You may remember this post a while back about the ridiculous security lengths Cheney forced his .au hosts to go to on his vice-imperial progress around Sydney. That was bad enough.
But of course big, brave Chimpy McFlightsuit, because of his ego, has to go that little bit further even than the batshit insane Cheney’s paranoid, arrogant ridiculousness. Chimpy’s not even going to risk accidentally hearing anything bad Sydneyians might have to say about him:
Mobile blocking helicopter to trail Bush in Sydney
Fighters, SAS on alert as ‘Blue Luminary’ goes Down Under
By Lewis Page Published Friday 18th May 2007 16:14 GMTUS President George Bush will be followed about by a helicopter which jams mobile phone signals during an upcoming visit to Australia, it has emerged.
According to reports in the Sydney Daily Telegraph, train stations will also be temporarily shut down and parts of the city will “become restricted areas”. The Age speculates that “heavily armed [Australian] SAS troops” could be deployed on the Sydney streets, with “expanded rights to shoot to kill”.
President Bush is to visit Sydney along with 20 other world leaders in September for the Asia Pacific Economic Co-operation (APEC) summit. The summit and President Bush have been seen as a likely target for terrorist attacks on previous occasions.
The rash of news reports into APEC security comes as New South Wales state premier Morris Iemma announces likely measures and proposes temporary legislation on security powers.
Conjecture around the phone-jamming helicopter has arisen as a result of its appearance in attendance on Mr Bush at the 2005 APEC summit in South Korea. Reporters covering the conference said that a Black Hawk chopper would shadow the presidential motorcade, and as it passed overhead mobile phones would lose touch with the local network.
“Whenever Mr Bush visits a foreign country local sovereignty is surrendered to US authorities as he moves around in heavily armoured vehicles that follow him around the globe,” said the Telegraph.
More…. ®
Ah, the old ‘hearts and minds’ strategy.
