Dear Clay, I suspect that Bush's "minders" must feel he's more at risk when travelling overseas than at home. He recently made a 21 hour visit to Australia, arriving just in time to go to bed and flying out again early the next evening.
I can assure you, that the security which Jean describes is very similar to what went on here for such a short visit. Our parliament house was shut down to anyone other than politicians (in other words, no members of the public were permitted); traffic was banned from a wider circle around parliament house; a pedestrian exclusion zone also applied. (A lot of his visit focussed on parliament house because he was giving a speech there.) The Australian press were very upset because none of them were allowed access to his doings to report on them. The reason being that no American security official was willing to give any Australian press person a security clearance. No security clearance, no access to any function where the president was. The Australian press had to get all their information from the American press - you can imagine they weren't best pleased! Ruth Budge (Sydney, Australia) Clay Blackwell <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: Dear Jean - I know that you're not impressed with the news that you're seeing in the papers and the things you're hearing on TV about Bush's upcoming trip. The odd thing is that here in the US, the man travels constantly, and while there are extra precautions taken wherever he goes, it is nothing as you have described. Are you certain that your sources are absolutely correct? I tend to be skeptical when it comes to the news we read and hear from commercial sources (their goal, after all, is to make money, and sensationalism sells...) If the measures you describe were really required, then I'm sure that Bush would simply be advised to stay home. Granted, there are millions of people in your country, my country, and the rest of the world, who would prefer that the man just plain didn't exist, but that has been true, to a certain extent, with every head of every country in my own memory. Just musing! ; ) Clay http://personals.yahoo.com.au - Yahoo! Personals New people, new possibilities. FREE for a limited time. To unsubscribe send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] containing the line: unsubscribe lace-chat [EMAIL PROTECTED] For help, write to [EMAIL PROTECTED]
