'Grenade' Incident Mars Bush Trip

As President Bush wrapped up his European trip Tuesday by telling a cheering crowd in the former Soviet republic of Georgia they were proving to the world that determined people can rise up, the Secret Service was informed by Georgian authorities of a report that a device, possibly a hand grenade, had been thrown within 100 feet of the stage during Mr. Bush's speech.

The Secret service is investigating the report that the grenade hit someone in the crowd and fell to the ground, Secret Service spokesman Jonathan Cherry said.

According to the report, a Georgian security officer picked up the device and removed it from the area. The Secret Service had not seen the device as of Tuesday evening, Cherry said.

The Secret Service has agents in Tbilisi working with the FBI, State Department and Georgian authorities to investigate the report.

Mr. Bush returned to the United States late Tuesday after a four-country trip that also included stops in Russia, Latvia and the Netherlands. He was the first American president to visit Georgia.

Tens of thousands of people had packed Tbilisi's Freedom Square for the first visit here by a U.S. president, reports CBS News Correspondent Thalia Assuras. The Georgian welcome was loud and enthusiastic with flags of both countries flooding the square. It was the perfect backdrop for President Bush's message of democracy on Russia's doorstep, a theme he has pounded home on his trip.

"Your courage is inspiring democratic reformers and sending a message that echoes across the world: Freedom will be the future of every nation and every people on Earth," Mr. Bush said in speech from the square that symbolizes the city's democratic pursuits.

Georgian Interior Ministry spokesman Guram Donadze at first said no grenade was thrown close to Bush, calling it a lie, but later said the secretary of Georgia's National Security Council, Gela Bezhuashvili, would make an announcement about the reports Wednesday.

Officials from the National Security Council and President Mikhail Saakashvili's office could not be reached for comment. The White House referred questions to the Secret Service.

Cherry said he couldn't characterize the source of the report that a device had been thrown.

At this final stop on his four-nation, 13,000-mile tour, Mr. Bush hailed Georgians for their courage in staging the Rose Revolution that brought them new elections and a stronger commitment to democracy, reports CBS News Correspondent Mark Knoller. Mr. Bush said the path of freedom is not easy - but America will stand with them.

"You gathered here armed with nothing but roses and the power of your convictions and you claimed your liberty. And because you acted, Georgia is today both sovereign and free and a beacon of liberty for this region and the world."

In a line that appeared directed at Russian President Vladimir Putin, Mr. Bush declined to support the bid of two separatist regions aligned with Moscow to gain independence from Georgia. "The sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia must be respected ... by all nations," Mr. Bush said.

Freedom Square is where hundreds of thousands gathered after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991 and again last year when the protests ousted Eduard Shevardnadze from office.

Mr. Bush spoke to a massive crowd that filled the square — known as Lenin Square during Soviet rule — and spilled out into the roads that feed into the plaza. The buildings around the square were freshly painted for Mr. Bush's visit, the first from a U.S. president, and hundreds of people dressed in red, white and blue stood in a human formation of the U.S. flag, with another group forming the red and white Georgian flag.

"When Georgians gathered here 16 years ago, this square had a different name," Mr. Bush said. "Under Lenin's steely gaze, thousands of Georgians prayed and sang and demanded their independence. The Soviet army crushed that day of protest, but they could not crush the spirit of the Georgian people."

He hoped the speech would balance his presence a day earlier at a World War II victory celebration in Moscow's Red Square and close his four-nation trip on a high note. Putin's government had objected to Mr. Bush's stop here and in Latvia, another former Soviet republic that boycotted Monday's V-E celebration over disputes with Russia.

Estimates of the crowd size in Georgia varied wildly, from less than 100,000 to more than 300,000. Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili said it was by far the largest gathering in the country since its independence, and it was certainly one of the largest Mr. Bush has ever addressed.

Saakashvili, who led the Rose Revolution in 2003, praised Mr. Bush as "a leader who has contributed as much to the cause of freedom as any man of our time. ... We welcome a freedom fighter."

"You stood with us during our revolution and you stand with us today," Saakashvili said. "On behalf of my nation I would like to say, `Thank you."'

Saakashvili was elected president in a landslide in January 2004 after leading mass street protests against a fraudulent election. Ukraine's Orange Revolution that forced the defeat of a Moscow-backed candidate followed last year. Then Kyrgyzsgtan saw a popular uprising this year against an authoritarian regime.

Seeking to shed Kremlin domination, the 36-year-old Saakashvili is looking West for help as he tries to remake a nation that gained a reputation under Soviet times and afterward as a poor, corruption-plagued backwater.

Ongoing fights in violent separatist regions, military campaigns against terrorists in the Pankisi Gorge and the recent abductions of foreigners presented security challenges that required Mr. Bush to deliver his open-air speech from a podium surrounded by a high wall of a clear bulletproof screen with sharpshooters on rooftops surrounding the square.

But the safety concerns were outweighed by Mr. Bush's desire to lend support to this ex-Soviet satellite and hold it up as a success story in his pursuit of spreading democracy.

"You are making many important contributions to freedom's cause, but your most important contribution is your example," Mr. Bush said. "In recent months, the world has marveled at the hopeful changes taking place from Baghdad to Beirut to Bishkek. But before there was a Purple Revolution in Iraq or an Orange Revolution in Ukraine or a Cedar Revolution in Lebanon, there was the Rose Revolution in Georgia.

"Now across the Caucasus, in central Asia and the broader Middle East we see the same desire of liberty burning in the hearts of young people," Mr. Bush said. "They are demanding their freedom, and they will have it."

In the crowd was something that would have been unthinkable before independence — a sign of protest. In black letters, written on sheet, "U.S. in Azerbaijan — Profits or Principle," a reference to American interest in the energy-rich nation that borders Georgia on the south.

While Mr. Bush has faced large protests during his visits to other foreign nations, the crowd in Freedom Square was overwhelmingly enthusiastic to host the U.S. leader. The people waited hours in the heat to hear him speak.