What was the US Air force doing taking over the Czech airspace a few years back (was it for a Bush state visit, or a NATO summit, or what?)
Maybe it was for the November 2002 NATO summit? Yes.
But the NATO summit was the one with little trouble. There was big trouble two years before, at the Prague IMF/World Bank summit in September 2002. That was when some friends of my brother, harmless hippies at the time, were arrested the day after the riots off the street, when they were just walking along some inner-city street, and after being held (and being kicked) for one and half days, while denying access to lawyers (during which time international and Hungarian media wrote about them like dangerous rioters who attacked police), they were expelled and got a multi-year travel ban to the Czech Republic... *Traitor*, n. A benighted individual who perceives an illusory distinction between serving his nation and abetting the criminals who govern it.
Riots of 2000 are memorably, and the way police treated often innocent people, especially from Eastern Europe. What's interesting: Gross, interior minister at the time, became immensely popular, and was even prime minister for some time (almost killing social democrats in the process, but that's another story). Getting tough pays.
