Dayton closes D.C. office over security concerns
Associated Press
October 12, 2004 DAYTON1013
WASHINGTON -- Sen. Mark Dayton, D-Minn, said Tuesday he has closed his Washington office because of a top-secret intelligence report that made him fear for his staff's safety.
Dayton, said his office in the Russell Senate Office Building across the street from the Capitol will be closed while Congress is in recess through Election Day, with his staff working out of his Minnesota office and in Senate space off Capitol Hill.
``I take this step out of extreme, but necessary, precaution to protect the lives and safety of my Senate staff and my Minnesota constituents, who might otherwise be visiting my Senate office in the next three weeks,'' he said.
Dayton said he could not give details of the intelligence report, which he said Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., presented to senators at a briefing two weeks ago.
Frist told reporters later that he didn't know of any other senator who had closed their office.
``There has been no new information over the last five to six weeks,'' he said, referring to intelligence.
Brian Roehrkasse, a Homeland Security Department spokesman, said the department had no intelligence indicating al-Qaida intends to target any specific U.S. locations.
Added Capitol police spokesman Michael Lauer: ``There's been no specific threats against the Capitol complex. We continue to be on guard now, all the way up to the election and all the way through the inauguration.''
Nonetheless, Dayton said he would advise people from his home state to avoid Capitol Hill until after the Nov. 2 election.
``I would not bring my two sons to the Capitol between now and the election,'' he added.
``None of us can predict the future,'' he said. ``I hope and pray that the precautions I've taken will prove unnecessary.''
Erich Mische, chief of staff to Sen. Norm Coleman, R-Minn., said that Coleman would oppose ``sending the message to terrorists that you're fleeing the city. You can't let them feel as though they scared you out of your own government.''
Coleman was named Tuesday to a House-Senate conference committee that will resolve differences in the two chambers' intelligence reform bills. Mische said that the senator will be spending time in Washington in the next few weeks to participate in the committee's work.
``The government has to continue to function,'' Mische said.
Dayton's chief of staff, Jack Danielson, declined to respond to Mische. |
