The LOD Technical Journal: File #11 of 12 OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO OOOO OOOO [] [] []Presidential Security[] [] [] OOOO By Argon/LOD OOOO OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO This phile is intended to give a glimpse into what's behind all those stern- faced, emotionless secret service agents that surround the president and to give analysis into the security surrounding our executive branch. Our current President, or more formally Commander in Chief is as everyone knows is Bill Clinton. Ever since his inauguration he has been under supposedly "tight" security. However, even with up to double the normal security allotment he is still at risk. And the list of would be assassins is large, everyone from Iraqis, Serbians, Islamic fundamentalist militants and if you listen to these conspiracy theories you can throw in the military industrial establishment and heck even the religious right has motive for assassinating the CINC. Which has given rise to millions of dollars worth of hardware and Secret Service payrolls for his protection. 200 agents, personal security teams and body-guards watch our CINC 24 hours a day without rest. What I intend to analyze is the methods of protection utilized by the SS, their weaknesses and how they can be rectified. As the most powerful individual in the world, our president must be safeguarded at all costs, as he is an extremely high profile target. Nothing could give a terrorist group more publicity and recognition that assassinating the American president. Hopefully, the SS can keep this in mind when reading the recommendations suggested later on when they review this journal for their computer crime investigations... Perhaps someone will bring this to the CINC's attention, as for the next 3 odd years the only relevancy of this phile is in ensuring *his* safety. 4 US Presidents have been assassinated in our nation's history so with such a risk of assassination no cost in protection is to high. The huge Whitehouse budget can easily afford to spend more on security and less on bureaucracy. At first glance, a Presidential assassination seems very simple. After all, he's in front of the cameras up to 2 hours each day and its's no secret where to find him, just stroll over to 1600 Pennsylvania Av. The Whitehouse doesn't appear to be well defended, the windows aren't sandbagged, there is no barbed wire, electrified fence, guard towers, minefields or even a solid wall. Just a fragile and cosmetic black gate fence. This first impression is entirely incorrect. The Whitehouse is ringed in other tall buildings, giving SS sharpshooters an excellent position to fire from. Behind all the stonework they have a superb spot to cover the Whitehouse with. And the uncluttered Whitehouse lawn gives them a clear field of fire. Anyone stupid enough to simply scale the fence, or ram through it would be cut down in a hail of fire before making it halfway across the lawn. Coming from those perched in the surrounding buildings, and the agents inside the whitehouse. The sharpshooters posted to presidential security are simply the best at what they do. They don't "miss". Perhaps the most effective route for a terrorist to take would be to attack the President while he's airborne in either a helicopter or airplane (in this case Air Force 1). Here the President is certainly at his most vulnerable. Infrared (IR) guided surface to air missiles (SAMs) such as the Russian SA-7 or newer SA-14, or the US Stinger could be used with deadly effect to shoot down the aircraft. All aircraft the President travels in are equipped with IR jammers such as the ALQ-144, which send out hotter heat waves than the aircraft does in different directions from a small pylon shaped group of lenses. Presently most missiles are not advanced enough to pick out the aircraft from all the other false directed heat. Non IR guided systems can be utilized though. The British Shorts Blowpipe or Javelin however are optically guided, by means of a joystick and monocular sight. So IR jamming is useless. The only way to really avoid them is to silence the person guiding it. And these are not too difficult to obtain, they have already been used by the Afgan rebels. So obtaining these and other SAMs is relatively easy, as they are found in many of the world's hotspots for the right price. There is no effective safeguard in place by the SS to protect the Presidents aircraft from an optically guided SAM. Even if a terrorist has no access to a SAM aerial assassinations are still possible. A small "Cessna" like aircraft could simply be used in a "Kamikaze" like role by colliding midair at high-speed with the president's helicopter. Given the superior speed of a fixed wing aircraft the helicopter pilot would have to be highly skilled to avoid it. Presidential pilots are trained in such avoidance techniques but whether they could dodge one in practise is unclear. The Soviets used to have a phobia about helicopters because of their low speed and high vulnerability to SAM's, ground fire and aircraft. Consequently Secretary Generals and high ranking officials never flew by helicopter. The President should likewise cease travel by helicopter as well. Conventional fixed wing flights are much safer. Only during takeoff and landing is the President vulnerable, and then only to SAM's. Groundfire is ineffective against large body aircraft and with greater speed and size the risk from "Kamikaze" style attacks is reduced. Fighter cover, usually from F-14's is occasionally provided so any hostile aircraft (such as a Kamikaze Cessna) wouldn't stand a chance. As Air Force 1 moves at slow speeds during landings or is slowly accelerating off the ground during takeoff's there is an *alarming* threat from SAM's. Slow moving giants like Air Force 1, are turkey shoots for agile, supersonic man-portable SAM's. When taking off or landing at a public airport an assassin has many places to make a hidden lanching from. With a range of over 2 Km, Air Force 1 is vulnerable for a *long* period of time. As it climbs, it has no speed or room to manoeuvre. Even if it could, commercial airliners are not known for their agility. The only hope then is through IR jamming, electronic jamming, chaff or flares. Since the assassin knows the runway position, he knows the direction of where Air Force 1 must takeoff or land from. There would be less than 15 seconds before launch and impact. The launch-warning beeper aboard Air Force 1 would only just be recognized before Air Force 1 would be blown from the sky. To reduce this risk, the President should takeoff and land from well-secured, isolated military airfields when travelling domestically and internationally and stick as much to ground transport as possible. By using secret travel plans (such as which airport he will arrive at in New York for example) an assassin won't know which airport to cover. After all the public doesn't need to know the Presidents air travel itinerary. Another policy used by the SS is to keep the specific details of the Presidents movements secret. Everyone knows when the president will be giving a speech, but the exact times are always classified. Which complicates the assassins operation, as careful planning in advance is required. Whenever the president's exact location has been made known in advance, security is always *tight*. For example during the State of the Union address the entire vicinity is sealed off. However security during these events and regular operations must be increased. One threat is from anti tank guided weapons (ATGWs). Optically guided along a thin wire for in-flight corrections they have a range up to 3 Km. Or from bigger air or ground launched missiles such as the Maverick. An assassin could fire from the other side of DC, into the stands during the inauguration ceremony for example. Not only the President would be eliminated but so to would all the supreme court justices, the former President and Vice-President, the new Vice-President - the whole government. The same applies when the President addresses a joint session of congress. Using guided weapons, an aircraft or even an improvised nuclear device (IND) the *entire* judicial, legislative and executive branches of the US government would be eliminated! Such a congregation of VIP's is a flawed idea from the start. Tradition should give way to reason and smaller events should replace them. Celebrating democracy is great but to risk the entire US government? So far only advanced methods of assassination have been examined. The possibility of a "lone gunman" using basic methods, with no more than personal weapons still remains. Take for example, the president giving an address to university graduates. It would take less than 2 seconds, for an assassin to remove his hand from an undercoat, clenching a firearm to aim and fire one round. Against this it takes a minimum of one second for the SS agents to react to the initial movement of the assassin's hand, one second to draw their weapons and another two to aim and fire. The president could be dead before the SS had finished aiming. Of course in some cases audiences are searched with metal detectors for weapons. It doesn't take a genius to smuggle in a small handgun into an audience of a few thousand though. The only option here is to reduce or eliminate public appearances by the President. But as the President would no doubt insist on being visible and open for all the cameras it isn't likely. Better checking of the site beforehand and on audiences is necessary then. A similar situation exists with say, the motorcade on inauguration day, where the President often leaves the car to walk alongside it. Here the SS is out in great force with rifles trained and ready. But we are back to our fundamental disadvantage. The assassin will always have at least a 1-2 second jump on the SS. As was mentioned before, by moving towards ground transportation instead of air the President is much safer. As you might already know the President travels in a "bullet proof" custom built vehicle. It goes everywhere that he does. When he goes to Russia, so does the car. The car's armour will stop small arms fire (ie. handguns, automatic weapons, rifles etc.) However, fire from a crew served 12.5mm gun will penetrate it. Since a gun of this size is to large and bulky to be concealed from a hundred odd SS agents it's not a worry. Remotely fired ATGW's or pre-positioned explosives are. Pre-positioned explosives won't work as the president's exact route is usually classified. When it's not secret, like on inauguration day or a parade, the route will have been carefully combed over a dozen times for explosives. And the manhole covers welded shut to prevent anyone from placing explosives beneath the road. The bullet-proof car however isn't ATGW-proof. Their shaped charges are designed for penetrating main battle tanks (MBTs) with frontal armour a foot thick. It would be best for our president to travel in a modified M1A1 Abrams MBT. Some ATGW's may be able to penetrate its rear or perhaps side armour but no existing ATGW's will penetrate its frontal armour. As its made of top- secret "cobham" plating which is several times stronger than an equivalent amount of traditional steel. Most assassinations are not done through the use of violent force. They are more subtly done using poison for example. Whitehouse security around the president's food is almost non-existent. Even if the food was "checked", ie. some bloke eats portions of it first and is watched for sickness, it could never reduce the risk poised by long term or delayed acting poisons. What should be done then? The President should appoint an agent to go out and randomly purchase food from restaurants and keep it under guard. This way no one will know which food to poison. A simpler method is to infect one's hand with it (after consuming an antidote), and then shake the president's hand, transferring the poison to him. Saddam Hussein, has a solution to this - the hands of visitors are disinfected prior to meeting the dictator. Airborne bacteria could be let loose near the president to cause infection too. Perhaps the Whitehouse should have its own sealed environment to guard against this. Our president is as stated earlier in much peril. It's only a matter of time before a group or faction builds up the nerve to attempt an assassination. When they do, enough loopholes in the security arrangement today exist for success. By acknowledging and acting upon some of the recommendations made here, the global disruption that would result from an assassination or attempt of one can be prevented. At the very least the president must cease travelling by helicopters, increase security at public appearances and guard against poisons. To give our president the security that is truly justified by his important role, the president must keep appearances to a minimum, reduce the number of officials at major ceremonies and consider travelling by armoured vehicle to avoid the dangers poised by ATGW's or RPG's. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------