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Rock n' Roll Doggie ALL ACCESS
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The Washington Palm House
I was outside the US Congress building yesterday afternoon in downtown Washington DC. It was warm, I needed a cool drink and (let's be honest) to go the loo. I spied what looked like a Palmenhaus. Brilliant - the answer.
The X-ray Machine
Outside - a large queue. Not a problem. Maybe Washingtonians love their plants. I joined the queue and after about 10 minutes realised that people were queuing up to have their bags screened through an x-ray machine
and themselves checked through a metal detector. The machine went off when I walked through. I tried to make a joke about the euros in my back pocket but the security guards weren't that amused. "Hold up your hands!" one of them said. What is in this Palmenhaus that demands so much security, I wondered.
Mr Scarecrow
As I was allowed through and moved into the main area, I spied Mr Scarecrow - a stuffed scarecrow under a palm tree - the kind of thing you'd see outside a farm in rural Salzburg. Could he be the reason? Was he essential to the running of the country? Was he going for office too?
And the point is.....
I have got no problem with the security and the searches. But what strikes me is a sense of worry that the next 9/11 is just around the corner. Admittedly Bin Laden's latest video has not helped things. I was also walking round the back of the Whitehouse and saw loads of "No Entry" & "Police - Secure Area" signs. I wanted to take a few photos of the signs & stick them here on the homepage to show the level of security. So I politely asked a FBI agent in his police box. The answer was a firm "no". It wasn't even a friendly "no" or a chatty "no", it was the kind of "no" that means "no, now get lost!"
"Where you from"?
I walked towards a set of traffic lights and then a woman came up to me. "Where you from?" she demanded. "Errr, FM4... it's a radio station in Austria" I replied. Then she walked off without another word. Wow, now I was getting paranoid. Maybe they are watching me. It reminded me of when I was on holiday in Tunis and I tried to take a photo of the cathedral. Two Tunisian policemen came running up to me and demanded to know why I was taking a photo of an army post (which happened to be next to the Cathedral).
The FBI are worried though. During the week, there were many officers on the Washington underground. They looked nervous - they looked like they were expecting something. And the Whitehouse does have a problem. If it raises the security alert, they will either be accused by opponents of using this as a scare tactic. Or worse for Bush - he will be seen as someone who, on the eve of an election, can do no more than tell everyone to be careful. Not such a satisfactory answer to threats from Bin Laden.
Just hours to go
This feeling of anxiety and stress and worry is a result of 9/11, the post-traumatic stress of that day plus public figures who remind Americans to be on their guard and look out for strangers - (including FM4 people with their cameras staring at a "Vote Bush" sticker on a lampost wondering if it would make an interesting photo). Roll on Election Tuesday!
The Washington Palm House
I was outside the US Congress building yesterday afternoon in downtown Washington DC. It was warm, I needed a cool drink and (let's be honest) to go the loo. I spied what looked like a Palmenhaus. Brilliant - the answer.
The X-ray Machine
Outside - a large queue. Not a problem. Maybe Washingtonians love their plants. I joined the queue and after about 10 minutes realised that people were queuing up to have their bags screened through an x-ray machine
and themselves checked through a metal detector. The machine went off when I walked through. I tried to make a joke about the euros in my back pocket but the security guards weren't that amused. "Hold up your hands!" one of them said. What is in this Palmenhaus that demands so much security, I wondered.
Mr Scarecrow
As I was allowed through and moved into the main area, I spied Mr Scarecrow - a stuffed scarecrow under a palm tree - the kind of thing you'd see outside a farm in rural Salzburg. Could he be the reason? Was he essential to the running of the country? Was he going for office too?
And the point is.....
I have got no problem with the security and the searches. But what strikes me is a sense of worry that the next 9/11 is just around the corner. Admittedly Bin Laden's latest video has not helped things. I was also walking round the back of the Whitehouse and saw loads of "No Entry" & "Police - Secure Area" signs. I wanted to take a few photos of the signs & stick them here on the homepage to show the level of security. So I politely asked a FBI agent in his police box. The answer was a firm "no". It wasn't even a friendly "no" or a chatty "no", it was the kind of "no" that means "no, now get lost!"
"Where you from"?
I walked towards a set of traffic lights and then a woman came up to me. "Where you from?" she demanded. "Errr, FM4... it's a radio station in Austria" I replied. Then she walked off without another word. Wow, now I was getting paranoid. Maybe they are watching me. It reminded me of when I was on holiday in Tunis and I tried to take a photo of the cathedral. Two Tunisian policemen came running up to me and demanded to know why I was taking a photo of an army post (which happened to be next to the Cathedral).
The FBI are worried though. During the week, there were many officers on the Washington underground. They looked nervous - they looked like they were expecting something. And the Whitehouse does have a problem. If it raises the security alert, they will either be accused by opponents of using this as a scare tactic. Or worse for Bush - he will be seen as someone who, on the eve of an election, can do no more than tell everyone to be careful. Not such a satisfactory answer to threats from Bin Laden.
Just hours to go
This feeling of anxiety and stress and worry is a result of 9/11, the post-traumatic stress of that day plus public figures who remind Americans to be on their guard and look out for strangers - (including FM4 people with their cameras staring at a "Vote Bush" sticker on a lampost wondering if it would make an interesting photo). Roll on Election Tuesday!
