Missile in Plans : Inaugural’s Security Tightest Ever

Security at President Reagan’s inauguration Jan. 21 will be among the tightest ever for a public event in this nation and will include measures to prevent an airborne terrorist attack--probably a sentry armed with a Stinger anti-aircraft missile, sources said Monday.

The extraordinary precautions, the sources indicated, also include a requirement that all 140,000 persons attending the ceremony on the Capitol grounds pass through metal detectors; the placement of sharpshooters along the Capitol roof; the use of undercover agents to photograph the crowd, and possibly security checks for participating Boy and Girl Scouts.

Moreover, the sources said, mailboxes along the inaugural parade route down Pennsylvania Avenue will be removed to prevent the placement of time bombs; sewer manhole covers will be welded shut, and buildings will be marked with large numbers so roving SWAT teams can be directed quickly to any trouble spot.

Concern Over Terrorism

The stringent measures--far stricter than those in effect for Reagan’s first inauguration four years ago--reflect growing concern over the worldwide increase in terrorism, security officials acknowledged.

And although these officials were reluctant to discuss most of their plans, two sources said one of the moves will be to equip a sentry with a shoulder-fired Stinger intended to shoot down any plane that terrorists might fly in the direction of the ceremony.

“There will be extensive monitoring of air traffic,” said one official who asked not to be identified. Another source, who has sat in on security planning sessions, said: “It can be assumed that Stingers will be present.”

And a third source, while declining to flatly confirm the use of such missiles, remarked: “All I can say on that is we are taking every precaution we possibly can.”

High-Ranking Officials

Assembled for the inaugural ceremony--and shielded on the Capitol platform by bulletproof glass--will be virtually every top U.S. official: Reagan, Vice President George Bush, members of Congress, Supreme Court justices and Cabinet officers, along with ambassadors from other nations.

A total of 10,000 soldiers, Marines, sailors and airmen will be on hand to assist 1,200 Capitol police officers with crowd control, and massive concrete barriers will be brought in to block some side streets.

Workers in buildings along Pennsylvania Avenue will be required to have special passes to get into their offices. The Secret Service has reserved most of the rooftops for its own observers.

One building administrator, noting the increased security awareness, said he was told by a Secret Service official: “This President has been shot once before. . . . If anybody opens a window or steps out on a balcony, they can be assured they will be in somebody’s cross hairs.”

Indeed, precautions have been so severe that 1,200 Boy and Girl Scouts recruited to take tickets, usher and perform other chores at inaugural events were required to fill out forms for possible security checks by the Secret Service.

“With these terrorist activities worldwide, concerns are heightened and the climate has changed over the last four years--even the last two years,” Secret Service spokesman Bob Snow observed.

Snow declined to discuss specific measures to be taken, except to say he assumed that Reagan would use his new limousine in the parade, providing better views of the President through larger windows of bulletproof glass.

Sen. Charles McC. Mathias Jr. (R-Md.), in charge of arrangements at the inaugural ceremony, insisted: “We won’t be in a state of siege. After all, we have invited 140,000 people. . . . I don’t believe this (massive security effort) will change the character of the ceremony. An inauguration is always a high point in American life.”

In strongly defending the imposition of tight controls, Mathias added: “If terrorists will blow up abortion clinics, we have to assume there is a disregard for law and life generally. We simply have to take serious measures.”

These measures are being imposed amid an extraordinary general buildup of security at government sites all around Washington. Concrete barriers, metal detectors, color-coded identification badges--all are becoming fixtures on the landscape.

The Secret Service has never denied a report, published in Time magazine 13 months ago, that the White House is protected by an anti-aircraft system. But no air defense measure is regularly in force at the Capitol, one informed congressional source said.

Only eight years ago, newly inaugurated President Jimmy Carter walked down Pennsylvania Avenue hand in hand with his wife, Rosalynn.

“The main concern of the Secret Service was that it be a surprise,” recalled Jody Powell, who served as Carter’s White House press secretary. “If word had gotten out that he planned to do that, the Secret Service said they would have done their best to get him not to do it.”