The president and veep’s security

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I’ve had a request from a film set designer of more information on the devices in the West Wing that track the president’s movements. I hardly ever see them in photos, but someone sent me a picture a couple of years ago. I didn’t use it because I don’t document the security measures around the president, but if anyone has a photo or information about it, I’d appreciate it if you could send it to me.

Also, I’ve added some more photos of the vice-president’s residence. Others have commented that they don’t think Joe Biden was talking about One Observatory Circle when he was explaining about the “bunker.” I now think he was describing the PEOC under the East Wing. That’s where Cheney went on 9/11; I recall a photo of him and Rice there. His dinnermates probably confused that with his description of the work room on the second floor of the VP residence.

Regardless, I’m still certain there’s a bunker of some kind under 1OC. Neighbors don’t complain about blasting for nothing.

11 thoughts on “The president and veep’s security”

  3. Do you plan to put some of the recent pictures from the White House Flickr page?

    Like this great pic in the Oval:
    P050809PS-0101

    Candidate for front page:
    P050809PS-0297

  6. Unless technology has changed in the past few years, I don’t think any device automatically tracks the President’s movements. USSS agents report his movements, and then the device is updated to reflect that current information, visible on screens in a few select offices, and maybe also now on Blackberry-type devices.

    If anyone knows about a tracking device on the President that does this automatically, I would be interested in hearing about it.

  7. Wasn’t there some thought that Obama’s watch was a tracker? It was given to him by the SS.

  8. There’s an interesting posting in a series detailing President Obama’s security on Cryptome.org. This one shows the operation to provide protection for the President and Mrs. Obama when they traveled to NYC for a show this weekend. http://cryptome.info/obama-nyc/obama-nyc.htm

    There’s no mention of a tracking device but I find it interesting how much work goes into a ‘simple’ trip to Broadway. Even though there’s a lot of time and money (and considerable interruption to people’s daily lives) I am glad the Obamas are attempting to live normal lives.

  9. There are no automatic trackers. Those screens in senior staff offices are called the locators and it is a simple text display of the general location of POTUS, VPOTUS, FLOTUS, etc. The displays are updated by the White House Communications Agency who track the movements of principals.

  10. Can anyone point me to a picture of one of those senior staff tracking screens? I saw some interesting monitors in the NBC special but I thought they were four news channels on one screen.

    Also are tgere any puctures of the Obamas landing in NYC and at dinnet from a couple of weeks ago? I only saw cryptomes pictures from Broadway.

    Thanks

  11. I believe (It’s really just a guess), that the small screen in the bottom right corner of Axelrod’s desk is the senior staff tracking screen. From what I can tell, there is one of these screens in the offices of Axelrod, Emanuel, Gibbs, Jones, Love/KJ, and probably all the other important people in the WW.

    Here is a link to a video showing the possible tracker:

    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/30892505/#31073590

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