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Posted on 06/27/2002 7:19:56 AM PDT by Stand Watch Listen
Uniformed military personnel working in office buildings outside the Pentagon are increasingly reporting incidents of possible surveillance of their activities by potential terrorists, a wide array of military and law enforcement officials tell Inside the Pentagon.Concern about such surveillance was heightened after the May 8 arrest of Jose Padilla. Also known as Abdullah al Muhajir, Padilla is an American citizen whom the U.S. government suspects of conspiring with al Qaeda terrorists to scout out potential sites for future domestic attack.
Terrorism experts say the thousands of officers, enlisted personnel and defense civilians who work in commercial office buildings in the Arlington, VA, area -- many displaced by a massive renovation effort at the Pentagon -- may well be more vulnerable to attack than their counterparts at the five-sided Defense Department headquarters, which has been heavily fortified since the Sept. 11 terrorist strike. The concern is that terrorists will gravitate toward attacking points of least resistance, which is almost anywhere these days but the Pentagon.
Trucks and tour buses have been banned from a public highway that passes close to the Pentagon, and on any given day, a dozen or so humvees can be seen strategically placed around the building. Blast-resistant windows have been installed in the Pentagon's renovated areas to limit damage from a truck bomb or other similar device. A new layer of security has military police checking identification and inspecting bags well before personnel or visitors enter the Pentagon, where they go through a similar process again.
Not so at the many office buildings around Arlington where military tenants and commercial businesses coexist. Some of these buildings stepped up security a bit after Sept. 11, adding a lobby guard, screening visitors or locking defense personnel behind vaulted doors. But others remain in relatively open buildings, sharing space with commercial tenants who generally encourage public access, rather than seek to hinder it.
Even those office buildings with restricted access may house large numbers of uniformed personnel who remain vulnerable to a truck bomb parked out front, or to a drive-by shooting preceded by a false fire alarm, terror experts say.
On the other hand, it may be easy to overreact in the wake of the horrific airliner attacks carried out last fall against the World Trade Center and the Pentagon, observers say. Since Sept. 11, the Arlington County Police Department has seen an upsurge in calls about suspected terrorist activity, acknowledged spokesman Matt Martin. But most incidents of possible terrorist surveillance investigated by the county police prove difficult to corroborate after the fact, or turn out to be false leads, Martin said.
Too much has been made of Padilla's alleged capacity to carry out a terrorist strike using a radiological explosive device, or "dirty" weapon, according to Larry Johnson, a former deputy director in the State Department's office of counterterrorism.
"He couldn't make a dirty burrito, let alone a dirty bomb," Johnson told ITP last week.
But the heightened sensitivity may well reflect an actual increase in activity, terrorism and security experts say.
Last October, cleaning crews at one Arlington office building were approached by people who appeared to be from the Middle East, inquiring whether military personnel worked at the facility and what they did there, according to a local government contractor. Cleaning crews were also asked whether the building offered underground parking -- a possible avenue of attack for a vehicle loaded with explosives, this source said.
When the building's security chief called the Arlington police, he was told, "This is going on all over Arlington," in the words of the government contractor. "We are getting reports of this kind of thing every day."
Martin downplayed the prevalence of such calls but said he could not offer any statistics. County police do not track reports of suspected terrorist activity and have not set up a central clearinghouse to assess patterns of suspicious behavior, according to Martin. But he said they do routinely pass along reports of possible terrorist activity to the FBI.
At another Arlington office building that houses dozens of military personnel, tenants noticed "a man of apparent Middle Eastern descent videotaping our buildings" several weeks ago, according to another source. Some office workers also saw a suspicious-looking man apparently writing down names from the tags on military uniforms, this source said.
"This pattern looks a hell of a lot like someone is casing our building," the source said. "They tried to report [it] to [the] FBI but found it fell on deaf ears."
Concerns have not gone wholly unnoticed. The Air Force's acquisition directorate earlier this month circulated a briefing to its personnel dubbed "Eagle Eyes," an effort launched by the service's Office of Special Investigations to "deter terrorism by recognizing and reporting pre-attack activities," according to a service memo issued June 13. This sort of global "neighborhood watch" is "applicable to both on-base and off-base populations," the memo states.
"Every terrorist act is preceded by observable planning activities," according to the OSI briefing, obtained by ITP. "When troops and citizens know what to look for and how to report suspicious activity, terrorist acts can be prevented."
Defense personnel are advised to report what may be people reconnoitering a facility, eliciting information, acquiring supplies that could be used in an attack, conducting a "dry run," deploying assets, or -- in a worst case -- carrying out a terrorist strike.
According to one terrorism expert, "measured vigilance" must substitute for sending police cruisers or humvees everywhere military personnel work, because there simply are not enough military or civil police to go around.
The Air Force briefing echoes that observation. "Law enforcement officers can't be everywhere," the document states. What's needed is the "eyes and ears of [the] entire community."
Even if there were an increased security presence at commercial buildings that house substantial numbers of military personnel, the risk would not disappear, some officials concede. One source noted that uniformed personnel riding public transportation to and from work every day may someday pose a target for terrorists.
In the end, the military community -- and those nearby -- simply faces a heightened risk, officials say. "Anytime you put military in a commercial [setting], you take a risk," said one uniformed officer who works in just such a building.
-- Elaine M. Grossman
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"He couldn't make a dirty burrito, let alone a dirty bomb," Johnson told ITP last week.
Honway, this guy agrees with your assessment.
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