed local cops intentionally cut the president off from his security detail, that should be taken as no less a violent act that when an anti-aircraft missile battery "paints" an American plane with fire-control radar.
Hmm...
Nope,just live(sometimes) in a city known for its French Ancestry,run by Italians .
No way he is or looks middle eastern.
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That's what I thought too. I think the script with some of the pictures is incorrect.
I for one, am glad he is on to a more friendly nation down there now. Of course, coming home to our roiling hive of leftists could be just as dangerous.
uh... you? You are presuming to know the secret service plan? The chilean guard's plan? Bush's?
Seems to me the prez made a good move. He put himself close to his protection- which is where he always belongs. Also, if this was a plot to seperate him from his guy and get him out in the open room alone, he foiled that pretty well also. Do you think Bush had a lot more support out side that room than in it?
bump
Sheesh! What's got your panties in a bunch? I'm not trashing the President. I was simply making the point that someone or something got screwed up. You're not telling me that SS policy is to have the President step into the middle of a ruckus. Even though all worked out ok, you can be sure they don't want the President doing that. Don't get me wrong -- I thought it was great - - "don't mess with us!" But I suspect the SS weren't all that thrilled.
Thanks for that link. It's the first time I've seen - or heard it- without a Japanese or Spanish voice over. ;-)
The resolution of this video is great. And I can see from the beginning how the bodyguard was walking in right behind President Bush but the Chilean guards immediately and deliberately blocked him.
I'll bet the bodyguard's adrenalin was really pumping and it took him some time to calm down.
I wish I could learn what the President and the SS discussed amongst themselves in private once they got back on the plane.
I notice from this photo that the President does not appear to be wearing body armor. He's looking slim and trim here. When he has the armor on he looks big shouldered and kind of chunky.
I got this from World Net Daily (http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=41664):
"[Dr. Jack] Wheeler explains that Chilean officials attempted to block Secret Service agent Nick Trotta from protecting the president.
Writes Wheeler: "The attempt was a clear double-cross, because all security arrangements are made and agreed upon for the POTUS (President of the United States) between the Secret Service and host country security well in advance and etched in stone. The Chilean police knew and agreed that Trotta would be with the president, yet they blocked him in a complete surprise.
"Far worse than this was Chilean President Lagos' refusal to have guests at a State Dinner go through a metal detector. No one attends a function with the POTUS, either here in the U.S. or anywhere in the world, without going through a metal detector, and this was agreed to way beforehand in Santiago. At the last moment, Lagos refuses then cancels the dinner when the Secret Service wont budge."
Available only to subscribers of To the Point, Wheeler's piece, entitled "Chavez in Chile," goes on to explain the connection to Chavez.
"Ricardo Lagos is a left-wing anti-American socialist whose hero is Salvador Allende, who almost turned Chile over to the Soviets, and a great friend of Hugo Chavez," Wheeler writes. "Was there a plan to slip a firearm into this dinner in Santiago and assassinate GW? No one in Washington is sure but there is a very frightened and angry buzz of worry that there might have been."
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