5000 Commandos & Snipers needed to protect Bush in India as effigies burn

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Thousands to protect Bush on first India visit

http://today.reuters.com/news/newsArticle.aspx?type=topNews&storyID=2006-02-27T101045Z_01_DEL115154_RTRUKOC_0_US-INDIA-BUSH-SECURITY.xml&archived=False

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and U.S. marines using helicopters, bomb detectors and electronic jammers will protect President George W. Bush during his visit to India this week, officials said on Monday.

The personnel would be part of a three-ring security cordon around the U.S. president and First Lady Laura Bush who are due to arrive in New Delhi for their maiden visit to the subcontinent on Wednesday, they said.

"He is a much-threatened VVIP. We are fully geared," Manish Agarwal, a top Delhi police officer involved in security operations, told Reuters.

His comments came as Delhi police arrested two suspected militants belonging to Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistan-based militant group fighting Indian rule in disputed Kashmir, the Press Trust of India news agency said.





Communist Party of India activists, back, kick a fellow activist dressed as US President George Bush, center, during a demonstration in Hyderabad, India, Tuesday, Feb. 28, 2006. Indian communist and Islamic leaders said Tuesday they plan to greet U.S. President George Bush with protests against American policy in Afghanistan and the Middle East when the leader arrives later this week. At right is a girl dressed as 'Mother India'. (AP Photo/A. Mahesh Kumar)

[MadMaddie]

1. I would love to know the $ figure for this 3 day jaunt.....

this is a waste of resources.....

[LSparkle]

4. Really ...

Heard that this morning and wondered why the heck he's even going there. Oh yeah, has to check in on our jobs and play some cricket.

[MadMaddie]

5. Yea...he definitely is working on how to give away more

of our jobs....and more of our industries......

[aquart]

2. So that's roughly the same as here.

We all feel the same.

[formercia]

3. Isn't it nice to be loved? n/t

[bullimiami]

6. i especially like the "three-ring security cordon"

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

7. Yep. Instead of "Cirque du Soleil," it's more like "Cirque du le Jerk."

:evilgrin:

[gimama]

9. LOL! I don't even KNOW French,that was too funny. e/m

[gimama]

8. a dude volunteered to dress as Mr.bush, get kicked by fellow protesters

that's hard core.

[TomInTib]

10. The logistics are mind-numbing....

Moving 5000 guards in a triple circular cordon thru a packed city of 5 1/2 million people.

Thankfully there are no starving people on the streets of Hyderabad that could have been granted some succor with the funds and energy wasted on this foolish exercise.

[Libby2]

11. Sad but funny.

[July]

12. But you could have a beer with him.

He's not an elitist jackass in a bubble, so stop saying that.

[unhappycamper]

13. That sounds about right.

* took an aircraft carrier, a battalion of Marines, and three C-5s worth of stuff to the Scotland G-8 conference.