Bush And Blair A Security Risk?

Thursday

George Bush's visit to Mainz in Germany on Wednesday was supposed to create an opportunity for Washington and Berlin to "mend fences".

According to Deutsche Welle "Up to and during Bush's visit, a force of 10,000 police officers staged one of the biggest postwar security operations in Germany. Frogmen searched the Rhine River for explosives, 1,300 manhole covers were welded shut and thousands of residents were displaced.

For Bush's eight-hour stay there was also a strict ban on air traffic within a 60-kilometer radius of Mainz, barges on the river were halted and motorways in the region closed. Factories, businesses and schools were shut."

A town-hall style question and answer session with "average Germans" was cancelled. The Germans refused to allow a scripted event where the questions were approved in advance. Bush's team felt an unscreened verbal encounter with the German public would be too unpredictable.

During a press conference two weeks ago, Bush said Washington is still terribly misunderstood in Europe. Misunderstood George? They welded up the manhole covers didn't they?

Meanwhile in London

Blair's new anti-terrorism bill was voted in by a parliamentary majority of seventy six, 309 votes to 233. The bill seeks to introduce "control orders" which would enable the home secretary to stop terror suspects travelling or using phones or the internet, without need for a trial.

The hard sell or scaremongering started up with typical Blair comments like, "There is a serious security threat to this country ... I think these people would kill thousands of our citizens if they could. I think this is terrorism without limit" and "For these limited number of cases ... those considerations of national security have to come before civil liberties no matter how important those civil liberties are."

Home Secretary Charles Clarke weighed in with, "The Madrid atrocity took place during the Spanish election campaign and it may be that such things can also be possibilities here too."

"I think", "if they could", "I think", "may be", "can also be possibilities" all linked with "serious security risk", "kill thousands of our citizens", "terrorism without limit", "national security", "Madrid atrocity".

Haven't we been here before? Better get welding up those manhole covers.