Was the 5/11/05 grenade part of an assassination attempt?

[OrlandoGator]

I guess you can file this story in the Forgotten File next to Bin Laden and the anthrax attack.

Someone dropped a grenade 100 feet from where Bush was speaking in Tbilisi, Georgia a few months ago. It seems clear that this was likely an assassination attempt. This seems to me to be gigantic news.

But it got swept under the rug. Probably because Rove thought that the notion of someone trying to kill Bush would undermine the macho persona they've crafted.

So have any more details surfaced since then? Does anyone know who did it or why? And why did this story vanish almost overnight?

[skids]

1. My housemate's first reaction...

...when he heard of the itinerary was (paraphrasing) "He's going THERE? That's batshit crazy. Those people will probably try to whack him."

[OrlandoGator]

2. Kick.

:kick:

[OrlandoGator]

3. Final Kick.

:kick:

[Kathy in Cambridge]

4. Georgia is a very dangerous country

not surprising.

[sabra]

5. It seems like the WH always wanted to down play the story

from day one. There was a lot of denial and conflicting stories when this was first reported. Seems like Georgia is still pursuing it. However they are offering 83k for any leads....

[comsymp]

6. So what IS the latest? Last I remember reading, the grenade was a dud -

a training device which didn't even contain an explosive charge, and that combined with the fact that it was dropped too far away (blast radius or whatever it's called) to do any damage, the consensus was that it was much ado about nothing (or wag the dog, depending on your POV).

What else has come to light since then?

[sabra]

7. Gerogia has a suspect w/ photo and is looking for more info...

[comsymp]

9. TY. So, anybody know if GA is up for any US financial aid?

Jes' askin~

[ComerPerro]

8. I always wrote it off as an overblown story that failed

which is probably why it just went away.

I figured they were trying to rally people behind Bush (It was a grenade, someone tried to kill him, so lets blindly support him) but then it backfired because the reports kept changing.

That's why I figure you haven't heard anything else about it.