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January 12, 2005

Stand Aside When the Emperor's Pal Wants to Shop

From the Washington Post:

Former Iraq pooh-bah L. Paul Bremer is used to dangerous situations, but how threatening can it be to shop in Bethesda? Consider Washington journalist Lisa Newman's encounter with Bremer's Secret Service detail last week in the parking lot outside Whole Foods on River Road. Newman tells us that agents berated her after she loaded groceries and her 2-year-old daughter into her car, which was parked next to Bremer's two-SUV motorcade.

"I was just trying to get into my car," Newman says, fuming. But a female agent, guarding one of the black Suburbans, warned her to wait. "I told her my child was in there alone," Newman recounts. "She puts her hand up as if to block me. I don't really know what's going on, and then I see a man rush over and realize it's Paul Bremer. He ducks into the vehicle and smiles at me."

It turns out that Bremer, former head of the American occupation in Iraq, had stopped at the plaza Friday afternoon on the very urgent business of buying a birthday card.

Finally in her Honda Accord, Newman backed out and briefly blocked the motorcade. That's when another agent got worked up as well, she says: "He's screaming at me, 'Move it! You better move it!' I was amazed and furious at the same time. . . . I thought, 'If this is how they treat people in Baghdad, no wonder they hate Americans!' "

Bremer's former spokesman, Dan Senor (who's still his close associate), told us: " Bin Laden has a bounty on Ambassador Bremer's head. That's partly why he has Secret Service protection. Like all Secret Service agents, they have a difficult job, and as for how they carry out the responsibilities, we would defer to them."

Tom Mazur, the Secret Service's spokesman, said yesterday, "Unfortunately sometimes inconveniences take place, but I would hope our agents acted in a professional manner."

Posted by Mike Tennant at January 12, 2005 04:18 PM

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