THE PRICE OF THE PHOTO-OP
It was a good idea at the time
(Filed: 16/11/2003)
What ought to have been a celebratory visit to Britain by President Bush has become fraught with tension and paranoia. Julian Coman in Washington, Colin Brown and Tim Walker report on the anti-Bush circus ahead
Last week, as suicide bombers continued to terrorise Iraq, and anti-war protesters plotted to terrorise George W Bush during his state visit to the United Kingdom, the President and his officials were preparing for what they regard as a seriously tough assignment: selling him to the British.
Police patrol the Mall as preparations continue for the President's state visit
As Governor of Texas and during his presidential campaign, Mr Bush carefully developed the image of an easy-going, approachable, compassionate politician. But this image has not proved easy to export across the Atlantic.
"Given the difficult situation surrounding this visit to Britain," said one former official with good contacts in the White House, "they decided that the President needed to project a softer, more caring image. So, for instance, he gave some journalists a full, personal guided tour of the Oval Office, in a way that humanised him for the English."
British visitors were shown a painting based on the President's favourite methodist hymn, A Charge to Keep. They were pointed to the rug designed by his wife, Laura - created to inspire a "sense of optimism".
"For the British trip, too, there are plans afoot to find a way to allow him to show a softer side," said the former official. "So that he doesn't come across like some cowboy crazy man. For instance, there's going to be a high-profile discussion of HIV/Aids - to show him in a gentler light."
The White House is trying hard. But even the new "softer" Bush will have his work cut out to make a success of this week's formal state visit - the first to be made by a US President.
Overshadowed by the bloody aftermath to the Iraq war and the coalition's failure to find Saddam's weapons of mass destruction, the dream visit has turned into a transatlantic nightmare. A trip intended to celebrate the "special relationship" between Tony Blair and Mr Bush has become a frantic exercise in crisis management.
One very high-placed Labour figure said last week: "We are very apprehensive about it. This might re-ignite backbench hostility." Among senior American diplomats there is equal unease: "A while back," said one, "folks were comparing this to when Ronald Reagan visited the Queen and rode a horse alongside her. Now with the mess in Iraq, the comparison is with the Vietnam protests in the 1960s. It's kind of a change of tone."
Back in July 2002, a royal invitation to the Bush White House seemed to be a very good idea indeed, particularly to Mr Blair. The honour of a full state visit, including a three-day stay at Buckingham Palace, had not been accorded even to Reagan, the great ally of Margaret Thatcher.
Now, as Mr Blair cemented his post September 11 relationship with President Bush, the rare offer would serve as a reminder of British solidarity with the United States, and a sign of the Prime Minister's personal esteem.
The Royal Visits Committee, staffed jointly by members of the Royal Household and government officials, duly put President Bush's name forward. The Queen agreed to the proposal, encouraged no doubt by her friendship with the US Ambassador, William S Farish, with whom she has stayed in Kentucky on four occasions and with whom she shares a passion for horse-breeding.
What ought have been a straightforward celebratory visit has become fraught with tension, as controversy has raged over the failure - thus far - to unearth Saddam's weapons of mass destruction and the horrific guerrilla warfare which has afflicted certain parts of liberated Iraq (most recently last week's suicide bomb attack in Nasiriyah, which killed 27, including 18 Italians. "Let's just say it's not a good time to be doing this," said the American diplomat.
In the wake of the war, one poll last week found that 60 per cent of respondents believed that Mr Blair's cosiness with Mr Bush is a bad thing for Britain. The days when Mr Bush could make a joke about the two leaders using the same toothpaste, as he did in April 2002, are long gone.
In Downing Street, the talk is of defiantly "toughing out" the week. A senior minister said the Cabinet was told by Mr Blair on Thursday to "focus on the issues, rather than the security problems - we will just have to brazen it out". Tentative suggestions that the visit might be postponed have been angrily waved away by the Prime Minister.
Bush aides are just as full of trepidation and foreboding. "It was a good idea at the time and now we're stuck with it," said one Bush administration official.
Black humour has already set in. "Maybe they'll just keep the lights off and pretend they're not home," joked another White House aide. And when one American official was asked where the Bush entourage would be landing, it is said he replied: "Heathrow... if it's big enough."
Laura Bush, the US First Lady, is being diplomatic. In an interview for ITV scheduled for broadcast today, she says: "I think it's [the British monarchy] a fairytale to the United States. Americans have always been fascinated by the monarchy and certainly the British monarchy. I'm really looking forward to staying in Buckingham Palace. It's a huge thrill, it really is."
The Bushes should be staying on the ground floor of the Palace, in the Belgian suite, close to the indoor pool. The last time Mr Bush dined with the Queen - in 1992 at his father's White House, wearing cowboy boots emblazoned with God Save the Queen - he asked if she had any black sheep in her family.
"Don't answer that!" his mother, Barbara, interjected, trying to avoid embarrassment. This time he's the President, the man in charge. The dynamics could be significantly different.
Security, however, is the obsession. As the anti-war protesters prepare to fill Trafalgar Square with unflattering images of the "cowboy" President and the Downing Street "poodle", mild panic has set in behind the scenes.
At Buckingham Palace there is bewilderment and some resentment at the sheer scale of American security requests for the duration of Mr Bush's stay. The Palace knows how to do state visits. But there has never been one quite like this before.
"They wanted blast- and bullet-proofed windows," one senior courtier told the Telegraph. "They wanted strengthened curtains and strengthening to the walls of the President's suite and the other rooms that he would be spending time in during his two-day stay."
The proposal, which would have meant substantial building alterations, was firmly turned down by the Queen. But anxiety levels among the Bush security team continue to grow.
Buckingham Palace security pass-holders are being ordered to go through bomb checks for the first time. Some Palace staff who have had security clearance for 30 years are undergoing positive vetting again.
"The Queen will not have to wear a security badge. I think we know what she looks like," said one Palace official. "But it is getting to that level. It is quite ridiculous."
"The President's men seem obsessed with the idea of an airborne attack on the Palace," said another courtier. "Her Majesty takes the view that no amount of strengthening of windows and walls could protect the President in such an eventuality. Other political leaders have stayed at the Palace at difficult times in their careers but have not made such demands."
The deteriorating relationship between the Palace and the President's security men has infuriated the Queen. When it is all over, a mighty row with the Prime Minister is on the cards.
"The Queen is annoyed to be the one having to turn down so many of the White House's requests," said a Buckingham Palace official. "Downing Street's attitude is that this is something that should be resolved between the Palace and the White House. But the fact is that the Queen is being left to negotiate a political minefield pretty much on her own.
"Officially, the invitation was made to the President in her name, but of course ultimately this came from Tony Blair. Now that it is looking as if the visit is not going to be a cakewalk, Blair is, predictably, trying to distance himself from the whole thing," said the official
Matters are equally fraught at the Foreign Office. One minister had a surprise visit last week from a tense group of men in suits at his Whitehall office. They announced they were from the American Embassy and wanting to "check out the joint".
The visitors' mission was to inspect Durbar Court, a magnificent hall in the 115-year-old Foreign Office building, where the Prime Minister and the President will hold their joint press conference. "They came right through my office. I don't think they were CIA," said the bemused minister.
As the security men swept through Whitehall, rumours emerged that the White House also desired a Black Hawk helicopter, capable of ferocious firepower, to hover continuously over the Palace. According to the security men, a Black Hawk would be invaluable in the event of a rocket-propelled grenade attack.
Arrangements are also dominated by the terrorist threat. Senior British officials were reluctant to discuss details, but conceded that the White House has refused to allow the President a traditional trip down the Mall in an open-top landau.
In Whitehall, that was accepted with a shrug of the shoulders. This has become, after all, a state visit like no other. "Driving down the Mall is not an essential part of a state visit anyway," said one Government official.
As Scotland Yard and the American secret service wrestled with the problem of security, Mr Blair and President Bush spent last week devising a political strategy for the week ahead. The preferred tactic was quickly apparent: confront the critics head on.
In an interview with the Telegraph, President Bush's National Security adviser, Condoleezza Rice, issued a forthright message to the protesters who will fill Trafalgar Square on Thursday:
"Protests are a part of our democratic heritage and our democratic privilege. But I hope the protesters remember that the causes for which the Prime Minister and the President have now become well known - in Afghanistan and Iraq - are finally getting those countries to the place that people might have the same privilege of protest. The world is far better off and freedom has been advanced by the destruction of [the Iraqi] regime."
In London, the tone was also defiant. In a speech last Monday at Mansion House, Mr Blair told a sceptical audience that Mr Bush's visit had come at "exactly the right time". He also robustly defended his role as a bridge between the EU and the US, warning that: "If Europe were to let anti-Americanism define its foreign policy, it would be a disaster."
Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary, was sent onto the airwaves to make the same point, deriding the "fashionable anti-Americanism" that was making a comeback in sections of British opinion.
Meanwhile, Mr Bush made an impassioned defence of the White House goal of bringing democracy to the Middle East, starting with Iraq. He also gave a ringing, if slightly curious, salute to his closest political ally in that project, Mr Blair.
"In my relationship with him, he is the least political person I've dealt with," said President Bush in an interview with three British editors. "He makes decisions based on what he thinks is right. I'm really looking forward to spending time with my friend - and I emphasise my friend - Tony Blair."
Last Wednesday evening in Washington, the "special relationship" between the US and the United Kingdom was being feted yet again, this time by Jack Straw. The Foreign Secretary flew over for an award ceremony that honoured his American counterpart, Colin Powell, who will also be in London next week.
In a short speech, Mr Straw described Mr Powell as "the wisest man I know", and told his audience that their contact was so frequent that his wife, Alice, called the Secretary of State "the other man in my life".
More of the same can be expected throughout the coming week, as the Prime Minister and his unpopular friend face down protesters from Trafalgar Square to Sedgefield.
But when Mr Blair and Mr Bush finally get down to business in Downing Street over lunch - from a menu chosen by Nigella Lawson, though as of last night the White House catering committee had not told British officials of any special dietary requirements - they may find that the united front in public is more difficult to maintain away from protesters.
According to one Downing Street official, the Bush administration's desire to accelerate the timetable for the transfer of sovereignty to a provisional Iraqi government has startled and worried members of the Blair team.
On Friday, following his emergency trip back to Washington last Tuesday, Paul Bremer, the US envoy to Iraq, talked of a handover of power to Iraqis by next summer. No British representative attended the crucial White House meeting with President Bush, at which the new approach was endorsed. Having been caricatured as the President's bag-carrier leading up to war, Mr Blair cannot afford to lose a grip of the peace.
"The bulk of the discussions will be on how far and how fast to go in Iraq," said an official familiar with pre-visit discussions in Downing Street. "There's a worry that because the presidential election year is coming up, some members of the Bush team might be in too much of a rush to disengage."
In other matters, given the furore surrounding the President's visit, Mr Blair is desperately hoping that the "special relationship" is at last about to yield some tangible benefits.
It would be gratifying to Number 10 if President Bush chose Britain as the place to defuse the current tensions over trade between Europe and the US, triggered by the American steel tariffs imposed last year. Mr Blair would be even more pleased if the White House agreed that the nine British citizens held as prisoners in Guantanamo Bay should be given a legal right of appeal to a federal court.
Then there are Iran's suspected nuclear ambitions. In the wake of a damning report by the International Atomic Energy Authority, which stated that Iran had been secretly enriching uranium for 18 years, senior members of the Bush administration have called for UN sanctions against Teheran. Mr Blair has no desire to go down the UN Security Council route again, in pursuit of a second member of the President's "axis of evil".
The issues will be serious and complex. Outside, on the streets of the capital, there could be pandemonium. Streets are to be closed off as demonstrators are prevented from marching down Whitehall or gathering in Parliament Square.
In Trafalgar Square, an estimated 100,000 protesters will attempt to confront the so-called "toxic Texan" on Thursday, albeit at a distance. The Islamic Society of Britain has spent a week preparing papier-mache mock statues of the Queen's guest, ready to be toppled, designed to echo the fall of Saddam's statue in the spring.
Simon Hughes, the Liberal Democrat mayoral candidate for London, has spent the past week trying to cash in on President Bush's notoriety among some potential voters. The decision to invite Mr Bush for a state visit, said Mr Hughes, was "ill-judged, ill-conceived and inappropriate". Not to be outdone, Ken Livingstone has spent £8,000 of Londoners' money to hold a party for the anti-Bush warriors.
According to a Republican Party official who will not be on the trip, the White House will just have to grin and bear it. "They know that for every great image of the President at the Palace, or Laura with the Queen, there will be another terrible image of tens of thousands of Brits telling him to go away. It's not great, coming into election year."
At least Westminster will do its best to carry on regardless. Michael Howard and Charles Kennedy have separate meetings with the President in a Palace suite on Wednesday morning, immediately before Prime Minister's Questions, assuming they get past up to 250 secret servicemen.
The Liberal Democrat leader, who is second in line to meet Mr Bush at 11am, has already arranged a fast car to get him back to the Commons in time to put his questions to Mr Blair at midday.
Mr Blair's wife, Cherie, is preparing to escort the First Lady to museums and other places of interest before the state banquet at Buckingham Palace - unless the demonstrators get there first.
By the time the battered party reaches the Prime Minister's own northern constituency of Sedgefield, battle fatigue could well have set in. But at least there may be time for some gentle comedy.
Some days ago, a White House security official, checking up on the Blair's four-bedroom constituency home, Myrobella, asked John Burton, Mr Blair's agent, "how many acres" the Prime Minister owned.
Mr Bush will find the Blair residence somewhat more compact than his ranch in Crawford, Texas, although Mr Burton manfully pointed out that the house "has a back garden". The Bushes in Sedgefield will be a sight so strange that even the protesters might pause to enjoy the spectacle.
The President and his 700-strong entourage will leave Britain on Friday evening. At that point, Mr Blair will be able to judge the success of what has become a damage limitation exercise. Notwithstanding the pleas of certain Labour MPs, it would have been almost impossible to take any other approach to next week's ordeal.
According to one senior British official familiar with the Royal Visits Committee process: "Once an invitation is formally issued it is unheard of to go back on it. It was decided not to invite Bill Clinton following the impeachment scandal, but that trip was never more than a glimmer in the eye."
In fact, Mr Clinton may be to blame for the whole affair. Before the war in Iraq, he told Mr Blair to "stay close to Bush - don't let him escape". Mr Blair stayed and remains close, still valiantly seeking the role of mediator between Europe and the United States.
The Prime Minister persuaded the President to seek UN approval for the war in Iraq. He flew to Washington for crucial summits in the lead-up to the conflict. In its aftermath he has urged the White House to consider a broader role in postwar Iraq for the United Nations. Each week he speaks to the President by videophone, last week talking through Iran and the problems of Iraq.
Mr Blair has indeed "stayed close" to Mr Bush. This week, the Prime Minister will discover whether his fellow countrymen think he is too close for comfort. |
