THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Monday, October 31, 1994 TAG: 9410310064
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY MICHAEL TACKETT AND CHRISTOPHER DREW, CHICAGO TRIBUNE
DATELINE: WASHINGTON LENGTH: Medium: 82 lines
The price is always the same: less access, less openness.
Someone once sent a suspicious package to President John Tyler and he asked Congress for a four-man guard unit at the White House in 1842. John Kennedy's assassination essentially ended open-air motorcades. Other incidents brought concrete barricades to 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.; still others bulletproof glass to large portions of its famous home.
On Sunday, it was unclear how officials would respond to the latest assault, by a 26-year-old Colorado man who squeezed off some 30 rounds from an assault rifle through a 10-foot-high black iron fence, hitting the building at least eight times but injuring no one.
The White House already has become increasingly like a fortress. But for all the millions spent on protecting the president, the first family and others, the fact is that one can at best limit the risk in a democratic nation where openness and access are prized.
Ultimately, a determined assailant, armed with the right weapon and twisted motivation, can prevail.
``If you're willing to be suicidal, and have some technical skills, there are almost unlimited opportunities,'' said Robert Kupperman, terrorism expert at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.
And as last month's plane crash just beneath the president's bedroom window showed, an attacker with determination, even willing to die, has a fair likelihood of success.
``There is no ultimate protection,'' said Vincent Cannistraro, former chief of counter-terrorist operations at the CIA. Presidents know this, too. So does the Secret Service.
In all, the U.S. spends about $150 million a year on Secret Service protection for the president. But in an increasingly violent world, with amateur and professional assassins having access to enormously potent firepower, no one seriously believes the president is immune to attack.
On Saturday, numerous witnesses saw the suspect, Francisco Martin Duran, shooting at the White House; one captured it on videotape.
Duran's actions were so visible, so public that on Sunday the Secret Service was again facing questions about its readiness.
Why didn't the uniformed guards who constantly staff the nearby security gate do anything? Why didn't snipers who are often seen on the White House roof respond? Why didn't any other security measure stop the gunman?
Just as when the plane crashed into the White House, Treasury Department officials were steadfast in their refusal to respond. They couldn't answer these or many other questions because to do so, they said, would compromise their mission of protecting the president.
Officials did say the sidewalk on Pennsylvania Avenue will remain closed for at least a couple of days.
The Secret Service has said it would prefer that the area of Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House be sealed off.
White House officials said they will await results of a review - expected in mid-January - of the plane crash and shooting before taking a position on closing the street.
It seems unlikely. To do so would suggest the need to then seal off the Ellipse, on the other side of the White House, or place metal detectors in all nearby buildings. This is, after all, an American president, not a security-obsessed Saddam Hussein, whose whereabouts and domiciles are well-kept secrets.
As Cannistraro put it: ``If you tell the Secret Service to completely fix the problem, there won't be a White House in Washington.'' ILLUSTRATION: ASSOCIATED PRESS color photo\
Law enforcement officers search the sidewalk along Pennsylvania
Avenue in Washington for evidence from Saturday's shooting at the
White House. In the background are permanent concrete barriers that
line areas in front of entrances to the White House.
ASSOCIATED PRESS photo
This window was hit Saturday when a Colorado man fired 20 to 30
rounds at the White House. At least eight shots from his assault
rifle struck the building, but no one was injured in the shooting.
KEYWORDS: SECURITY PRESIDENT by CNB