165 replies to this topic

[Mad Manfred]

'Grenade' thrown at Bush
11 May 2005

The US Secret Service is investigating after a device - thought to be a hand grenade - was thrown at George Bush in Georgia.

Sources in the US said the device was thrown as the US president gave a speech to tens of thousands of people gathered in the capital Tbilisi's Freedom Square.

It is believed to have landed about 100ft from Mr Bush, but he was not harmed.

Mr Bush used his speech to declare the former Soviet republic is proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.

He said: "Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world: Freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth.

"You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions and you claimed your liberty.

"And because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereign and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world."

Freedom Square - known as Lenin Square under Soviet rule - is where hundreds of thousands gathered after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1989, and again last year when protests ousted Eduard Shevardnadze from office.

SOURCE

[Mad Manfred]

Grenade near Bush 'was inactive'

Wednesday, May 11, 2005 Posted: 5:11 AM EDT (0911 GMT)

TBILISI, Georgia (CNN) -- A grenade found near the site where U.S. President George W. Bush made a speech in Tblisi was an inactive Soviet-era device, Georgian officials said Wednesday.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Guram Donadze described the device as a "non-combative" grenade used in military training and said it did not contain explosives.

The device was placed in the crowd about 200 feet from where Bush was speaking. It was not thrown, as was previously believed, Donadze said.

It never posed a danger to Bush and was apparently placed by someone who wanted to scare people in the crowd and attract media attention, Donadze said.

Georgian officials alerted U.S. officials about the incident several hours after Bush left the former Soviet republic, U.S. Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin said.

On Tuesday, Mackin said Georgian security officials told their U.S. counterparts the grenade hit an individual and fell to the ground.

Gela Bezhuashvili, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, said Wednesday the device was a "so-called engineering grenade" found in "inactive mode."

"The preliminary identification is that object was not operational but looks like (a) Soviet-made hand grenade," Bezhuashvili said.

"The goal is clear -- to frighten or to scare people and to attract the attention of the mass media," The Associated Press quoted him as saying. "The goal has been reached and that is why I'm talking to you now."

"In any case there was no danger whatsoever for the presidents," he said, referring to Bush and Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili.

"I am not an expert but it was not possible to detonate it there," he said. "Nevertheless, this is a subject of close attention and it is being studied jointly by the Georgian and American sides."

The Secret Service, FBI and State Department are investigating the incident, Mackin said.
'Path is not easy'

In Tuesday's speech, Bush told a crowd of tens of thousands that Georgia is proving to the world that determined people can rise up and claim their freedom from oppressive rulers.

Bush's speech was the last event of his five-day, four-nation tour marking the end of World War II in Europe.

"Your most important contribution is your example," Bush said, speaking in Freedom Square, site of protests in November 2003 of the so-called Rose Revolution that put President Mikhail Saakashvili in power.

"Before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was a Rose Revolution in Georgia," Bush said.

"You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions and you claimed your liberty," he said.

"Because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereign and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world."

The president also noted that maintaining democracy was hard work. "The path is not easy," Bush said, pledging that Georgians "will not travel it alone."

"The American people will stand with you," he said.

Georgia is widely viewed as helping lead the way for other former Soviet republics to turn away from Moscow and focus more of their efforts on building alliances with the West.

SOURCE

Did the grenade say "Made in America"?  

[girty1600]

If the perpetrator of the incident got that grenade a little closer and blown him up; it would have made some people happy around here.

[Stellar]

it would have made some people happy around here.

They'd be crying when Dick Cheney took office though.

Either way... if it WAS an assassination attempt... how come the grenade wasnt armed?

[Amalgamut]

im watching some crap on this right now on fox news.

[warden]

Thank goodness it wasnt live and no harm was done

[xsas]

I don't mind it harming Bush but not innocent bystanders or his Secret Service agents.

[Scorpio_71]

If the perpetrator of the incident got that grenade a little closer and blown him up; it would have made some people happy around here.

Shame on you.

So your saying that becuase you dont like someone or didnt vote them into office that they should die for their convictions.

You must be a real treasure.

And dont pull the "war card" our soldiers are volunteers.

[Thanato]

Damn, oh well. I wonder when the next attempt on his life will come?

Hope the next time dosnt fail.

~Thanato

[Amalgamut]

Seems like the haters don't even live in the US.

[warden]

Damn, oh well. I wonder when the next attempt on his life will come?

Hope the next time dosnt fail.

~Thanato

AHHHHH wath out Thanato one has just landed behind you

[Scorpio_71]

I don't mind it harming Bush but not innocent bystanders or his Secret Service agents.

and if it did harm Bush, what kind of message do you think that would of sent to the people of the world that want harmful actions against Americans.

I didnt vote for Clinton. But he was my commander in chief, I never wished him any harm, even after his military cuts in 92 cut my stay in the Marine Corp shorter then I would have liked.

You should be careful what you wish for........

[warden]

Leave BUSH alone           

[xsas]

Yes it might just come true.

[The Russian Hare]

I don't mind it harming Bush but not innocent bystanders or his Secret Service agents.

That's my president you're talking about there, hero. Some of us take deep offense to this kind of crap. I wouldn't say this about Tony Blair, Jacque Chirac or Vladimir Putin.