Security blanket
The upcoming presidential inaugural will be the first since 9/11. So there's plenty to worry about
The planning has gone on for a year. Thousands of volunteers are working nonstop while scores of revelers are readying their finery to celebrate George W. Bush's inauguration for a second term on January 20. But this year's fete--the nation's 55th--is the first to take place in the long shadow of the 9/11 attacks. And that means the ceremonies will be the most tightly protected in history.
Security has always been a part of inaugurations. Members of the Continental Army escorted George Washington to the first presidential swearing-in ceremony at Federal Hall in New York City in 1789. A little more than a year after President John F. Kennedy was assassinated in 1963, Lyndon Johnson became the first president to ride in a bulletproof limo during his inauguration. But today's worries are even greater. Though they do not have specific intelligence warning of an attack, federal officials have long considered the 2005 inauguration a potential terrorist target.
So the government has deemed the inaugural a National Special Security Event under a seven-year-old protocol created by President Clinton. It calls for intensive advance planning and coordination of security for high-profile events that might be tempting to terrorists. The NSSE designation is bestowed based on an event's size and significance and the expected attendance of dignitaries. Twenty gatherings have been deemed NSSE s, including Bush's 2001 inauguration, the 2002 Super Bowl, and both 2004 political conventions.
The NSSE label will trigger a host of security maneuvers--most of them hush-hush--for the four days of inaugural festivities that begin January 18. As with all NSSEs, a three-way partnership rules: The Secret Service takes the lead and draws up and oversees the security plan, the FBI digs into intelligence data related to the event, and the Federal Emergency Management Agency details responses to terror scenarios. The Secret Service also works closely with other federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies to develop a "seamless security plan," says Secret Service spokesman Tom Mazur.
Safety efforts will run the gamut. Improved fencing and roving teams of bomb-sniffing dogs will guard event sites, while the 250,000 or so people expected to attend the outdoor swearing-in ceremony at the Capitol will go through some type of screening, including metal detectors and pat-downs. More than 2,000 police officers from around the country will arrive to help--hundreds more than came for Bush's first inauguration. The North American Aerospace Defense Command will most likely put fighter jets at the ready, and the Federal Aviation Administration will tightly restrict general aviation flights in and around Washington. Unlike many previous inaugurations, most of the nine inaugural balls will be held in one spot--the enormous new Washington Convention Center--to make it easier for law enforcement agencies to keep watch. The Department of Homeland Security may preposition Urban Search and Rescue and Nuclear Incident Response teams. Also on alert are the approximately 4,000 armed forces personnel who are part of the Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region, which was created in 2003 to firm up what had historically been ad hoc coordination among military units in the Washington area.
Backs turned. Planned protests will raise security stakes, too, as tens of thousands of demonstrators are expected. Supporters of the antiwar A.N.S.W.E.R. Coalition, for instance, will line the parade route, while the anti-Bush Citizens for Legitimate Government is organizing an "Un-Auguration Parade." A Turn Your Back on Bush protest calls for people to wait silently along the parade route and, at a special signal, turn their backs on the president.
The total cost of inauguration security is a secret. However, Eleanor Holmes Norton, the Washington, D.C., delegate to the House of Representatives, says the city will spend about $20 million, much of which will be reimbursed later by the federal government under NSSE rules. Despite all of the security, officials insist that they haven't cut all the fun out of the party. Says Tom Basile, spokesman for the Joint Congressional Committee on Inaugural Ceremonies: "People are still going to come and have a wonderful time." Just don't pet the bomb-sniffing dogs.
This story appears in the January 10, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.
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