Well, it turns out the body armor sometimes worn by Bush, other high staffers, and the agents protecting them might well have failed had it been put to the test, because it was defective and the company manufacturing it was covering that up. Here's the story:
September 26, 2005
Faulty Body Armor May Have Endangered Bush
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Filed at 2:24 p.m. ET
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Justice Department is investigating whether a company sold defective bulletproof vests for President Bush, federal agents and local police and then waited nearly two years to alert customers that the body armor could be unsafe.
[...]
Many sales occurred well after Michigan-based Second Chance had been alerted that the Japanese-made Zylon synthetic material in the vests was degrading faster than expected from heat, light and moisture exposure, allowing bullets to potentially penetrate the armor, according to the former employee's testimony and other company documents.
You certainly don't need me to point out the irony (more below)...
Prosecutors have gathered documents showing that Second Chance was alerted as early as 1998 by the Japanese material maker, Toyobo Co., that there were problems with Zylon maintaining its protective properties under certain conditions.
By 2001, Second Chance's research chief, Aaron Westrick, was pleading unsuccessfully with his company's president to replace the vests after his own tests showed them degrading rapidly, the memos show.
[...]
In the interim, the Secret Service paid $53,000 in 2002 to Second Chance for body armor, enough to equip the president and the security detail that protects him and other VIPs, federal procurement records show.
[...]
Throughout 2001 and 2002, agencies from the Pentagon to local police bought vests from Second Chance, records show. The company now says more than 100,000 Zylon vests it sold are in question, and the government said it bought at least 40,000.
[...]
Westrick was told Bush wore Zylon protection during the 2001 inauguration and during a 2002 event with police that Westrick's boss attended, according to legal professionals familiar with the case.
[...]
Anyone suspect that this will be the first body armor problem the adminstration takes seriously?
Me, too.
(Standard disclaimer: I just saw this on the AP. I did a diary search via the dKos search engine and a text search of the front page with the maximum fifty diaries displayed and didn't see it, so please be gentle when you tell me this is a duplicate.)