Mobile blocking helicopter to trail Bush in Sydney

I'm Not Sure I Understand

There seems to be some suggestion President Bush's life might be at risk from a violent attack. Shurley no enemy of America would harm Mr. Bush? Terrorists and anti-Americans the world over must hold President Bush, V.P. Cheney and A.G. Gonzales in the highest possible regard. Over his cataclysmc tenure The President's policies make 9/11 look like a 2 yr. old's owiee.

Does he have unpaid gambling debts? Something to do with a Firefly Girl in a closet at the White House?

Be prepared ...

... for the following knee-jerk reaction to this article for "giving" other means to get around the jamming:

"You just supported the terrorists! Why don't you live with Bin Laden!"

"Your lack of compassion for the safety of our President are sure signs that you are still jealous about the Revolutionary War!"

"You hate freedom!"

Place in your own various random misplaced/misspelled words to suit.

Free Tickets to Leave Ground Zero

Feh, the NSW gubmnt is giving away vouchers worth AU$100-200 for free to entice us to leave Sydney whilst the freak show is here. Typical of NSW, no consultation with business at all will create utter havoc on the streets, transport, and the extra bonus points of not being able to talk to each other will leave prople in The Shire wibbling idiots. Oh, sorry, that slot is already taken....

Re: falw as I see it

This may be a good theory, but if any terrorists try it in the UK I'd advise them not to use the 3 network, or their bomb could randomly detonate at any time.

What about emergency calls?

So does this technology block access to emergency numbers too? A bit of a worry when there's the risk of people being caught up in a crowd crush scenario.

"A little inconvenience" doesn't wash when you're trying to get through to a hospital.

Incidentally, who pays for all the dropped calls?

nice way to treat a loyal ally

Oh well, Sydney is a crap place to live at the best of times (they pump untreated raw sewage out to sea at the heads and it sometimes gets washed back into the harbour).

Still it's a nice to see how even handed the Americans are when they treat loyal rubber stamp allies in the same manner as their enemies.

What price stupidity?

Well, at least we'll be able to get some sleep this time

Last time dubya come to Australia he had fighter jets circle my city 24hrs a day during his visit, just in case any rogue aeroplanes made an appearance.

Huh?

Just put him in damn chopper and transfer from point A to point B, and save people from "I am so important, you'll suffer now" charade.

When did these idiots forget that they're supposed to serve *people*, not the other way around?

Rumsfeld's visit to Australia

When Rumsfeld visited Adelaide, they shut down streets, including North Terrace, which is the second busiest street in the city centre right outside the Railway Station and Parliament House, and had armed US governement security (Secret Service?) agents acting as protection for him (South Australian Police are not normally armed, and private security may not carry concelaed weapons). The few South Australain police present were outnumbered bt american security. Even some nieghbouring buildings were cleared.

The whole point of this stupidity was to protect a forgien Secretary of State, at an insignificant meeting, in the last city in Australia where any sort of attack would happen. With that sort of stupidity, they should clear out the entirety of Sydney to make sure Bush is safe.

The heliocopter is surely there not to carry a jammer, but to assist the police chase away any undesireable people. I hope that bush is going to pay for all this security for his visit, or the Liberal Party, who want this visit for electoin propaganda. A big protest would be a serious embarrassment to Howard, especially as Labor now are ahead of the coalition in the opinion polls.

Seriiously, a few fantics with molotovs could start a riot amoungst teh protesters, at one end of th eroute, and both kill or wound bush and escape in the confusion.

Jay Peabey, which city?

Jammers

Regarding any such devices, they can operate in two ways - as a RF jammer (which can block a limited range of frequencies while leaving the motorcade's anti-jam comms available) or as a GPS transmitter which would tell the networks which cellular transceivers to switch off (to my knowledge this is not done.

I don't trust the telegraph "suspend soverignty" "powers to shoot to kill" etc., what BS. It's true the US Secret Service do go crazy, but let's remember that NSW and, yes, even Australia, have constitutions.

Heystoopid, Sydney has one of the highest scores on (one of)those quality of life indices, as for the sewage, it can only be an accident, otherwise why spend a billion on deep ocean outfalls?

Don't take it personally....

Dubya can't even tour Washington without a platoon of marines and a couple attack choppers. People *really* hate that guy!

Bloody USA

Why should these stupid bastards come here if they feel so unsafe?

Stupid.

It's going to cost millions to have the pricks here.... And that's not taking into account the millions in lost revenue for Sydney businesses.

Hey Bush! Stay out of our country! USA is not the entire world, and the world is not USA.

Whats up with a videoconference?

Also, whats the carbon footprint of a black helicopter these days?

Don't be daft...

The use of radio/cell jamming has been around for a while.

Was it in Germany during the late 70's or 80's that a terrorist cell used a remote control bomb?

With respect to the President's visit, they take all sort's of precautions.

Don't think Australia is any different from if the President were to travel anywhere within the us.

And don't think that the Secret Service wouldn't extend the same courtesy if one of your VIPs came to the US. (Note: Nicole Kidman and Mel Gibson don't count.)

As to the first poster....

For an IED that uses a shaped charge, you need to know where your target is and when.

With the radio jamming, you don't know the position relative to the target so you can't time it.

Al Queda wasn't the first terrorist group, nor the first to use explosives.

But they are first who are fanatical enough to want to rule the world.

Re: Jammers

"I don't trust the telegraph 'suspend soverignty' 'powers to shoot to kill' etc., what BS. It's true the US Secret Service do go crazy, but let's remember that NSW and, yes, even Australia, have constitutions."

We in the UK also thought we had laws against even our own police restraining a suspect then executing them, but its seems its not even a disciplinary offence these days.

Re: Whats up with a videoconference?

"Also, whats the carbon footprint of a black helicopter these days?"

Depends if it's a black helicopter. As we all know these are made from recycled cabon nanotubes from crashed flying saucers in Area 51. This of course makes them virtually indestructible so the possibility that this carbon will be released into our biosphere by the actions of a nuclear spudgun-wielding Islamo-Jihadi-Funda-Suicide-Nutcase (see Daily Mail) and thus accelerating climate change is rather small. Friendly fire though, that's another matter altogether, being something of a speciality of our burger-munching pretzel-choking cousins over the pond.

Ian

red faces

When Dubya came to Ireland - not sure who bloody asked him, but anyway - it cost a fortune of taxpayer's moeny to pay for his security. Huge tranches of land around the castle he stayed at were secured. The whole thing was OTT.

Which is why it was so amusing when a tabloid photographer managed to get in and get a shot of him in his vest through the window. Red faces all round - the paparazzi had managed to get close enough that if he'd instread been a sniper, it could have been fatal, and even more embarassing we saw the world's most pompous leader in his old man's vest. Class.