Booing at the Vatican

Although the "booing" of President Bush seems to have been witnessed only by Victor L. Simpson of the Associated Press, Hi Pakistan is reporting today that when police turned away pilgrims at the Vatican, there was indeed "booing", but targeted at the police! Perhaps Mr. Bush was appearing on the video screens at the same time. (;

Occasionally they called in unison for the police to "open, open," and chanted, "We are not terrorists." At one point, hundreds of people led by young women breached a double line of barricades. Police raised their hands to stop them but stepped aside rather than risk a confrontation. The group was stopped at a third barricade manned by Carabinieri military police. Police made a few exceptions to the Civil Defence order.

A Mexican family with two weeping teenagers and a small child was allowed to cross through the barricade and over the bridge to join the end of the line. Rather than protest, the crowd applauded.

Elsewhere, police allowed an ambulance through. The crowd cleared a path for it to pass, and some tried to follow the vehicle through the open gate but were easily stopped. Onlookers groaned and booed.

"We’re a little angry because we can’t get in. We would like to at least get into St. Peter’s to pray. It doesn’t matter if we don’t manage to see the pope," said Rossana Zampelli, 25, who came from a town in southern Italy. Hi Pakistan

Wizbang is asking:

Bush Booed At Pope's Funeral? ... following are early reports of the Pope's funeral from AP writer Victor L. Simpson ..... It's not important that you read them, just that you note what they're missing. Later versions Simpson's report, which include the one now running on the AP wire, got at least one interesting new paragraph.

"When Bush's face appeared on giant screen TVs showing the ceremony, many in the crowds outside St. Peter's Square booed and whistled."

A question for TiVo viewers, did you see this or did the network anchors mention this? While I don't doubt that its possible President Bush was booed by the crowds, it seems odd that of the 3,500 journalists covering the event only Victor L. Simpson (or one of his two contributors - Nicole Winfield and Daniela Petroff) notice this booing. Actually make that two people who noticed, since the Scotsman.com uses very similar wording. The two accounts probably have the same lineage, either Simpson's came from The Press Association accounts or their account came from Simpson.

In fact if you filter out "Associated Press", "AP", "Simpson", and "When Bush's face appeared" it nearly disappears from the Google News search results for: bush booed. I'm just curious if anyone else noted this crowd reaction to the President.

VERRRRRRY INTERESTING!