THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 25, 1995 TAG: 9505250005
SECTION: FRONT PAGE: A18 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Editorial
LENGTH: Medium: 52 lines
The shock waves from the truck bomb that destroyed the Murrah federal building in Oklahoma City pushed a committee reviewing presidential security to a necessary decision: close the streets around the White House to most vehicular traffic.
A rash of incidents - a man with a knife, a man with a gun and a man with a death wish and a small plane - had prompted the review even before the Oklahoma bombing. But ending almost two centuries of openness in response to the acts of a deranged few seemed to some an overreaction . . . until Oklahoma City demonstrated the death and destruction a deranged one or two (or more) can wreak with a truck, fertilizer, fuel oil and a place to park on the street. The Falls Church man who scaled the White House fence Tuesday night confirms that presidential security must remain a paramount interest.
It's a sad fact but it is a fact that times have changed and not, in this instance, for the better. Practically, the nation faces a lousy choice: losing access to the White House or losing the White House both as a symbol of the nation and a headquarters of government. ``I really don't like to see concessions to terrorists,'' said William H. Webster, a former director of the CIA and the FBI who served as one of several outside advisers to the committee, ``but I came to see this as drawing a sensible line.''
Secret Service Director Eljay B. Bowron put it more succinctly: ``It was really just a question of whether it was going to close before we had an explosion or after we had an explosion. I'm thankful that it's been done this way.''
The committee that recommended closing Pennsylvania Avenue also recommends making the new pedestrian mall as attractive as possible. Aesthetics count, and the designers and landscapers should move in more permanent and pleasing security apparatus with the same speed as the Secret Service moved in the Jersey barriers and potted plants.
The tug of security vs. liberty has pulled at the White House since it was built and rebuilt. It will never be completely secure from terrorists or utterly accessible to the public. House Speaker Newt Gingrich was right: ``The thing that is sad about this is, when something bad happens, it will happen in a way we haven't thought of.'' But bemoan as we might that driving past the White House has gone the way of leaving the back door unlocked, it beats mourning the death of a president, his family, his staff and whoever else just happened to be within range of the deranged. by CNB