OK, but what color was the bomb?

US Park Police fail to notice decoy bomb at Washington Monument:

In broad daylight on Sept. 11, 2003, somebody deposited
what could have been a "dirty bomb" at the Washington Monument. U.S.
Park Police never noticed.
It wasn't a real bomb, just a suspicious-looking black plastic bag
stuffed with garbage. And the culprits weren't terrorists, but
investigators from the Interior Department's Office of Inspector
General, out to demonstrate the monument's vulnerability on that
infamous anniversary. As documented in photos and a memo obtained by
The Reliable Source, the feds left the bag at the rear of the obelisk
for 20 minutes, then moved it near a security checkpoint where tourists
lined up to enter the landmark. "Again, the unidentified bag sat there,
undisrupted and unnoticed, for roughly 15 minutes," wrote Inspector
General Earl E. Devaney in the memo, citing his "grave concerns for the
security and public safety at these facilities." No Park Police could
be seen on patrol, except for one in an unmarked car who "appeared to be sound asleep,"
Devaney wrote. The memo, now in the hands of the House Select Committee
on Homeland Security, has some staffers in stitches. But Rep. Jim
Turner (D-Tex.), ranking committee member, is outraged. "Without a
doubt, if there had been a terrorist attack on the Washington Monument
on Sept. 11, 2003, hundreds of tourists could have been killed," Turner
told us yesterday. "Usually when we say someone was asleep at the
wheel, it is just an expression, but this time, the Park Police were
literally asleep at the wheel. . . . Someone needs to be held
accountable for this."

I live in Washington DC, and every time I go down to the National Mall
I'm surprised by a new "security feature" they've installed. Last time
I was there they'd put up a wall all the way around the Washington
Monument (it's now covered in anti-Bush graffiti). It's mindboggling
that the US Park Police blew this test. They've completely ruined the
Mall in the name of "security" and now it turns out they're literally
sleeping on the job.
I'm also going to quickly point out that all this went down on September 11th during a freaking Orange Alert. The Administration threw themselves a softball and they couldn't even hit it. How pathetic is that?

Posted by flow Frazao on January 13, 2004 at 12:02 PM | Permalink