January 8, 2003 11:22

Armed Guards and Metal Detectors at an American Shrine

By Ed Offley

PHILADELPHIA - More than 35 years had passed since I had last strolled the historic "cradle of liberty" district of this old city where the Liberty Bell, Independence Hall and Congress Hall mark the birth site of American democracy.

But when I had an opportunity to visit over the holiday season just past, I found the changes jarring.

National Park Service guards swarm Independence Square, the vast majority armed and showing it. Construction equipment fills the open space where not only is the Park Service building a new $9 million museum to house the Liberty Bell, but also is installing permanent security measures to thwart future terrorist attacks against the historic buildings. Before 9/11, you would simply cross 6th Street to enter the open park. Now, guards direct you along a fence to the only opening in the perimeter where inside an ugly double-wide trailer you pass through metal detectors under the eyes of more armed guards. Vehicular traffic has been banned on several nearby streets.

In the 15 months since the 9/11 terrorist attacks, we have engaged in a muted and often fragmentary debate over the need to balance our rights and liberties against stiffer security precautions to thwart additional attacks.

We have debated whether the detention of captured al Qaeda fighters without court hearings erodes the constitutional restraints on the police power of the state and the rights of individuals. We have argued over the legality of using Predator UAVs with Hellfire missiles to execute suspected terrorists in foreign countries without due process. We have wrestled with the issues of ethnic profiling at airport check-in lines, of infiltrating Muslim mosques to mount surveillance on potential sleeper cells, and of wiring most public spaces with digital video cameras.

But to see the physical manifestations of homeland defense rising on the hallowed ground of Independence Square itself is still a shocking and somber sight.

When complete in the next year or two, the landscape will be similar to many historic sites across the country: The open space will be girded with handsome but impenetrable and (hopefully) blast-proof fencing. Nearby streets - once bustling with traffic, tourist activities and historic re-enactment troupes, will be either severely restricted or closed altogether. A small building that conforms to the brick-and-carpentry design of Independence Hall will have replaced the double-wide, but the metal detectors will be a permanent addition to the place.

The National Park Service is politely apologetic about the necessity of such measures, but if there ever was an internal debate over the decision to put them into effect, it has long since passed.

Indeed, The New York Daily News reported last weekend that the Park Service has also been quietly girding for a worst-case scenario in which terrorists strike and destroy a wide range of historic and cultural icons, from the U.S. Capitol building (allegedly the 9/11 target of UAL Flight 93), to the Statue of Liberty and Mount Rushmore, among others. The Daily News revealed that the Park Service has contracted with experts to create vast digital measurements of such sites in event they are destroyed and the decision is made to replace them with precise copies.

"Deploying high-powered, laser-scanning technology to record the landmarks from every angle, the feds have been creating three-dimensional digital models of their complex exterior features. They also have scanned part of the ornate interior of the Capitol," the newspaper reported. "By converting the monuments' unique architecture into geometric maps, they are producing digital archives and computerized databases that can be used to manufacture or rebuild those physical objects."

Philadelphia business and political leaders have denounced the security measures primarily on grounds that they will deter not only terrorists, but the approximately 5 million tourists who visit Independence Square each year. The Philadelphia Inquirer on Dec. 1, 2002 condemned the security measures for creating a "siege mentality" around the historic sites and complained about the "stalag-appearance" of the area.

"It's announcing to the world that this is a dangerous area," said one Philadelphia business owner.

Not quite: The National Park Service is confirming to the downtown Philadelphia community something it should have known since 9/11 - that the dangers from international terrorism can now reach all the way from the hellholes of Afghanistan to 5th and Market Streets.

"Here's a question to use as a yardstick," the Inquirer editorial thundered: Do Americans want the Philadelphia birthplace of their liberty to look and function like a minimum-security prison?"

Here's my question: Would Americans tolerate an insufficient security plan at Independence Square that would allow terrorists to blow it into a mountain of rubble such as the Oklahoma City Federal Building, the two east African embassies or the World Trade Center Towers?

There is no escape from the harsh reality that we are under attack by a ruthless terrorist ideology that wishes to destroy and kill us because of the very freedoms and liberties that our forefathers created in Philadelphia. It is only prudent to consider that the buildings where this occurred constitute a potential terrorist target.

Amid the grim signs of post-9/11 security, there was one positive sight. On an icy and overcast December morning, scores and scores of visitors still braved the cold, the long lines and the tightened security for the opportunity to gaze on the Assembly Room - where the Declaration of Independence and Constitution were signed - the Liberty Bell and Congress Hall.

The National Park Service is to be saluted for a reasoned and prudent response to safeguard the historic shrine oversees in Philadelphia.

Ed Offley is Editor of DefenseWatch. He can be reached at dweditor@yahoo.com.