matribhoomi: January 2006The Bush VigilThe president of the United States, George W Bush visited the Capital and Hyderabad between 1 March and 3 March with huge paraphernalia of security arrangements. He also made an impromptu halt at Afghanistan, a stay which was not planned and even if it was planned, it was not disclosed to anyone and this is the kind of secrecy that prevails upon the itinerary of the President, more so when he visits a hostile country or where the security threat is very high.
During his stay in the Capital, the Delhi Police was responsible for ensuring the security of the President. But they manned only the outermost ring of the multi-layered security arrangement around the President. The officers of the Delhi Police knew that the security around the President would be unprecedented and the security arrangements of the President was supervised by the officers in the top echelons of the Delhi Police, including the commissioner of the Delhi Police, Dr KK Paul, and officers of the rank of joint commissioner of police personally manning the control room from where the security of the president was being monitored. There are many lessons that Delhi Police can learn from the American security forces, in which they ensure security of the president and yet remain prepared for the worst kind of tragedy, a senior police officer confided.
Bush's movements during foreign trips are choreographed down to the minutest detail by the US Secret Service and other agencies. From the moment a trip is discussed in the White House, secret service agents begin looking at the various security scenarios. Plans are worked and re-worked, taking in changing intelligence information.
Advance teams of agents are then dispatched to the various destinations on the president's itinerary. According to sources, before the president’s visit to the country, more than 45 CIA agents were staying in American Embassy. Before the President actually arrived in the Capital, this number had shot up to 700, most of them being flown in from Singapore.
Along with them came a fleet of eight cars, including three limousines, a military ambulance and a communications van packed with state-of-the art devices. And not to forget the sniffer dogs who were always mired in controversy during their stay in the Capital. They were seventeen in numbers and had arrived the Capital about a week before the President. These dogs are no ordinary dogs, and if anybody called them animals, US officers took umbrage of it. The hotel authorities had initially refused to allow the canines in the hotels claiming they had no provision for animals, but they had to give in after the Indian security agencies too lobbied for the canines. The hotel staff were strictly instructed not to call the dogs animals and call them by their rank, as they too were officers of the security agency. Sergeant Harry and Sergeant Sally were most famous among them, and needless to say, the canines stayed in the five star hotels and enjoyed the luxury.
When the president finally turned up, he did it in style by the most famous and most secure, the Air Force One, a Boeing. However, Air Force One is not the name of the aircraft carrying the President but is the call sign of the US President He arrived with a small air force and a massive entourage, consisting of US officials and US security service agents and journalists. The sources in the airport said that the US secret service agents had requested to get command over the airport when the President’s entourage landed in the Capital but the aviation authorities refused the access.
The President stayed in the ITC Maurya Sheraton Hotel, because of its strategic location, being equidistant from both the airport and the Parliament. The entire hotel was booked and general public was not allowed in the hotel anywhere except on the ground floor of the hotel. In which suite, the president was staying was known to none, except the core group of US Security agents.
Not only this, even the White House cooks had come along with government political aides. “The US President had come to India with the entire White House from the cars he drives, the water he drinks, the gasoline he uses, the food he eats," quipped a senior police officer of the Delhi Police.
The Cadillac De Ville limousines in which Bush moved in the Capital was a four-ton-beast. The car was plated with a five-inch-thick armour beneath its black paint and the glasses of the car were also five-inch thick armour. The car could accommodate six persons and was equipped with the technology and gadgets which could make Bush feel at office, from where he could negotiate all his office work.
When the Bush’s cavalcade crisscrossed the roads of the Capital, the traffic on the both sides of his routes were restricted, and it was unprecedented in the sense that even on the Prime Minister’s route, the traffic is restricted on only one side of the roads to be taken. At any time, there were at least 20 cars in the cavalcade of the President and at times, it went up to as much as 50. At least 12 cars were in the core group, three being the limousines, one military ambulance and one war wagon and some decoy cars. It was known to none that in which car the President is travelling. All the cars in the cavalcade were magnificent but what attracted the attention most of the security personnel in the Delhi was the war wagon following the president’s cavalcade wherever it went. The sources said that the wagon was fitted with ultra-modern gadgets which could detect if any bomb or landmine was planted within its range. The wagon was also fitted with dish antennas which received and transmitted signals to the satellite in the skies which kept track of the Bush’s movements and his cavalcade throughout his entire journey in the country.
Bush also addressed a public gathering at Purana Quilla, and public appearance of the President makes the US Secret Agents scary, more so after a hand grenade was found within 50 metres of the venue of a public gathering President was to address in Georgia. The security there was unparalleled during the visit of any foreign dignitary in the country, as the public appearance of the President is considered the weakest link in his security. "If the secret service had their way, they would put him in a cement thing and no one would get to see or hear him," another senior police officer said.
And a change was made in the itinerary of the Bush again to take the security agencies by surprise. The national security advisor of the US President, Mr Stephen Hadley declared at the last moment that the President would be leaving for Pakistan in the night of 3 March, instead of 4 March. According to original plans, the President was to stay in India on the night of 3 March.
Even after the entourage of the President left for Pakistan at about 8 p.m. on the night of 3 March, the suites and the hotel in which the president was staying was not vacated by the secret service agents till the next day, to ensure that the President reached his destination safely and everything was in place there. The arrangement was made to ensure that if any emergency arises in the way or at the next destination, the President has at least one place nearby where he could easily be shifted and he finds everything ready.
The secrecy shrouding the security of the President was exemplary and even the officers of the Delhi Police could not cross the outermost ring of the multi layer security of the President. “The Delhi Police can learn many lessons from the Bush visit on keeping vigil and keeping prepared all the time to meet any sort of emergencies,” the police officer admitted.
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