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Snipers, robots for Bush
08/01/2008 20:08 - (SA)
Jerusalem - Snipers posted on rooftops, entire city blocks sealed off, thousands of police on duty - Israel and the Palestinian Authority are going on full alert for US President George W Bush's visit.
For weeks, Israeli and Palestinian officials have grappled with how to ensure the safety of the leader of the world's biggest superpower in densely-populated urban centres in one of the most volatile regions on the planet.
Israeli police say 10 500 officers and border guards will be on duty and all intelligence services in the security-obsessed country placed on high alert for operation "Clear Sky" when Air Force One touches down on Wednesday.
On the Palestinian side, 4 000 law enforcement officials will be deployed in Ramallah alone, with additional personnel in the city of Bethlehem.
"This is the largest operation since the pope's visit in 2000," police spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld told AFP, referring to Pope John Paul II's visit to the Holy Land in March of that year. 'Welcome Bush with bombs'
Streets and whole city blocks are to be closed in Jerusalem and the West Bank capital of Ramallah during the Wednesday-Friday visit, the first by an American president in more than nine years.
Underscoring security concerns, an American member of al-Qaeda urged Islamist militants to target Bush during his trip, saying he should be welcomed "not by flowers and applause, but with bombs and car bombs".
"The visit will paralyse Jerusalem," said one Israeli official. "It will be impossible to move around and get anywhere close to where he is staying and visiting."
In Ramallah, the area around the muqata, the government compound where Bush will meet Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas, "will be practically under curfew" with streets closed to vehicles and pedestrians, a security official told AFP.
Bush, who visited Jordan in November 2006 and has made several trips to Iraq, is due to spend most of his time in Jerusalem and will also meet Abbas in West Bank's Ramallah and visit Bethlehem. Trees, flowers planted
Outside Abbas's headquarters in Ramallah, public workers have planted trees and flowers and prepared a landing pad for the helicopters due to whisk in the American president for his meetings.
Residents of Jerusalem, Ramallah and Bethlehem will face checkpoints, streets closed to cars and pedestrian traffic and swarms of security personnel.
Route One - the main highway leading into Jerusalem from the east -- will be closed for an hour shortly after Bush's arrival to allow the unhindered passage of the convoy of his entourage.
The president is coming with his own plane, helicopters, transport planes and 20 armoured limousines, the Yediot Aharonot newspaper reported.
About 400 American security personnel are due to arrive with him, as well as 200 White House staff, it said. In addition, 15 US canine teams trained in explosive detection will be on hand, it said. Robots to check sewers In Jerusalem itself, blocks around the historic King David Hotel where the president is staying will be closed, with snipers due on rooftops and a balloon with cameras and night-vision hovering above, local media reported.
Robots were even sent into the sewers below the King David to check the subterranean area, the Jerusalem Post quoted a hotel official as saying.
Bush's entourage is expected to take over all of the King David's 230-plus rooms, as well as nearly 800 others in the city.
People who live near the King David are to receive special tags from the Shin Beth internal security service to access their homes, according to media.
Bush is only the second US president to visit the Palestinian territories, although he will not be going to the Gaza Strip - now run by Hamas - unlike his predecessor Bill Clinton in December 1998.
Bush is due to visit a string of allied Arab countries after his visit to the Holy Land, but details of security arrangements there were not available.
In Egypt, Saudi Arabia and Bahrain, security officials said only that measures would be similar to those taken for other heads of state.
- AFP
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