Live grenade thrown at George Bush in Georgia
Posted: Thu May 19, 2005 7:41 am
Did anyone hear this news that our President was seconds away from being possibly blown up by a gernade? The grenade was a knock-off of a Soviet-designed RGD-5, which has a lethal range of about 100 feet. Sad... generic grenades... Guess it's a good thing it was a knock-off and not a brand name grenade!
News about this is just coming out now that it is over and the president is back in the USA.On May 10th while visiting Georgia's capital Tbilisi a live hand grenade landed within 100 feet of United States President George W. Bush. The grenade was wrapped in a dark plaid cloth handkerchief. It was "tossed in the general direction of the main stage" about 1:30 p.m., right after Bush began speaking, and landed less than 100 feet from the podium, Paarmann said. The grenade reportedly bounced off a child's cap and then was removed by a Georgian security officer. The White House initially stated that the president was in no real danger, however the event has lead to a review of security measures at presidential events.
An FBI official at the US embassy in Georgia confirms that an explosive device was thrown, but due to a malfunction it failed to detonate. "This hand grenade appears to be a live device that simply failed to function due to a light strike on the blasting cap induced by a slow deployment of the spoon activation device," the FBI stated.