Spats Over Security Roil Summit in Chile

[sled]

Spats Over Security Roil Summit in Chile

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A2550-2004Nov21.html

After Saturday Scuffle, Lavish Dinner Canceled as U.S. Demands
Screening

By Mike Allen
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, November 22, 2004; Page A01

SANTIAGO, Chile, Nov. 21 -- For President Bush, it must have been like
going out without his wallet. He turned around and the presidential
shadow -- his Secret Service agent -- was gone.

Moments later, Bush single-handedly rescued the agent from a
boisterous scuffle between U.S. and Chilean security forces. The role
reversal became the talk of an international economic summit that was
studded with bizarre incidents in which diplomacy took a beating, in
some cases, literally.

And in a final summit twist, Chilean authorities canceled an elaborate
social dinner for 200 that had been planned for Sunday night after
President Ricardo Lagos would not agree to the Secret Service
requirement that his guests pass through metal detectors. The event
was downgraded to a small working dinner for 12.

The incident involving the bodyguard Saturday evening began when Nick
Trotta, the number two agent on Bush's security detail, opened the
door of a black Cadillac limousine for the president and first lady
Laura Bush when they arrived at a former train station that was the
site of the closing dinner of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation
(APEC) forum.

[liberal N proud]

1. shrub's remaining security should be reprimanded

they should not have let him go into a scuffle.
But I could care less if he gets his ass kicked, in fact I would laugh my ass off.

[Menshevik]

2. "Bush single-handedly rescued the agent"

Riiiiiiight

There goes our action hero president again..landing jets on carriers, serving turkey in Iraq, and now saving his own secret service agent.

Bleh!

[FormerOstrich]

3. Good Grief!!!

How very embarrasing....more clips from the article:

...........
APEC has 21 member countries, and tension inevitably results at international gathering when the U.S. president barges in with a small air force, an entourage of 260, a press corps of 100 and a motorcade of 20 vehicles.

The president is a stickler for decorum in his events, and Asian reporters had angered him Saturday morning when they bulldozed into a cramped room where he met with a parade of foreign leaders.
.........snip
In the hall afterward, a couple of pairs of journalists went at each other like a locker-room fight.

White House officials did not say much about the Chilean hospitality, but one aide ventured a prediction: Lagos need not watch his mail for an invitation to Bush's ranch.

[The Backlash Cometh]

4. I'd like to see Bush neuter the journalist of other countries the

way he neutered our U.S. press.

How can you pick out U.S. journalist in a U.N. press conference?

If you have the room sing a Minnie Ripperton song you can pick out the ones who hit the high notes. Those are the U.S. media.