Tonight:
4°c
Security scare as Blair bodyguard’s gun goes off at airport terminal
Paul Waugh, Deputy Political Editor11.11.08
TONY BLAIR'S Scotland Yard bodyguard caused a security scare at an Israeli airport today when he accidentally fired his handgun.
The weapon went off at Ben-Gurion International Airport in Tel Aviv as the former Prime Minister was preparing to leave the country following another trip as Middle East peace envoy.
No one was injured in the incident, outside the terminal building. Israeli security guards and police rushed to the scene. An initial investigation revealed that the incident was due to an error by the bodyguard.
Airport Authority spokeswoman Maayan Malkin said: “One of his bodyguards accidentally fired his gun and the bullet hit the ground.”
Mr Blair is expected to meet Barack Obama in the United States on Thursday as part of a new push by President Bush to revive the peace process.
The latest incident is further embarrassment to the former Prime Minister.
It emerged in September that his female bodyguard left a loaded semi-automatic Glock 17 pistol on the floor of a Starbuck's lavatory in Edgware Road for nearly 20 minutes before it was discovered. Staff called 999.
Last May, Israeli fighter jets scrambled to intercept a private jet carrying Mr Blair amid fears that the unidentified aircraft was hostile. Mr Blair was flying from the World Economic Forum summit in Sinai, Egypt, to an investment conference in Bethlehem when his plane entered Israeli airspace and failed to respond to control tower calls demanding it identify itself.
Two fighter jets flew above Mr Blair's plane and quickly established contact with the cockpit.
The plane was said to have had a technical malfunction and could not hear the Israeli control tower's calls.
Like all former premiers, Mr Blair will have Metropolitan Police protection officers guarding him for the rest of his life.
But he has extra protection because of his current work in the Middle East. Scotland Yard's SO1 protection unit, which also protects Gordon Brown and other non-royal VIPs, is responsible for looking after Mr Blair around the world.
Given his decisions to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, their job is to protect him from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups.
Reader views (13)
"Given his decisions to go to war in Iraq and Afghanistan, their job is to protect him from al Qaeda and other terrorist groups" - replace one enemy with another. Once the IRA was disposed off, the British government had no-one to fight against or protect us from.Al Qaeda arrived very conveniently. He went to war against the wishes of millions and based on fabricated "evidence".Dr. David Kelly and Robin Cook would say the same were they alive today. Are people tucked up at night worrying about Al Qaeda? No. They are worried about a)youth crime b)home reposessions c) poverty d)their kids future e)the health service. All that time in power and Blair did nothing to deal with these issues and when you cannot solve the real problems you need to keep the people distracted. Now he galavants around the Middle East like Sir Lancelot in a Savile Row suit...when he's not earning millions for public speaking at his Freemason buddies' requests.
- Patrick, Singapore
Shame it wasn't pointing at Blair.
- Steve Wynn, London
Tony Bliar - Middle east peace envoy? How does that work? Making peace by bombing innocent civilians back into the stone age.
- Jimbob, Kensington
Pity he didn't bag the blighter, he'd have been a dead cert for that empty fourth plinth.
- Colonel Cholmondeley-Featherstonehaugh, Islington
Blair is a contributor to the bloodshed in the Middle East. His so-called "peacemaking role" is just a cynical charade. Shame the "accidental" firing didn't hit him. With any luck Barack Obama will banish Blair to the political dustbin. Brown will be following on soon.
- Neil, Gloucestershire, England.
Why should we pay for his life long protection? It's not as if he's skint, and he's hardly blameless when it comes to the long queue of people wanting to dob him in.
- Austen, London
What a shame he missed!
- Mark, London
These goons excel yet again. The British Police should be banned from having guns, they are too incompetent!
- James Ritchie, n
How fitting it would have been if the man who happily sent others to face the bullet, had died a coward's death by mistake.
- L.Taubler, London / UK
Where does I Blair find his bodyguards - from within the family I presume. Dodgy gene there somewhere - but basically sound - they just keep missing him.
- Ian, Berwick UK
Shame that guard didn't shoot Bliar.
- Albert Hall, kettering
And he missed Tony Blair ???
Fire him for incompetence !
- Sean, Coventry UK
Just another example of civilean police incompetance with firearms. They are Not an armed force and should be dis-armed.
Like their drivers they only 5think they are good- They are not
- Roderick Aitken, Kilbarchan Renfrewshire
