A false alarm involving a possible violation of White House airspace sent President George Bush into a bunker today.
It underlined an important fact: although the U.S. government seems to have quietly discarded the color-coded terror alerts, the threat of terrorism still looms large — and anything touching on the issue is taken seriously. The last time Bush was moved to the underground bunker was on Sept. 11, 2001. Details from AP:
President Bush was rushed from the Oval Office to an underground shelter and Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to a secure location Wednesday on fears that an unidentified aircraft had entered restricted space near the White House. Officials said it was a false alarm.
The brief scare lasted only a few minutes before officials determined there was no threat, White House counselor Dan Bartlett said.
Some White House staff members were moved out of the West Wing and tourists were rushed from the East Wing and sent to the far side of a park across the street from the compound. Gun-toting Secret Service uniformed officers took up positions around the White House compound.
“There was an indication that an aircraft has entered the no-fly zone,” White House press secretary Scott McClellan said. “There’s an investigation to determine what it really was.”
“There was a report of a possible violation of restricted air space which has since been cleared and closed,” said Lorie Lewis, a spokeswoman for the Secret Service.
McClellan said Bush was working in the Oval Office at the time. Bush was taken to the underground bunker. He was there “a very short amount of time,” McClellan said.
Cheney was notified about the scare and moved to a secure location, according to an administration official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security information. He arrived at the White House minutes after the situation was resolved.
Reuters adds this detail:
Secret Service agents wielding shotguns disbursed tourists during the brief security scare, which ended after a few minutes.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.