Europe’s leaders close ranks with Bush

Bush’s trip to Europe is the first in a round of visits over the next few weeks. Next month he will return to Europe to meet with German Chancellor Angela Merkel in Stralsund, before proceeding to Russia for a meeting with President Vladimir Putin prior to the G-8 summit in St. Petersburg, to be held July 15-17.

Wherever Bush travels, security precautions are massive and intrusive, and Vienna was no exception. A convoy of 60 vehicles transported the president and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice from the airport to the Vienna Intercontinental Hotel. Bush travelled the motorway, which was closed to all other traffic, in his own armoured stretch limousine, which had been specially flown in. Austrian security forces resisted the demand of their US counterparts that they evacuate all houses and apartments adjoining the motorway during the president’s sprint to his hotel.

Bush was accompanied by US Secret Service agents and members of Austria’s elite Cobra police. Bush’s security retinue included 500 CIA agents, some of them accompanying the president, others having been in the city for several weeks prior to the visit. A total of 3,000 Austrian police were also deployed to protect the president during his 20-hour stay. From early Tuesday to Thursday mid-day, private aircraft were banned within a wide radius of airspace around the capital.

The summit took place in Vienna’s Imperial Palace, and large parts of the inner city were closed to traffic. Some 300 shops, restaurants and tourist attractions in the city centre were also forced to close. First Lady Laura Bush made brief stops in the city centre amid huge security, including strategically placed snipers.

The police-military operations surrounding the Bush visit will cost Austrian taxpayers one million euros.

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