Me too!
Posted on 11/22/2004 9:40:22 PM PST by kattracks
White House officials were still shaking their heads in disbelief yesterday that President Bush personally had to rescue a U.S. Secret Service agent from angry Chilean security officials Saturday night.
"This is a pretty big deal," said a senior White House official, who called the incident a "melee."
"I mean, the guy who was supposed to be guarded had to rescue the guy who was supposed to be guarding him."
The official expressed astonishment that Chilean security officials had stopped the No. 2 agent on Mr. Bush's security detail from accompanying the president into a meeting with another world leader, an unprecedented public breach of security arrangements agreed upon in advance.[snip]
In contrast to Chile, which rejected Secret Service protocols, Colombia ceded control of 15,000 of its troops to the United States when Mr. Bush visited there yesterday. Colombian President Alvaro Uribe also agreed to allow heavily armed U.S. Navy forces to patrol the waters around Cartegena in rubber boats.
(Excerpt) Read more at washtimes.com ...
Bush! Bush! Bush!
""How many times will this story be posted?" "You should have just included any new information into an existed thread!"
I went ahead and decided to post that to save others the trouble.""
I do not agree with your complaint. Why do you want to stir up trouble? This new post is helpful to those who want to cut to the chase, and get any quick updates, instead of going back to an old thread a couple of days ago, reading through hundreds of added posts since. Lay off 'kattracks'.
That was my understanding. The question is however, IF they reached some sort of agreement, and the Chileans welched on the deal, THAT would be a major problem. If that were the case here, I suspect they came very close to having a for real incident. Again, we may never know.
FGS
The official expressed astonishment that Chilean security officials had stopped the No. 2 agent on Mr. Bush's security detail from accompanying the president into a meeting with another world leader, an unprecedented public breach of security arrangements agreed upon in advance.
[snip]
Great photo. It deserves to be in the Oval Office.
In contrast to Chile, which rejected Secret Service protocols...
So, if Chile rejected the security protocols of the SS, WHEN did they do it????
FGS
That is the case as stated in the article. The incident led to the cancellation of an official state dinner for Mr. Bush and his Chilean counterpart, to which 200 guests had been invited, most of them top-level Chilean officials. Chile scrapped the dinner when the Secret Service demanded that the dignitaries pass through metal detectors.
This is the first time I heard about this. I hope that this is the first lesson in a long course of instruction for the Chileans.
This could have been very scary. tell me how Chile is different from a banana republic?
"tell me how Chile is different from a banana republic?"
It's too cold to grow bananas in Chile.
THANK YOU, this is what I've been looking for: the prior agreement.
>>>"an unprecedented public breach of security arrangements agreed upon in advance.
>>>"In Chile, the Secret Service had arranged for its agents be posted inside the Estacion Mapocho Cultural Center for a meeting between Mr. Bush and Chilean President Ricardo Lagos.
>>>"the Chileans had been attempting to "send a message" that they would control the president's movements on their turf,
These statements by the press which traveled with Bush lead me to believe that we had a deal on the security... and "a deal is a deal." So, this would have to be considered an attack on Bush.
But these last two sentences bothered me:
>>>"Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry said yesterday that there had been some sort of misunderstanding in Chile but declined to elaborate.
>>>"Chile scrapped the dinner when the Secret Service demanded that the dignitaries pass through metal detectors.
Wasn't this agreed to also, or was this an add-on after the crazy actions earlier?
Hoppy
It was discussed on another megathread yesterday I believe.
I hope that this is the first lesson in a long course of instruction for the Chileans. This could have been very scary.
In fact, may have been a close call, but again I don't think we'll ever have full details. That in itself may be a security breach. I think the problem may boil down to the SS not appreciating the national pride angle of the Chilean's position; the Chileans probably didn't appreciate the very real danger "W" is in for our positions around the world.
tell me how Chile is different from a banana republic?
Honestly dont' know enough about the country to comment.
FGS
At the door it seems.....The SS detail is by law..If one wishes the President to come..the SS goes with him..
You sure? My supermarket is full of Chilean fruit during our winter.
FGS
I think the CIA went too easy on Chile after the election of Allende.
Well, true for the most part, but we're talking about another sovereign country. We're on their turf. The only question that is of any importance here is if there was a breach of an agreement between Chile and the SS. If it in fact was a last minute decision by Chile, they stood to put OUR president in a very vulnerable position. THAT takes some gall. Was this a setup that failed? I doubt it since we're only taling about one SS agent. Still puzzling.
FGS
I happened to be involved in a small way with coordinating security between the host chapter of the National Jaycee convention and the Secret Service when Ronald Reagan made a speech there.
The amount of detail the SS guys go into is amazing: who gets to sit where, who gets to have cameras, TV cameras etc. I'm sure the planning would have been more careful in a foreign setting.
So the attempted cut off of a Secret Service agent from the President would have to be planned and executed by design. Even scarier, cutting the Pres. off from his bodyguard would be the first thing to do in an assassination attempt.
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