THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, September 14, 1994 TAG: 9409140016
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A14 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Short : 39 lines
With all the gizmos in the world at its disposal, the White House security apparatus still didn't prevent Frank Corder from crashing a stolen Cessna 150 onto the White House lawn in Monday's wee hours. Even Tom Clancy, creative genius at weaving high-tech into high adventure, didn't envision quite such a simple, and successful, invasion of supposedly secure air space.
Unfortunately, White House security didn't fore-see it either.
The Secret Service and other agencies responsible for the president's well-being and rigged out with supersophisticated machinery have now been reminded that David slew Goliath with a slingshot.
The reminder, some analysts say, may prove only that in a free country every eventuality can't be covered without impinging on a president's accessibility and the public's rights. Still, some sort of monitoring of objects incoming, high or low, at the home of the president of the United States shouldn't be beyond the nation that carried out Desert Storm. And if the report that National Airport radar registered the plane but word didn't get to the White House, then it's a breakdown in the security chain that needs fixing.
An investigation of the technological and human lapses is under way. So is an inquiry into what led Corder to such a deadly stunt. Substance abuse treatment, it seems, is no cure-all, especially if the person appears bent on self-destruction. The public has once more been reminded that threats to kill the president, even if they appear remote, deserve to be taken seriously, by families as well as federal agencies. Maybe if Corder had received a visit from the Secret Service, he might have been snapped back to reality in time to avert his final flight. by CNB