On a more serious note...it is a bit scary if you think about it. I noticed in pictures I saw elsewhere, that when the security guys tried to keep out the secret service, all eyes were on the tussle. It could have been used as a destraction to lead up to an assasination attempt.
You would think people would know better than try to keep out the secret service.
Posted by Jar Head (Member # 7018) on :
Bush was totally right to not let himself fall under the protection of anybody but our boys. He just strolled into the scum and laid down the law, it was a moment that showed the personal courage of Bush and the devotion of his body guard. I always worry when the man is abroad.
Those people know the score with the President of the United States visits, it was way out of line for them to try to cut the man from his guards.
Posted by Ethics Gradient (Member # 878) on :
Out of curiousity, does America allow other foreign leaders to be protected by their own bodyguards at similar dinners?
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
Quite often they do. Also, this type of protection is spelled out quite clearly in any agreement to visit.
Usually the Secrect Service works with the other orginizations, but they gaurentee the saftey of all involved. Most other countries , particular those in latin America, can not do the same for our President.
Those guards had to ahve known they were wrong, but tried to do it anyway.
Kwea
Posted by Ethics Gradient (Member # 878) on :
Ok. So the President of Chille would be allowed to bring an armed guard into a dinner featuring 20 other world leaders and their armed guards at a dining hall in Washington DC?
Maybe these guys just stuffed up? (Pretty dumb-ass stuff up, of course).
Posted by Kwea (Member # 2199) on :
If the US had agreed to let him do so he would be allowed them. As it stands now, usually the Secrect Service would take responsibility for his safety...something most countries aren't willing or able to do with our President.
Posted by newfoundlogic (Member # 3907) on :
Actually Bush was just trying to bring his own personal bodyguard with him, not the whole Secret Service detail.
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
Hey, EG, what's up? I was just wondering where you had been lately on another thread.
This was a weird little scuffle. I also worry any president might get killed when he goes overseas. I liked this quote from a follow-up story about the conference in the Washington Post :
quote: CNN's Mark Walz had his camera trained on Bush when a thundering herd of Asian reporters hit him in his blind spot. Walz, who has covered the White House since the last year of the Reagan administration, said it was the first time he had been knocked down
It's a stampede of Asian journalists! We're done fer if we can't split the herd, Clem!
Posted by Morbo (Member # 5309) on :
I saw this video the PBS News Hour last night, and it seems clear that the Chilean security closed ranks just after Bush entered. It seems like an orchistrated move to separate the president from his bodyguard. This is troubling, because I'll bet protocol like this is negotiated beforehand in boring detail, and the Chileans' apparently didn't live up to their end of the agreement. Bush tried to play it down at a later press confernce as trivial, but I bet there is some angry diplomacy going on behind the scenes.
Posted by Icarus (Member # 3162) on :
Funny story, but a bit disturbing to see the president having to walk into something like that underprotected. I like his taking action, I just worry, as others have noted, that the situation made him vulnerable.
-o-
quote: He just strolled into the scum and laid down the law
scum = Chileans?
Gosh, I would love some clarification on that statement. ::smiles sweetly::
Posted by Sara Sasse (Member # 6804) on :
I think it was "scrum," as in the scrummage of rugby. (fracas?)
But I read it the other way at first, too.
Posted by J T Stryker (Member # 6300) on :
I think Bush should carry a gun of his own... I mean he's from Texas, so you know he owns one...
Posted by Tater (Member # 7035) on :
I wish those Chilean agents had punched him and then they suspended Bush for the rest of the season. Wait, wrong story [but i really do wish Bush had walked away with a black eye...or a loose tooth.]
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