November 20, 2003	Thursday	Ramazan 24, 1424

LONDON, Nov 19: A British reporter who worked undercover for two months at Buckingham Palace, the royal residence in London, claimed on Wednesday that security was so lax he could easily have assassinated US President George Bush during his stay at the palace.

“Our investigation makes a mockery of the 10 million pound (16 million dollar) security operation set up to protect the president,” journalist Ryan Parry wrote in the tabloid Daily Mirror.

“Had I been a terrorist intent on assassinating the Queen (Elizabeth) or American president George Bush, I could have done so with absolute ease,” he said.

“This morning I would have been serving breakfast to key members of his government, including National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice and US Secretary of State Colin Powell.”

As Mr Bush awoke after his first night in the palace, the newspaper appeared on the streets with a front-page photo of its undercover reporter standing on a balcony, a red file in his hands.

The photo was overprinted with the word “Intruder” in red capital letters.

Mr Parry said he used bogus references to get a job at the palace while police and royal staff were preparing for Mr Bush’s visit, which began Tuesday night under unprecedented security.

A palace spokeswoman said: “We are conducting a full investigation into how the Mirror reporter came to be employed at Buckingham Palace.”

The Mirror said in a front page headline it had exposed the “biggest royal security scandal ever,” and devoted 15 pages to the story.

UNFETTERED ACCESS: Mr Parry claimed that for eight weeks he enjoyed “unfettered access throughout Buckingham Palace” and that neither he nor his bag was ever searched by security guards.

“Not once, from the moment I applied for my job as a footman to my walking out of the palace last night, did anyone ever perform anything close to a rigorous security check on my background,” he said.

“On my first day I was given a full all-areas security pass and the traditional uniform of the Queens trusted aides that allowed me unquestioned access to every member of the royal family.”

Mr Parry said he was shown “the secret hiding places for keys” to royal apartments and claimed:

“From my small bedroom on the palaces second floor, directly above the famous Picture Gallery and just yards from the Queens bedroom, plotting a devastating terrorist attack would have been simple.”

Mr Parry also said he “frequently had direct contact with the Queens food” and could have easily poisoned the monarch.

“Such is the shocking incompetence at the heart of the biggest security operation ever in Britain,” Mr Parry wrote.

He did not spare Mr Bush’s own security guards, saying: “The American CIA were even said to have carried out their own checks on all palace staff. But they weren’t as thorough as they thought.”

Mr Parry walked out of his job after Mr Bush arrived at the palace Tuesday night.—Reuters