King of All Convoys: Saudi Ruler Hogs The Outside Lane ...

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King of All Convoys: Saudi Ruler Hogs The Outside Lane ... In A 22-Vehicle Motorcade

By MARTIN DELGADO

3rd November 2007

It wasn't your typical dash to the airport.

But then when you are King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, nothing in life is particularly ordinary.

Unlike most travellers, the ruler enjoyed a majestic trip along the M4 to Heathrow – in a jaw-dropping 22-vehicle motorcade that monopolised the outside lane.

The convoy from Buckingham Palace, where King Abdullah had bid farewell to the Queen at the end of his controversial state visit to Britain, kept at a leisurely 55mph on the motorway.

A 22-car motorcade accompanies the Saudi King to the airport

Leading were two police motorcyclists followed by the king himself in a £250,000 black Rolls-Royce Phantom bearing the crest of the British Royal Family. Next was a Range Rover carrying armed officers from the Metropolitan Police's elite diplomatic protection squad.

Behind them were 15 S-Class Mercedes saloons and Mercedes Viano people-carriers, filled with members of the king's entourage, and a heavy police presence.

Their order was clearly defined to provide maximum security. Behind the king and the Range Rover were: six Saudi vehicles, two more unmarked police Range Rovers, eight more Saudi vehicles, one marked police Range Rover and another Saudi car.

The S-Class Mercedes ranges from £55,022 to £104,600, while the six-to-eight-seater Viano costs between £23,675 and £34,415.

Earlier, commuters in Central London had been forced to wait as the outriders stopped at each junction, bringing traffic to a standstill to ensure free passage for the limousines.

No British Royals were at the airport to say goodbye on Thursday, but the Queen was represented there by the Lord Chamberlain.

King Abdullah has been strongly criticised over his country's human-rights record and in particular its treatment of women.

Public beheadings in the kingdom are common and opponents of the regime have been tortured and imprisoned without trial.

Lib Dem acting leader Vince Cable refused to meet the king during the ruler's three-day visit and there were anti-Saudi demonstrations.

The convoy left Buckingham Palace where the Saudi King bid farewell to the Queen

The operation for King Abdullah's departure from the UK will add thousands of pounds to the Met's already huge security bill.

In 2005 the force spent £505million on VIP protection and anti-terrorism operations – twice the amount than on investigating burglaries, sex attacks, robberies and drug crime.

Specialist Operations – the Met's branch that covers guarding politicians, royalty and visiting dignitaries, plus all terror-related responsibilities – consumed nearly 16 per cent of the force's budget in the latest financial year for which there is a figure.

That was an increase of £100million on the previous 12 months. Meanwhile, the amount spent on routine patrols fell from £331million to £313million.

The Yard refuses to discuss its secret list of VIPs judged worthy of the highest protection level. But there was surprise last year when this newspaper revealed that two police Range Rovers and six outriders escorted a motorcade taking the King of Bahrain and 70 guests to The Dorchester to celebrate his son's graduation from Sandhurst military academy.

The king was on a private visit and no meetings with British Ministers or officials took place. Yet his guests were allowed to leave their cars on double yellow lines outside the West End hotel for several hours without one getting a parking ticket.

As a state visit, King Abdullah's time in Britain was much more formal – and part of a 13-day European tour which is also taking him to Italy, Germany and Turkey.

Speaking at a Buckingham Palace banquet, he offered his "highest praise" for Britain's toleration of people of different races and religions, but warned that the world faced "ominous signs of war and conflict".

Last night Scotland Yard confirmed it would be footing the entire bill for the protection operation, but refused to give the figure.

The Saudi royal family's wealth is so large that no reliable estimate is available. However, when King Abdullah's predecessor, his half-brother King Fahd, died two years ago, his fortune was said to be worth £30billion.

SOURCE

Harris Brio

A Saudi King has many wives...

Radiate_Truth

Dressing up the forum again, Harris???
Anytime you have a hand in it it always turns out looking sincerely lovely.

As for the article...
The only thing that comes to my mind is...

Probably the only wise thing I ever remember him saying. A very wise man once told me, "life is like a shit sandwich". The more bread you own the less shit you have to take.

obmar

Doing that in a foreign country is a bit too much.

How did he get to do that.

Radiate_Truth

Royalty. Who needs em? Royals are a remnant of a thousand years ago and should be removed from their posts, their wealth redistributed back to every citizen of the nation they "rule" over and they should be forced to get real jobs.

Bilbo Baggins2

That's a "motorcade"? It looks like a parade.

Yes, Harris, the Saudi royal certainly has many "wives" Laughing

G-d Save the Queen, er, king (or whatever) Rolling Eyes

The Inquisitor

Ah RT,

That's nothing. When President Reagan visited Jamaica he needed to have the entire phone system of the country updated to accommodate himself, his entourage, and all the reporters that followed.

I can speak of an event that I was actually part of. In 1978, President Carter went to Geneva, Switzerland, to visit President Assad of Syria. Now mind you, this was a meeting that was to last less than a day. I happened to be working at the airport, Cointrin, as a plane loader.

Before that day:

Since I was the only American working there at the time, my team of plane loaders were chosen about one month before that event to be in charge of putting the chocks under the plane, Airforce One, and to be by the plane in case they needed to leave early and they needed the chocks removed. We were told to wear our cleanest uniforms and not to bring anything that could look like a weapon. Our boss said, "The American Secret Service will search you before the plane arrives and if they find anything suspicious on you, you could be subject to arrest."

That morning:

When I arrived at work a few hours before the arrival, I looked out over the tarmac and saw over 200 Swiss soldiers carrying machine guns positioned all over the place. They were on the roofs, on the tarmac, and at every entryway everywhere. I also noticed 6 (yes six) Swiss tanks lining the runway. All the managers of Swissair (the company I worked for) seemed supernervous.

Airforce One's arrival:

About one hour before the arrival of Airforce One, we were told to go to the arrival spot for the plane. In those days we didn't have the fancy curtains that connect the plane's door to the building. We had manual and motorized stairways. The circular building on the tarmac where Airforce one was to taxi to was built to accommodate four normal planes (Airforce One was a 707 at the time).

When we got there, the Secret Service had already arrived. They never once searched any of us. I noticed that inside the building, all the counters and booths had been removed and about 200 phones installed in their place. TR1, the Swiss French TV station, already had their cameras in place near the microphone set up for Carter. Don't forget that this was a meeting of just a few hours. Neither president was staying the night.

In the position where Airforce One was to taxi to, I noticed a small pedestol with a white phone on it. The spokesperson from the Secret Service told me that it was a direct line to the White House in case of emergency. He said that the nose of Airforce One would be positioned directly above that phone. The Secret Service also asked if there was anyone in our group who spoke English and could serve as the interpreter. Guess who got voluntered.

The first plane to arrive at that building was a 707 from TWA. It was chock full of reporters. The next one was the same, but from Pan Am. When the landing lights of Airforce One started shining in the morning sky, the head of the Secret Service said to me, "Go out there where the plane will taxi to with your chocks and wait for the plane."

I protested, "Uh sir, the plane hasn't even landed yet. It'll be another fifteen minutes before the plane will get here." But before I even finished my weak protest, I noticed his intense stare searing through me. "Okay, sir. I'm going."

As I stood there in the middle of the tarmac and with two triangular shaped chocks in my hand, I felt a bit uneasy. So I started playing with the chocks to past the time before the plane arrived. My mother-in-law later told me that my antics out on the tarmac had been televised live by TR1 and for fifteen minutes it looked like an escapee from a mental hospital had been let loose on the tarmac.

Finally Airforce One landed and taxied right up to the spot just like the Agent said it would. His final instructions to us was, "Put the chocks under the from tires only, then move the stairway up to the door of the plane, and don't move after that. The Swiss soldiers have been given instructions to shoot to kill anyone suspicious. As we stood there, Carter slowly walked down the stairs. My first impression of being less than ten feet from my president was, "Wow. This guy looks like a midget." But my second thought was, "You know. If I wanted to kill the president this was a perfect opportunity. Since the Secret Service never frisked us, I could have smuggled in dynamite sticks and blown everything up including the president. When I later asked the guy why they didn't bother frisking us he said, "You know. There's absolutely no way to fully protect the president 24/7. The opportunity to kill him exists all the time."

President Carter gave a five-minute speech amid a torrent of flashbulbs going off. Then he went to the Intercontinental Hotel for the meeting. All the above took place because Carter was going to make a five minute speech upon arrival. The President's entourage is probably the largest in the world and most assuredly the most armed.

Radiate_Truth

King of All Convoys: Saudi Ruler Hogs The Outside Lane ...

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