Perfect Presents for the Protector

[Guest guest]

6.30pm

Knives, rifles and a whip. Are Bush's gift-givers trying to say something?

 

2004 presents inventory reads like a paranoid survivalist's

Julian Borger in Washington

Friday June 16, 2006

 

 

Guardian Unlimited

A braided leather whip, a sniper rifle, six jars of fertiliser and a

copy of the " Worst-Case Scenario Survival Handbook " were among the

presents foreign leaders have given George Bush. They are clearly trying

to tell him something.

 

The inventory of official gifts from 2004, published this week by the

state department reads like the wish list of the sort of paranoid

survivalist who holes up in his log cabin to await Armageddon, having

long ago severed all ties with the rest of the world.

 

The president received a startling array of weapons, including assorted

daggers, and a machete from Gabon. He got the braided whip with a wooden

handle from the Hungarian prime minister. The " Worst-Case Scenario

Survival Handbook " , a gift from the Sultan of Brunei, has some tips on

how to use some of these implements in a tight spot.

 

The paperback also explains how to wrestle with an alligator, escape

from a mountain lion, and take a punch to the body. But the small

arsenal of guns presented by Jordan-s King Abdullah, including a $10,000

sniper rifle, would presumably render much of that advice unnecessary.

 

The king also gave President Bush six jars of " various fertilisers " , on

a rotating wooden stand. It sounds like the sort of present likely to

cause offence when coming from a mother-in-law or sibling. But according

to the Jordanian embassy, the jars contained neither manure nor the sort

of chemicals that can be turned into home made bombs, but rather an

array of fertile volcanic soils found around the country.

 

In each instance listed by the state department, the acceptance of the

gift is justified by the phrase " non-acceptance would cause

embarrassment to donor and US government " . But acceptance clearly has

its own embarrassments.

 

For example, it is hard to imagine the tough-talking non-nonsense Donald

Rumsfeld summoning much enthusiasm for the gold bracelet he got from the

Egyptian minister of defence, or the aromatherapy gift set from those

cheeky Jordanians. There will, however, be no calming scents wafting

around the Pentagon any time soon, as the gift was hastily passed on to

the general services administration, a government department that

disposes in unwanted presents.

 

If the top members of the administration met to compare gifts at the end

of the year, Mr Rumsfeld would no doubt have been looking enviously over

the president-s shoulder at some of his weapons, or at the special

presentation edition of " The Art of War " Dick Cheney got from the

Chinese vice president.

 

But Mr Cheney also received presents clearly intended to enhance his

gentler, fun-loving side: a " Happy Day " clock from the Swiss president,

gold silk pillows, scented candles and a pottery incense burner (the

Jordanians again).

 

It is apparent from this document that a lot of the foreign dignitaries

do not do much research before they go looking for appropriate gifts.

President Bush, a reformed drunk who does not touch alcohol, was given a

cellar full of wine over the course of 2004.

 

CIA agents seem to get a lot of presents from abroad, although the

recipients (other than the director at the time, George Tenet) are not

named. Nor are the donor governments although it is usually easy enough

to guess from the gifts, many of which are from the Middle East or Pakistan.

 

Under government rules, officials are only allowed to hold on to the

gifts worth under $100 after they leave office. Others are consigned to

presidential libraries or the national archives, where they are

occasionally put on display to illustrate America-s warm ties with the

rest of the world.

 

There will be nothing to show for the much-vaunted special relationship.

Despite standing shoulder to shoulder in Iraq and around the world in

2004, President Bush got nothing from Tony Blair, for Christmas or his

birthday.

 

© Guardian Newspapers Limited 2006