Lest we remember

Dubya and Condi are in Italy. The security precautions are intensive:

[CNN] To protect the dignitaries, Rome will close its airspace on Thursday and Friday for a 5-mile (8-km) radius. The nearby Ciampino airport will be closed and traffic at Fiumicino international airport will be reduced by nearly a third.

The air force said it will ready anti-aircraft missiles and deploy a NATO surveillance plane, drawing from past experience of high-profile state visits.

Italy took similar measures during the Group of Eight summit in Genoa in 2001.

A situation therefore that will surely jog strong memories for Condi and Dubya, because of course Dubya says that it was seeing the preparations for an air attack at Genoa that got him thinking about the possibility of air attacks back at home [in Summer 2001], and thus his decision to request the briefing entitled Bin Laden Determined to Strike in US. He wasn't just clearing brush in Crawford or working out on the stairmaster with Condi -- he was thinking about potential terrorism threats. Or so he says. It's just as well that he won't be receiving communion at the funeral mass tomorrow, then.

[update 8 April: added a date for clarity, and a link]