This one time, at band camp...

From the invaluable Froomkin:

A New Approach to Unwanted Questions

Here's a new tack for Bush: Cutting off an undesirable question before it can even be asked. It worked with an Italian journalist who was part of the roundtable on Monday.

"Q Mr. President, two senior officials of SISMI, the Italian counter-intelligence service, have been arrested just recently.

"THE PRESIDENT: Mario, I'm going to give you a chance to ask another question because I'm not going to talk about ongoing cases. If you'd like to come up with another question --

"Q It's an open case. It's open in the sense that today, there has been a request from the magistrate for the extradition of 26 CIA --

"THE PRESIDENT: Mario -- Mario --

"Q In principle, you would --

"THE PRESIDENT: Mario, no, I'm not going to talk about the case. You can ask another question, since I cut you off before you were able to ask your full question."

What was the reporter trying to ask about?

Stephen Grey and Elisabetta Povoledo write in the New York Times that Italian authorities last week arrested two of their own intelligence officials, charging that they helped plan the suspected kidnapping by the Central Intelligence Agency of a radical Egyptian cleric in 2003.

Tracy Wilkinson writes in the Los Angeles Times: "The arrests marked the first official acknowledgment of Italian involvement in the 2003 abduction of the cleric, who was transported to Egypt where he has said he was tortured."

The lead prosecutor in the abduction case, Armando Spataro, "has issued arrest warrants for 26 Americans whom he has accused of being part of the Abu Omar operation, including the former CIA station chief in Rome, even though the Berlusconi government tried to shut the prosecutor down. None of the Americans are in Italy, and none has been detained."

It does seem like the sort of thing a president should be asked about. But the stymied reporter gave up and substituted a question on Bush's relationships with the current and previous Italian prime ministers.

Bush's rambling response included the following newsmaking assertion: "There's a huge number of Italian Americans. A lot of Russian Americans. You know, Norm Mineta in my Cabinet is a Japanese American."

And, ever happier talking about bike riding than alleged abductions, Bush also told the reporter this story about the current prime minister: "I've known Romano Prodi, particularly since he was the head of the EU. I've worked with him quite a bit. Ask him about the time when I was riding my mountain bike on the beaches of Sea Island, Georgia. I came roaring by as fast as I could. There was Prodi with his head down. I made some kind of noise, or something startled him out of his walking shoes, you know. (Laughter.) My point is, there he was. He's a guy who I felt comfortable enough roaring by on a mountain bike, three Secret Service agents spewing up sand. (Laughter.)"