Bomb Scare at White House Is Just a Bunch of Manure

The Secret Service sealed an entrance to the White House for an hour Thursday after an explosives-sniffing dog detected something amiss in a congressman’s car.

It turned out to be fertilizer.

“Great fun,” Rep. Herbert H. Bateman (R-Va.) said after a bomb specialist wearing a flak jacket and a protective helmet combed through his car. Bateman was in a group of congressional members just back from Saudi Arabia that was meeting with President Bush.

The northwest gate to the White House, the official entrance used by visitors to the President, was closed. The driveway where Bateman’s and about a dozen other congressional cars were parked was sealed off.

Bateman was summoned from the White House and interviewed by Secret Service agents. Later, after the emergency was called off, he chatted briefly with reporters from the front seat of his car.

“It was fertilizer from some azaleas that were hauled in the back seat a few weeks ago,” he said. Many fertilizers contain nitrogen compounds, which are also present in some explosives.

The Secret Service accepted Bateman’s account.

“The car was declared safe (after) about an hour,” Rich Adams, a Secret Service spokesman, said. “More than likely it was the residue from the fertilizer.”