Skittish D.C. watchful, scrambling after threats

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — Military vehicles patrol the streets. Fighter jets rip across deserted skies.

And a few blocks from the White House, five men kneel in the street for interrogation surrounded by dozens of armed men.

It’s been two days since terrorists felled the World Trade Center and crushed a side of the Pentagon, and Washington, D.C., is still afraid.

Authorities are on edge, scrambling after threats that turn out to be false alarms.

Early Thursday, more than a dozen vehicles converged in front of the Commerce Department. A small army of law enforcement officers emerged and encircled a car, pulled five men out at gunpoint and made them kneel in the street.

Some police questioned the men as others with a bomb sniffing dog examined their dark station wagon. Police had been on lookout for a similar vehicle and became suspicious when the license plate didn’t match the car, said Sgt. K.W. Roden of the District of Columbia police.

The scene ended as abruptly as it began. Police allowed the men to stand and released them.

The car’s owner, who wouldn’t give his name, had just bought the car and was using a relative’s license plates, said Roden, who stood amid about 30 officers from local police, the Secret Service, Capitol Police and U.S. Marshals.

"There are so darn many of us out here today," he said.

Unfounded bomb threats rippled across the city — at the Pentagon, where search-and-rescue workers were laboring to find victims of the Tuesday crash and at American University’s campus in northwest Washington.

The city remained under a state of emergency with Humvees and military police in camouflage stationed on almost every downtown corner. The emergency will remain in effect indefinitely, city officials said.

Streets surrounding the White House that were closed to traffic on Tuesday and later reopened were closed again because of "ongoing security concerns," said Secret Service spokesman Mark Connolly.

The main streets around the Capitol, Independence Ave. and Constitution Ave., were reopened, but security remained tight. A truck blocked a main entrance to the Capitol grounds and police searched beneath vehicles for bombs.

At the Labor Department, cars were backed up for blocks waiting to get into parking garages. Security guards and military police asked motorists to pop their car trunks and hoods for inspections.

The signs of security made some feel safe while unnerving others. Many office buildings turned away visitors and required identification from workers. Others locked all but a single entrance.

"I can’t even get into my own building," said Ann Carter, a secretary for a downtown law firm who had left her identification at home. "It’s scary, and I don’t feel like this is America."