Canadian “bin Laden” squeaks through APEC security

It doesn't get much more audacious than this. Cast and crew of a popular TV comedy show in Australia were arrested today after driving through police checkpoints in Sydney posing as a Canadian motorcade. Two "Canadian" motorcycles and three cars made it through two police checkpoints before being halted at the Intercontinental Hotel, where U.S. ...

It doesn't get much more audacious than this. Cast and crew of a popular TV comedy show in Australia were arrested today after driving through police checkpoints in Sydney posing as a Canadian motorcade. Two "Canadian" motorcycles and three cars made it through two police checkpoints before being halted at the Intercontinental Hotel, where U.S. President George W. Bush is staying for the APEC summit. But it gets better. When the "Canadians" got out of their vehicles, one of them was "dressed in a white tunic and cap and wearing a long fake Osama bin Laden-style beard."

It doesn't get much more audacious than this. Cast and crew of a popular TV comedy show in Australia were arrested today after driving through police checkpoints in Sydney posing as a Canadian motorcade. Two "Canadian" motorcycles and three cars made it through two police checkpoints before being halted at the Intercontinental Hotel, where U.S. President George W. Bush is staying for the APEC summit. But it gets better. When the "Canadians" got out of their vehicles, one of them was "dressed in a white tunic and cap and wearing a long fake Osama bin Laden-style beard."

The producers of the show, "Chaser's War on Everything," clearly didn't set out to harm anyone. As Australian Foreign Minister Alexander Downer put it, "They presumably were, as is the nature of their show, aiming to humiliate a lot of well-known people." Mission accomplished.

This is hardly the first time Chaser's has ridiculed Australia's approach to security and terrorism (but it may be the last). Check out this amusing YouTube clip from their show:

Prerna Mankad is a researcher at Foreign Policy.

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