Extra Protection for 5 Bush Children

President Bush today said he won’t be “deterred by rumors” that Colombian drug lords have threatened to kidnap one of his five children if the U.S. and Colombian governments don’t grant them amnesty.

“I can’t do my job if I get deterred by rumors,” Bush told reporters in the Oval Office.

However, the President confirmed that Secret Service protection has been increased for his children.

“But that, to the degree security has been stepped up in accordance with the law, on the Bush kids, it is not because of a specific, hard piece of intelligence--hard threat--and I’m confident of that,” Bush said.

New York Newsday quoted unidentified intelligence sources as saying they believe that Bush’s 30-year-old daughter, Dorothy LeBlond, is most vulnerable to an attack.

The sources told the newspaper that the kidnap threat also applies to top U.S. officials involved in anti-drug efforts. The threats surfaced about two weeks after Bush’s Sept. 5 speech outlining his strategy against drug smuggling and abuse, the sources said.

In addition to LeBlond, a businesswoman in Portland, Me., who is separated from her husband, the Bushes have four sons: George, John, Neil and Marvin.

Increased surveillance of the children had been reported previously, but the possibility of a kidnaping had been only conjecture.