Security Tightened for Blast Anniversary

Federal security officials admit that today’s double anniversary of last year’s Oklahoma City bombing and the 1993 destruction of the Branch Davidian compound near Waco, Texas, could hold an ominous attraction for anti-government terrorists, but they also think they are ready for anything.

“Common sense dictates that we will be a little more vigilant than normal on Friday, but the marshal’s service is vigilant all the time,” said Bill Licatovich, spokesman for the U.S. Marshals Service, which protects judges and federal courts. “We get threats against judges and law enforcement personnel pretty much on a weekly basis.”

In the year since a homemade bomb demolished the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, killing 168 people, the U.S. government has mounted an unprecedented campaign to increase security at its facilities--from the White House to local post offices. The measures include a variety of barriers, such as heavy concrete “flower planters” blocking driveways, and X-ray machines and metal detectors impeding visitors at doorways.

The General Services Administration, which manages most federal buildings, has committed more than $100 million for added security since the Oklahoma City blast. It plans to spend $174 million more during the next 20 months.

“We are now implementing some 8,500 countermeasures,” said David J. Barram, the GSA’s acting administrator. “We increased [security police] shifts and duties, hired an additional 800 contract officers and installed extra security equipment where it was most needed.”

Nevertheless, government employees are apprehensive most of the time and are expected to be even more concerned today.

In Oklahoma City and in Denver, where the accused bombers are awaiting trial, precautions at federal buildings will be upgraded to “maximum security posture” between midnight Thursday and midnight today. Employees will be given the option of taking today off as a vacation day, federal authorities said.

A bomb threat to the federal building in Long Beach, Calif., on Monday afternoon caused police to evacuate that structure, an office tower next door and the courthouse across the street. A police spokeswoman said the precautions were unusual, but with the Oklahoma City and Waco anniversaries so close, they seemed prudent.

“We were on pins and needles,” she said.

No bomb was found.

In other cities, substantial numbers of government workers said they planned to take today off. Others adopted a fatalistic approach and declared that today is just another workday.

Patricia Williams, 52, who began working as a federal bankruptcy court clerk in Houston just days after the bombing, said that she will not be at work today. She insisted that her reason for staying away was to show respect for last year’s victims.

Across the country, federal buildings that once were freely open to the public now have strict access controls.