Congress puts its trust in a yellow bag
Julian Borger in Washington
Guardian
Thursday June 27, 2002
The man responsible for safeguarding the heart of American
democracy against terrorists stood outside Congress yesterday
with a yellow bag over his head, which he promised could
provide at least two minutes' protection against chemical or
biological attack.
The Capitol building's police chief, Terrence Gainer, said the
yellow bag - a gas mask that collapses to the size of a bag of
sugar - would protect the nation's legislators, their staff and
tourists from anthrax and sarin, as well as a bunch of other
chemicals and germs with names he could not remember off the
top of his head.
He said 20,000 of the new "quick masks" were on order for the
Capitol, which would be enough for any tourists unlucky enough
to find themselves there in an emergency.
But for a nation bracing itself ahead of the Fourth of July
Independence Day celebrations, generally agreed to be a prime
target for a terrorist attack, Chief Gainer's performance with the
yellow hood is likely to fall short of reassuring.
He insisted that the distribution of gas masks did not mean
there was an imminent danger of germs being released into the
corridors of power.
"There is no specific intelligence that it is necessary to do it
now," Chief Gainer said. He added that the masks would provide
anything from two minutes to an hour's protection, but declined
to say what sort of attack would give its victims only two
minutes to flee. He admitted the masks would not be much use
against radiation in the event of a nuclear or dirty bomb.
At a press conference in front of the Capitol building (last
attacked in 1814, by the British, who burnt it down) the police
chief, who is new to the job, was bombarded with questions over
why only Congress was being provided with the new devices. In
last October's anthrax attacks, congressmen were criticised for
evacuating their offices while postal workers remained at their
posts. Two postmen in Washington died of anthrax inhalation.
Chief Gainer said the nation's 535 senators and representatives
have had their own masks for several months. They would now
be issued the same yellow model as everyone else, he said.
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