THE NEW SECURITY: FENCES TO FLOWERPOTS

• Document Type: CREST
• Collection: General CIA Records
• Document Number (FOIA) /ESDN (CREST): CIA-RDP90-00965R000706770001-7
• Release Decision: RIPPUB
• Original Classification: K
• Document Page Count: 1
• Document Creation Date: December 22, 2016
• Document Release Date: December 13, 2011
• Sequence Number: 1
• Publication Date: May 18, 1986
• Content Type: OPEN SOURCE

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oN PA E 18 May 1986
The New Security.
Fences to Flowerpots
By ROBIN TONER
Special to The New York Time
WASHINGTON, May 17 - A week ago, the shop-
ping concourse inside the Pentagon became offi-
cially off-limits to the public.
At the Smithsonian's Air and Space Museum on
the Mall, guards now check the purses and brief-
cases of all visitors and staff. "Even though I'm
the deputy director of the museum and the guards
know me, they look through my briefcase every
morning," said Don Lopez.
Some of the blossoms that bloomed here this
spring did so in huge concrete flowerpots used as
barriers to vehicles around
such buildings as the Capi-
tol and the Pentagon.
The signs are sometimes
subtle, sometimes as obvi-
ous as a few flowers poking
from a mass of concrete
whose function is as for-
boding as its form. Wash-
ington, long a city of com-
paratively free and easy
access, has become preoc-
cupied with security and
the threat of terrorism.
Few people here are
willing to question the need
for stepped-up security,
particularly in the after-
math of the United States
raid an Libya and the ter-
rorist attacks abroad in re-
cent years. But officials
can face troublesome
questions as they try to
protect the capital without
putting off the American people, who flock to this
city with a justifiably proprietary air.
That dilemma is evident on Capitol Hill, where
members of Congress are discussing a proposal to
install a fence around the Capitol. "It's very hard,"
said Representative James J. Howard, the New
Jersey Democrat who is chairman of the House
Public Works and Transportation Committee.
"Here, you've got all the politicians. They want
people to seem welcome. I want to do something,
but I don't want to go too far."
"The real frustration," Mr. Howard added, "is
that It's very difficult to really secure a place with-
out pushing the people around."
This is, after all, not just a seat of government,
but a tourist attraction, a kind of theme park for
democracy. And 1986 is shaping up as a healthy
year for tourism in the capital, in part because fear
of terrorism abroad is expected to prompt many
American vacations at home, officials say.
In the days after the bombing attack on Libya, a
few school groups canceled tours they had sched-
uled at some of the 12 Smithsonian museums here,
officials said. But the vacancies were quickly
filled, and the number of visitors is running well
above last year's level.
George Berklacy, a National Park Service
spokesman, reports that the ag sensitivity" has been heightenedeaddedThe
parkland in the nation's capital is quite safe, In our
judgment."
The Smithsonian museums have imposed new
security procedures, including tighter checks at
the doors for both visitors and staff. "Everybody
seems to be taking it with good grace," said Mary
Combs, a spokesman for the Smithsonian. "It's
sort of like airport checks. People are happy to
know you're taking these steps."
Visitors to the capital can still take tours of the
Pentagon, but a variety of new security measures
have been added at that sprawling complex.
The decision to restrict the 16 stores in the Penta-
gon's shopping concourse to Pentagon employees
and others with Defense Department passes was
made some time ago, well before the raid on Libya,
a spokesman said. And most customers were al-
ready Pentagon employees, he added.
The State Department plans to spend $4 million
on security improvements at its main building. In
the past two years, the department has increased
the number of guards, installed barriers to vehi-
des and expanded use of metal detectors and
closed-circuit television monitors, an official re-
cently told a Congressional panel.
The White House acquired concrete barriers
around its fence after the 983 truck-bombing of the
Marine compoud in Beirut Now, workers are con-
verting East Executive Avenue, between the White
House and the Treasury Building, into a pedestrian
mall. Security was a factor, officials say.
Out in suburban V at the headquarters of
the Central nIntetUffence Agency, more irates Ea
metal barriers have been installed at entrances,
one boulders have been scatt Wife, one area to
deny access to any intruding thouah at
first glance they seem to be nothing more than Dart
of a huge rock garden.
The new security consciousness is not confined to
governmental Washington. Kastle Systems Inc., a
company that provides electronic security systems
to commercial office buildings, has experienced a
sharp increase in business in the Washington area,
over the past year, an official said. "The percep.
tion in the market is, 'Let's get more security,' "
said Jeff Kolodin, national sales manager.
The security issue is a cause for some sadness
among longtime Washingtonians who remember
more innocent times when a flowerpot was just a'
flowerpot. "There is no doubt we have to prepare
ourselves a little bit better than we have in regard.
to possible terrorist attacks," Mr. Howard said.
Still, he said he wonders: "If we start doing these
things, have the terrorists won? And how do we do
it without separating people from their Capitol?"
Declassified in Part - Sanitized Copy Approved for Release 2011/12/13: CIA-RDP90-00965R000706770001-7