President U S Security

A Colorado man standing among tourists in front of the White House pulled a Chinese-made assault rifle from beneath his trench coat Saturday and fired 20 to 30 shots at the mansion and the West Wing, where President Clinton has his office. No one was injured, and White House Chief of Staff Leon E. Panetta told reporters: "The President and his family were never in any danger." The suspected gunman was subdued by passersby.

President Carter was a prisoner of the White House during the Iran hostage crisis, not traveling for half a year. During the buildup before the Persian Gulf War, President Bush decided business had to go on as usual. He drew criticism for playing golf in Maine while sending troops to Saudi Arabia. Now, the current President Bush's White House is wrestling with how and when he should move beyond the confines of Washington. The issue involves more than presidential restlessness or mere logistics.

Secret Service agents guarding President Clinton arrested a man who raised suspicions on Martha's Vineyard by asking about directions to the president's vacation lodgings. Agents alerted by people who encountered him arrested Robert E. Ross, 50, of Danbury, Conn., in West Tisbury, Mass., Bristol County Assistant Dist. Atty. David Crowley told the Standard Times of New Bedford. Ross was unarmed, but he told the agents he had left guns in his car on Cape Cod. Police found a loaded .

A Florida man who tried to enter President Bush's ranch in Crawford, Texas, with several guns pleaded guilty after being found competent to stand trial. John Michael Hughes, 30, was given the maximum sentence of six months in jail and a $1,000 fine, a U.S. attorney spokesman said. U.S. Magistrate Judge Jeffrey Manske in Waco sentenced Hughes to time served because he has been in a federal prison hospital since shortly after his Dec. 16 arrest.

An anti-nuclear activist rushed the stage while former President Ronald Reagan was giving a speech Monday and smashed a large crystal statue that Reagan had just been given. Pieces of the statue hit Reagan in the head, but he was not hurt. The activist then tried to speak into the microphone as Reagan, appearing angry but unhurt, stood beside him. Secret Service agents quickly grabbed the protester and hustled him away. The 81-year-old Reagan was jostled during the scuffle.

In a sobering sign of the times, President Clinton said Saturday that he had reluctantly ordered security officials to permanently close Pennsylvania Avenue in front of the White House to vehicular traffic as "a practical step to protect against the kind of attack we saw in Oklahoma City." The decision to restrict access to the well-traveled boulevard for the first time will inconvenience Washington residents and tourists.

In a "highly unusual" move, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr began bringing Secret Service and other witnesses before two different grand juries meeting simultaneously on Thursday. That witnesses were being ushered before separate grand juries, both meeting on the third floor of the federal courthouse here, was the strongest indication yet that Starr is dramatically picking up the pace of his six-month investigation of President Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica S.

Only four days into a White House security crackdown, a Secret Service officer shot an intruder and was shot and wounded himself late Tuesday night after the man scaled a fence and dashed across the darkened lawn toward the executive mansion, officials said. The intruder, identified by Secret Service spokesman Carl Meyer as Leland William Modjeski, 37, of suburban Falls Church, Va., was shot in the upper body, while Secret Service official Scott Giambattista was hit in the arm.

A modern-day President is aptly described as living his life in a "bubble"--a cocoon at once so transparent that all the world can see in but so confining that it isolates the occupant from that same world. Many new presidents have vowed not to be so constrained, and Bill Clinton is no different. But he may learn, as others have, that breaking free is not so easy.

The White House used decoy helicopters to confuse potential terrorists Sunday in a clear signal that it is taking seriously extremist anti-American threats triggered by the Gulf War. When President Bush returned to the capital Sunday from a weekend stay at the presidential retreat of Camp David, three decoy helicopters accompanied the helicopter carrying Bush.

Secret Service officers on Wednesday shot and wounded a man who had fired a handgun outside the south fence of the White House. President Bush, who was inside the Executive Mansion at the time, was never in danger. The incident occurred shortly before noon EST and triggered a temporary security clampdown--keeping visitors from entering or leaving the White House and snarling traffic for blocks.

Four years after he pulled the same stunt at President Clinton's second inauguration, a man without the proper clearance walked through security checkpoints and then stepped up and shook President Bush's hand shortly after the swearing in, sources familiar with the incident said Tuesday. The ability of the same man to penetrate security four years later was all the more surprising given the unprecedented levels of protection that law enforcement officials said they devoted to this inauguration.

In response to a security threat Saturday, passengers on Air Force One heading to Pisa, Italy, from Athens were asked by the Secret Service to open their carry-on luggage for inspection. Officials would give no details on the threat. Nothing suspicious was found aboard the Boeing 747, a senior official said. In the Greek capital, police said they had no information from Clinton's staff on the apparent threat.

Secret Service agents guarding President Clinton arrested a man who raised suspicions on Martha's Vineyard by asking about directions to the president's vacation lodgings. Agents alerted by people who encountered him arrested Robert E. Ross, 50, of Danbury, Conn., in West Tisbury, Mass., Bristol County Assistant Dist. Atty. David Crowley told the Standard Times of New Bedford. Ross was unarmed, but he told the agents he had left guns in his car on Cape Cod. Police found a loaded .

In a "highly unusual" move, independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr began bringing Secret Service and other witnesses before two different grand juries meeting simultaneously on Thursday. That witnesses were being ushered before separate grand juries, both meeting on the third floor of the federal courthouse here, was the strongest indication yet that Starr is dramatically picking up the pace of his six-month investigation of President Clinton's relationship with former White House intern Monica S.

When the sorrows of Watergate drove President Nixon to tears, Secret Service agents were there. When usually mild-mannered Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey lost control and punched a heckler in the chest, his agents looked on. Agents were close, too, when the Clintons moved into the White House--so close, in fact, that an unhappy first family ordered that, henceforth, the detail no longer should stand guard on the residential floors of the White house but on the landing of the floor below.

Keeping presidents out of harm's way has always produced headaches for the Secret Service, the elite security corps that was given the task of protecting occupants of the White House after the assassination of William McKinley in 1901. And Bill Clinton is a migraine already beginning to happen.

Sen. Jesse Helms' comments about President Clinton should be no barrier to his becoming chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, Senate Republican leader Bob Dole said Wednesday. Helms (R-N.C.) was strongly criticized by several Democrats, including Clinton, for his remark that the President was so unpopular with the military that "he'd better have a bodyguard" if he visited Helms' home state.

Whatever former White House intern Monica S. Lewinsky bought at one Washington bookstore is irrelevant to the investigation of her relationship with President Clinton, a federal judge has ruled. The store, Barnes & Noble, will not be forced to turn over records sought by independent counsel Kenneth W. Starr, U.S. District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson wrote in a court order made public Friday.

For the second and then third time in three months, Air Force One disappeared Friday from radar screens while approaching New York's crowded airspace, bringing into focus an aviation safety problem that air traffic controllers warned is much more widespread than is publicly recognized.