Terrance Gainer, the Chief of the Capitol Police, recently returned from Israel, where he and several of his officers were trained by the Mossad. The goal: to prevent suicide bombings and political assassinations in Washington. On Friday, Gainer applied the skills he learned training with Israel’s elite security force to help his men get ready for what will surely be one of the most watched–and most high-security–political events in years.
Gainer and eight of his men–ranging from bomb technicians to field commanders to crime scene analysts–spent eight days receiving briefings from the Israeli National Police. After a half a day in the classroom, the officers went into the field, where they interviewed witnesses to suicide bombings and watched tapes that captured attacks on film. “We retraced where the bombers came from and how to stop them,” Gainer said. “We’re trying to understand the psychology of a suicide bomber, how you might recognize one, how to prevent detonation, how to manage crime scenes, how to deal with victims and get life back to normal. Suicide bombing is a continued fear and we expect to experience it.”
Friday night’s “rehearsal” was heavily informed by what Gainer and his men learned from the Israelis. In addition to running drills that would prepare them to intercept bombers, the Capitol Police used recruits who pretended to be Senators while seasoned Secret Service officers practiced evacuating the Chamber. Scenarios the men prepared for included how to respond if a chemical attack or shoot-out and hostage situation occurred during the speech. Is it any coincidence that the Capitol Police made their trip to Israel just days before the State of the Union address? “The timing was perfect for us,” Gainer said. “We have a lot of extra security in place for Tuesday and we’re doing a lot of extra rehearsing.”
But some experts think it is unlikely such a devastating blow could still be delivered by Al Qaeda at all, much less during an event that will be as heavily guarded as the President’s speech. “In my view they don’t possess that capability,” said Phil Anderson, who is the director of the Homeland Security Initiative at the Center for Strategic and International Studies. “Because the war on terrorism has been very successful … their guys are far more concerned, in my opinion, about surviving, avoiding detection and maintaining some organization to fight another day.” Anderson doesn’t think the State of the Union speech is an attractive target for terrorists because it will be very difficult to penetrate the security perimeter “short of commandeering another airplane or amassing a massive amount of weapons.” Neither possibility is likely.
But why not launch easy-to-execute, small scale suicide bombings that day? “With Al Qaeda, they’re always upping the ante and making follow-up attacks more spectacular than previous ones,” said Anderson. He believes Al Qaeda is only interested in attacks that will yield mass casualties and dramatically impact the American economy and mood. But expert optimism means little to Chief Gainer. He thinks the State of the Union address presents an “attractive opportunity” to would be bombers and assassins. “Most everybody thinks the fourth plane was heading for the Capitol,” Gainer said. “We will have every branch of government here on Tuesday and we will be ready.” Of course, the real question is whether we can ever be ready enough.
