Gift Guide: Cheney Gets ‘Art of War’
& Silvio Lays Some Charm on Lynne

The State Department’s Office of Protocol recently released their list of gifts given to federal employees by “foreign government sources” in 2004, which was quickly posted by our friends at The Smoking Gun.

Either Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar and Chinese VP Zeng Qinghong have a wicked sense of humor or they’re sincerely trying to help out the Bush administration. And former Italian president Silvio Berlusconi’s got the heart of an Italian romantic. Here’s some of the booty:

President Bush: “The Worst Case Scenario Survival Handbook” (from Saudi Arabia’s Prince Bandar); $10,000 sniper’s rifle, 11 pistols and revolvers, and $60 worth of jars of fertilizer (from Jordan’s King Abdullah), 10-inch brown leather whip (from Hungarian Prime Minister Peter Medgyessy)

Vice President Dick Cheney: Sun Tzu’s classic “The Art of War” in an ornate dark wood box (from Chinese vice president Zeng Qinghong)

Lynne Cheney: Silver necklace by Damiani with gray pearls and diamond centerpiece (from Italian president Silvio Berlusconi)

Donald Rumsfeld: $380 aromatherapy gift set (from Jordan’s Prince Abdullah)

Popularity: 1%

This entry was posted on Thursday, June 15th, 2006 at 3:02 pm and is filed under International. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.