[Skybird]

Well, the Secret Service is known for naturally assuming that foreign nations are it's personal property. Last time Bush was in Germany, some years ago, the clashes between the BKA and the Secret Service were said to have been short of turnin violant behind the curtains, so to speak. German BKA officials were said to be so upset about the ever more far leading demands by the Americans that they recommended to throw them out and scratch the presidential vist from the list. Bush wasn't wanted by residents and Germans anyway. When he drove through the city, people had to stay away from windows - in their own homes. The scenes looked like ghost towns, or what somtimes was to seen in Eastern-European countries during the Soviet era when a high-ranking political convoy was racing through a city. I wonder what the use of such stunts should be. PR-wise, last time it was a desaster. I personally think that a foreign guest whose bodyguards behave as if the hosting nation is theirs, would not be missed if he stays were he is - as far away as possible.

Rostock is calm now - with 13.000 riot police in town, they said in "Heute Journal". Two things are quite obvious: first, that today'S riots were started by the so-called autonomous block who afterwards were sick enough to say they had been provoked, and second that the organizers of the intended peaceful rallies and demonstrations do not really know what many kinds of guests they are hosting, and that they do not have them under control.

I wish Bush would have stayed away, he is not welcomed here and he will not be anything more than a roadblock anyway.

BTW, riots are not typical for Germany, the wild years have been the late 60s of which I have no memory, and the 80s which I expreinced in Berlin, and compared to that they are rare these days. They appear throughout Europe with the exception of the scandinavia countries, my impression is. Often, football and holligans have something to do with the trouble.