The President's Book of Secrets Page #8

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in some ways.

Once you lose your anonymity,

you appreciate more, um, the

values of privacy.

Bales:
It's a very isolating

lifestyle.

There was not a lot of young

people, and so the staff and the

Secret Service, all of us

younger people, hung out

together.

Quayle:
My oldest son

remarks to this day, he said,

"Well, it was really great.

I'd be driven home in a black

sedan, and these great big iron

gates would open up, and they'd

let me in, and then they would

slam them shut, and I felt like

I was coming home to jail."

Now, that's a rather dramatic

expression.

I told him I don't believe that

it was quite that bad.

But clearly, it was tough on

him.

Narrator:
The Secret Service

was set up by the Treasury

Department in 1865 as an

investigative agency working

financial crimes.

But after the assassination

of President William McKinley

in 1901, the Secret Service was

brought in to function, in

effect, as the President's

official bodyguard.

Now under the umbrella of the

Department of Homeland

Security, the ranks of the

Secret Service include

thousands of uniformed and

undercover agents, all tasked

with keeping the President

secure from outside threats.

Petro:
And what a lot of

people may not realize is that

there is a core of people who

threaten the President all the

time.

They're well known.

And it doesn't matter who the

President is.

What the Secret Service worries

more about are the people they

don't know, who don't threaten

the President overtly.

(Crowd cheering, whistling)

Narrator:
But would a book of

secrets help the President

prepare for the kind of security

procedures that he would have to

observe while holding the

nation's highest office?

Petro:
I'll use a rope line

as an example, 'cause that's

more or less the more dangerous

times, when he's shaking hands

in a rope line.

The Secret Service works very

hard on developing training and

having agents able to react to

issues in a rope line.

I think what's interesting is

how the agents look at people

differently, because you don't

have one technique that's being

used.

My own was, you know, you looked

at eyes.

(Camera shutter clicks)

When you look in their eyes, you

can get a sense of whether they

belong there or not... what

their state of mind is.

I think all the agents look for

anomalies.

You know, what's not right in

this crowd?

People with hands in their

pockets.

People who are not engaged in

the event.

You know, things that don't

belong.

(Camera shutter clicks)

Kessler:
Also, in a crowd...

Obama:
Hello, Ohio!

Kessler:
...The Secret

Service will have agents who

don't appear to be agents, who

are not wearing the traditional

squiggly earpiece.

And they will circulate in the

crowd and get a feel for anybody

who might be a possible threat.

Lichtman:
The size of the

team is very large, certainly

in the hundreds.

What you see is absolutely the

tip of the iceberg.

Petro:
There are so many

people that really have to go

with the President wherever

he travels.

There's going to be a 26-car

motorcade.

Because there's not just the

the security that has to go with

him, and the police, the

motorcycles, medical assistance,

the staff has to be there, and

the press.

When you add it all up, it takes

a lot of vehicles to do this.

Kessler:
They'll have

three-dimensional mock-ups of

the routes.

They'll plan where

counter-sniper teams will be.

The Secret Service will

actually take away any

mailboxes on the route, because

they could have explosives.

They will seal, by welding, the

manhole covers, so that nobody

can plant explosives in the

manholes and blow up the

President.

When Barack Obama was

inaugurated, he and Michelle

got out of the limousine twice,

and they are told where is the

best place to get out.

Petro:
Whether it's a planned

event or an unplanned event,

every step is choreographed.

It has to be.

Narrator:
The massive

protection surrounding the

President can turn a simple

trip across town into an

enormous and complex operation.

Even a casual visit to a

friend's house warrants the

full Secret Service treatment.

Kessler:
Before President

Bush and Laura were gonna have

dinner at Clay Johnson's and

Anne Johnson's home in Spring

Valley, Washington, the Secret

Service showed up and did their

usual advance work and checked

it out, set up an operations

center in the basement, put

cones in front of the house so

that other people would not

park there, and asked Anne

Johnson what closet they could

use in case there was an attack.

Johnson:
They put some extra

special lights in there, and I

asked him what he was doing.

He said, "Well, that's where

we'll take the President in

case there's an incident here."

And I said, "Well, it's a very

small closet-- you really can't

get very many people in there,"

and he said, "We only have to

get me and the President in

there."

And I said, "Well, what happens

to the rest of us?"

And he looked at me with...

Kind of the... "You're on own,

buddy."

Narrator:
A President's Book

of Secrets might also have to

include information about what

the Chief Executive needs to

know in the event of an attack

on his life.

For example:

Who's in charge...

(Gunshot)

...The President...

or his guardians?

Petro:
Ultimately, the

President's in charge.

That's basically the law.

But I think as a practical

matter, the President looks to

the Secret Service for guidance

in a crisis.

(Gunshots)

If there's a shooting or, you

know, some major event, the

Secret Service just reacts and

doesn't ask permission, and just

basically moves the President.

Quayle:
The Secret Service

is there all the time.

They know where the President

is, they see him, they know

who's with him, they're

observing him all the time.

They know what's going on.

Narrator:
Of course, while

the Secret Service never leaves

the President's side, its agents

do not have access to the same

classified data as he does.

But could there be information

that even the President doesn't

know?

Information about secret

programs and institutions so

highly sensitive, that whether

in a file, a program or a book

of secrets, it cannot even be

shared with the nation's highest

elected official.

And if the President of the

United States doesn't know...

Who does?

(Crowds cheering, whistling)

Narrator:
A President's term

in office usually lasts between

four and eight years.

Because of this, many suspect

that long-time Washington

powerbrokers, intelligence

officers or military commanders

might keep secrets from the

President.

But could this be true?

Could there be information so

important or so vital to

national security that even the

President cannot know of it?

Secret disclosures that would

not even be recorded in a

President's Book of Secrets?

Chertoff that's an

interesting question to ask:

If the President can ever be

denied access.

I think the answer to that must

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