18 May, 2005

Was the Grenade Real?

Here is the report from the US Embassy in Georgia

USA Today: 1:06 pm: ...grenade could have expolded
In the USA Today story, they have a diagram of an "RGD-5 Fragmentation Hand Grenade", which also states that this weapon has a damage radius of "about 130 feet". Nowhere in the story does it say that this was the type of device used in the "attack". But in the NY Times last week, the device was identified as an RGD-5. Also, within the story is the line "Bush spoke from behind bulletproof glass..." So, even if this was an RGD-5, it would seem that Bush was perfectly safe behind the bulletproof glass.

CNN at 12:16 pm EDT Grenade Near Bush "was live"

BBC: Live Grenade "was threat to Bush"

About 11:30 am EDT today, ABC News and Reuters UK started carrying the same story about that grenade thrown towards Bush in Tbilisi Square last week. The report says that the grenade was, in fact, real and only failed to explode because of a malfunction.

5 comments:

beakerkin said...

If it is true there will be divine internention stories

Anonymous said...

Knowing the sources of the news articles I suspect their credentials like Newsweek's of being incredible.

onehouse said...

I suppose some will try to work the divine intervention angle, but all reports have put the device about 100 feet from the President, which would be at the outsiide of any grenade's casualty range, and almost certainly beyond the killing range of any common hand grenade

Owen said...

I agree about the divine intervention stories. But then, it was probably Carl Rove throwing in a dud for a publicity stunt. Now Jenna can say the tried to kill her daddy!

Anonymous said...

The FBI has confirmed the grenade in question was live. It's unlikely anyone will be caught or punished.