Security planning for Bush inaugural at unmatched level

By Sari Horwitz and Spencer S. Hsu
The Washington Post

E-mail this article Print this article Search archive Most read articles Most e-mailed articles

WASHINGTON — An unprecedented level of security will frame President Bush's second inauguration, with officials planning to use thousands of police from across the country, new screening technology for inaugural guests and a military contingent that could include a combat brigade of up to 4,000 troops.

Security always is tight on Inauguration Day, but it will be magnified for the first inauguration since the Sept. 11 attacks. Law-enforcement officials have been preparing for months to protect U.S. and world leaders and citizens who attend.

Organizers are planning a traditional inauguration capped by a parade down Pennsylvania Avenue and the usual evening balls. Bush has yet to name his inauguration committee, which will oversee planning of the pageantry and festivities, but law-enforcement agencies are in high gear.

As tens of thousands of people come to Washington to watch the Jan. 20 swearing in, the city will be filled with military personnel, FBI agents in full SWAT outfitting, snipers on rooftops and scores of bomb-detecting dogs.

Air defenses have been strengthened to prevent intruder aircraft, and sensors will be deployed throughout the area to detect biological, chemical or radiological material.

About 2,000 out-of-town officers will help with security and traffic details. Undercover officers will work the crowds, and D.C. police officers will be posted every six to eight feet along the parade route.

Plans call for sturdier barriers and more checkpoints and metal detectors along the parade route than in previous years. Officials also are setting up a higher-security ticketing and credentialing system for some events, to prevent people from using counterfeit materials to gain access to balls and more restricted areas.

"There will be far more security and more police than four years ago," said Terrance Gainer, chief of the U.S. Capitol Police, the agency charged with protecting the Capitol, where Bush will be sworn in. "Everything has changed since 9/11, so there is a different context in which this inauguration is being planned."

Law-enforcement authorities do not have specific information that al-Qaida or another terrorist group is targeting the inauguration. But the events will attract political leaders from throughout the country and the world and will be staged outside symbols of American democracy, officials said.
 
"The inaugural is a rich, symbolic, highly visible target," said Jim Rice, the FBI supervisory special agent who oversees the National Capital Response Squad. Rice's squad works closely with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in the FBI's Washington field office to monitor and respond to terrorist threats.

This will be the first inauguration since creation of the Homeland Security Department, which also is a central part of the security planning.

The Secret Service is the lead agency for the inauguration because the ceremony and celebrations are considered a National Special Security Event, a designation that brings with it heightened federal planning and resources.

Demonstrations are likely to be a concern of police this time. Organizers said they will bring thousands into the city again to protest Bush's second inauguration.

International ANSWER, the anti-war, anti-racism coalition that has sponsored some of Washington's biggest demonstrations against the war in Iraq, has been planning a counterinauguration rally for months.

Another anti-war coalition, United for Peace and Justice, which organized a massive demonstration outside the Republican National Convention in New York in August, is discussing possible actions in Washington and elsewhere.