Airbubba
22nd Nov 2004, 18:39
Not the first time George H.W. Bush has had a close call with a flight out of Houston. In April 1993 Kuwait Airways sent a 747-200 to take him to Kuwait for presentation of awards and honors for his role in the liberation.
Shortly after takeoff, with the former president onboard, a loud bang was heard and a flap panel delaminated leaving a large and visible hole. Bush was cool while the Secret Service folks were quite agitated as the plane did an air turnback to Houston, according to a well placed source who has reported reliably in the past. There was a foiled assasination attempt when Bush finally got to Kuwait but that's another story...
kansasw
22nd Nov 2004, 21:01
There was a foiled assasination attempt when Bush finally got to Kuwait but that's another story...
Airbubba, do you care to report any detais of that story?
Airbubba
22nd Nov 2004, 21:18
>>Airbubba, do you care to report any detais of that story?
Sure, here's a couple of recent accounts, looks like we got the main perp from the Syrians last year:
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April 25, 2003, 11:24PM
Top Iraqi spy official handed over by Syria
Los Angeles Times
WASHINGTON -- A longtime Iraqi spy official, suspected of involvement in a plot to assassinate former President Bush and of having links to al-Qaida, was delivered to the Iraqi border by Syrian authorities Friday, U.S. officials said...
...Officials said it is more likely that Hijazi would be able to provide information on the attempted assassination of the first President Bush in 1993.
"We think that's highly probable given the job that he had at the time," the U.S. official said. "We believe he was either witting or responsible," and in all likelihood personally involved.
At the time of the assassination attempt, Hijazi was responsible for overseeing covert operations overseas for Saddam.
The FBI's Washington field office, which handles all investigations of assassination plots involving the chief executive, led the investigation of the Iraqi plot. An FBI official said he knew of no existing arrest warrant for Hijazi.
Bush had traveled to Kuwait after losing the 1992 presidential election to Bill Clinton. The former president was to be honored by the Kuwaiti government for leading Operation Desert Storm, which expelled Iraqi forces from Kuwait in 1991.
A U.S. official said Iraqi operatives had planned to rig a vehicle with explosives and detonate it at an event attended by Bush or alongside his motorcade.
After the plot was thwarted, President Clinton ordered a U.S. reprisal that included airstrikes on regime targets in Baghdad...
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/special/iraq/1884722
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Bush assasination plotter spotted in Syria
April 16 2003
A 1993 plot to assassinate then President George Bush was masterminded by Hijazi
A suspected high-ranking operative of the Iraqi intelligence service who is believed to have played a key role in a 1993 plot to assassinate then-US president George Bush was spotted in Syria yesterday, after arriving from Tunisia, US officials said.
Faruq Hijazi, whose last official post was Saddam Hussein's ambassador to Tunis, flew to Damascus on a commercial jet in an apparent attempt to seek refuge in the country following the toppling of the Iraqi government by US forces, said one of the officials, who spoke to AFP on condition of anonymity.
"I don't know whether he has been granted refuge or asylum," the official added.
The plot, in which Hijazi is believed to have taken an active part, was uncovered by US and Kuwaiti intelligence services in the first half of 1993.
It called for exploding a powerful car bomb during Bush's visit to Kuwait, his first after the country's liberation from Iraqi occupation by a US-led international coalition in 1991.
Following the capture of several key people involved in the plot by Kuwaiti authorities, and an analysis of the bomb, the Central Intelligence Agency and the Federal Bureau of Investigation concluded that the explosives were Iraqi-made and that Saddam's intelligence service was behind the conspiracy.
President Bill Clinton ordered the US Navy to launch 23 Tomahawk cruise missiles against the headquarters of the Iraqi intelligence service in retaliation in late June 1993.
- AFP
http://www.theage.com.au/articles/2003/04/16/1050172638055.html