i know that my mother always told me that if i ever needed something, no matter how silly it sounded, i should always go ahead and ask. apparently babs gave the same advice to her son:
Home Secretary David Blunkett has refused to grant diplomatic immunity to armed American special agents and snipers travelling to Britain as part of President Bush's entourage this week.In the case of the accidental shooting of a protester, the Americans in Bush's protection squad will face justice in a British court as would any other visitor, the Home Office has confirmed.
this is just pathetic that they would even try to ask this, but then i forget that these are the folks who won't sign on to the icc. really. if there was a protest in new york and someone was accidentally shot, it's not like the police or ss or fbi would have immunity from prosecution. so why request it over there?
the article goes on to list a number of other demands that the bushies wanted but were denied, such as shutting down the london subway system in case there was a bombing. they also wanted to have american fighters flying over london and black hawk helicopters patroling the skies. yes, that's the image we want to project to the rest of the world.
and they can't even bring their toys:
The Americans had also wanted to travel with a piece of military hardware called a 'mini-gun', which usually forms part of the mobile armoury in the presidential cavalcade. It is fired from a tank and can kill dozens of people. One manufacturer's description reads: 'Due to the small calibre of the round, the mini-gun can be used practically anywhere. This is especially helpful during peacekeeping deployments.'
maybe that's why they wanted that diplomatic immunity. because when i think of miniguns, i think of pinpoint precision, especially when there's giant crowds around.
originally, 'sterile zones' were agreed to be setup so that the president wouldn't have to be confronted by people disagreeing with him (what a novel idea!). however, it turns out that now protesters are going to be allowed to march past parliament and 10 downing street.
oops! seems bush chickened out and is no longer going to give a speech to parliament for fear of being heckled or having a walk-out. guess that lone aussie mp who heckles everybody who comes through spooked him too much.
and parliament is not happy that he pulled out.
i didn't realize that before you travel to a country which happens to be your top ally that you do everything you can possibly think of to piss all over them.
Posted by kilgore at November 17, 2003 09:53 PM | TrackBack