Did Laura Bush hype a stomach flu into a mythical assassination attempt to sell books??

[Bluebear]

Did former First Lady Laura Bush hype a stomach flu (or some other virus) into a mythical assassination attempt in order to sell books? When Bush's memoir, "Spoken From the Heart," was released last month, dozens of headlines blasted out its most tantalizing tidbit: Bush suspected that a mysterious illness that befell her, her husband and their staff during the 2007 G8 summit in Germany may have been the result of an attempt to kill or incapacitate the 43rd president.

"Exceedingly alarmed" by the illness, Bush wrote, "the Secret Service went on full alert, combing the resort for potential poisons. In the past year, there had been several high-profile poisonings, including one with suspected nuclear material, in and around Europe. The overriding fear was that terrorists had gotten control of a dangerous substance and planted it at the resort. e never learned if any other delegations became ill, or if ours, mysteriously, was the only one."

That's the sort of shadowy intrigue that's landed many a book on the bestseller list — just ask Dan Brown. However, there's no record of the episode ever happening, at least according to the Secret Service. Yahoo! News filed a Freedom of Information Act request looking for any documents — e-mails, investigation reports, incident reports, etc. — related to the alleged incident. In reply, the Secret Service informed us Monday that its review of records "indicates that there are no records or documents pertaining to your request in files."

If the Secret Service was indeed "exceedingly alarmed" and on "full alert," one would expect those alarms and alerts to have been noted and preserved somewhere within the executive branch's sprawling bureaucracy. It's true that agencies routinely refuse to release documents relating to presidential security. But in those cases, the Freedom of Information Act compels the agencies at least to acknowledge the existence of the requested documents. So if the Secret Service did have any documents on the episode, it would have to say so.

We called the Secret Service to ask if the absence of any documentation might be explained by a transfer of records to Bush's presidential library. Such situations usually result in a referral of the FOIA request to the library, which didn't happen with our request. And a Secret Service spokesman insistently and repeatedly refused to comment.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100621/ts_ynews/ynews_ts2743

[H2O Man]

1. Definitely.

Recommended.

[JuniperLea]

2. Perhaps she has inside info...

Just sayin'... the lady is pretty out there... maybe she slipped him something and he THOUGHT it was stomach flu!

[sufrommich]

3. Only if by stomach flu you mean hangover. nt

[hlthe2b]

4. Like asking, "did she mow down her boyfriend" & then blame him

and his corvair for her running a stop sign and plowing into him with her much heavier behemoth car?

[blondeatlast]

5. Given Laura Bush v. The Secret Service, I'll take The Secret Service's word, thank you.

I know an agent and these guys and gals don't mess around.

[Sanity Claws]

6. Stomach flu? how about a hangover.

W got a hangover and Laura couldn't admit to herself that W was drinking again.

[Swamp Rat]

7. k&r

[Johonny]

8. No

she only found out what was in her book after it was already printed. It was probably as big a shocked to her as the readers. OMG I was poisoned! This is why you should never read books. Had she never read her own book she wouldn't have lied.

[Stinky The Clown]

9. I am SO glad we only have to hear from these people once in a while instead of 24/7

She and her husband are a useless pair. Wastes of skin. Wastes of air. She and her husband.

[spanone]

10. were it true, we would have never heard about it.

the first lady's 'memories' is rarely a source of leaked national security information and an assassination attempt of the president and his family would be a serious breach of security.

[dkofos]

11. No telling what that crazy would do for a buck.

[nadinbrzezinski]

12. Does a bear shit in the woods

does the sun come up every morning?

Need I go on?

:hi:

[mindwalker_i]

13. I seem to remeber this thing about AF1 running into some British

plane on the way to Iraq with the petroleum-based turkey (no, not him, the one that was supposed to look like a turkey). Never happened. They admitted it was just to make it a better story.

Seriously, why even ask?

[suffragette]

14. Absolutely

K&R

[MilesColtrane]

15. I've heard that a steady diet of Marlboros and prescription drugs can bring about paranoia.

That's what I've heard.