Your president's bodyguards

[Ravage]

From what I've read to go to SS you have to be a cop for some time. You serve in SS for aprox. 4 years then you go back to Cop Land for some time and then you get back to the Service.

[Sparky]

Yeah sorry i forgot that part. He did say you had to be in the police force for a number of years too. Thanks Ravage.

[kaibil1944]

This is a photo of the 80's in which the Guatemalan president is scorted by the Guardia de Honor (president bodyguards taken from the three branches of the Guatemalan military the bests soldiers in Airforce, Army and Navy, secret service members with black circle and Guardia de Honor officers with red circle) Guardia de Honor bodyguards were trained by Israel SF and they would need to have a SF grade in order to serve in. These bodyguards were trained for counterinsurgency to because in that time Guatemala was living a guerrilla conflict.

:)

[Ericsson]

does guys must of been freaks

[kaibil1944]

weapons used by them where most of all israeli UZI, colts 45, walthers 9mm, mp5, and galil's

[HomShaBom]

[kaibil1944]

nice keep it going

[kaibil1944]

lets keep this thread alive post more photos

[Balam]

This is a photo of the 80's in which the Guatemalan president is scorted by the Guardia de Honor (president bodyguards taken from the three branches of the Guatemalan military the bests soldiers in Airforce, Army and Navy, secret service members with black circle and Guardia de Honor officers with red circle) Guardia de Honor bodyguards were trained by Israel SF and they would need to have a SF grade in order to serve in. These bodyguards were trained for counterinsurgency to because in that time Guatemala was living a guerrilla conflict.

:)


TENES FOTOS DE LA ACTUAL SAAS? Usan microgaliles, y la mayoria de los elementos son excadetes de la EscuelaPolitecnica
Do you have pics of the currently SAAS force? They use microgaliles, and most of them are former EscuelaPolitecnica (Military Academy) cadets.

[NLANLA]

From what I've read to go to SS you have to be a cop for some time. You serve in SS for aprox. 4 years then you go back to Cop Land for some time and then you get back to the Service.
Surely not. As Sparky already stated: you only need a 4-year degree and pass the selection process, and the USSS will take care of the rest. Now, you will start in investigations (fraud, money laundering and so on), so I can imagine that some people might confuse this with "being a cop"...

[muck]

Somehow odd to see all that modern equipment including China's latest assault rifle development, but still holsters of chafed leather...
By the way, who are these guys? I mean, a branch of the PLA, a intelligence service, or a specialized police unit?

[rhino]

Somehow odd to see all that modern equipment including China's latest assault rifle development, but still holsters of chafed leather...
By the way, who are these guys? I mean, a branch of the PLA, a intelligence service, or a specialized police unit?


they are a regular detachment from Shaolin Temple, they are only called out on special occasions for oversee tripsp-)

[Muhortoff]

Visit of the Belgian King and Quen in Latvia / Liepaja (25.04.2007)
Latvia president (red dot)
Belgian King (blue dot)
Belgian Quen (yelow dot)
bodyguards (green dot)

[fourenziks]

Badass!!! Go Serbia!!!

[kaibil1944]

Badass!!! Go Serbia!!!rofl rofl rofl

Looks like a movie poster

[77RUS]

Badass!!! Go Serbia!!!rofl rofl rofl

Hires? please

[Anthony91]

I love this picture a lot, it will probably never get old...

[fourenziks]

This pic was called "Protectors of the Cross"woot

[variable]

Knight's Templar :D

[Pete031]

Looks like a movie poster

Looks like that Hungarian Rapper....

[Monte]

Looks like that Hungarian Rapper....

Nobody here knows any hungarian rapper....and, no, we don't want to get to know him.p-)

[Mumu94]

Nicolas Sarkozy

[rhino]

Nicolas Sarkozy













you fail, try again

[NOX1110]

Do you have an enlarged copy of this pic?

[Echo300]

Nicolas Sarkozy
Fixed them for you:







And here's American Secret Service:


Secret Service agents stand by as U.S. President George W. Bush is greeted upon his arrival by Saint Vincent College Chancellor Archabbot Douglas Nowicki in Latrobe, Pennsylvania May 11, 2007. Bush delivered a commencement address at the college. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque (UNITED STATES)

[Mumu94]

thx .

[Chulo]

i bet that briefcase is that ballistic shield

[bats]

i bet that briefcase is that ballistic shield



Yes It is (Kevlar)... I don't know if you remenber Lionel Jospin a former french prime minister attacked by pieces of pavement thrown by students in Jerusalem... His bodyguards saved him with that kind of briefcase.


On the pictures with Sarkozy, the guys are from SPHP, "Police nationale" VIP protection unit.
Actually there should be GSPR (Presidence of Republic Security Group, from "gendarmerie") guys arond the french president, but Sarkozy who is a former "ministre de l'interieur" prefer policemen, so GSPR will probably disappear.


GSPR is one of the three units of the GSIGN, with the famous GIGN and the EPIGN, an other close-protection unit (embassy staffs and militay officials)



Some GSPR pics:










EPIGN:
French Embassy, Abidjan, Ivory Coast









(A very different point of view of Political one, I think)




1er RPIMA GDC (bodyguard group, french generals close protection), in Liban, last summer






You can also see the GIPN ("Police Nationale" Intervention Group) in close-protec missions

Here, in Liban:






Other pics (GIPN and EPIGN mixed) in Haiti, Beyrut, Ivory coast...



Michelle Alliot-Marie






http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/ultrabats/96dee93fbr0.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/ultrabats/3022415cq9.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/ultrabats/ambassade4ol4.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/ultrabats/ambassade7mi2.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/ultrabats/ambassadevn6.jpg
http://i139.photobucket.com/albums/q315/ultrabats/bd4c757bsv8.jpg

[Echo300]

NICE pictures! Welcome to mp.net

[kaibil1944]

wow, i think France is the country with more special operations units.

[grabie]

This is what my president deserves as bodyguards;

[bats]

NICE pictures! Welcome to mp.net

Thanks!

(and please escuse my poor english)

[Monte]

In one Picture one of the French operators holds a Yugo M-76 Sniper/DM Rifle...is that from joint training? In the picture above the one mentioned, one is wearing a camo-jacket which appears to be in Bosnian Serb Lizard Camo style...any info what jacket this is and where this picture is from?
Thanks!

[LoboCanada]

Prime Minister Stephen Harper's Bodyguard is in-between the two honorary guards. He's most likely JTF-2, or an MP (trained in CP).

[bats]

In one Picture one of the French operators holds a Yugo M-76 Sniper/DM Rifle...is that from joint training? In the picture above the one mentioned, one is wearing a camo-jacket which appears to be in Bosnian Serb Lizard Camo style...any info what jacket this is and where this picture is from?
Thanks!

I know the ZAstava M76 looks strange in a french guys arms, but I don't know much more...

The lizard camo is an old french one, particularly used by paratroopers during the Algeria war, but theoricaly forbidden after 1962...

The operator with Zastava wear DPM gear, as GSIGN oprators and French Marine Commandos often do.

[Boomstick]

This is what my president deserves as bodyguards;



That is too good.

[He219]

1er RPIMA GDC (bodyguard group, french generals close protection), in Liban, last summer

Negative.
Neither a French General, Lebanon or last year.

I posted this pic a long time ago - single source (me), same resolution.
Here is the actual caption:

United States ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, wearing a bulletproof vest is guarded by a French soldier, Thursday, June 12, 2003, during a meeting of UN security council diplomats at the UN compound in Bunia, Congo. U.N. Security Council diplomats arrived in this northeastern Congolese town Thursday on a mission meant to relaunch a political process to end violence in the region




EPIGN:
French Embassy, Abidjan, Ivory Coast



You can also see the GIPN ("Police Nationale" Intervention Group) in close-protec missions
Other pics (GIPN and EPIGN mixed) in Haiti, Beyrut, Ivory coast...


Michelle Alliot-Marie






Again, sequence from French security operators (http://militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=67723&highlight=French+Security+operators)

This kind of pilfering and shoving it back to the source here without reference is just insulting.
As if it's something new. It's not even on topic.

[He219]

Couple from Today:






Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in blue) is surrounded by his JTF-2 security detail as he climbs up an observation post at a Canadian forward operation base in Ma'Sum Ghar, Kandahar province Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 23, 2007















Austrian special police exercise at their training ground in Wiener Neustadt, south of Vienna, on Tuesday, May 22, 2007, ahead of the visit of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Putin arrives in Vienna for a brief state visit Wednesday amid tight security and expectations that Austrian leaders will address human rights issues with their high-profile guest

[Chulo]

i dont know if im just lookin for it more often, or they are starting to use it a lot more.. but thats a deployed ballistic shield

[bats]

Negative.
Neither a French General, Lebanon or last year.

I posted this pic a long time ago - single source (me), same resolution.
Here is the actual caption:




Again, sequence from French security operators (http://militaryphotos.net/forums/showthread.php?t=67723&highlight=French+Security+operators)

This kind of pilfering and shoving it back to the source here without reference is just insulting.
As if it's something new. It's not even on topic.


Sorry about that

But I didn't take the pics from there. As you can see I am new here...

Some pics (EPIGN - Ivory coast) are from a french photographer Christophe Dubois, most of them are in his book "Gendarmes" and I find the others on another forum. Moreover AFP (Agence France Presse) pictures are easy to find on the net...

By the way, in your topic "French Security Operators" you make many mistakes.

For example operators on boats (G8) or watching the see from a roof (Cannes) are not from GIGN

http://pro.corbis.com/images/DWF15-730854.jpg?size=67&uid={de0817da-da47-4e86-87a2-744044152546}

GIGN is NOT a Police unit (you can see a POLICE patch on the back of one guy on the roof)

The guys on the boats are from EPIGN naval detachment

If I post these pics is because EPIGN is security unit, back-up of GSPR (president security) so they sometines protect him, and they belongs to the same command: GSIGN.

And here, many people have posted not only president bodyguards pics but also from other units, or protecting other VIPs.......


For the first pic you quote, you are true, a made a mistake, it was in Bunia, not in lebanon.

But I assume he is a GDC (due to his P90). I never said he was actually protecting a FRENCH general, but that is his usual job.....

[tango44]

That´s what my president should have as scort;





Man that helmet looks like tight!

[Generation Kill]

Putin is a ****ing gangster.

[Xlimit]

Didn't know JTF-2 had M14's in it's inventory... nice pics all!!!

[Pete031]

Didn't know JTF-2 had M14's in it's inventory... nice pics all!!!

I don't see an M14.... I see a heavy barrelled C8 in the back round.

[SamHamam]

Some GSPR pics:


Interesting choice of jacket for a Frenchman. I've seen them wearing UK Windproof Smocks in the RIPMa but that looks like a Smock, Parachitist.

[Bullet28]

Interesting choice of jacket for a Frenchman. I've seen them wearing UK Windproof Smocks in the RIPMa but that looks like a Smock, Parachitist.

And he uses a Zastava m-79 sniper rifle interesting choice

[CreepingDeath]

Are those Dockers you're wearing?


yep. those are dockers, its quite obvious.

[STEPAN1983]

Putin is a ****ing gangster.
And you are ignorant man.
This photo was taken in the Caucasus - a total warzone. Do you expect president's Bush bodyguards to use a simple 9mm pistols during the visit to Iraq? I think in such **** places there is no need to look non-aggressive - life of Boss is a priority.

[rhino]

And you are ignorant man.
This photo was taken in the Caucasus - a total warzone. Do you expect president's Bush bodyguards to use a simple 9mm pistols during the visit to Iraq? I think in such **** places there is no need to look non-aggressive - life of Boss is a priority.

you are quite ignorant yourself, noone is pointing at his body guards, Putin's dressed like a gangster, and you have a funny definition of "total war zone", what year is this pic from??

[STEPAN1983]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in blue) is surrounded by his JTF-2 security detail as he climbs up an observation post at a Canadian forward operation base in Ma'Sum Ghar, Kandahar province Afghanistan, Wednesday, May 23, 2007

He is not wearing a black suit, is he a gangster?

[STEPAN1983]

Caucasus, expecially north Caucasus, is a **** hole of the world, like the Lebanon, Iraq, A-stan

[rhino]

Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper (in blue) .....He is not wearing a black suit, is he a gangster?

a gangsta in a blue shirt???rofl more like a banker but close enough

[Fulix]

Some of our guys at the range with USSS snipers, prior to Bush's visit.

[8mm]

best bodyguards are always form israel and north korea (Kim's bodyguards )they protech their president perfectly

[Fulix]

Oh yeah, thanks for such an insightful post... :roll:


More photos:

[hiperipis1979]

best bodyguards are always form israel and north korea (Kim's bodyguards )they protech their president perfectly

How do you know? Izak Rabin was killed nevertheless and Kim Yong Ill travels seldomly and if he does he uses an armored train. He rode that thing 4000 miles to Moscow because he is afraid of flying (just as I was if I had to fly on a North Korean airplane ...)

[SturmPionier]

How do you know? Izak Rabin was killed nevertheless and Kim Yong Ill travels seldomly and if he does he uses an armored train. He rode that thing 4000 miles to Moscow because he is afraid of flying (as I would if I had to fly on a North Korean airplane ...)


Interesting thing with Kim-Yong Ill, anybody got pic rom the amored train?

[FIA_cn]

Interesting thing with Kim-Yong Ill, anybody got pic rom the amored train?

here you go

[Ravage]

Fulix the scopes are "longer" than normaly.....why ?

Great pics, thanks :hug:

[8mm]

How do you know? Izak Rabin was killed nevertheless and Kim Yong Ill travels seldomly and if he does he uses an armored train. He rode that thing 4000 miles to Moscow because he is afraid of flying (just as I was if I had to fly on a North Korean airplane ...)

come on how can u make connection between his bodyguarda and his travel by train ??????:|

and Reagan was also killed does it make american bodyguards distrustful?

[8mm]

Generally police backround or still police.. but they are not as good as General Buyukanit's bodyguards as General uses Red Berets as bodyguards

[hiperipis1979]

come on how can u make connection between his bodyguarda and his travel by train ??????:|

Ok, I went astray there, but how can you say he's got the best bodyguards when they have never been contested?



and Reagan was also killed does it make american bodyguards distrustful?

Reagan was killed? Don't think so. What do you consider "good" bodyguards? I'd argue that bodyguards whose protege is the least traveling leader of the world and at the same time the leader of the most prison-like country of the world can hardly be the best. They are hardly contested in their job.

Although I am not American i'd venture to say that USSS bodyguards are among, if not the best. They protect a frequently traveling and the most hated person in the world, have unlimited access to the largest intelligence service of the world, have almost unlimited resources and access to all the technology and knowledge that one could possibly have, have 300million people to recruit their staff from and so on ... Israelis and North Koreans are somewhat limited in more than one of those aspects ...

[8mm]

Ok, I went astray there, but how can you say he's got the best bodyguards when they have never been contested?



Reagan was killed? Don't think so. What do you consider "good" bodyguards? I'd argue that bodyguards whose protege is the least traveling leader of the world and at the same time the leader of the most prison-like country of the world can hardly be the best. They are hardly contested in their job.

Although I am not American i'd venture to say that USSS bodyguards are among, if not the best. They protect a frequently traveling and the most hated person in the world, have unlimited access to the largest intelligence service of the world, have almost unlimited resources and access to all the technology and knowledge that one could possibly have, have 300million people to recruit their staff from and so on ... Israelis and North Koreans are somewhat limited in more than one of those aspects ...
and try to think that north korea has bad relationship with other counties and Kim is the one who can face with assassination so his bodyguards must always be ready for attack and travelling isnt the action where u can be in danger u can be in danger in yourhomeland too..

and israelies are in the lands of terroism and have amazing experience where other even cant reach their level.check all best american bodyguard companies u will see that they are all retired israelies who worked in Israel..
And about Reagan sorry part me i would say John F. Kennedy . sorry

[Jocker_89]

Polish president's gurads


9th June 2007: Visit of President of the United States in Poland








11th June 2007: holiday of Government Protection Bureau.









I have hope this isn't repost.

[Sand Man]

best bodyguards are always form israel and north korea (Kim's bodyguards )they protech their president perfectly

Care to elaborate? Some facts would be helpful here. Events. Dates.

Thanks...

[8mm]

Care to elaborate? Some facts would be helpful here. Events. Dates.

Thanks...


as muc as i know Kim was close to die many times becaouse of assasinations but all his boydguards always protected him
and israelies (from SHABAK) are always in terrorism lands and has amazing experience..

[OMEGA7]

as muc as i know Kim was close to die many times becaouse of assasinations but all his boydguards always protected him
and israelies (from SHABAK) are always in terrorism lands and has amazing experience..

It can't be. I don't think they has the military power especially.

[Fulix]

Fulix the scopes are "longer" than normaly.....why ?

Great pics, thanks :hug:

Well, there are scopes and scopes...

Anyway, those - i believe - are most probably USO for long range targets (but do not quote me on that).

[SturmPionier]

here you go


interesting, thank you for those pics woot

[theholeinthedonut]

as muc as i know Kim was close to die many times becaouse of assasinations but all his boydguards always protected him



Where do you get your "knowledge" or is it just an assumption?

[SturmPionier]

i canr understand that somebody want to assasinate kim... :roll:

[GAFES]

[charlie brown]

There can't be any doubt. It's Chuck Norris. chuck norris doesnt need a m4 he uses his bare hands

[caco500]

Sudanese president bodyguards:

[muck]

Good view on Federal Crime Investigation Bureau (BKA) bodyguards of former Chancellor Schröder in Afghanistan. Three of them have died last year when an IED hit the vehicle they were travelling in.

p90 ftw!

[Dragunov]

Cool picture. Is the guy with the red/maroon beret from the german airborne?

[muck]

Yes, he is, and the other officer next to Schröder is a general of Franco-German brigade.

[silentmercenary]

Does anyone have any photos of the Philippine Presidential Guard?

[raulv]

all the guards walk with their eyes on the floor!!!!!!!!!!

[/quote]

[~~~~]

BOR agents protecting Polish president during his visit to Iraq two years ago:

[7eveN]

rhino, ==> you are quite ignorant yourself, noone is pointing at his body guards, Putin's dressed like a gangster, and you have a funny definition of "total war zone", what year is this pic from??

what gangster? he is dressed as a normal person.
what is gangster about that?
he just has nice taste for elegant clothes.

[Icebergtz]

Looks like the presence of Secret Service has increased on Mr Obama's security detail











Hillary Clinton

[Cam]

No McCain?

Lol.

[sergentdarmes]

A late answer to a question about GSPR gendarmes wearing camo smocks and shooting various weapons:

Most had privately purchased camo smocks, and ARKTIS and SASS were favorites, probably after contacts with British units. Camo was used mostly for training as counter-snipers or "playing" the "red cell" in exercises.
They tested as many weapons as possible in order to know their possibilities :
accuracy, penetration; to know what kind of armour was needed for example.

Now all 3 specialized units GIGN, EPIGN, gendarmerie detatchment of GSPR, have merged into a "large", multi-role GIGN.

[Ghorkhali]

Presidential body guards escort India

[nomad_fh]

Polish BOR (Biuro Ochrony Rzadu), escort prince Karol and princess Kamila. Cracov 29.04.2008

[/URL] (http://picasaweb.google.com/NomaDFH/WizytaKsiCiaKarolaWKrakowie/photo#5195418677315015266)

(http://picasaweb.google.com/NomaDFH/WizytaKsiCiaKarolaWKrakowie/photo#5196854519241806914) (http://picasaweb.google.com/NomaDFH/WizytaKsiCiaKarolaWKrakowie/photo#5196750495133897586)

(http://picasaweb.google.com/NomaDFH/WizytaKsiCiaKarolaWKrakowie/photo#5196750546673505186)

(http://picasaweb.google.com/NomaDFH/WizytaKsiCiaKarolaWKrakowie/photo#5196882028507337858) [URL="http://picasaweb.google.com/NomaDFH/WizytaKsiCiaKarolaWKrakowie/photo#5196925377612256514"]

[Icebergtz]

As noted in the Obama- and Hillary-Protect series, their Secret Service candidate-protective agents hold their hands at waist height, particularly in crowds, but also when standing guard. Presumably this allows quick action against hands of attackers or to draw weapons. Do other protective and/or law enforcement officers use this hand positioning?

A quick comment on your question about the hands position of the SS agents. I have worked as a bodyguard in Japan for a long time. This was one of the first lessons I received from people I was working with: when escorting the principal through a crowd of people who are expecting him and engaging in contact with him (shaking hands, asking for an autograph, etc.), you hold your hands somewhere around the level of your lower ribs, like in this picture


or the guy in the background (between Hillary and the black lady) in



Reason for this is that if there's a stabbing attempt or something similar you can quickly react and slap/push down the attacking arm quickly, without having to waste precious moments on raising your own arms and then changing the direction of movement of your hand (losing more time) and pushing theirs down. In most of other pictures, where the hands are at the general hip level, it's just a regular 'ready for action' stance.

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[rhino]

A quick comment on your question about the hands position of the SS agents. I have worked as a bodyguard in Japan for a long time.

cool pics there Icebergtz, but what a fvck is an SS agent???

[Icebergtz]

cool pics there Icebergtz, but what a fvck is an SS agent???

SS=Secret Service Agent

[rhino]

SS=Secret Service Agent

I know, but just out of respect, dont use that abriviation

[Afro-European]

SS=Secret Service Agent
USSS=United States Secret Service.

[variable]

Icebergtz, thanks alot! Great series, please keep em coming. Do you have more of the vatican swiss guard close protection?

Ben

[santana]

Security guards of Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert guard next to his car after a man shot himself during a farewell ceremony for visiting French President Nicolas Sarkozy at Ben Gurion airport in Israel on 24 June 2008. The visiting leader and his wife, Carla Bruni, were not endangered by the incident.










Quote:
Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert (L) peeps through the curtain to look out the window of his armored as Israeli guards secure the area following a security alert upon French President Nicolas Sarkozy's departure on June 24, 2008 at Ben Gurion airport near Tel Aviv. Sarkozy was rushed off to his plane today when a shot that may have been accidental caused the death of a soldier during a departure ceremony at Ben Gurion airport, Israeli public radio reported. Confusion surrounded the incident and radio said the soldier may have fallen off a roof causing his weapon's accidental discharge

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

What type of gun is that they are carry...a modified M16 and why do they all have the yellow stripes?

[rhino]

looks like an M4,
the stripes could be to identify protection staff, you know, shyte happens, lots of people running around in civys with guns who is good gou?who is bad goy?

[Sand Man]

Steven Seagal does that a lot. Was he in the business before?

[hk53]

cover me ill call domino's



Finally found some Armenian bodyguards

[wiking]

looks like an M4,
the stripes could be to identify protection staff, you know, shyte happens, lots of people running around in civys with guns who is good gou?who is bad goy?

makes sense.
Also, atleast on the pistols, it's placed right where you'd put grip-tape instead of forward cocking serrations. Might be another, though less likely, explanation.

Kinda funny, gives it a bit of 'Black & Decker' look. But it probably works as a simple but ingenious IFF-system.

[big_les]

Those strips are weird. Could they be gas detection patches? Probably a dumb suggestion.

[rhino]

Those strips are weird. Could they be gas detection patches? Probably a dumb suggestion.

interesting proposition, though I only seen gray'ish color patches, two; most weapons are conciled untill needed so having those patches there would be bit of no use, three it takes bit of agent to have a reaction on them and by that time it may be too late, and they work mostly on contact
correct me if Im wrong, its been a while since I did NBCD

[big_les]

No, I'm almost certainly talking out of my arrse on this one. Just a thought.

[Mousepad]

[boy1000]

Doesn't looks like US armed forces "regular" specops operators to me. Maybe BLACKWATER (http://www.blackwaterusa.com) operators?

Yes they are private contractors, they are British Tier 1 SF operators and US Tier 1 SF Operators. They are not BW

[Icebergtz]

Secret Service HQ

[Icebergtz]

July 4th Event Monticello,VA



Uniform Division





[

[Vympel]

Alekna is one of most agile Valdas Adamkus bodyguards



He can slice man in half.

Who needs gun, when he has a disc.
Btw good luck in Olympics.

Other baltic bodyguards aren't worthly to compare

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

The Secret Service has asked for an extra $9.5 million to cover unexpected costs of protecting the presidential candidates during what has turned into an historic year for the agency's campaign security job.
Among other things, the extra money would be used for the added costs for the candidates' international travel and a late-in-the-game decision by Barack Obama to accept the Democratic nomination at Denver's Invesco Field at Mile High — an open-air, 76,000-seat stadium — instead of the 20,000-seat Pepsi Center, which is the site of the party's national convention.
Presidential candidates are traveling overseas with Secret Service protection more than ever before.
Obama is on a six-day trip to Jordan, Israel, Germany, France and Britain. Before that he was on a three-day congressionally sponsored trip to Afghanistan and Iraq. Republican candidate John McCain has traveled to Canada, Colombia and Mexico under the agency's protection.
The 2008 presidential campaign cycle is the longest in Secret Service history by about five months. The Secret Service budgeted $106.65 million for the 2008 campaign cycle, compared to $73.3 million in 2004.
"I thought we had a very, very good plan in place for the campaign," Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said in an interview with The Associated Press earlier this week. "If past history was any type of an indicator, we anticipated picking up protection somewhere in January, February, March of 2008."
"But the campaigns are different now," Sullivan said.
Obama received Secret Service protection on May 3, 2007 — the earliest the agency has ever stepped in to protect a candidate. Obama, who frequently draws crowds in the thousands at campaign stops, requested the protection. At the time, the Secret Service and Homeland Security officials said they were not aware of any threats to the senator.
McCain picked up protection on April 27 of this year.
During the 2008 campaign, the agency has protected candidates on about 1,500 trips; and each trip has included three to eight stops. To secure the candidates on these trips, the Secret Service has used about 2,200 magnetometers to screen about 1.5 million people.
The crowds have also been larger than expected. For instance, on May 18, in Portland, Ore., an Obama event was expected to draw 20,000. But instead, 75,000 showed, the Secret Service said. And Thursday, in Berlin, Germany, Obama drew a crowd of about 200,000, according to local law enforcement.
These are not the first candidates to travel internationally. In 1984, then-Democratic hopeful Jesse Jackson traveled to three countries in Latin America, the Secret Service said.
"One of the things I've been most proud of is our work force, because it has been a long campaign, but they have been incredible, enthusiastic and just done a terrific job with the campaign," Sullivan said.
Congress is currently considering the request for additional funds, which was made earlier this summer. The money would be drawn from other programs within the Homeland Security Department, the Secret Service's parent agency.
The Secret Service was formed in 1865 to investigate counterfeit currency. It started protecting major presidential candidates in 1968.

[Linas]

Alekna is one of most agile Valdas Adamkus bodyguards


http://www.laf.lt/imag/EC06/alekna8.jpg
He can slice man in half.
http://www.sporting-heroes.net/files_athletics/ALEKNA_V_20030826_GH_L.jpg
Who needs gun, when he has a disc.
Btw good luck in Olympics.


The most titled bodyguard in the world for sure.


A couple more pics


'93 Pope visit


some training

[Icebergtz]

The US Presidential candidates get full presidential security when abroad....

[Icebergtz]

Democratic presidential candidate Senator Barack Obama joins his entourage of security and american reporters as he leaves from the back door of television studios after being interviewed by television reporters on July 26, 2008 in London, England.

[Icebergtz]

Armoured cars are now considered almost essential for all high-profile figures in dangerous parts of the world. But President George W Bush’s vehicle is thought to be the most advanced ever.

Has your car passed the latest crash-test standards? Maybe so. But if you are the leader of the free world, then you’ll be looking for a little bit more than passenger air bags.

The most important element of President George W Bush’s London “security bubble” his car - one very heavily armoured and limited edition presidential Cadillac deVille.

Protecting world leaders is a serious business and there are only a handful of companies around the world with the specialist engineering skills.

One of the first armoured cars for a political leader is thought to have been a limousine built by engineering firm O’Gara-Hess & Eisenhardt for President Harry S. Truman in 1949.

Today, the technology has greatly moved on - and it has been shown to save lives in the worst case scenarios.

Take Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze for example.

In 1998 at least 10 heavily armed men ambushed his motorcade, opening fire on his vehicle with light arms, machine guns and rocket-propelled grenades.

Three people were killed but thanks to the armour in his limousine - a present from friendly governments in the West - he walked away unharmed.
The German government quickly sent him a new one.


The remains of Georgian President Eduard Shevardnadze’s armoured car following a 1998 assassination attempt. At least 10 men ambushed his motorcade with rocket-propelled grenades. Three died in the incident but President Shevardnadze walked uninjured from the car.

Principles of protection

The security measures built into President George W Bush’s limousine are a well-kept secret - but without a doubt they will be as substantial, if not more so, than those which protected President Shevardnadze.

So how does vehicle security work? There are three basic principles:

* Protection at point of attack
* Ability to evade and escape
* Counter-measures

In terms of protection, the most important area requiring defence is the passenger cabin. If this fails, then the assailants increase their likelihood of achieving their aims.

In the most secure of these vehicles, the transparent side glass (typically a form of polycarbonate laminate) will be more than 6cm thick - capable of happily withstanding direct arms fire.

The rest of the passenger cabin consists of armour plating creating of walls, pillars and the roof with overlapping reinforced steel and other bullet-proof composites.

Today’s top of the range cars can withstand sustained direct fire from AK-47 and M-14 rifles, as well as the effects of grenade explosions.

But one of the most feared forms of attack is by mine or other undercarriage bomb.

The need to improve this type of protection for high-risk figures became apparent in May 1992 when Italy’s top anti-mafia judge Giovanni Falcone was assassinated by a bomb placed in the road surface of a motorway.

Today’s armour engineers have learned lessons from that attack and improved the levels of protection available.

In one 1998 incident, an armoured Canadian vehicle detonated a buried 10lb anti-tank mine. Such was the force of the blast the vehicle was thrown into the air and crashed down on its roof.

The occupants suffered minor injuries due to the violent jolt but their cabin was intact. The mine left a crater two metres wide.

Taken together, all these elements aim to ensure that even if a vehicle is incapacitated, its occupants will be able to withstand an attack until help arrives.

Evasion

But recent innovations means that today’s armoured cars are better placed to escape and evade.
OPTIONAL EXTRAS

* Remote start with electronic bomb scanners
* Fire suppression systems
* Sealed compartments with air supply
* Public address systems
* Tamper-proof exhaust pipes
* Roof rail handles for security staff on foot

Models openly advertised as having “presidential standard” security come fitted with armour around the battery, radiator, engine block and systems to automatically seal the fuel tank to prevent explosions.

Another measure which security firms recommend as absolutely standard is “run-flat” armoured tyres and wheels.

In the event of the armoured tyres disintegrating under attack (unlikely, as the tyres are designed to run if flat), the wide steel rims are strong enough for the driver to escape at speed.

Another measure appearing in the top-of-the-range models is night vision systems. Is this a gimmick or crucial security technology?

Vehicles such as the presidential Cadillac deVille use an infra-red camera to scan the road.

The heat signature of all objects ahead is converted into a view of the road which is projected onto the inside of the windscreen.


For those who fear attack, this technology can provide clearer images of people or objects than headlights, even in the dead of night.

Finally there is the question of counter-measures.

Clearly a man like President Bush travels with a huge security entourage tasked with counter-attacking assailants while his vehicle escapes.

But for those with something short of a private army, there are other counter-measures available on the market.

One of the leading companies in the field offers to create hidden weapons compartments, strengthened bumpers for ramming other vehicles off the road and, in extreme circumstances, concealed gun ports in the doors.

A CAR FIT FOR A PRESIDENT

1. Night-vision capability, should lights fail
2. Armour on the doors makes them so heavy, they often have an automatic opening system
3. The whole car is equipped with five inch thick armour plate
4. The fuel tank is designed to resist heat to prevent explosions for as long as possible
5. Anti-shred tyres able to run even with punctures or bullet holes

[yomex21]

National Police Agency Imperial Guard (Japan)











United States Secret Service

The 34th G8 summit took place in Tōyako on the northern island of Hokkaidō, Japan from July 7–9, 2008.

[rhino]

some close ups of japanese bodyguards and equipment would be nice:|

[yomex21]

some close ups of japanese bodyguards and equipment would be nice:|

（　＾ω＾ ）（　＾ω＾ ）（　＾ω＾ ）

[rhino]

（　＾ω＾ ）（　＾ω＾ ）（　＾ω＾ ）


all Im seeing is tits ω :)

sorry

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

University of Nevada


When Mr. Obama marched in Columbia, S.C., on Martin Luther King's birthday, he was surrounded by Secret Service agents and followed by a van that could be used to whisk him away in the event of an emergency.

At a large rally at the University of Denver, Mr. Obama was surrounded by a security detail ready to react to a threat from the crowd as he shook hands.

This agent was watching the exit and keeping an escape route clear as he waited for Mr. Obama to finish at a rally in St. Louis.

Mr. Obama, trailed by his security detail, took the stage in an overflow room before the rally at the University of Denver.

A Secret Service agent watched Mr. Obama's back -- literally.

[DID]

Secret Service HQ



How the hell did you take these pictures?
I mean I was thinking nobody's allowed to approach this kind of building with camera and all is ok.

[rhino]

Mark Woldberg anyone?

[tango44]

Chelsea Clinton asked a Soldier in Iraq what he is afraid of. He replied:

Osama
Obama
& Yo Mamma.
:)

[Echo300]

A good joke, but does it really belong in this thread? :)

[Amkus]

I took these fairly crappy pictures when I was in DC. They're at the whitehouse.

The guy was sporting a P90.

I also waved to the sniper team on the roof, which was all in good fun. They decided not to take me out, luckily.

[Icebergtz]

Anybody seen pics of Invesco Field event?

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

How to foil an assassin: Top politicians who use too many bodyguards may increase the risk of being assassinated, mathematics shows. This is a powerful lesson for sites where safety is critical.

Everybody runs a risk of being attacked, but most of us can take simple precautions to minimise the risk. For example, we avoid walking in parks or deserted city areas after dark or when other law-abiding citizens are unlikely to be present. But for politicians, high-profile public servants, business executives or, indeed, any well-known person, the risks of being attacked, injured or even killed are much higher. As history shows, assassination attempts on public figures are only too common.

For example, Julius Caesar was not the only Roman emperor to be assassinated. Indeed, it is difficult to think of any Roman leader who died of old age. The 19th century was particularly marked by assassinations, successful and attempted, throughout Europe. In the present century, almost everyone has heard of the assassination of Archduke Franz Ferdinand at Sarajevo which precipitated the First World War. Many people still remember the moment when they heard that President Kennedy had been assassinated in 1963, or that John Lennon had met an untimely death in 1980. In 1981 there were the attempted assassinations of President Reagan and Pope John Paul and the assassination of Egypt's President Sadat; 1984 saw the attack on the leadership of the British Conservative Party in Brighton and the assassination of Indira Gandhi. But, in addition, every year there are countless successful and attempted assassinations of other politicians, business people and public servants in countries as diverse as Britain, Germany, India and Algeria which are quickly forgotten by all but close relatives and friends.

There is no doubt that, compared with most of us, people in public life run a high risk of being attacked. For VIPs, and especially for senior politicians and heads of state, a strategy to minimise the risk is imperative. No security service would be willing to discuss what form such a strategy might take, but using probability theory and mathematical models we can evaluate the strengths and weakness of certain aspects of such strategies.

Model lessons

At Middlesex University, we have developed a simple mathematical model which includes the basic parameters of a possible attack, such as the behaviour of the politician, the assailant or assailants and the available defences. The model is simple because its purpose is not an accurate prediction of how best to protect VIPs, but to see what general lessons we can learn about reducing risks and then apply them to more esoteric forms of risk. For example, the model can easily be extended to consider the levels of risk of large-scale industrial or transport disasters, or of injury while using a controlled pedestrian crossing.

The model reveals that the major components that affect the level of risk for a politician are: the number of potential assailants; the frequency of exposure; and the probability that, given an exposure and an assailant, that person will succeed in inflicting injury. It follows that to decrease the risk, political figures should ensure the number of potential assailants is as low as possible. Numbers, and the determination of adversaries, however, can vary greatly with political and economic climate. And, as history shows, they can be difficult to influence.

One tactic, employed by many a royal or imperial household in the past, is to eliminate possible rivals and those groups thought to be hostile. For example, Queen Elizabeth I beheaded Mary, Queen of Scots in 1567 because she was too great a threat to the English crown. More recent were Stalin's vicious purges in the Soviet Union during the 1930s. Another common strategy is exile or internment. Before 1917, the Russian tsars exiled many a revolutionary, including Lenin, to keep them at bay. In present-day Egypt, the government keeps certain religious and political leaders in detention. A less draconian measure to reduce the exposure of a visiting VIP to potential assailants is to isolate those thought to be unfriendly to the visitor. In the 1950s, for example, the French government 'invited' well-known troublemakers among Russian exiles and emigres to stay in country mansions or comfortable hotels during an important visit by Soviet dignitaries. The visitors were unharmed, but whether that was a consequence of adopting this particular tactic is another question.

On the whole, though, such measures are unacceptable in a democratic society. Furthermore, controlling the number of potential assailants can be counterproductive. Sometimes it may provoke a pre-emptive strike from the threatened faction as Lavrenti Beria found after Joseph Stalin's death in 1953 when he attempted to use his position as chief of secret police to win the struggle for power. His opponents joined forces to accuse him of anti-party activities and engineered his execution before the year was out. In other cases, suppressing or banning opponents can drive troublemakers underground, or lead to their regrouping (as in the banning of neo-Nazis in Germany), both of which make surveillance and control more difficult.

Given the difficulties of reducing the number of assailants, a politician should be exposed to them as rarely as possible. One way to achieve this is to limit public appearances, especially during times of national or international tension when the number of potential assailants increases. Taken a stage further, they can appear only before invited, screened, searched or known audiences. In some societies this is refined to the ultimate: the politician is never seen by the public but only heard (and sometimes only heard of). Appearances are confined to an inner circle of close colleagues. Stalin successfully used this ploy in the early 1950s, as did Chairman Mao in the mid-1970s. Isolation may be effective for decreasing the risk, but is not always foolproof. Political figures can be at risk from potential assailants within their inner circle, as in the case of the attempted assassination of Hitler in 1944 by Colonel Claus von Stauffenberg.

Double acts

Isolation is also not feasible in democracies, because public exposure of politicians is an important part of the political process. An alternative approach for vulnerable people is to employ doubles. The press has frequently carried stories suggesting that Winston Churchill used doubles during the Second World War. This obviously decreases the risk to the politician, while conceding to public demands; what it does for the hapless double can only be imagined.

Since exposure is unavoidable, top politicians and heads of state need an effective and efficient means of neutralising the threat. This means employing defences or safeguards to reduce the probability of a successful attack. The defences can be either passive, in that they attempt to stop an attack being successful, or active in that they are designed to prevent an assailant from even initiating an attack.

There are many examples of passive defences, from armoured limousines, fortified homes and bulletproof vests to particularly tall bodyguards acting as a human shield around the VIP. An increasing number of politicians and business people use passive defences which, while effective, have limitations. Overconfidence and carelessness about keeping exposure to a minimum, for example, can negate the passive defences. Bulletproof vests and the like can reduce mobility, making evasive action more difficult. A person employing passive defences may also present an enhanced target. A VIP on foot, for example, may be attacked with small arms, whereas one in an armoured limousine is more likely to be attacked with a bomb, mine or missile. The chances of surviving such an attack are much lower.

Active defence falls into two categories: self-defence and external defence provided by other people. The first involves varying daily routines, making lives less predictable, taking lessons in unarmed combat or carrying weapons. Active self-defence has an enormous advantage in that the protection is provided by the person with the greatest interest in avoiding attack - the politician. However, politicians, heads of state and many other public figures must, by definition, lead a routine and predictable life; they have certain regular obligations and duties to which they must attend. Many of them are not trained (or are untrainable) in even the simplest aspects of self-defence. Therefore, if their office warrants it, or they can afford it, they rely on external sources of defence. External active defence is an important, if not the most important, part of protecting VIPs. It is nearly always achieved by hiring bodyguards and other security agents, who must have certain characteristics, the two most important being loyalty and the ability to identify and neutralise potential assailants.

Loyalty can come either from the professionalism of the bodyguards, as is generally the case in Europe and the US, or from family or group relationships, as is usual in many African countries. However, it is not easy to screen bodyguards for loyalty, and loyalties can change. There are many well-documented cases where bodyguards turn from protectors to assailants and attack the person they are meant to protect, such as the assassination in 1984 of Indira Gandhi by two of her bodyguards or, in June last year, when President Boudiaf of Algeria was shot by his own guard.

The ability of the bodyguards to identify and to neutralise potential assailants depends upon training, equipment, general attitudes and numbers. The better they are trained, the greater their chances of success. From watching the television news, we can deduce that most bodyguards have equipment well chosen for their tasks. When in action they bristle with radios and other communications equipment, automatic pistols and other handguns. Ideally, bodyguards should protect the person at all costs. In practice, however, the bodyguards in the West (the professionals as opposed to the family members) would not be expected to sacrifice their lives, but they should be experienced enough to take calculated risks.

Getting the numbers right

Identifying the optimum number of bodyguards to reduce the risk to a minimum is less straightforward. Intuition suggests that highest protection would be provided by a large army of well-trained and well-equipped bodyguards. Experience, however, indicates that this simple argument has two fallacies. First, it assumes that the guards are infallible, and never cause injury to their charges by the accidental discharge of their weapons. Secondly, it assumes that their loyalty is absolute, and that guards never turn against the person they protect.

There is a certain probability that each bodyguard will identify and neutralise a potential assailant, but there is also a certain probability that the bodyguards will harm, intentionally or accidentally, the person they are supposed to protect. Every public figure hopes that the first probability is much higher than the second, but is it? We used our mathematical model to consider this scenario. The risk to the politician is obtained by combining the probabilities of various actions, such as the assailant initiating an attack, the bodyguards neutralising this attack and the bodyguards presenting a direct threat to their charge. In common with other risk assessment analyses, it is difficult to obtain reliable data for these probabilities but we can make assumptions - for example, that the direct threat from the bodyguards is substantially lower than the threat from assailants.

Most of the conclusions are obvious, and it is no surprise to find the model predicting that the better the bodyguards are at recognising and eliminating the threat from the potential assailants the lower the risk. There is, however, one important conclusion that is counterintuitive: the risk of harm to the VIP can be minimised with respect to the number of bodyguards. In other words, there is an optimum number of bodyguards, and employing more or fewer than this increases the risk. If there are fewer than the optimum, the risk will increase because the bodyguards may be unable to deal with assailants; if there are more than the optimum, the risk will also be greater because of the threat, accidental or intentional, from the bodyguards themselves. The optimum depends on the assumptions for the various probabilities, but it could be as low as two or three in stable countries with a popular leader.

What about a more complex strategy such as using two groups of bodyguards? The majority, trained to recognise potential assailants, would be unarmed, or armed only with weapons that could not harm their charge. Only a smaller group, trained to recognise and eliminate potential assailants, would be armed with powerful weapons. The model tells us that the minimum risk can be decreased by such an approach, and it can be further decreased by increasing the number of bodyguards in the unarmed group. We do not know how the security services operate, but observing the 'walkabouts' of US presidents, for example, suggests that this may be their strategy.

Our model is not sufficiently detailed to predict the optimum strategy for dealing with people prepared to blow up whole buildings or roads to target their VIP, as happened last year in the assassinations of Giovanni Falcone and Paolo Borsellino, two of Italy's leading anti-Mafia judges. Nor can it differentiate between the optimum strategies to counteract the threat from, for example, professional assassins or unbalanced individuals. Nevertheless, there are several conclusions which could be important for other risk-assessment analyses.

First, the risk to top politicians cannot be completely eliminated, but it can be managed and minimised. Secondly, there are various defences or safeguards available, and the politician should take advantage of many of these as possible. Thirdly, increased 'protection' does not necessarily mean that the risk will be decreased too. Finally, safety is not necessarily improved by increasing the number of bodyguards.

The model can be applied to considering the overall risk from activities such as large-scale industrial undertakings. The parameters then would be the nature of the activity, the event or events leading to potential disasters and the available safeguards. We would also need to include the probabilities of, on the one hand, the safeguards system being able to identify and control the potential disasters, and on the other, of these safeguards initiating the events which could lead to disasters.

In the case of nuclear reactors, for example, we can draw the following conclusions. First, the risk of accidents cannot be eliminated completely. This is recognised by the nuclear power industry and its regulators, whose aim is to make the risk of accidents as low, and thus the reactors as safe, as is reasonably achievable. Secondly, a variety of protection levels (or safeguards) should be employed to minimise the occurrence of faults and to maximise the chances of ensuring that these faults do not lead to large-scale accidents. For this reason, nuclear reactors are designed with passive and active safeguards, and separate dedicated systems are used to identify and to neutralise possible faults which could lead to large-scale disasters.

Thirdly, increasing the number of safeguards does not necessarily mean that the risk of large-scale accidents will decrease. If a fault occurs, a safeguard must either interact with the system it protects or isolate that part of the system to prevent the fault affecting other parts of the reactor. But a malfunctioning safeguards system can itself lead to accidents if it interacts with other parts of the reactor, while a system that isolates the fault may exacerbate accidents by hindering the operation of other safety systems which need to interact with the part of the reactor affected. Too many safeguards, therefore, could result in an overprotected and less safe nuclear reactor.

The nuclear industry is well aware of this paradox in considering the risk and safety of reactors, but not politicians and the general public. The calls for the absolute safety of, or zero risk from, various activities such as industrial enterprises, air and rail travel or food processing may be politically expedient and popular with the electorate, but are technologically impossible and intellectually bankrupt.

Jiri Kubie used to work for the Central Electricity Generating Board and Nuclear Electric. He is professor of mechanical engineering at Middlesex University, London.

[Icebergtz]

The Counter Assault Team (CAT) typically operates in heavily-armed, five-man teams that augment an existing protective detail. In the event of an assault, their purpose is to engage the attacker(s) while the protective detail evacuates their principal to safety. Out of the generally 35 vehicles in the Presidential motorcade, anywhere from 2 - 6 vehicles may contain CAT members, depending on the threat level that day. The purpose of a CAT is not to win a firefight, but to completely overwhelm the enemy right up until the point where the protectee has escaped. After that, a local SWAT team (also travelling with the motorcade) will take over.

[nomad_fh]

Polish SPAP (Cracov) - function CAT. Squad with during visit of prince of Carol, cooperating BOR
Cracov 29.04.2008

[/URL]

(http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/n-Wg8pe_Upyb-n1h7RIdqw)

[URL="http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/bOq1PbPwo90hCHXIfVGe-Q"]

[LoboCanada]

Out of the generally 35 vehicles in the Presidential motorcade, anywhere from 2 - 6 vehicles may contain CAT members, depending on the threat level that day.

35 vehicles!! Holy shizz!

Great pics BTW. Anyone have pics of Canadian PM's and thier bodyguards?

[jupiter]

A dumb question: Why the USSS agents have the hands like that(Like praying if you will). To have them closer to their guns?

[variable]

It's not only the Secret Service but all professional close protection detail. They can act faster in case of an assault.

[Icebergtz]

A dumb question: Why the USSS agents have the hands like that(Like praying if you will). To have them closer to their guns?

Arms Ready
I posted about it here (http://www.militaryphotos.net/forums/showpost.php?p=3313794&postcount=338)

[jupiter]

Ok. Thankyou,:)

[LoboCanada]

Thanks Icebergtz.

Anyone have pics of the Canadian PM's bodyguards?

[rhino]

prolly a repost, but how about the watchers of the most important guy
this time of the year?

[Icebergtz]

Tanznaia

[Icebergtz]

Iraq

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

One interesting thing whenever Bush addresses a meeting there's always a bodyguard on his sides and sometimes they use a ballistic shield glass, is the future of presidential press conference going to be like this in foreign countries?

[Icebergtz]

From DC

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

Whitehouse

Jammer with microphones



Ground motion sensor

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

Courtesy of GeoEye

[Cpt. of MIB]

Moin!
What is this?????

[world_@_war]

lol good target to a sniper

[Cpt. of MIB]

Moin!

Yes Sir!
Open Areal


SS SS



F.L Pres
SS



SS SS

[rhino]

Moin!
What is this?????

if you really was MIB, you would know what elien technology is employed

nice pix Icebergz. as usuall, bravo

[tango44]

The worst reaction of the SS ever!

[Icebergtz]

Moin!
What is this?????
My initial guess would be RF transmitter or Microwave, again I could be wrong so whoever knows pls do the honors.

[Icebergtz]

lol good target to a sniper

You are forgetting the only snipers around were SS's CAT, FBI, Military and Police...in total Obama had 42,000 men to guard him on that day.

[Cpt. of MIB]

My initial guess would be RF transmitter or Microwave, again I could be wrong so whoever knows pls do the honors.



Moin!
Thanks for your help,Sir!!

[Victory]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LGGPeLRhwss

Heheheh.

-Vic

[JJC]

Did you guys notice that a lot of the USSS guys around Obama's limo did not wear gloves, and looked "lightly" dressed. I was wondering how their hands would not go numb in such freezing temps and not effect their ability to shoot or react with proper dexterity.

(I forgot my gloves the other day and could barely dial my cellphone in cold weather.)

[Icebergtz]

On Board Airforce One
SUN JAN 25
STARTS AT 8P
On Board Air Force One | National Geographic Channel (http://channel.nationalgeographic.com/channel/content/air-force-one/)

[Icebergtz]

http://www.hulu.com/embed/buzp5oCzqkiVv9x8LaP6Ww

[Icebergtz]

Watch the 60 minutes documentary about the secret service(it may not show for those who are outside the US)
http://snagfilms.com/films/title/inside_the_us_secret_service/

[rhino]

facking hulu, up theirs, I got a 4disc special on special forces, military and police, including USSS, I got to dig it up and finish watching

[UK1RPO]

Edited.....

[Icebergtz]

[rhino]

who is doing close protection? Tibetans?

[Icebergtz]

who is doing close protection? Tibetians?

Definitely not Chinese, Tibetans with western training perhaps.

[Icebergtz]

Security Around Obama Alarms Some VIP Donors
Lack of Measures 'Absurd,' Guests Say

By Aaron C. Davis
Washington Post Staff Writer
Friday, January 30, 2009; B01

Downtown Washington resembled a militarized zone last week for the inauguration of President Barack Obama, but some major contributors who had direct contact with Obama said they were surprised to find what they viewed as porous security surrounding the president-elect and vice president-elect.

Three contributors who raised $300,000 or more for the inauguration said they were never asked to show identification to retrieve dozens of tickets, including VIP passes that allowed them and their guests to meet privately with Obama. One of the three said ticket checks were so lax that no one noticed when, after a breakfast for contributors, a friend whose name hadn't been submitted for a background check tagged along into a VIP room to take pictures with Vice President-elect Joseph Biden.

And a half-dozen said that after a screening to sit in a ticketed area near Obama for his swearing-in, they mingled with public crowds but were never again checked for firearms or explosives.

"I was surprised," said online retail executive Alfred Lin, who attended most of the events for major donors in the days leading up to the swearing-in. "It was less strict than going through airport security."

To be sure, presidents mingle in public with people who have not been screened, and some donors said they were not troubled by the level of security in place last week. Ed Donovan, a Secret Service spokesman, said the agency's security measures are not always visible. "We take a layered approach to security and don't rely on any one countermeasure to ensure that a site is safe," he said.

A half-dozen donors expressed concern that security close to Obama and Biden seemed lacking, especially in light of the measures in effect downtown that day.

A donor who bundled contributions for the inauguration, who recalled participating in events hosting former president Bill Clinton, said he was shocked at what he saw as the disparity between the strict advance work done to secure a site for Clinton and the way he felt donors breezed through security last week. "The lack of security was absurd," said the bundler, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk more freely about how he and others were able to circumvent security. "It was just broken somewhere; someone wasn't thinking it through."

Several donors said they were particularly troubled by an episode before dawn Tuesday: More than 100 corporate executives, Hollywood personalities and others had been told to gather for a security screening outside the Renaissance Hotel at 999 Ninth St. NW. Once cleared, they were told, they would board "secure" buses that would ferry them to seats close to the president's podium at the Capitol, and then to bleachers adjoining his viewing stand in front of the White House.

But after passing through a magnetometer outside the hotel, members of the group said they were directed to a public sidewalk and told to find their way across Ninth Street to buses waiting in a convention center parking lot. Along the way, they said they mingled with throngs of spectators streaming toward the Mall. The VIPs were not screened again or asked for identification, they said.

Suzi LeVine, a former Expedia executive, said volunteers lined her path to the buses. Even so, she said, "I was definitely thinking, 'Is there a way that people could be infiltrating this group?' "

Arjun Gupta, founder and managing partner of the Silicon Valley venture capital firm TeleSoft Partners and a co-chairman of the Presidential Inaugural Committee, stressed that on the whole, he was impressed with inaugural security, but said the walk to the bus appeared to be a lapse.

"I didn't think about it at the time, but we went through security and then we were in an open space, freely accessible to the public," Gupta said. "The street was an open thoroughfare. Cars were going up and down. If you really knew what you were doing, that was truly a gap."

The Presidential Inaugural Committee was in charge of transportation for the donors but not security, and two of the donors said they recalled seeing Secret Service badges on men staffing the checkpoint outside the Renaissance.

Donovan, the Secret Service spokesman, said he could not confirm whether the agency ran the checkpoint. Donovan said he was aware of no concerns about security outside the hotel, and he encouraged anyone with such concerns to contact the Secret Service directly.

To anyone surfing the Internet, accounts of the lax security surrounding the "secure" buses were being broadcast in near-real time.

Chris Sacca, a tech investor who raised money for the inaugural committee, posted a message on the social messaging Web site Twitter at 6:45 a.m. after passing through the checkpoint. "We were thoroughly X-rayed, then walked across a public street in the open," Sacca wrote, adding an acronym for an expletive to convey disbelief.

Evan Williams, chief executive of Twitter, was also in line -- ahead of film producer George Lucas, according to his posts. He republished Sacca's account for his 39,615 online followers 10 minutes later, adding "True. And yikes."

Alfred Lin, who is chief operating officer and financial officer for Zappos.com, replied, "If I got this sooner, we'd have slept and snuck in."

Asked about the Twitter exchange, Lin said he was surprised by the walk to the bus but didn't see anyone not go through security. Sacca and Williams declined to comment on their posts, but Williams said he assumed that with the Secret Service, "there's a lot going on behind the scenes that you don't see."

Two donors expressed concern about security screenings that preceded a meeting they and about 100 others had with Obama in a tent behind the Lincoln Memorial before the Sunday concert.

One said he was waved through with a camera that had no batteries despite warnings that it would have to be operational. The two said they later walked unattended by the president's motorcade and watched other donors lean on Obama's limousine, posing for pictures.

By the next morning, when Biden spoke to donors at a Northwest hotel, one said it had become clear that ticket checks had become "a joke." He said he flashed a handful of coveted gray passes to gain access to the VIP room with Biden but brought in an extra guest.

Steve McKeever, founder of the music label Hidden Beach Recordings and another bundler, said he was never concerned about security because many in the groups were acquainted with one another, as well as with some Secret Service agents from past gatherings. "It wasn't like people won a lottery ticket to be there," he said.

Staff researcher Meg Smith contributed to this report.

[Icebergtz]

The Secret Service (http://www.ustreas.gov/usss/protection.shtml) wants its protection advertised to scare away attackers, and may provide limited information for that purpose, while guarding info which might circumvent protection. Standard behavior for those in the booming security racket. If you are lucky you will reveal information that will have the Secret Service on your doorstep, and that will lead to a story bump.

Snipers remain the simplest and most difficult killing method to prevent, a culture promoted by the military, spies, politics, religion, media and popular entertainment -- honorable and terrifying. It is the preferred tool for individuals to empower themselves to act directly on their grievances and ambitions. The solo sniper with no obvious affiliation of a threatening group and without prior knowledge by officials is considered by the military, presidential protection and police agencies the hardest threat to counter -- and all utilize the horrific measure to underwrite its empowering deterrence.






The display of a sniper detection system is seen in Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, March 18, 2004. BBN Technologies developed the system to help soldiers determine when they are under attack and where the enemy is located. (AP Photo/Stanley Hu)


A closeup shows part of the sniper detection system Cambridge, Mass., Thursday, March 18, 2004. BBN Technologies developed the system to help soldiers determine when they are under attack and where the enemy is located. (AP Photo/Stanley Hu)
Courtesy of J.Y.

[Icebergtz]

Sniper fire detectors.

[Sand Man]

Not to delve too much on USSS procedures but just this one instant I'd like to know ...

Would there be any specific reason why the SS agents would do this... ? (http://video.google.com/videosearch?q=secret+service+stand+down+jfk&hl=en&emb=0&aq=1&oq=secret+service+stand#)



Not trying to inject any tinfoil hat conspiracy here. Just wanted to know if this is common procedure back then... Thank you.


RIP.

[LoboCanada]

Anyone have pics of RCMP Protective Services or JTF2/MP Close Protection detail pictures?

[Icebergtz]

Anyone have pics of RCMP Protective Services or JTF2/MP Close Protection detail pictures?

There are some in previous posts.

[Icebergtz]

For those who couldn't catch the show On Board Air Force One I took the liberty of uploading it.

National Geographic - On Board_ Air Force One-1.avi - 349.82MB (http://www.zshare.net/video/55169511cc78b9c0/)

[vulpine]

Sniper fire detectors.

I believe this is an OE-254, which is a radio antenna. Notice there are no microphones at the ends. There are radio wires attched to the arm and it is tethered by normal strings for balance.

[rhino]

For those who couldn't catch the show On Board Air Force One I took the liberty of uploading it.

National Geographic - On Board_ Air Force One-1.avi - 349.82MB (http://www.zshare.net/video/55169511cc78b9c0/)

very nice, thanks for sharing

[Supplanter]

For those who couldn't catch the show On Board Air Force One I took the liberty of uploading it.

National Geographic - On Board_ Air Force One-1.avi - 349.82MB (http://www.zshare.net/video/55169511cc78b9c0/)

Thanks, that was a good show. Do you happen to have On Board Marine One?

[Cpt. of MIB]

For those who couldn't catch the show On Board Air Force One I took the liberty of uploading it.

National Geographic - On Board_ Air Force One-1.avi - 349.82MB (http://www.zshare.net/video/55169511cc78b9c0/)




Moin!

Thanks "Icebergtz" for Upload & Infolink!!!:)


MIB (AF1 Fan)

[Icebergtz]

Thanks, that was a good show. Do you happen to have On Board Marine One?

You are welcome fellas, I will try to upload it today or tomorrow, I am at a place with slow internet connection so you can imagine.

[Icebergtz]

I can count eleven visible agents.

[Icebergtz]

I can't stop laughing!

Barack Obama - Secret Service codename Renegade - is now the most guarded man on the planet.

Even when he goes to the loo, bodyguards stand outside it.

And when he travels by motorcade there are a dozen identical cars - so potential assassins won’t know which one he is in.

The President-elect will also have to get used to handing his glass to a Secret Service agent every time he has a drink outside the White House. The agent carries a small bag in which to pop the glass and later he destroys it.

The idea is to ensure that no unauthorized person has access to the Presidential DNA, but it is not clear how an enemy would use it.

Obama will be given a set of panic buttons: One for his pocket, one on his desk and one beside his bed. They are credit card-shaped and simply have to be squeezed to summon a posse of agents.

At one time, the President and Vice-President were given three-inch-high models of the Washington Monument to put beside their beds. They had simply to knock them over to summon the guards.

But the models were abandoned after Vice-President Dan Quayle - noted for being clumsy - knocked his over late one night while making love to his wife.

In seconds, the door burst open, the lights went on and Mrs Quayle was thrown out of bed to the floor as bodyguards flocked around her husband to ensure his safety.

[Icebergtz]

For those who didn't watch the On Board Marine One as usual I have managed to upload it on Zshare.

http://www.zshare.net/video/557963169e72c62c/

[Icebergtz]

Prez Obama's protection while in Canada





Not forgetting the football,

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

Israel.

[xray 29]

Look over Bush Left Shoulder and Obama's right shoulder .The same SS agent who was with President Bush during the shoe throwing is now assigned to President Obama

[AZZenny]

There was a good article awhile back by a photographer who spent about two years following Obama and became fascinated by the Secret Service detail, and people's respect for them.


I remember a long night in Pennsylvania when a Fox producer and I tried to figure out exactly what we would have to do to get them to shoot us. (Answer: nothing. They would never need to. We were pathetic, and they could take us out without firing a shot.) Rather than being impressed by them, we would tease them about the boring aspects of the job, asking them how many tiles were in the ceiling outside of Obama's room and laughing at them as they stood guard next to a steaming dumpster.

Despite the teasing, however, I came away from this experience deeply impressed by their skill and professionalism. People would come up to Obama as he was shaking hands and express their concerns, nakedly expressing the fear that he might be assassinated. He would always brush their words aside, saying that he had the best security in the world. And he is right.

As I photographed his Secret Service agents, I found myself becoming more aware of their attentiveness as we both scanned the crowds—they looking for threats and me looking for a particularly excited supporter. Often we would find ourselves focused on the same person. In addition, I also began to realize how respectful, grateful, and protective Americans feel toward the Secret Service. I was often berated by Obama supporters telling me I was putting the agents in harm's way by photographing them, even though I most certainly was not. They aren't really "secret," and as long as I stayed out of Obama's exit paths and did not block their field of vision, I could take as many pictures as I wanted.

[variable]

Cool! Thanks alot. Where is the rest of the pictures?

Ben

[AZZenny]

http://www.slate.com/id/2207287/slideshow/2207659

[santana]

ECUADOR

GRUPO ESPECIAL DE OPERACIONES * SPECIAL UNIT AT CHARGE OF PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY


300 soldiers in charge of the president of Ecuador Security

[tango44]

ECUADOR

GRUPO ESPECIAL DE OPERACIONES * SPECIAL UNIT AT CHARGE OF PRESIDENTIAL SECURITY


300 soldiers in charge of the president of Ecuador Security











Man those two guys really have a bad aspect to be president body guards

[santana]

[santana]

More from Ecuador

GEO * SPECIAL UNIT *

.





.

.

[mikec62001]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this...and this has probably already been posted (sorry if it has)

I found this article about James G Shortt - who apparently is fake - says he was in the Brit SAS.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/article2183915.ece

This guy is the Director General of “International Bodyguard Association” and executive member of British Martial art Commission.

http://www.ibabodyguards.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13&Itemid=27

Noticed a couple of his pics have been posted on here before

[dacanadianbomb]

Yeah that link to IBA sure is nice.It mumbles something about his viking ancestry or something ?
A serious wtf ?

[Chulo]

Not sure if this is the best place to put this...and this has probably already been posted (sorry if it has)

I found this article about James G Shortt - who apparently is fake - says he was in the Brit SAS.

http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/news/campaigns/our_boys/article2183915.ece



That sun link i get an attack report via AVG and Google

[Icebergtz]

Look over Bush Left Shoulder and Obama's right shoulder .The same SS agent who was with President Bush during the shoe throwing is now assigned to President Obama

Good looking out, wanted to post same pic when i posted the inauguration pics but I decided to give it a few weeks, apparently I haven't seen in him around Obama since that day.

[Icebergtz]

Hello ladies and gents sorry it has been a minute since I posted here, anyhow here is what I have.

NB. Anybody know a software that converts VOB files into AVI?
Pics of Obama aboard Air Force 1.

[Icebergtz]

Bodyguards at Obama's daughters' school.




Michelle Obama

[Icebergtz]

Presidential gadgets.
As we all know they let Obama keep his Blackberry after security modifications, it is used as a tracker.

What appears to be Obama's personal communication device is in the box between him and Rahm. It tracks his location. White House photo.


Note the Secret Service star(red arrow)



Call button

Presidential call button, for when you need a glass of
water or a spec-ops strike stat! http://whitehousemuseum.org/blog/2008/04/presidents-call-button.html







Bill Clinton's Desk

[Icebergtz]

While profiling White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel for The New Yorker (http://www.newyorker.com/reporting/2009/03/02/090302fa_fact_lizza), Ryan Lizza saw something interesting in Emanuel’s office. It’s mentioned only in passing:
"Next to his computer monitor is a smaller screen that looks like a handheld G.P.S. device and tells Emanuel where the President and senior White House officials are at all times."
So, Obama, Biden, and other “senior White House officials” are lojacked? It makes sense that they’d be wearing/carrying something (or is it, as seems likely, an injected RFID chip?) that always gives their location in case of kidnapping, medical emergency, etc.
But here’s the kicker: The device is obviously giving off a signal, which is how it can be tracked, and that signal could theoretically be intercepted by unauthorized parties. And it could probably be blocked, faked, etc.
One of the main objections to Obama keeping his BlackBerry is that the signal could be used to track him. Now that he’s keeping it, he’s trackable in two ways. Undoubtedly, strong measures have been taken to prevent his trackability via the BlackBerry or the monitoring device. But in the case of the latter, it’s supposed to monitor his movements. Its whole purpose is to let certain people know where he is at any given moment. Thus, the signal can’t be completely blocked because then it would be useless.
More questions: Who besides Emanuel is authorized to have the receivers showing the real-time location of the country’s leaders? How many receivers are there?

[Avon]

Icebergtz, thank you for the photographs of the presidents. -Adrian

[Icebergtz]

Gordon Brown

Abdelaziz Bouteflika

[santana]

U.S. President Barack Obama meets with General Ray Odierno after stepping off Air Force One at Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad, April 7, 2009.




Air Force One is seen parked at Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 7, 2009, after President Barack Obama arrived.




Security personnel guard Air Force One at Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 7, 2009, after President Barack Obama landed




Air Force One is seen secured at Baghdad International Airport in Baghdad,Iraq, Tuesday, April 7, 2009





President Barack Obama's motorcade drives from Baghdad International Airport to Camp Victory in Baghdad, Iraq, Tuesday, April 7, 2009.

[santana]

Quote:
US President Barack Obama and his motorcade drive through cordoned-off streets on April 7, 2009 in Istanbul, Turkey. US President Barack Obama is on the last leg of his debut trip on the world stage as president. He is trying to rebuild ties with Muslims after anger at the invasion of Iraq and war in Afghanistan, made more urgent by a strengthening al Qaeda and Taliban insurgency

[santana]

GEO * SPECIAL UNIT *


Th

[sigmeister]

[habb]

very good pics

[sigmeister]

Motorcade carrying the Pope.


Former President Clinton's Motorcade

















The following 3 pictures are of President Obama's motorcade. The President and his family attended Easter Service at St. John's Church.

























Note: These Suburbans belong to the Diplomatic Security Service, NOT the Secret Service.














The following pictures were taken at Long Beach Airport.



Air Force One with President Obama onboard.








Motorcade vehicles waiting to be loaded onto C-17.

[AroundTheCorner]

^^^ fap fap fap

[santana]

Amazing pictures, please keep them coming

[Cpt. of MIB]

Moin!


Click "here" for more Picture.


http://cryptome.org/ (http://service.gmx.net/de/cgi/derefer?TYPE=3&DEST=http%3A%2F%2Fcryptome.org%2F)

[santana]

GEO * SPECIAL UNIT * Ecuadorian Presidential Bodyguards Unit

[rhino]

awsome pics guys, keep 'em commin'

[santana]

Ecuador


This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x866 and weights 541KB.
This image has been resized. Click this bar to view the full image. The original image is sized 1024x713 and weights 478KB.

[Icebergtz]

Fantastic pictures fellas, I haven't posted on here the longest anyhow!!!

[Icebergtz]

India.

[Icebergtz]

Mexico


T and T


England (G 20 Summit)




Turkey

[BRAVO JULIET]

Story for the Gator at the Whit house?

[Icebergtz]

Indiana
Note the two guys on Obama's right

[Icebergtz]

Easter mass.

[Icebergtz]

[sigmeister]

Story for the Gator at the Whit house?

This was taken at the 2008 Easter Egg Roll on the White House lawn. The man is from Mutual of Omaha's Wild Kingdom.

[sigmeister]

May 31, 2009
"Barack and Michelle came to New York City to catch a show at the Belasco Theater in Times Square. An impressive operation to accommodate the presidential Saturday night date among packed crowds and heavy traffic. The crowd was uncomplaining, most un-New Yorkish. Even the Secret Service guys and gals were smiling, highly unusual. A woman told one agent he was very handsome and thanked him for protecting the president. You're welcome, ma'am, he blushed."


NYC police officers


NOT USSS agents. They are NYPD officers in suits.


NYPD ESU officers along with USSS agents at the bottom left corner. They are guarding the entrance of the theatre.


The next 5 pictures show agents and NYPD officers awaiting the arrival of the Obamas.












Counter-sniper team




Arrival of motorcade










Communications vehicle


The white van contains members of the Canine Explosives Detection team. The black van contains more agents. There will be more photos of these two vehicles.




Another communications vehicle


Different view


















Agent taking a smoke break, wearing cuff links with Treasury seal.

[Icebergtz]

Nice pics, I have been too lazy to post on here lately.

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

Look at the difference of the two doors thickness.

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

[Icebergtz]

You just have to love the Americans, this article is very lengthy but it is worth reading.


All The President's Men: The unimaginable lengths needed to keep George Bush alive...

The fact that George W Bush is the most guarded president in the history of the USA is unremarkable. But as any Londoner who witnessed his motorcade last month will tell you, the lengths to which the Presidential Advance Team go to keep him alive are almost unimaginable.

Last updated at 4:31 PM on 07th July 2008 By KRIS HOLLINGTON

On an overcast day in March, a group of men dressed in black suits and wearing Motorola Bluetooth sunglasses stood in a golf course bunker.
None of them had any golf clubs. Instead they held notepads.
When they climbed out of the bunker, they began inspecting the trees and bushes that lined the fairway.

In nearby Windsor Castle, 15 similarly attired men were moving with as much tact as they could muster through the 900-year-old landings and chambers. In central London, yet another detachment was tracing a route from Regent’s Park to Downing Street.

In each case, the men’s sunglasses had a rather special feature. They housed tiny cameras that beamed every image seen by the men back to an operations room in Washington DC.

The images were played out live on a large multi-screen display and watched intently by the Presidential Advance Team (PAT), headed by Spencer Geissinger.

The day had not started well and was getting worse by the minute.

With every second of footage being sent back from London and Berkshire by the highly trained team of secret agents, Geissinger could see another potential catastrophe – another possible hiding place for a would-be assassin.

The Presidential Advance Team is by far and away the most complex, expensive and thorough presidential or premier advance guard unit in the world, and made more complex still by George W Bush’s seven years of incendiary foreign policies.

An invitation to President Bush to take tea with the Queen at Windsor – the first time an American head of state had received such an invitation in 26 years – should have been a moment to savour.

Indeed, Bush’s team intended to make the most of this priceless piece of publicity. But the security issues the invitation threw up were Geissinger’s nightmare.

Already the Queen’s private office was making his job harder.

The American Secret Service had been refused a number of outlandish demands.

Requests to reinforce the Royal palace walls, to allow a military helicopter to be constantly airborne over the palace and for agents to watch over the preparation of George Bush’s food had all been denied.

Her Majesty had made just one concession: agents would be allowed to inspect the rifles held by the Yeomen Of The Guard.

And there was another problem. Where was the President’s helicopter, Marine One, going to land?

Not too close to the castle, the PAT was informed; the noise would blow out the 200-year-old windows.

A team of agents had been sent off to march their way across the Windsor countryside a full three months before Bush’s visit.They inspected the Castle golf course, nearby tennis courts and a bowling green for possible landing areas and general security measures. It was decided that the helicopter would land in Home Park to the east of the Castle.

The landing site wasn’t the only security headache.

In London, agents had trawled the route of the most obvious demonstration of Bush’s security needs – his 21-car motorcade, the most heavily armoured of any US president. Geissinger signed off what orders he could.

The Secret Service had classed the golf, tennis and bowling areas as being too close to the Windsor landing points and demanded they be declared off-limits to the public during Bush’s brief visit. Agents were directed to identify bushes and trees that needed to be swept for snipers on the day.

There are good reasons for the agents’ paranoia. Bush is under constant threat of assassination.

In 2003, he received 500 death threats every month, more than any predecessor. Many can be instantly discounted, but between 25 and 40 each month are taken seriously enough to have made him the most protected president in history.

The logistics and costs of transporting Bush are mind-boggling.

For his recent trip to London, the work called on the expertise of 904 civilian staff from the Department of Defense, 600 from the Armed Services, 250 Secret Service officers, 205 White House staff, 103 US Information Agency staff, 44 Department of State staff, 30 more from the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, Labour, Transportation and Treasury, 18 Senior Advance Office staff, 16 members of Congress (to tick legal boxes) and 12 sniffer dogs.

Bush’s European trip alone cost £13 million, while staff costs for his Secret Service amount to £580 million a year; the total allocation of money to ‘domestic protection of persons’ was £403 million in 2006.

And yet the PAT is invisible to the public. Agents never appear in media photos, as the part-classified Presidential Advance Manual sets out in its rules of engagement: ‘You do not eat up an inch of the frame’.

‘To get the job done,’ says John Liebech, a 30-year veteran from the US Defense Department and former Advance Team member, ‘you need to have a glimmer of crookedness, because emergencies crop up that call for acts beyond the normal call of duty.

If they could, the Secret Service would have the President arrive after dark at a military airport, stick him in a tank and make him stay the night in the vault at the Bank of England.

‘As far as they’re concerned, on every balcony there lurks an Oswald, on every street corner a Hinckley, in every crowd a Sarah Jane Moore or Lynette Fromme [both of whom tried to shoot President Gerald Ford]. No one wants to be known for losing the President on their watch.’

And the quickest and most obvious way of not losing a President on one’s watch is to secure that most public of appearances, the drive through town.

It is safe to say that, three weeks ago, when the President drove from his Ambassador’s residence in Regent’s Park to meet Gordon Brown at Downing Street, the PAT did not compromise.

Industry sources describe Cadillac One as ‘a completely unique vehicle with no shared technology’.

They are referring to the fact that although it is based on a Cadillac DeVille, the vehicle has just three components from the DeVille: the headlights, the brake lights and the badge.

Cadillac One is also known as the Rolling Fortress.

It contains the President (codenamed Trailblazer for his London trip) and the First Lady.

It is driven on a rota basis by five military chauffeurs, which is apt; everything about Cadillac One is military grade.

It has five inches of armour under every single part of its skin – with the added height and length, it brings the presidential limo in at four tons – and the car’s windows are not windows at all. They are actually transparent armour, which is why they don’t open.

The dark-blue leather interior is hermetically sealed against chemical attack.

Lit by a fluorescent halo lighting system – the windows are so thick they block out most natural light – the President and his First Lady or fellow passenger sit in individually reclining rear seats, separated by a folding desk. Arranged around them are stores of breathing equipment and antidotes for biological and chemical agents.

But the real tricks are up front.

The dashboard has controls for an infrared night-driving system that identifies movement outside the range of the headlights, electronic counter measure (ECM) devices – such as scramblers usually used by USAF jets to fool incoming missiles – and switches for four jacks in the body armour to which speakers can be attached, should the President feel like making a speech from inside the car.

Connected to the boot lid are five antennae, one of which has a link to the Comms vehicle elsewhere in the motorcade, as well as Cadillac Two, carrying some of the 18 Senior Advance Office staff.

The London leg of Bush’s visit was the weak spot, as far as the Secret Service was concerned.

The capital provided plenty of chances for an ambush.

Their pulses must have been racing as they left the Ambassador’s residence for the 15-minute drive into central London. Had every box been ticked?

Had they checked every building on the route? Should they have bombarded the road with X-rays looking for freshly dug tunnels? One thing was for sure – if anyone was foolish enough to try anything, they’d be met with everything the Secret Service had.

At the rear of the motorcade (car 20), looking like it had just marched off the set of Starship Troopers, was the American counter-assault team on board a Chase Car, aka ‘War-wagon’.

This is a souped-up Range Rover supplied by the UK Police’s Special Escort Group.

The counter-assault forces are the elite of the elite and deadly efficient – but haven’t yet been put to the test.

They wear black jumpsuits and helmets, and carry Diemaco C8 CQB (Close Quarters Battle) short-barrelled assault rifles strapped to their chests.

More weaponry is on board, along with concealed gun-points through which shots can be fired without opening doors or windows. Other members of the squad are located inside an SUV further up the motorcade (car 8), closer to the President.

All of the agents had been handed the US Secret Service’s ‘Trip File’ of certain people who might pose a serious and deadly threat to the President. They must memorise the faces of any suspect individuals featured in the file’s photo album.

But the pace and breadth of the Advance Team’s work is breathtaking.

As the manual states, ‘Advancing is an art’. In eight years, a US president makes about 3,000 public appearances, 800 of which will be abroad. Each foreign appearance requires a site survey by more than 100 Advance Team members, more if it’s a RON (Remain Overnight Visit).

The checklist for the UK Advance Team contains almost 500 items and stipulations covering 25 pages.

These include the effectiveness of the motorcade in rush-hour traffic, how to address the Queen, approval of presidential hand-shakers, no animals, no children (if possible), certainly no parachutists or balloons; then there are sketches, photos, 3D graphics of Heathrow, the Ambassador’s residence and grounds in Regent’s Park, departure points, corridors and walkways.

Ultimately, only 2,500 people showed up to the rally organised by the Stop The War Coalition, CND and the British Muslim Initiative.

A handful of them were snapped up by police snatch squads sent in to apprehend real or potential troublemakers, including one 60-year-old woman accused of indecent exposure.

After brunch with Gordon Brown and a press conference, Bush’s motorcade entered Whitehall.

A lone protester broke through the cordon but was quickly apprehended. It was just enough to make the Secret Service twitchy, and they whisked the President away at a blistering pace.

Was it worth the effort, the colossal cost, the blocking of basic mobile phone communications in patches of central London for two days?

In the curious world of Washington-think, the very fact that President Bush is alive and unmolested is taken as the final proof that every cent was well spent.

And now that the precedent has been set, the next President, be it Barack Obama or John McCain, will be burdened with the same level of security.

And what will that say about the foreign policies of the 43rd President of the USA?

[Icebergtz]

Found these on another thread somewhere on this forum.

India

[habb]

ECUADORIAN PRESIDENT RAFAEL CORREA

UNITED NATIONS today

[branchedout]

I wish I had something to contribute, I'd hate to see this thread die!

[branchedout]

I guess I'm the only one :(

[rhino]

well then contribute, quit yapping about it,
the regular contributors have lives beside posting pix here, but when they have time and pix they post them and the rest of us get to enjoy their work

[Darklord]

President's Bodyguards, India.



A pic of stamp issued on the 200th anniversary of the PBG.



Pics from Wikipedia and Ebay respectively.

Quote from Wiki:

""The President's Bodyguard is an elite household cavalry regiment of the Indian Army. Its primary role is to escort and protect the President of India and is based in the Rashtrapati Bhawan in New Delhi, India. It is a mounted unit, with horses for ceremonies at the presidential palace and BTR-60 vehicles for use in combat.

The regiments history dates back to 30 September 1773. It was created during the Company rule in India as a personal bodyguard for the Governor General of India and was then known as the Troop of Moghuls. It was later renamed to the Viceroy's Bodyguard in 1858 when the Indian Empire was officially established. It changed its name again to the Governor General's Bodyguard when India became a Commonwealth Dominion in 1947. It took on its modern name when India became a full republic in 1950.""



The PBG has a ceremonial role. I believe(?) the actual protection is carried out by the SPG.

[branchedout]

Thank you!

[TurkishDefense]

BAGDAD



BAGDAD
BAGDAD
BAGDAD
SNiPERS SPF

SNiPERS SPF

SNiPER SPF

CHECK

SNiPERS SPF

[s90]

Pakistan :-

These red caps or ssg's guard the President and PM here....

[habb]

PRESIDENT OF ECUADOR * RAFAEL CORREA *