Underneath the East Wing of the White House, there was a bunker designed to create a safe place for the president and critical members of his Cabinet in event of a catastrophe. There are reports the president was moved there on Jan. 6, 2021, when things got out of control.
Vice President Mike Pence, to his credit, insisted on showing up for work in the Capitol. Trump watched the events on television from the safety of the White House a mile and a half away. The bunker, built by Roosevelt, was basically a reinforced command center with basic accommodations for the president and vice president.
The new bunker which will be under the proposed ballroom will be much larger, less spartan and with heretofore undisclosed military capabilities. No doubt, part of the ballroom project is to help disguise and conceal what’s being built underground. The claim that the ballroom somehow protects the bunker seems pretty silly.
There are lots of other ballrooms available in Washington, D.C., and throughout the U.S. The one at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas is 100,000 square feet. The ballroom at the Washington Hilton, 26,000 square feet, where the correspondence dinner was scheduled is two stories below grade with a giant hotel above it. It is thus bulletproof from the exterior.
Being under the hotel, it is also protected from most weapons a terrorist might have access to. As we saw, the invader Cole Thomas Allen did not get past the lobby. There is reason to believe the Secret Service had been alerted that he was coming, but chose to stop him at the most conspicuous place that would not place anyone else at risk.
In spite of the president’s insistence, there’s no evidence that there was ever a demand for a large ballroom at the White House. Ninety thousand square feet would accommodate 6,000 people for a banquet, probably twice that many for stand-up events, like an inauguration or cocktail party.
All the guests and the wait staff would have to be screened better than airline passengers, but no airplane can hold over 6,000 people. Moving that many people in and out of the White House grounds would be a strategic nightmare. A serious weapon could be smuggled in pieces.
He brags that it would have a drone-proof roof — hardly reassuring. A bomb could be dropped from an aircraft or helicopter. The glass, supposedly bulletproof, is better known in the industry as bullet resistant glass. The glass on a fighter plane, cockpit or armored limousine will resist a .50 caliber bullet one time. It is limited in size.
Even a small howitzer stolen from a nearby armory can penetrate almost any government building. A 105 howitzer can hit a pickle barrel from 5 miles away. Especially such a large, tempting, conspicuous fragile one filled with primary targets. If the real purpose is an expanded bunker, just tell us.
One has to wonder about the wisdom of holding a large event near the White House, the Capitol or the Supreme Court. After WWII, the military moved their headquarters, they built the Pentagon across the Potomac, and NORAD under a mountain in Colorado.
Sometimes it is necessary to put a large number of almost indispensable people in one place. The House of Representatives, 435 members, needs to convene occasionally in the same room that’s where the debate gets done. On the other hand, a lot of their business is done one on one in individual offices, restaurants, barbershops or airplanes — whatever gets the job done — but sometimes they all just have to be in the same place.
A really large event like the State of the Union where our entire government structure is in one room borders on insanity. There is no negotiation, just a presentation. The government recognizes this, so a critical person from each division is kept far away in case of catastrophe. We wouldn’t want the entire government destroyed simultaneously.
There is really no practical reason to have so many people who may be indispensable in the same room at the same time, just so they could shake hands with another and pat each other on the back one more time.
There are married couples whowon’t travel on the same plane or car so that in a crash, the children won’t lose both parents. But we put the president, vice president and speaker of the house on the same dais where one hand grenade could take out all three. The Cabinet members, joint chiefs and Supreme Court sit in the front row. The whole event would be better done on Zoom or live TV and in less than half the time. It’s just theater.
Ken Obenski is a forensic engineer and safety and freedom advocate in South Kona. He writes a biweekly column for 91直播. Feedback is encouraged at obenskik@gmail.com.
