US Secret Service agent 'almost shot Ahmadinejad'

Ynetnews - A US Secret Service agent nearly shot Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad by accident, claims the new book "Deep State: Inside the Government Secrecy Industry."

The Telegraph reported Friday that the incident occurred in 2006 outside the InterContinental Hotel in New York during a United Nations assembly.

According to the book, the agent had reportedly been adjusting a shotgun on the side of an armored car that was waiting for President George W. Bush when the weapon was accidentally fired in the direction of the Ahmadinejad.

A memo quoted in the book was reportedly sent while the Bush administration tried to work out how to deal with the situation.

The memo read: "A US Secret Service agent, in an apparent accident, discharged his shotgun as Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was loading his motorcade at the InterContinental Hotel yesterday."

According to The Telegraph, an official who was quoted in the book recalled, "Everyone just stopped. The Iranians looked at us. We looked at the Iranians. The agent began to apologize. Ahmadinejad just turned his head and got into the car."

The British newspaper said the event took place at the time Iran was under scrutiny as a report, published only a few days before the event, by the International Atomic Energy Agency, had concluded that the Islamic Republic had not suspended "uranium-enrichment-related activities."

There were fears that, the Iranians would claim this was an attempted assassination on their president by the US, thus resulting in a potential public relations disaster, The Telegraph reported.