Secret Service Wants a Fake White House to Help Protect the Real One
By MICHAEL D. SHEAR

WASHINGTON — Stung by accusations that it cannot adequately protect the White House, the Secret Service wants to spend $8 million to build another White House in Beltsville, Md.

In testimony before the House Appropriations Committee, Joseph P. Clancy, the director of the Secret Service, on Tuesday urged lawmakers to give him money to build a detailed replica of the White House to aid in training officers and agents to protect the real thing. Beltsville, about 20 miles from the real White House at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, is the location of a 500-acre Secret Service training site in the verdant terrain of southern Maryland.

“Right now, we train on a parking lot, basically,” Mr. Clancy said. “We put up a makeshift fence and walk off the distance between the fence at the White House and the actual house itself. We don’t have the bushes, we don’t have the fountains, we don’t get a realistic look at the White House.”

Mr. Clancy added, “It’s important to have a true replica of what the White House is so we can do a better job of this integrated training between our uniform division officers, our agents and our tactical teams.”

The proposed replica would provide what Mr. Clancy described in prepared testimony as a “more realistic environment, conducive to scenario-based training exercises,” for instructing those who must protect the president’s home. It would mimic the facade of the White House residence, the East and West Wings, guard booths, and the surrounding grounds and roads.

It is unclear whether the structure would be a full-scale replica of all sides of the White House. Officials said the design had not yet been completed.

The request came six months after an intruder scaled a wrought-iron fence around the White House and ran through an unlocked front door of the residence and into the East Room before officers tackled him.

That incident raised deep concerns about security at the White House and prompted several inquiries into what should be done to prevent breaches. A panel of security experts appointed by Jeh Johnson, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, urged building a higher fence immediately.

But the panel also said the “problems exposed by recent events go deeper than a new fence can fix.” Members of the panel urged the Secret Service to increase the time that agents and officers devote to training, and they recommended that employees train “in conditions that replicate the physical environment in which they will operate.”

“A security team should also be trained so that it is intimately familiar with the space in which it is operating,” the report’s authors wrote to Mr. Johnson.

The Secret Service appears to have taken that last piece of advice to heart. In addition to money for a mock White House, the agency’s budget request includes funds to renovate a “live-fire shoot house” and to repair and enhance a “tactical village” training site that aims to recreate a city street environment.

訓練特勤 美要蓋山寨白宮

負責保護美國總統的特勤局近來紕漏不斷，「紐約時報」報導，特勤局長柯蘭西17日要求眾院撥款委員會提供800萬美元（台幣2億5200萬元）經費，在馬里蘭州的訓練中心興建山寨版白宮，以利加強訓練特勤人員。

柯蘭西在聽證上表示，「基本上，我們目前是在停車場進行訓練」，以活動鐵架充當白宮圍籬，現場沒有白宮模型，也沒有白宮的灌木叢、噴泉等實際景物。

特勤局訓練中心在距離白宮約32公里的馬里蘭州貝爾茲維，面積達500英畝（約208.6甲）。

柯蘭西表示，擁有白宮實體模型可讓制服人員、便服人員、戰術小組獲得更全面的訓練。

柯蘭西表示，白宮模型可提供更寫實的環境，有助進行以實景為根據的演訓；他表示，訓練中心將仿造白宮居家區、東廂、西廂、警衛亭和周邊空地、道路。

特勤局的白宮模型是否以真實比例複製白宮每一面，目前還不清楚；官員表示，設計尚未定案。

六個月前，一名男子攀過白宮圍籬，通過白宮居家區一道未上鎖的前門，直闖東廂才被攔下；這起事件引起外界質疑白宮的安全措施。

原文參照：
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/03/18/us/secret-service-wants-a-fake-white-house-to-help-protect-the-real-one.html

2015-03-18．聯合晚報．A6．國際焦點．編譯范振光