Saturday, June 23, 2007

BUSH'S KOSOVO WATCH NOT STOLEN, NOT MISSING

STOLEN WATCH STORY 'LUDICROUS' SAYS BUSH; SERBIAN PROPAGANDA AT WORK AGAIN

PHOTO: President Bush shows off his watch in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, Wednesday, June 13, 2007, where he announced that Ed Gillespie will be the new counselor to the president. Gillespie, a Republican strategist and former head of the national party, is replacing Dan Bartlett as White House counselor. Earlier this week, the president's watch disappeared while being greeted by a crowd in Albania. (AP Photo/Ron Edmonds)

WASHINGTON - President Bush wants the story of his vanishing watch to disappear. Video coverage of Bush's wild stop in Albania over the weekend showed that Bush's watch seemed to disappear from his wrist as he greeted the locals. That led Albanian and U.S. media — and buzzing Web sites — to raise questions about whether the watch had been swiped.

The White House said the watch was not stolen, and that Bush instead had put it in his pocket.

Just to prove the point, Bush showed he was wearing a watch in the Oval Office on Wednesday. Photographers captured the moment. "I have never seen such a ludicrous story," Bush said of the media's coverage. "Unbelievable."

Later, spokesman Tony Snow confirmed, "That is, in fact, the watch he was wearing in Albania."

The bit of mystery happened near the end of Bush's eight-day trip to Europe.

He was met by a rapturous crowd of people in Fushe Kruje, 15 miles north of Tirana, in Albania. People grabbed him by the arms and wrists, and even ruffled his hair. Bush was clearly delighted by the attention. He was the first U.S. president to visit the country.

PHOTO: US President George W. Bush (C) blows kiss to Albanians from his SUV as he departs a cultural event in Tirana. Bush, making the first visit to Albania by a US leader, insisted it was time to press ahead with independence for Kosovo, despite the strenuous objections of Russia.
(AFP/Jim Watson)

/ Originally published at Yahoo News! Wed Jun 13, 2:22 PM ET /

Bush's message also published at major media outlets:
http://www.foxnews.com/wires/2007Jun13/0,4670,BushapossWatch,00.html
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,281914,00.html
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,,-6706581,00.html

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