SeK612
05-11-2005, 07:32 PM
White House, Capitol, Supreme Court, Evacuated
A small plane violated restricted airspace over Washington, causing parts of the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court to be briefly evacuated.
The terror alert level was raised to orange -- or high -- when the airspace incursion was first reported, and then raised to red -- severe -- when the pilot failed to respond to calls on his radio. Two F-16 jets, which responded from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, circled the single-engine plane and fired warning flares.
The plane, within three miles of the White House at the time, was escorted by the two jets and a Black Hawk helicopter to a small airport in Frederick, Maryland. The pilot was being interviewed by local authorities and the Secret Service.
Bush was biking in Maryland at the time, while Cheney was in the West Wing of the White House when the alert was issued. A motorcade of six or seven cars left the White House during the evacuation. The motorcade returned about 15 minutes later after an all-clear announcement was issued.
Source (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/05/11/evacuation/index.html)
Grenade thrown toward Pres. Bush
An inactive [Soviet-made RPG-5] grenade was found 100 feet from where Bush made a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday. Bush wasn't even aware of the grenade report until Secret Service agents on the plane told him about it as his plane was returning to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington.
U.S. Secret Service had been informed that a device — possibly a hand grenade — had been thrown near the stage while Bush spoke, hit someone in the crowd, and fell to the ground. Gela Bezhuashvili, secretary of the National Security Council, said: "The goal is clear — to frighten or to scare people and to attract the attention of the mass media. The goal has been reached..."
Investigators are examining the grenade, which Bezhuashvili said was a "so-called engineering grenade," found in "inactive mode."
Security was very tight at Bush's speech in Freedom Square. Georgian police were deployed, and U.S. snipers were visible on the rooftops, scanning the crowd with binoculars. U.S. agents, together with their Georgian counterparts, manned the security gates, making even Georgian performers — who in some cases were decked out with fake ammunition as part of their costumes — remove every piece of metal before passing through the detectors.
Many in the crowd had plastic bottles, which they used to squirt water on each other to cope with the hot sun. Young people horsed around during the speeches — especially when the translation was muffled and the speech unintelligible — and some threw bottles at one another for entertainment.
Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bush_grenade)
A small plane violated restricted airspace over Washington, causing parts of the White House, Capitol and Supreme Court to be briefly evacuated.
The terror alert level was raised to orange -- or high -- when the airspace incursion was first reported, and then raised to red -- severe -- when the pilot failed to respond to calls on his radio. Two F-16 jets, which responded from Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, circled the single-engine plane and fired warning flares.
The plane, within three miles of the White House at the time, was escorted by the two jets and a Black Hawk helicopter to a small airport in Frederick, Maryland. The pilot was being interviewed by local authorities and the Secret Service.
Bush was biking in Maryland at the time, while Cheney was in the West Wing of the White House when the alert was issued. A motorcade of six or seven cars left the White House during the evacuation. The motorcade returned about 15 minutes later after an all-clear announcement was issued.
Source (http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/05/11/evacuation/index.html)
Grenade thrown toward Pres. Bush
An inactive [Soviet-made RPG-5] grenade was found 100 feet from where Bush made a speech in Tbilisi, Georgia, on Tuesday. Bush wasn't even aware of the grenade report until Secret Service agents on the plane told him about it as his plane was returning to Andrews Air Force Base outside of Washington.
U.S. Secret Service had been informed that a device — possibly a hand grenade — had been thrown near the stage while Bush spoke, hit someone in the crowd, and fell to the ground. Gela Bezhuashvili, secretary of the National Security Council, said: "The goal is clear — to frighten or to scare people and to attract the attention of the mass media. The goal has been reached..."
Investigators are examining the grenade, which Bezhuashvili said was a "so-called engineering grenade," found in "inactive mode."
Security was very tight at Bush's speech in Freedom Square. Georgian police were deployed, and U.S. snipers were visible on the rooftops, scanning the crowd with binoculars. U.S. agents, together with their Georgian counterparts, manned the security gates, making even Georgian performers — who in some cases were decked out with fake ammunition as part of their costumes — remove every piece of metal before passing through the detectors.
Many in the crowd had plastic bottles, which they used to squirt water on each other to cope with the hot sun. Young people horsed around during the speeches — especially when the translation was muffled and the speech unintelligible — and some threw bottles at one another for entertainment.
Source (http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/bush_grenade)