An officer on duty at the Capitol on Wednesday as the city began clamping down on security for Inauguration Day. (Doug Mills/The New York Times)From International Herald Tribune:
WASHINGTON: The U.S. authorities have begun to seal off a security zone extending miles from the Capitol where President-elect Barack Obama will be sworn in next Tuesday, drawing on disparate lessons gleaned from terrorist attacks in London and Mumbai, the Sept. 11, 2001, attack at the Pentagon, and even annual Fourth of July celebrations on the National Mall.
Though intelligence agencies have detected no credible threat to any inaugural event or to Obama, law enforcement agencies, operating from a network of centers, will command ground, air and waterborne forces numbering in excess of 20,000 police officers, National Guard troops and plainclothes agents from more than 50 agencies, according to interviews with security planners.
Read more ....