Armenpress

SAAKASHVILI KNOWS WHO THREW HAND GRENADE AT GEORGE BUSH

TBILISI, JUNE 23, ARMENPRESS: Georgia’s president Mikhail Saakashvili
revealed yesterday that the authorities have identified the man who threw a
hand grenade at US president George W. Bush when he was addressing a huge
crowd in downtown Tbilisi during his May 10 visit to this former -Soviet
republic.
Russian Itar-Tass news agency quoted Saakashvili as saying that it is “a
mean and unworthy man,” but he did not say who the man was and whether he
was arrested. FBI agents who traveled to Georgia to investigate the case on
the ground revealed that the hand grenade thrown at George Bush was live and
could have exploded, though at first Georgian officials insisted the
explosive device was an “engineering grenade” which would have had to be
very close to the president to cause any damage. FBI said the hand grenade
only failed to explode because of a chance malfunction in its detonator. The
grenade, wrapped in a dark tartan handkerchief, had been thrown towards the
podium where Bush was speaking but hit a girl in the crowd. This cushioned
its impact and stopped it detonating. FBI offered a reward of 20,000 laris
(about ?6,000) for any information that could help reveal the identity of
the man.