Even a partial reopening of Pennsylvania Avenue would increase the risk of a vehicle bomb damaging the White House, the director of the Secret Service said yesterday.
Eljay B. Bowron, responding to growing pressure to reopen the closed part of Pennsylvania Avenue, said in an interview that the current 330-foot distance between the White House and the street would not be sufficient to prevent deaths, injuries and extensive damage to the 196-year-old building from a vehicle blast.
People "say very matter-of-factly that a truck bomb couldn't do to the White House what was done to the federal building in Oklahoma City because of the distance," Bowron said, referring to last year's bombing of a federal office building involving a truck parked six feet away. "I'm here to tell you we've done exhaustive studies and that's just flat not true."
He noted that U.S. military officials have increased the distance between the apartment complex in Saudi Arabia housing American soldiers and the security barriers to 400 feet from 100 after the blast last week that killed 19 service people. Bowron said that closing a few of the six lanes along Pennsylvania Avenue would not add enough distance to shield the mansion from an explosion. The southern edge of Lafayette Square is about 400 feet from the White House.
The Saudi bombing, coupled with the arrest Monday of 12 members of an Arizona militia that allegedly was planning to blow up federal buildings, is fresh evidence that there are foreign and domestic terrorists intent on making political statements through bombings, Bowron said.
"In Saudi Arabia, you could look at what's being said after the fact" about what could have been done to prevent the attack, he said. "That's the point here with the White House and Pennsylvania Avenue. We're in a position to not have to deal with the perspective of 20-20 hindsight. We don't have to wait and see if the White House is a target."
Sen. Rod Grams (R-Minn.), who sponsored legislation calling on President Clinton to reopen the street, said it is unfortunate that the Saudi bombing is being used to justify the permanent shutdown of Pennsylvania Avenue.
"The attack in Saudi Arabia should . . . reinforce our determination to stand up to these cowardly thugs," Grams said of the terrorists.
Bowron responded: "If you want to give [terrorists] a victory, have them blow up the White House."
Bowron and members of the White House Security Review, a panel of six people outside the current administration who recommended that Clinton close the street to cars and trucks, have come under criticism by some members of Congress, District officials and business leaders who are not convinced that closing the street is the only solution to a vehicle bomb threat. Bowron agreed to an interview to more fully explain why officials feel the closing is necessary.
He ruled out all alternatives to sealing the street, including building a thick wall of bullet-resistant laminated glass behind the front gate, restricting truck traffic or erecting movable barriers in the street that would pop up when a truck attempts to go through.
A tunnel to take traffic underneath Pennsylvania, Bowron said, "probably could be designed" to shield the White House from damage. But such a tunnel would be "extraordinarily expensive" and disruptive, he said, because of the difficulty of tearing up utilities under the street and the need to place the tunnel entrance several blocks away.
The only practical way to protect the White House from a vehicle bomb is to increase the distance between the mansion and the street, where a car or truck would park, Bowron concluded.
But several independent security analysts also have cast doubt on the Secret Service's assertions.
"I am not aware of any standard, guideline or other authoritative document on this subject that advocates a [distance] of greater than about 200 feet as security design criteria," said John J. Strauchs, a Reston security analyst who advocates banning trucks from Pennsylvania Avenue.
Computer calculations made independently yesterday by Norman Glover, a New York City civil engineer and blast expert, indicated that at 300 feet, there is a 1 in 19 chance of heavy, bullet-resistant windows being blown out of a building. Most casualties in such incidents occur from flying glass. At 400 feet, however, the probability of shattering windows is reduced to almost zero. The figures are based on a 5,000-pound bomb like the one that exploded in Oklahoma City.
Members of the White House Security Review, which included former FBI and CIA director William H. Webster, said in interviews that they are alarmed at the recent groundswell of opinion in favor of reopening the street. They based their recommendation on a classified study by the Southwest Research Institute, which analyzed potential blast damage from various positions around the White House complex.
"We have been plain old-fashioned lucky that no one has struck before now," said Ronald K. Noble, former undersecretary of the treasury, who headed the security review, which began after a 1994 plane crash and shooting incident at the White House.
A 5,000-pound truck bomb parked outside the White House gate would cause "deaths and significant structural damage" to the White House, as well as buildings blocks away, Bowron said. "This is a very serious public safety issue. . . . You're in a position of having thousands of people in an area that puts them at risk."
But that risk could be reduced considerably with a wall of laminated bulletproof glass, according to four analysts familiar with the material, which is being used to protect the Liberty Bell and parts of the Statue of Liberty.
H. Scott Norville, a professor and glass researcher at Texas Tech University, said his analysis of the Oklahoma City blast site concluded that every conventional window within 700 feet of the blast failed except for laminated glass. He and others said more testing of the White House area would be needed before a conclusion could be reached.
Bowron, although saying such a wall has not been tested, was skeptical it could withstand a large explosion. Even a six-foot-high concrete wall "would only act as a speed bump to the blast," the director said.
As for a height barrier that could stop trucks, Bowron said that would not eliminate the threat from minivans, sport utility vehicles, limousines and cars. A standard sedan could carry enough explosives "to do the kind of damage we're confronted with."
Strauchs responded: "I'd like to see him get 10 tons of explosives in a sedan." Webster also was skeptical of the threat posed by cars; the real danger is a truck bomb, he said.
Bowron said that before he recommended to Treasury Secretary Robert E. Rubin last year that the two-block section of Pennsylvania be sealed, the Secret Service determined that the White House probably would be targeted by terrorists. The decision to close was not based on a specific threat, he said, but statements by Middle Eastern terrorists that their goal was to destroy landmark buildings such as the World Trade Center and the White House.