Just 2 Seconds (45 page)

455.
Date: April 11, 2003
Target: Rapper Snoop Dogg
Location: Los Angeles, California
Details: Snoop was traveling in a five-car motorcade when a car pulled alongside and a gunman opened fire. Two of Snoop's cars were hit, and one of his bodyguards suffered a minor wound to the back, but Snoop was unharmed. His entourage included seven bodyguards.

456.
Date: June 15, 2003
Target: Congresswoman Loretta Sanchez
Location: Santa Ana, California
Details: A PVC pipe bomb exploded prematurely inside a 1990 Toyota Cressida, badly injuring the man inside. The vehicle was parked behind the campaign office of Sanchez, which was closed and unoccupied. The man exited the vehicle on fire and was rescued by a security guard. He was later arrested at the hospital.

457.
Date: November 6, 2003
Target: President George W. Bush
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: A letter addressed to Bush arrived at a mail processing facility located several miles from the White House. It contained a small amount of low-grade ricin. The Secret Service turned the incident over to the FBI for investigation.

458.
Date: February 2, 2004
Target: Senator Bill Frist
Location: Washington, D.C.
Details: White powder was found in Frist's office where staff members open his mail. The Capitol was closed and everyone was evacuated. The powder tested positive for ricin, and there were no injuries. (Note: Congressional mail is irradiated since the 2001 anthrax attack, but radiation would have no effect on ricin.)

459.
Date: September 9-10, 2004
Target: U.S. Governors and Nevada Corrections Director Jackie Crawford
Location: Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Massachusetts, Montana, Nebraska, Nevada, New York, Oregon, Texas, Utah, Vermont, Virginia, Washington, West Virginia, and Wyoming
Details: Federal and state investigators questioned Nevada prison inmates about suspicious letters -- rigged with a match to flare when the envelope was opened -- that were sent from the prison to at least 19 state leaders and Nevada's corrections director. In three letters, the match flared, but no one was hurt. Letters were sent to many governors' offices around the country.

460.
Date: February 28, 2005
Target: Federal Judge Joan Humphrey Lefkow
Location: Chicago, Illinois
Details: Judge Lefkow returned home to find her husband, Michael F. Lefkow, and her mother, Donna Grace Humphrey, dead in the basement. Each had been shot in the head. Matthew Hale later killed himself when found by police. He had filed a medical malpractice suit handled by Judge Lefkow, and after 12 years of seeking to resolve the case in court, he sought revenge on the judicial system.

461.
Date: February 5, 2006
Target: Rap Singer Busta Rhymes
Location: Brooklyn, New York
Details: Rhymes and others were scheduled to be filming on a ninth-floor soundstage when a shooting occurred outside the building. Israel Ramirez, a bodyguard for Rhymes, was killed with a single shot to the chest. Rhymes was not injured. About 500 people were gathered for the video that was to accompany a remix of Rhymes' latest record.

Section 1D: Unsuccessful Attacks outside the United States

462.
Date: September 8, 1961
Target: President Charles de Gaulle
Location: Crancey, France
Details: De Gaulle and his wife were being driven in their Citroen Deesse to their country home. A bomb made from a propane cylinder filled with 100 pounds of plastic explosives was buried in a sand pile alongside the road. A canister holding 15 liters of napalm lay next to the cylinder. De Gaulle's car approached the site at about 70mph as the bomb was detonated. The heavy car lurched and de Gaulle ordered the chauffeur to drive through the fireball. No one was harmed, but they stopped to change cars at a nearby barracks. There were 31 documented attempts to assassinate de Gaulle, but they all failed.
(2-STARS: Protective Strategies or Resources at the scene favorably influenced safety/survival.)

463.
Date: August 22, 1962
Target: President Charles de Gaulle
Location: Petit-Clamart, France
Details: De Gaulle and his wife were being driven again to their country home, except this time an identical Citroen with several bodyguards drove in front and several motorcycles followed behind. Cars filled with fifteen OAS terrorists armed with submachine guns, grenades, and Molotov cocktails were waiting in ambush. Due to the dark and the high speed of de Gaulle's motorcade, the attackers didn't have time to block the road, and simply opened fire on the motorcade. The motorcade continued on without stopping, and the bodyguards relied on evasive driving and speed to escape. Twelve bullets pierced de Gaulle's car, a front tire was shot out as well as the back window, but the de Gaulle's were uninjured.
(4-STARS: Protector action during the attack entirely prevented injury.)

464.
Date: October 31, 1967
Target: Vice President Hubert Humphrey
Location: Saigon, South Vietnam
Details: Humphrey had attended the inauguration ceremonies for South Vietnamese President Thieu. Later that evening, as Humphrey arrived for a reception at the Independence Palace grounds, four mortar rounds exploded at the rear of the grounds. Two people were wounded and two vehicles were demolished. Agents quickly surrounded Humphrey and rushed him inside.

465.
Date: January 1969
Target: Soviet General Secretary Leonid Brezhnev
Location: Moscow, Russia
Details: A Soviet army lieutenant disguised as a policeman opened fire on Brezhnev as he was being driven to the Kremlin. Brezhnev escaped unharmed. The would-be assassin was declared deranged and confined to a mental hospital.

466.
Date: July 30, 1969
Target: Secretary of State William Rogers & U.S. Ambassador A. H. Meyer
Location: Tokyo, Japan
Details: Rogers was attacked by a knife-wielding Japanese anarchist, after arriving at the airport. Meyer was knocked down by the youth, who wanted Okinawa returned to Japan. Neither man was injured.

467.
Date: July 10, 1971
Target: King Hassan
Location: Rabat, Morocco
Details: King Hassan invited some 400 prominent Moroccans, diplomats, and other guests to his seaside palace of Skhirat near Rabat to celebrate his 42d birthday. The festivities ended in a burst of gunfire as more than 1,000 mutinous troops attacked the palace, hurling grenades and spraying the grounds with small-arms fire. Nearly 100 guests were killed and more than 125 were wounded. The King took refuge in a bathroom. Loyal troops crushed the revolt, killing more than 150 rebels and capturing 900 others, many of them young military cadets. A dozen high-ranking officers were executed.
(4-STARS: Protector action during the attack entirely prevented injury.)

468.
Date: September 22, 1972
Target: Defense Secretary Juan Enrile
Location: Manila, Philippines
Details: Several heavily armed NPA terrorists overtook Enrile's car and opened fire, striking it about thirty times. Enrile's bodyguards returned fire and the terrorists fled. Enrile was unharmed.
(4-STARS: Protector action during the attack entirely prevented injury.)

469.
Date: August 16, 1972
Target: King Hassan
Location: Rabat, Morocco
Details: The King was returning from Paris aboard his private Boeing 727 when pilots and passengers observed an unexpected escort of four Royal Moroccan Air Force F-5 fighters. As the Boeing approached Rabat's airport, the fighters fired on the plane, knocking out an engine and scoring other hits. Hassan himself reportedly radioed the, saying the King had been killed. The rebels broke off the attack. Within hours, key participants in the coup were arrested and shot.

470.
Date: August 15, 1974
Target: President Park Chung Hee
Location: Seoul, South Korea
Details: Park was delivering a speech to 1,500 people at the National Theater when Mun Se Kwang, a North Korean terrorist, opened fire with a revolver from the crowd in front of the stage. Park ducked behind his armored podium and was unhurt, but a bullet from the assassin struck Mrs. Park in the forehead and killed her. A stray bullet from Park's bodyguard killed a girl in the choir. Kwang was arrested and later hung.
(3-STARS: Protector action during the attack favorably influenced safety/survival.)

471.
Date: August 11, 1976
Target: Margarita Portillo (President Jose Lopez Portillo's sister)
Location: Mexico City, Mexico
Details: Portillo was
en route
to work when four September 23 terrorists opened fire. Her bodyguards returned fire, killing the leader. One bodyguard was killed and three were wounded.
(4-STARS: Protector action during the attack entirely prevented injury.)