London Blasts Felt In Washington
Post-9/11 Security Steps Put In Motion In White House, Metro System
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John Negroponte (AP)
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With President Bush at the G8 summit in Scotland, Vice President Cheney was alerted, and Mr. Bush was briefed on an on-going basis by Chief of Staff Andrew Card. The president also made a statement expressing condolences to the families of the dead and resolve to continue the war on terror.
At the same time, Andrews reports, Director of National Intelligence John Negroponte came to the White House and headed to the "situation room."
In addition, a new working group called the Interagency Incident Management Group was called into action. It brings together the Department of Homeland Security, the FBI, the CIA, all the national intelligence agencies, to determine if there was a threat to the United States, Andrews explained.
Mr. Bush then got on a conference call with all his national security and homeland security advisers to make sure that security was ramped up wherever necessary in the U.S.
Local officials were busy, as well.
Overnight, every metropolitan police officer in Washington was kept on double overtime to increase the visibility of security throughout the city.
And on the metro (subway) system in particular, security was vastly ramped up, with some officers, machine guns visible, being posted at the major metro stops and every bomb-sniffing dog available being put on duty in a metro system that is "every bit as vulnerable as the one in London," Andrews pointed out.
More than 1 million people use it daily, and this is the height of the tourist season in the nation's capital.
President Bush is asking all Americans to remain extra vigilant. The terror alert was raised to Orange for mass transit.
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