{"id":3061,"date":"2006-02-27T19:26:32","date_gmt":"2006-02-28T00:26:32","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com?p=3061"},"modified":"2006-02-27T17:27:03","modified_gmt":"2006-02-27T22:27:03","slug":"threering_circu","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/2006\/02\/27\/threering_circu\/","title":{"rendered":"Three-ring circus"},"content":{"rendered":"

The press now has accounts of the extraordinary security measures that are being enacted in preparation for Bush’s visit to India:<\/p>\n\n

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<\/font>, officials said on Monday.

The personnel would be part of a three-ring security cordon<\/strong> 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… <\/p>\n

Besides the inner-ring of security forces, an outer cordon would be deployed “as deep as possible” to thwart any attack by a rocket launcher, Agarwal said.

“A rocket launcher<\/a> normally has a 1,000-metre (3,300 ft) range so we would be deployed in forests around venues,” he said. “We will have 360-degree rooftop surveillance around all the venues…” [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

I would hate to be a Secret Service agent on this trip. My brother once got a chance to meet Clinton but he was stopped by an agent while his two female companions were motioned forward. Another time an agent warned him that a sniper on the roof of the Chinese embassy had him in his sites. Just imagine being an agent in a whole country full of brown people! \ud83d\ude42\n\n\n\n
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There are already protests in India. Where will these people be with respect to the “three rings.”<\/p><\/td><\/tr><\/table><\/p>\n\n

Traffic in many areas in the capital will come to a near standstill on March 2 when Bush travels to his engagements from the Maurya Sheraton hotel to Hyderabad House, where he will meet Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, and Rashtrapati Bhavan, where President A P J Abdul Kalam will host a dinner for his American counterpart.

Traffic is also likely to be affected by the proposed demonstrations<\/font><\/a> against the Bush visit planned by the Communists, the Samajwadi Party and the Janata Dal-Secular<\/font>.

The Maurya Sheraton, where Bush and his entourage will stay, has been converted into a fortress<\/strong> with the US Secret Service screening every visitor.

Hotel employees have been issued special passes, which have to be produced along with their identity cards when they arrive on duty. [Link<\/a>]<\/blockquote>\n\n

<<\/p>\n\n

p><\/p>\n\n

All the security precautions are sure to rub local law enforcement the wrong way. Even when Bush went to Britain a few years ago the local authorities felt bullied by his security detail:<\/p>\n\n

\n

An unconfirmed report claims that American security officials wanted to handle Air Traffic Control themselves when Air Force One, the Presidential aircraft, arrives in New Delhi but the bizarre proposal<\/strong> was turned down. Indian engineers, they’ve been told, are capable of handling the situation<\/font> but it would not be surprising if American officials are allowed to be around.<\/blockquote>\n\n

See related posts: Media Roundup: The Trip Part 1<\/a>, Media Roundup: The Trip Part II<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The press now has accounts of the extraordinary security measures that are being enacted in preparation for Bush’s visit to India: About 5,000 personnel including snipers, commandos and U.S. marines using helicopters, bomb detectors and electronic jammers will protect President … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[26,2,3],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3061"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3061\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3061"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3061"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/sepiamutiny.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3061"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}