Posted on 11/20/2004 4:13:02 PM PST by wjersey
Edited on 11/20/2004 7:38:20 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
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.
Several Chilean and American agents got into a pushing and shoving match outside the cultural center where the dinner was held. Bush noticed the fracas after posing for pictures on a red carpet with the summit host, Chilean President Ricardo Lagos and his wife and first lady Laura Bush.
One of "Rumsfeld's rules" is:
"Hire paranoid, they may have a false alarm rate, but they discover all the plots". It was originally said by Herman Kahn.
When we are at war and it comes to the safety of President Bush, being paranoid is healthy.
Your argument looks to me like the typical, Blame America that I've seen before.
GWB may have decided that his people do not enter through the back door.
I just watched the video and from what it showed of the other leaders, there were no SS, (body guards) that even attempted to enter. They did not even pull their vehicles up to the entrance, they went to a different location of the parking area.
Good.
Did you find it disconcerting at all, when Bush was right in the middle of the melee?
LOL. I am, however, worried about a visit to Columbia. They are excellent allies, but the lawless cartels and their Venezualen cohorts are still concerning.
You talked about some kind of handoff in post 792. To me that doesn't make sense. The guys following him up to the door need to follow him through the door. Or maybe I am just missing something here. But if what I am missing is diplomatic protocol or some such similar nonsense, then I must say that I think that is both ridiculous and dangerous for the President.
Do you have the video link?
Not really. He must of felt secure. That's good enough for me.
The one SS who was blocked was trailing W closely all the way, standing just a couple feet away when they took the first pictures outside the door, and standing just to the side of the doorway as W and Laura and the Chilean leader and wife walked through.
Immediately after the 2 leaders and wives walked through the doorway, that SS agent tried to come out from behind the door frame, to follow. Immediately, a security person, for Chile I presume, who had a similar position on the inside of the doorway stepped in the doorway, to block our SS agent. Rapidly this one Chilean agent was joined by about 3 other agents, who had been just inside the doorway. Those four agents blocked the entire doorway.
Apparently, the Chilean agents were under orders to let no one except the leaders and their spouses pass. They had two agents on each side of the doorway, prepared to cut off anyone else coming in.
So I don't find it alarming that the Chilean agents blocked the doorway for Bush, but not for other leaders. Only Bush had someone trying to follow right behind, triggering the blocking action of the four Chilean agents.
I could not tell whether SS agents were inside the doorway, in the large welcoming room where the second pictures were taken, before W entered. Certainly the bulk of the SS agent squad that secured the area around the limo when W got out were outside and remained outside. If W stepped into that welcoming room with no SS in front of him, then this was a screwup.
And that the Chilean security didn't know that that one SS agent would be tailing W through the door is another screwup, though by whom I have no idea.
Scary.
Thanks much for the video link.
LOL, great term. I'm gonna have to steal it...
I agree that this was NOT a safe situation for the President. I have already said that. Trust, but verify, I'm all for that.
I'm just saying that the plans were in place long ago. IF we agreed to them, we should have followed them. If they were unacceptable because of a risk to the President, then:
1) We should have demanded, 6 months ago, and obtained an exception that would at least allow one or two S.S. agents to go through the main entrance with the President, while the rest of the detail would have already been in position inside to meet him. [Now, perhaps this exception WAS agreed upon, and the Chilenos screwed up and forgot. That is possible.]
2) If the Chilenos would not allow an exception, then the President should not have attended.
Go to this page, and click on the video icon:
http://teletrece.canal13.cl/
Thanks much.
As I said before, it's not the traveling that concerns me, but the security. And, when "the law od large numbers" and "Murphey's Law" coincide, watch out.
They like the tango down in Chile.
Just kidding, it's At the top of this page
Victoria,
Go to Post 695 for a link to the video. the incident is at about the 18 minute point
I forgot to mention, it's a 45 minute video -- the part about Bush starts right at minute 18, and lasts a few minutes.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.
