White House Evacuated Options

[BlackCelicaGT94]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- An apparent airspace violation over Washington on Wednesday prompted evacuations of the White House and U.S. Capitol as military fighter jets scrambled to intercept an unidentified aircraft.

President Bush was not at the White House at the time. Vice President Dick Cheney was in the West Wing of the building when the alert was issued and was moved to a secure location, a senior administration official said.

An all-clear announcement was issued about 15 minutes after the alert.

People streamed out of the White House after being told to evacuate.

"Run, this is no joke, leave the grounds," a U.S. Secret Service agent told CNN White House Correspondent Suzanne Malveaux.

The Federal Aviation Administration said it had tracked an unidentified aircraft, a high-wing Cessna, that apparently violated airspace over the White House.

Former CNN anchor Bernard Shaw said he saw two F-16 jets circle a single-engine airplane and fire warning flares. The jets, which scrambled from nearby Andrews Air Force Base in Maryland, then seemed to direct the small aircraft away from downtown Washington, Shaw said.

A Black Hawk helicopter joined the F-16s to escort the plane to a landing site.

Federal authorities said the aircraft was being forced to land near Washington Dulles International Airport in Virginia, at which time the pilot was to be questioned.

Malveaux said a motorcade of six or seven cars left the White House during the evacuation. The motorcade returned about 15 minutes later.

At the time of the incident, Bush was on a bike ride with a security detail in Maryland, officials said.

CNN Congressional Correspondent Joe Johns said members of the Senate were evacuated from the Senate floor while it was in session.

The Secret Service gave the all-clear at the White House minutes after the incident, and allowed journalists to return to the executive mansion.



Not very exciting :-( They are probably on definite alert since finding that hand grenade 100 ft from the president while he was giving a speech in Georgia (the country)

[BlackCelicaGT94]

And the grenade has been denied as ever happening.
[right][snapback]285580[/snapback][/right]

OH REALLY? Read on my friend!


Grenade was live, posed real threat to Bush, FBI says

By Dan Eggen and Michael A. Fletcher

The Washington Post - May 19, 2005


WASHINGTON — A live hand grenade tossed into a crowd in the Georgian capital of Tbilisi last week posed "a threat to the health and welfare" of President Bush and landed close enough that he could have been hit with explosive fragments had it detonated, the FBI and explosives experts said yesterday.

The FBI's conclusion that the device was a live grenade contradicts earlier statements by Georgian and U.S. officials, who had previously characterized it as a training or engineering device that did not pose a threat to the president during a May 10 speech in Tbilisi's Freedom Square.

White House spokesman Scott McClellan said yesterday that the U.S. Secret Service may review its security procedures.

News footage from the event shows that some in the crowd, estimated at 150,000 to 250,000, were able to circumvent metal detectors. Journalists reported that authorities were unable to adequately contain the audience, which waited hours to hear Bush and Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili.

"The Secret Service is always looking at ways to make sure they're doing everything they can to protect the president of the United States," McClellan said, adding that Bush continues to have "full trust in the Secret Service and appreciates the job that they do."

The FBI's legal attaché in Georgia, Bryan Paarmann, said in a statement issued in Tbilisi that the grenade "appears to be a live device that simply failed to function," apparently because it was wrapped in a "dark tartan-colored cloth handkerchief" that slowed the movement of the triggering lever, preventing detonation.

"We consider this act to be a threat against the health and welfare of both the president of the United States and the president of Georgia, as well as the multitude of Georgian people that had turned out at this event," Paarmann said.

U.S. and Georgian officials have identified the device as a Soviet-era RGD-5 hand grenade, which contains just under four ounces of TNT, according to specifications from Soviet weapons manuals. Although the RGD-5's effective range is about 65 feet, some fragments can travel 100 feet or more, according to the specifications.

Military weapons are widespread among Georgian citizens after a decade of upheaval that followed the Soviet Union's collapse. Georgia has waged two wars with the separatist regions of Abkhazia and South Ossetia, conflicts that remain unresolved.

John Pike, director of the GlobalSecurity.org, a defense-policy think tank, said the incident raises serious questions about the Secret Service's performance.





"Why didn't they have effective perimeter control? That is the question," Pike said. "The system did work in the sense that the munition did not get within its lethal radius. But when you do the arithmetic, it was just barely. It's not giving yourself much margin."

The grenade was thrown as Bush and Saakashvili addressed a huge and enthusiastic crowd in Tbilisi. Their appearance touched off a chaotic scene in the Georgian capital, as tens of thousands of people crowded into the city's main square, apparently overwhelming some of the Secret Service's security procedures.

Bush addressed the crowd from a raised, red-carpeted platform that looked out over the plaza. It was surrounded on two sides and in part of the front by thick, bulletproof glass. But there was no bulletproof glass directly in front of the podium.

Paarmann said the grenade "was tossed in the general direction of the main stage and landed within 100 feet of the podium." That would place the explosive within the outer margins of its maximum fragment range. Authorities have not specified more precisely where the device was found or how close it was to Bush.

A Secret Service spokeswoman said last week that the grenade hit someone in the crowd and fell to the ground before it was recovered by a Georgian security official. Yesterday, an agency spokesman declined to comment.

Law-enforcement sources and security experts said that, based on their knowledge of the evidence so far, Bush was probably not within the grenade's "kill range" but that shrapnel could have reached him at the podium. Because the grenade was lobbed into the crowd, people standing between the device and the stage might have absorbed much of the blast, sources said.

Law-enforcement officials said they haven't ruled out the possibility that the grenade was intended for Saakashvili, a pro-Western leader who came to power during last year's "Rose Revolution" but is battling separatist elements in the former Soviet republic.

McClellan said Bush was informed about the new findings Tuesday night and was further briefed by FBI Director Robert Mueller III during a regular intelligence meeting yesterday morning.

"The FBI is working very closely with Georgian authorities to make sure that this is fully investigated," McClellan said. "We want to see the results of that investigation once it is completed."

Authorities are offering a cash reward of about $11,000 for information leading to an arrest and conviction in the case, and are urging audience members with photographs or video footage of the event to come forward, Paarmann said.