Grenade near Bush 'was live'
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(CNN) -- A hand grenade found in the crowd as U.S. President George W. Bush spoke in Tblisi, Georgia last week was live and could have exploded, U.S. and Georgian officials have said.
In the hours after the incident, Georgia officials insisted the device was an inert, Soviet-era training grenade that posed no threat to Bush or his audience.
But on Wednesday, a spokesman for Georgia's Interior Ministry and a statement from the U.S. Embassy in Tblisi contradicted the original assessment.
U.S. and Georgian officials Wednesday also confirmed the grenade was tossed into the crowd, contradicting last week's statement that it was placed there and not thrown.
"A hand grenade was tossed in the general direction of the main stage and landed within 100 feet of the podium," the U.S. Embassy statement said.
"From initial qualified inspection, this hand grenade appears to be a live device that simply failed to function due to a light strike on the blasting cap induced by a slow deployment of the spoon activation device," the statement added.
In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan said Bush was fully briefed on the situation Tuesday evening and again Wednesday morning, the latter time by FBI Director Robert Mueller and Homeland Security Director Michael Chertoff.
The device was inspected by Georgian and American experts, who will complete a report on the incident, the statement said
The grenade was wrapped in a "dark tartan-colored cloth," the embassy statement revealed.
"We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the president of the United States and the president of Georgia as well as the multitude of Georgian people that had turned out at the event," the statement added.
Tens of thousands of people crowded into Tbilisi's main plaza -- Freedom Square -- to hear Bush on May 10. Parts of the stage on which he appeared were surrounded by bulletproof glass.
Several CNN staff at the event witnessed no disturbance in the crowd.
Last week, Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Guram Donadze described the device as a "non-combative" grenade used in military training and said it did not contain explosives.
Gela Bezhuashvili, secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, also said last week that the device was a "so-called engineering grenade" found in "inactive mode."
The embassy statement said the FBI was leading the investigation in conjunction with Georgian authorities and other U.S. federal agencies.
Anyone with any information, video or pictures related to the incident is asked to contact Georgian authorities.
A reward of 20,000 laris ($10,978 US) is being offered in exchange for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the person responsible, the embassy statement said. -
And why didn't it?!
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Shows his real popularity index these days..Originally posted by ditzy:And why didn't it?! 
it's hard to spin-doctor everything..and the harder you do it..it's going to fall apart.
But I thank God the grenade didn't explode..because it would be WW3 and the right-wing Republicans would have the perfect excuse to wage war against the whole world, especially anyone who shown the slightest inkling of hatred against GWB.
Someone keep GWB safe, for the world will be worse off if he is conked. -
true...Originally posted by LazerLordz:Shows his real popularity index these days.. it's hard to spin-doctor everything..and the harder you do it..it's going to fall apart.
But I thank God the grenade didn't explode..because it would be WW3 and the right-wing Republicans would have the perfect excuse to wage war against the whole world, especially anyone who shown the slightest inkling of hatred against GWB.
Someone keep GWB safe, for the world will be worse off if he is conked.
i'd much rather he choke on his pretzels and...
its a much better ending for an idiot like him...
killing him this way will only make him a martyr...