As a veteram of several overseas Presidential visits, I know that every event a President attends is meticulously coordinated with the host country security services. This includes precisely who is allowed into secure areas where the President is. It's impossible to believe that the White House advance people and Secret Service did not agree with the Chilean authorities on which SS agents would be allowed into the event with the President. So the question in my mind is: what the heck happened? It's conceivable that some persons on the US side "violated" the agreement in some way and the Chileans were retaliating by denying access to SS agents. But I doubt it. In my experience, the US side has generally followed whatever agreed arrangements there were. I'd really like to know more about this; my guess is that several senior heads in the Chilean government are going to roll.
My thoughts exactly and you expressed it better.
Why do you suppose the agent has his right arm around the neck of the Chilean guy?
That's what I would have thought and why I can't understand this.Given how much irrational hostility to our president is abroad in the world today, I am paranoid to think that some insult to the President may be behind it, but that's just me.
Do you think its conceivable that there was a plot on Bush's life? This is one of two incidents that occurred there. First, they tried to get Bush alone without his security guards, and then they try to have a state dinner without using metal detectors. It just sounds fishy -- like they're trying to leave Bush vulnerable.