In his first public comments on the incident, Secret Service Director Mark Sullivan said it transpired in just 2½ seconds – and there were limits to what his agents could have done.
“Quite frankly – the only way an agent could have been there to intercept that – would have been if he were right on the shoulder of the president during a major press conference – which we all know we don’t do,” said Sullivan.
“If the reaction of our agents had been to draw their weapons, to evacuate the President – potentially we would have been accused of an overreaction. We depend on our people to use common sense out there. I believe the agent that was in charge of that detail did the appropriate thing.”
The Iraqi’s shoes had been thrown so quickly, the incident was over before U.S. or Iraqi security began moving. Luckily, Pres. Bush ducked out of the way of the airborne footwear.
In a radio interview with CBS News, Sullivan said “Like every American, I was outraged when I heard what happened,Am I happy that somebody was able to take their shoes off and throw them at the President? I’m not. I think that was insulting and that was an assault. And none of us want to see that happen.”
He noted that the Iraqi press at Pres. Bush’s appearance that evening with Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki “went through four different levels of screening to get into that room.”
Sullivan says the Secret Service is its own harshest critic. “We have looked at that situation and if we can make improvements, we’re always going to make improvements. That’s one more thing we’re going to take a hard look at.”
From CBS News
