Winston-Salem Journal | Security at Bush's inauguration may be tightest of any in historySecurity at Bush's inauguration may be tightest of any in history
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WASHINGTON
The nation's 55th presidential inauguration, the first to be held since the Sept. 11 attacks, will take place this week under perhaps the tightest security of any in U.S. history.
Federal and local law-enforcement agencies and military commands are planning what they describe as the tightest possible security. Almost everyone who gets within eyesight of the president either during the inauguration ceremony Thursday at the U.S. Cap-itol or the inaugural parade on Pennsylvania Avenue later in the day will first go through a metal detector or be given a pat-down.
Thousands of police officers and military personnel are being brought to Washington from around the country for the four-day celebration. Sharpshooters will be deployed on roofs, and bomb-sniffing dogs will work the streets. Electronic sensors will be used to detect chemical or biological weapons.
Anti-abortion protesters have been told to leave large crosses at home. Parade performers will have security escorts to the bathroom, and they have been ordered not to look directly at President Bush or make any sudden movements as they pass the reviewing stand.
"It's going to be very different from past inaugurals," said Contricia Sellers-Ford, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Capitol Police, which is responsible for the Capitol and grounds. "A lot of the security differences will not be detected by the public - there will be a lot of behind-the-scenes implementation - but the public will definitely see more of a police presence."
The Department of Homeland Security has designated the inaugural a National Special Security Event under a protocol in-troduced by President Bill Clinton. The protocol calls for especially tight security during gatherings of national importance at which large numbers of government officials and dignitaries are pre-sent.
There have been 20 previous events with designated special security, including Bush's first inaugural, last year's Democrat-ic and Republican conventions, former President Ronald Reagan's funeral and the 2002 Super Bowl.
Under the protocol, the Secret Service takes the lead in drawing up the security plan, the FBI gathers intelligence and the Federal Emergency Management Agency oversees responses to possible terrorist attacks.
The Secret Service also works closely with the Defense Department, the National Park Service, and local police agencies, especially the Washington police department and the Cap-itol police. About 40 agencies are involved.
The Joint Force Headquarters National Capital Region, which was created two years ago to bring coordination to the ma-ny disparate military units around Washington, will provide more than 4,000 soldiers to help.
Washington, D.C., police Chief Charles Ramsey has sent invitations to police departments across the country inviting them to send squads of officers to help with inauguration security. The federal government is paying for officers' hotels, meals and air travel.
Several thousand officers are expected, Ramsey said. That includes squads from the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, Seattle, Minneapolis, Chi-cago, Bradenton, Fla., Charlotte and Greensboro, N.C., the N.C. Highway Patrol and several law-enforcement agencies in Texas and other parts of the country.
The extra officers from around the country will free Washington police officers so that they can form "mobile platoon civil-disturbance units" to prevent protest demonstrations from getting out of hand, Ramsey said.
Groups planning demonstrations during the inauguration festivities are already upset about security restrictions. Anti-war protesters with the A.N.S.W.E.R Coalition have complained that large sections of the parade route have been set aside for Bush's political contributors and supporters and will be closed to the general public.
The anti-abortion Christian Defense Coalition, which is also planning a demonstration, threatened to sue the government because the Secret Service recently added crosses to its list of objects that are banned from the parade route. The Secret Ser-vice later said that there is "no ban on crosses per se" if they are depicted on paper, worn around the neck or carried in rosaries. Still, the Rev. Pat Mahoney of the coalition vowed to test the parade ban on larger crosses.
Besides weapons, other items on the banned list include coolers, folding chairs, bicycles, pets, papier-mache objects, such displays as puppets, mock coffins, props and "any items determined to be a potential safety hazard."