All the current furore about the doings of US Secret Service agents is likely to cause a few chuckles among their sister services in other countries, who tend to regard their American counterparts with a mixture of respect and deep irritation – the latter on the basis of a rather full-on approach to their protection duties that can, now and again, come across as perhaps just a little arrogant.
The best story I heard about this tendency, told to me by a close protection officer from a different country while I was at an intergovernmental meeting, goes like this:
During President Bush’s 4 hour visit to Uganda in 2003, he and President Museveni went to visit The AIDS Support Organisation (TASO), which is a regular fixture on the itinerary of any dignitary visiting Kampala. The whole place was mobbed, and at one point President Museveni got detached from President Bush while working the crowd.
Showing that quiet tact and diplomacy for which the Secret Service is famed, US agents pitched in to help reunite the two heads of state. As they cleared a path for Museveni through the crowd, one of them was heard to bellow, “Out of the way please! The Local President is coming through!”
Completely unconfirmable, obviously, but too good not to share…
