Teen Calls Bush on His 'Private Line'

It could have made a cute and warmhearted story this Monday morning: Icelandic teen wants so badly for President Bush to visit his country that he calls him on his direct line.

And just imagine how it could have played out... A beleaguered, lame-duck president takes a call from a resourceful youngster from a faraway land with whom he forms a unique (yet wholesome) bond. Leaving the cares of his office behind, the President journeys to Iceland to visit the lad, seeking him out on the fjords while the boy tends his sheep and then they hit one of those all-night discos.

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PD toolbar!Alas, according to ABC News, that is not exactly how it played out. Vífill Atlason, a 16-year-old high school student from Iceland, dialed a "private, direct line" to the White House. When the White House answered, Vífill says he claimed to be Ólafur Ragnar Grímsson, the actual president of Iceland, and was quizzed by several different staffers on President Grímsson's date of birth, hometown and the date he entered office.

According to Vífill, this was not a problem. "It was like passing through checkpoints," he said. "But I had Wikipedia and a few other sites open, so it was not so difficult really."

He eventually reached the President's private secretary, who told him to expect a call back soon.

Though the White House denies the boy had actually accessed a private line, they nevertheless sent the Secret Service to his house in Akranes, a fishing town about 35 miles from Reykjavik, to arrest him. The agents grilled Vífill for several hours, trying to find out where he got that number. According to the boy, he couldn't remember exactly how he got it. "I just know I have had it for a few years," he told ABC. "I must have gotten it from a friend when I was about 11 or 12."

Vífill was eventually allowed to go home with his mother, and no charges were brought against him.

B. Brandon Barker is the author of the novel Operation EMU.


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