Apologies for the generalities, but I'm trying to avoid spoilers, even within my spoiler tags.
When the full extent of Iron Man 3's plot is revealed, we see the
Iron Patriot suit, with one of the "Mandarin's" lieutenants inside it. His goal is to kidnap the President and set the stage for a takeover. He does kidnap the President, sending him away in the Iron Patriot armor.
This is an effective tactic - it gets the target away from support, takes him to a controlled location, and has the benefit of surprise - no one expected an attack from the trojan horse they used.
My question, though, is how they accomplished it. The biggest weakness in their plan is that they needed someone who could control
The Iron Patriot armor
who was not on the approved user list.
In Iron Man 2 it's pointed out that the only reason James Rhodes can control the suit is because Tony trusted him, and made him an approved user of Iron Man armors.
How did Aldritch Killian get around this restriction so that his thug could pilot it, and so it could be made to take the President away like that?