The Hacker's Encyclopedia 1998/hackers_encyclopedia.iso/zines/a_m/lod5_11.txt

Text File | 2003-06-11 | 13.3 KB | 215 lines

The LOD Technical Journal: File #11 of 12

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                    []Presidential Security[]
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                   OOOO    By Argon/LOD   OOOO
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This phile is intended to give a glimpse into what's behind all those stern-
faced, emotionless secret service agents that surround the president and to
give analysis into the security surrounding our executive branch.

Our current President, or more formally Commander in Chief is as everyone
knows is Bill Clinton. Ever since his inauguration he has been under
supposedly "tight" security. However, even with up to double the normal
security allotment he is still at risk. And the list of would be assassins is
large, everyone from Iraqis, Serbians, Islamic fundamentalist militants and
if you listen to these conspiracy theories you can throw in the military
industrial establishment and heck even the religious right has motive for
assassinating the CINC.

Which has given rise to millions of dollars worth of hardware and Secret
Service payrolls for his protection. 200 agents, personal security teams and
body-guards watch our CINC 24 hours a day without rest.

What I intend to analyze is the methods of protection utilized by the SS,
their weaknesses and how they can be rectified. As the most powerful
individual in the world, our president must be safeguarded at all costs, as
he is an extremely high profile target. Nothing could give a terrorist group
more publicity and recognition that assassinating the American president.
Hopefully, the SS can keep this in mind when reading the recommendations
suggested later on when they review this journal for their computer crime
investigations... Perhaps someone will bring this to the CINC's attention, as
for the next 3 odd years the only relevancy of this phile is in ensuring
*his* safety.

4 US Presidents have been assassinated in our nation's history so with such
a risk of assassination no cost in protection is to high. The huge Whitehouse
budget can easily afford to spend more on security and less on bureaucracy.

At first glance, a Presidential assassination seems very simple. After all,
he's in front of the cameras up to 2 hours each day and its's no secret where
to find him, just stroll over to 1600 Pennsylvania Av. The Whitehouse doesn't
appear to be well defended, the windows aren't sandbagged, there is no barbed
wire, electrified fence, guard towers, minefields or even a solid wall. Just
a fragile and cosmetic black gate fence.

This first impression is entirely incorrect. The Whitehouse is ringed in
other tall buildings, giving SS sharpshooters an excellent position to fire
from. Behind all the stonework they have a superb spot to cover the
Whitehouse with. And the uncluttered Whitehouse lawn gives them a clear field
of fire. Anyone stupid enough to simply scale the fence, or ram through it
would be cut down in a hail of fire before making it halfway across the lawn.
Coming from those perched in the surrounding buildings, and the agents inside
the whitehouse. The sharpshooters posted to presidential security are simply
the best at what they do. They don't "miss".

Perhaps the most effective route for a terrorist to take would be to attack
the President while he's airborne in either a helicopter or airplane (in this
case Air Force 1). Here the President is certainly at his most vulnerable.
Infrared (IR) guided surface to air missiles (SAMs) such as the Russian SA-7
or newer SA-14, or the US Stinger could be used with deadly effect to shoot
down the aircraft. All aircraft the President travels in are equipped with IR
jammers such as the ALQ-144, which send out hotter heat waves than the
aircraft does in different directions from a small pylon shaped group of
lenses. Presently most missiles are not advanced enough to pick out the
aircraft from all the other false directed heat. Non IR guided systems can be
utilized though. The British Shorts Blowpipe or Javelin however are optically
guided, by means of a joystick and monocular sight. So IR jamming is useless.
The only way to really avoid them is to silence the person guiding it. And
these are not too difficult to obtain, they have already been used by the
Afgan rebels. So obtaining these and other SAMs is relatively easy, as they
are found in many of the world's hotspots for the right price. There is no
effective safeguard in place by the SS to protect the Presidents aircraft
from an optically guided SAM.

Even if a terrorist has no access to a SAM aerial assassinations are still
possible. A small "Cessna" like aircraft could simply be used in a "Kamikaze"
like role by colliding midair at high-speed with the president's helicopter.
Given the superior speed of a fixed wing aircraft the helicopter pilot would
have to be highly skilled to avoid it. Presidential pilots are trained in
such avoidance techniques but whether they could dodge one in practise is
unclear.

The Soviets used to have a phobia about helicopters because of their low
speed and high vulnerability to SAM's, ground fire and aircraft. Consequently
Secretary Generals and high ranking officials never flew by helicopter. The
President should likewise cease travel by helicopter as well. Conventional
fixed wing flights are much safer. Only during takeoff and landing is the
President vulnerable, and then only to SAM's. Groundfire is ineffective
against large body aircraft and with greater speed and size the risk from
"Kamikaze" style attacks is reduced. Fighter cover, usually from F-14's is
occasionally provided so any hostile aircraft (such as a Kamikaze Cessna)
wouldn't stand a chance. As Air Force 1 moves at slow speeds during landings
or is slowly accelerating off the ground during takeoff's there is an
*alarming* threat from SAM's. Slow moving giants like Air Force 1, are turkey
shoots for agile, supersonic man-portable SAM's. When taking off or landing
at a public airport an assassin has many places to make a hidden lanching
from. With a range of over 2 Km, Air Force 1 is vulnerable for a *long*
period of time. As it climbs, it has no speed or room to manoeuvre. Even if
it could, commercial airliners are not known for their agility. The only hope
then is through IR jamming, electronic jamming, chaff or flares. Since the
assassin knows the runway position, he knows the direction of where Air Force
1 must takeoff or land from. There would be less than 15 seconds before
launch and impact. The launch-warning beeper aboard Air Force 1 would only
just be recognized before Air Force 1 would be blown from the sky.

To reduce this risk, the President should takeoff and land from well-secured,
isolated military airfields when travelling domestically and internationally
and stick as much to ground transport as possible. By using secret travel
plans (such as which airport he will arrive at in New York for example) an
assassin won't know which airport to cover. After all the public doesn't need
to know the Presidents air travel itinerary.

Another policy used by the SS is to keep the specific details of the
Presidents movements secret. Everyone knows when the president will be giving
a speech, but the exact times are always classified. Which complicates the
assassins operation, as careful planning in advance is required.

Whenever the president's exact location has been made known in advance,
security is always *tight*. For example during the State of the Union address
the entire vicinity is sealed off.

However security during these events and regular operations must be
increased. One threat is from anti tank guided weapons (ATGWs). Optically
guided along a thin wire for in-flight corrections they have a range up to 3
Km. Or from bigger air or ground launched missiles such as the Maverick. An
assassin could fire from the other side of DC, into the stands during the
inauguration ceremony for example. Not only the President would be eliminated
but so to would all the supreme court justices, the former President and
Vice-President, the new Vice-President - the whole government. The same
applies when the President addresses a joint session of congress. Using
guided weapons, an aircraft or even an improvised nuclear device (IND) the
*entire* judicial, legislative and executive branches of the US government
would be eliminated! Such a congregation of VIP's is a flawed idea from the
start. Tradition should give way to reason and smaller events should replace
them. Celebrating democracy is great but to risk the entire US government?

So far only advanced methods of assassination have been examined. The
possibility of a "lone gunman" using basic methods, with no more than
personal weapons still remains. Take for example, the president giving an
address to university graduates. It would take less than 2 seconds, for an
assassin to remove his hand from an undercoat, clenching a firearm to aim and
fire one round. Against this it takes a minimum of one second for the SS
agents to react to the initial movement of the assassin's hand, one second to
draw their weapons and another two to aim and fire. The president could be
dead before the SS had finished aiming. Of course in some cases audiences are
searched with metal detectors for weapons. It doesn't take a genius to
smuggle in a small handgun into an audience of a few thousand though.

The only option here is to reduce or eliminate public appearances by the
President. But as the President would no doubt insist on being visible and
open for all the cameras it isn't likely. Better checking of the site
beforehand and on audiences is necessary then.

A similar situation exists with say, the motorcade on inauguration day, where
the President often leaves the car to walk alongside it. Here the SS is out
in great force with rifles trained and ready. But we are back to our
fundamental disadvantage. The assassin will always have at least a 1-2 second
jump on the SS.

As was mentioned before, by moving towards ground transportation instead of
air the President is much safer. As you might already know the President
travels in a "bullet proof" custom built vehicle. It goes everywhere that he
does. When he goes to Russia, so does the car. The car's armour will stop
small arms fire (ie. handguns, automatic weapons, rifles etc.) However, fire
from a crew served 12.5mm gun will penetrate it. Since a gun of this size is
to large and bulky to be concealed from a hundred odd SS agents it's not a
worry. Remotely fired ATGW's or pre-positioned explosives are. Pre-positioned
explosives won't work as the president's exact route is usually classified.
When it's not secret, like on inauguration day or a parade, the route will
have been carefully combed over a dozen times for explosives. And the manhole
covers welded shut to prevent anyone from placing explosives beneath the
road.

The bullet-proof car however isn't ATGW-proof. Their shaped charges are
designed for penetrating main battle tanks (MBTs) with frontal armour a foot
thick. It would be best for our president to travel in a modified M1A1 Abrams
MBT. Some ATGW's may be able to penetrate its rear or perhaps side armour but
no existing ATGW's will penetrate its frontal armour. As its made of top-
secret "cobham" plating which is several times stronger than an equivalent
amount of traditional steel.

Most assassinations are not done through the use of violent force. They are
more subtly done using poison for example. Whitehouse security around the
president's food is almost non-existent. Even if the food was "checked", ie.
some bloke eats portions of it first and is watched for sickness, it could
never reduce the risk poised by long term or delayed acting poisons. What
should be done then? The President should appoint an agent to go out and
randomly purchase food from restaurants and keep it under guard. This way no
one will know which food to poison. A simpler method is to infect one's hand
with it (after consuming an antidote), and then shake the president's hand,
transferring the poison to him. Saddam Hussein, has a solution to this - the
hands of visitors are disinfected prior to meeting the dictator. Airborne
bacteria could be let loose near the president to cause infection too.
Perhaps the Whitehouse should have its own sealed environment to guard
against this.

Our president is as stated earlier in much peril. It's only a matter of time
before a group or faction builds up the nerve to attempt an assassination.
When they do, enough loopholes in the security arrangement today exist for
success. By acknowledging and acting upon some of the recommendations made
here, the global disruption that would result from an assassination or
attempt of one can be prevented. At the very least the president must cease
travelling by helicopters, increase security at public appearances and guard
against poisons. To give our president the security that is truly justified
by his important role, the president must keep appearances to a minimum,
reduce the number of officials at major ceremonies and consider travelling by
armoured vehicle to avoid the dangers poised by ATGW's or RPG's.
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