Security Tops Agenda for NATO Meeting

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By Maria Elena Fernandez
and Sari Horwitz
Washington Post Staff Writers
Wednesday, April 14, 1999; Page A4

With war raging in Kosovo and at least 40 world leaders set to gather in Washington at once, the nation's capital will resemble a police state during the NATO military alliance's 50th anniversary summit beginning April 23.

Sharpshooters in SWAT gear will stand on downtown rooftops, and helicopters will whirl overhead. Bomb-sniffing dogs and robots will be ready to detect whether suspicious packages contain explosives. Federal decontamination sites, erected to supplement the D.C. fire department's six mobile sites, will assist emergency workers in case of a chemical or biological assault.

Giant, concrete Jersey barriers will prevent pedestrians and traffic from entering the Federal Triangle and other parts of downtown Washington, including one or two Metro stations that organizers will soon disclose. Thousands of law enforcement officers will cover the streets, escorting and protecting heads of state and delegations and aggressively guarding against potential problems. Firetrucks and ambulances will be in constant motion throughout the city – instead of stationed at a command post – to have quicker access if trouble occurs.

But law enforcement officials warn against public panic. Washington has received no threats for that weekend, and the city is well prepared, said Jim Rice, the FBI special agent who supervises the agency's terrorism task force.

"I get paid to be paranoid and think of everything that can possibly go wrong," Rice said. "I also have to think of how to counter all the things that can go wrong. This is a fairly unique event. We've been preparing for it for months. We always take the stand that Washington is the number one target in the world and go from there."

The summit, a commemoration of NATO's 50-year existence and the welcoming of the alliance's three newest members, Hungary, Poland and the Czech Republic, will attract presidents or prime ministers of at least 40 countries among the 1,700 delegates.

The Secret Service compares security preparations for the historic gathering to those for a presidential inauguration. But the summit poses some unique challenges, Rice said. World leaders visit Washington regularly, but rarely simultaneously. However, because the public is not invited to the events, police do not have to worry about spontaneous situations involving citizens. "It will take place in the public eye, but not in the public per se," Rice said.

Officers from 50 law enforcement agencies, as well as the city's emergency fire and rescue personnel, have trained for seven months to deal with potential bombings, chemical and biological assaults, and threats against officials. They've practiced rescues and searches of large facilities, such as the Ronald Reagan Building, the main venue for the three-day event.

"This city has more special events than all other cities combined," Rice said. "From that perspective, we are fortunate. Threats – and preparing for them – are not new to Washington. From a statistical point of view, the terrorism that we worry about is the arsons, car bombings and bombings of buildings."

To control the flow of traffic and pedestrian movement, D.C. police will close a section of downtown from 8 p.m. April 22 until the morning of April 26, said Cmdr. Michael Radzilowski, of the special operations division. The area – Ninth to 15th streets NW, from Constitution Avenue to Pennsylvania Avenue NW – will be accessible only to people cleared by the Secret Service. To keep traffic gridlock at a minimum, 90,000 nonessential federal workers based in the affected area will be granted a day off April 23. Thousands of D.C. government workers also are likely to be given the day off, while other federal workers will be encouraged to use a vacation day.

Downtown, the U.S. Capitol Police force's bomb-sniffing dogs and bomb team officers will be at hand, as well as the U.S. Park Police Department's SWAT team. D.C. police will serve as escorts for the heads of state, assist in securing the venues and be ready with the FBI to react to any crisis. Vacations and leaves for D.C. police have been canceled. George Washington University Hospital will be in charge of medical assistance at the venues and will be assisted by other hospitals in case of a mass emergency.

The summit will take place inside the Reagan Building.

A confidential consultant report obtained by The Washington Post in March revealed that the Reagan Building's open design is vulnerable to terrorist attack. The building's underground garage and unrestricted entrances also pose problems, the report said.

But Pete Dowling, special agent in charge of the Washington Field Office of the Secret Service, said the agency's job is to seek vulnerabilities in security plans and create alternatives.

"If we were going to accept as true that the building is vulnerable, you can believe that the building will be secure for our purposes," Dowling said. "We design our own security plan to the event and to the venue and people we are going to protect."

Law enforcement agencies will be equally busy securing the region's three airports and most of its hotels. Delegations will use the three airports as well as Andrews Air Force Base. The heads of state and their delegations will stay at Washington hotels.

Three delegations – taking up half of the hotel – will stay at the Willard Intercontinental, said public relations director Kristina Messner. The hotel will operate in "business-as-usual mode," since it often plays host to world leaders, Messner said.

"Because we're in the heart of it, we're taking all steps to prepare for anything and everything that could happen that weekend," Messner said.

Before the delegations arrive, Secret Service agents and canines will sweep the hotel's rooms, offices and public areas. Agents routinely check sewers and then seal manhole covers.

Still, with all the preparations and anticipation of security problems, some security and counter-terrorism experts say the NATO summit poses great risks.

"This is a prestigious, high-profile conference occurring at a time when NATO is involved in an ongoing crisis in Kosovo," said Andreas Carleton-Smith, of Control Risks Ltd., a British company based in McLean that advises other companies on international security risks. "In addition to ongoing threats by Osama bin Laden, you may see incidents by Serbian nationalists."

But others say the obvious increase in security may cause domestic or international terrorists and other troublemakers to wait for another event to cause problems.

"This is one time I wouldn't hit as a terrorist because everyone is paying attention," said Frank J. Cilluffo, director of the terrorism task force and a senior analyst at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, an independent think tank.

Sophisticated terrorists may shy away from the enormous police and anti-terrorism presence in Washington, Cilluffo said, but that should not give Americans a false sense of security.

"An event like this with 40-something heads of state certainly does serve as a lightning rod for terrorist activities," Cilluffo said.

Carleton-Smith and other experts said the FBI, the Secret Service and other intelligence-gathering organizations have "very extensive databases of individuals they are keen to keep an eye on." The organizations will comb their lists to determine where to conduct surveillance, monitoring all points of entry. That kind of surveillance, however, won't pick up an American citizen who is not on anyone's list, Cilluffo said.

The public should be confident, though, that law enforcement officials can handle the job, said Thomas Sloan, special agent in charge of the major events division for the Secret Service.

"The commemoration of NATO is something the public should be happy with," Sloan said. "We are experienced at making this work in a seamless fashion."

"We are an open society," Rice added. "We can tour the White House and the Pentagon. There is no place in Washington that is not a potential target. We don't live in a closed society like the Soviet Union. That's not what America is about."