[Infowarrior] - 42,500 security in DC for Inauguration

[Richard Forno]

  Washington Mobilizes 42,500-Strong Security Force for Inaugural

http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=arV52TnPtSII&refer=politics
By Jeff Bliss

Jan. 16 (Bloomberg) -- When senior FBI official Joseph Persichini  
takes his 5 a.m. jog down Washington’s National Mall, he imagines  
everything that could go wrong at Barack Obama’s inaugural next week.

He said he thinks about the possibility of a sleet storm, bombing,  
chemical attack or -- perhaps hardest to guard against -- the lone  
gunman bent on turning a celebration into a national tragedy.

“I’m thinking about what the schedule is, and what we’re doing, and  
what are the issues we’re facing,” said Persichini, assistant director  
in charge of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s Washington Field  
Office. “You don’t understand the magnitude until you go out there  
right on the Mall.”

As many as 2 million people -- double the number for any previous  
inauguration -- are expected to fill the Mall on Jan. 20 to witness  
the swearing-in of the first black president.

While officials said they haven’t received any credible threats, they  
have prepared an unprecedented security effort. It will be overseen by  
the U.S. Secret Service and will include 7,500 active-duty soldiers,  
10,000 National Guard troops and 25,000 law-enforcement officers,  
security officials said. Federal officials haven’t projected the total  
cost, though Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia said they  
are spending tens of millions of dollars.

Finding Gaps

For the past six months, security officials have been trying to  
identify gaps in their planning, and for the past month officials have  
been testing their responses to scenarios with table-top exercises.

Many days, Persichini and other federal, state and city law- 
enforcement authorities are on the phone by 4:30 a.m. to discuss  
security concerns.

On Inauguration Day, the city will be honeycombed with communication  
command centers staffed with officials from the Secret Service, FBI,  
police and fire departments, intelligence agencies, the Federal  
Emergency Management Agency and the Department of Homeland Security.

Washington’s Metropolitan Police Department is working with 99  
federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies to double its force  
of 4,100 officers. The FBI will have 600 agents on duty, a 20 percent  
increase from the 2005 inauguration. All 1,600 Capitol Police officers  
will be on duty.

Chemical, Biological

The U.S. Army will have a brigade at Fort Stewart, Georgia, ready to  
respond to a chemical and biological attack. Within 48 hours, hundreds  
of planes and helicopters could fly to the Washington region if needed.

Even the ceremonial guards at the inauguration are prepared to change  
out of their dress uniforms to help out in the event of a security  
event.

The effort will even include inspectors, behavioral experts, air  
marshals and canine teams from the Transportation Security  
Administration, who are usually deployed at airports. The Bureau of  
Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms is sending bomb experts and dog handlers.

Helping to monitor crowds will be 94 surveillance cameras spread  
throughout the city as well those in subway stations and in  
helicopters, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said.

The 16 U.S. intelligence agencies are providing a stream of  
information on overseas terrorist groups.

Obama supporters drawn to the president-elect’s promise to make  
government more transparent and welcoming may be jarred when they see  
the Mall, which in the days preceding the event is beginning to  
resemble a fortress wrapped in fencing and fortified with concrete  
jersey barriers. Security officials said the record crowds will make  
these security measures essential.

“No one should be in an environment that they’re losing their life for  
celebrating the inauguration of the president of the United States,”  
said Major General Richard Rowe, commander of the U.S. Army Military  
District of Washington.

City of Charter Buses

Inaugural activities will be spread over four days for the first time.  
They begin with a concert Jan. 18 featuring Bruce Springsteen and  
Beyonce Knowles and will culminate in with 10 official balls and a  
plethora of unofficial celebrations on the night of Jan. 20.

So far, 3,000 charter buses have registered for parking spaces;  
officials said as many as 10,000 may come.

The Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority will provide rush- 
hour service from 4 a.m. on Jan. 20 through 3 a.m. the next day, City  
Administrator Dan Tangherlini said. The Metro usually closes at  
midnight on weekdays.

Jumbotron TVs

More than 20 Jumbotron TV screens will be set up on the Mall and along  
the parade route so people won’t crowd parts of the city for a better  
view, officials said.

Lanier said city officials realized they would need a different plan  
from previous inaugurals after the spontaneous response to Obama’s  
victory on Election Night.

Thousands took to the city’s streets, setting off sparklers and  
shouting from cars. Although “they were hugging police officers,” the  
size of the crowds signaled potential problems, she said.

Anyone wishing to stand along the route of the inauguration parade  
will have to go through some type of screening, including metal  
detectors, said Mark Sullivan, director of the Secret Service.

On Inauguration Day, two bridges connecting Washington to Virginia  
will be closed to all traffic except tour buses, emergency vehicles  
and pedestrians. Vehicles also will be restricted within a seven-block  
section west of the White House.

Parade-Route Balconies

Security officials are taking special care with buildings near the  
festivities. Parking garages in some will be shut down the day before.  
Guests attending the Air Transport Association’s party at its  
Pennsylvania Avenue headquarters -- along the parade route -- will  
have to be pre-cleared because the building has balconies, spokesman  
David Castelveter said.

While most of the crowds are expected to be in a celebratory mood, the  
Washington Peace Center is staging a rally of 3,000 outside the FBI  
building, calling for President George W. Bush’s arrest.

The group is protesting the Iraq invasion and the use of interrogation  
techniques on terror suspects that critics said amounted to torture.

At the other end of the political spectrum, the Westboro Baptist  
Church, a Topeka, Kansas-based group known for its anti- gay slogans  
and its description of Obama as “an antichrist,” will picket at a  
Washington park.

White Supremacists

Mark Potok, director of the intelligence project at the Southern  
Poverty Law Center, an organization in Montgomery, Alabama, that  
monitors racist and extremist groups, said white supremacists angered  
by Obama’s election are likely to stay home rather than tangle with  
hordes of his supporters.

If you’re a racist in such a crowd, “you might not come back with your  
nose intact,” he said.

Officials are asking those attending the inaugural to send text  
messages rather than call. They are concerned that if too many people  
send pictures from their cell phones, the mobile communications  
network could be overloaded.

Public officials also are warning anyone who comes to the city to be  
prepared for cold weather and lots of walking.

“This is not throwing the family in the van and heading down for a  
visit at the Air and Space Museum,” Maryland Governor Martin O’Malley  
told reporters this week. “You need to have a plan.”

One resident said he felt hemmed in by the security and expected crowds.

“Everyone is very concerned about the ability to move around,” said  
Wright Andrews, whose lobbying firm on Pennsylvania Avenue is hosting  
an inaugural party. “We’re not making as big a deal of it as usual” as  
a consequence.

For his part, Rowe, the Washington military commander, said he would  
sleep on an air mattress in his office to ensure that he is at his  
post on Jan. 20.

Security officials said the measures may seem like overkill, though  
they would rather do too much than too little.

In the event of an incident, “we would be criticized heavily after the  
fact for not taking precautions up front,” Lanier said.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jeff Bliss in Washington jbliss at bloomberg.net 
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Last Updated: January 16, 2009 00:01 EST