Intruder breach prompts more White House security

THE US Secret Service is boosting security outside the White House following an embarrassing security breach in which an intruder with a knife scaled the White House fence, dashed across the lawn and made it all the way inside before agents managed to stop him.

Secret Service director Julia Pierson: ordered investigation. Picture: Getty

Increased surveillance and more officer patrols are among the measures that Secret Service director Julia Pierson has ordered as the elite agency strives to ensure such an incident cannot happen again. Ms Pierson has also launched a full investigation into what went wrong.

News that an intruder managed to scale a fence to get inside the White House drew reactions of alarm and disbelief about how one of the most heavily secured buildings in the world had been compromised.

With questions mounting yesterday President Barack Obama sought to allay concerns about whether the Secret Service is still up to the task of protecting him and his family.

“The president has full confidence in the Secret Service and is grateful to the men and women who day in and day out protect himself, his family and the White House,” White 
House spokesman Frank Benenati said.

He said the White House expected Ms Pierson’s review to be conducted “with the same professionalism and commitment to duty that we and the American people expect from the US Secret Service”.

Obama and his daughters had just left the White House by helicopter on Friday evening when the Secret Service says 42-year-old Omar Gonzalez leapt over the fence.

He ran toward the presidential residence unimpeded, ignoring orders from officers to stop, until being tackled just inside the doors of the North Portico – the grand, columned entrance overlooking Pennsylvania Avenue.

Officials initially said the fact that Mr Gonzalez appeared to be unarmed may have been a factor in why agents at the scene did not shoot him or set their dogs on him before he made it inside.

But a criminal complaint issued late Friday revealed Mr Gonzalez had a small folding knife with a three-inch serrated blade with him at the time of his arrest.

According to the complaint, Mr Gonzalez told Secret Service agents after the arrest that he was “concerned that the atmosphere was collapsing” and needed to contact the president “so he could get word out to the people”.

The breach triggered a rare evacuation of much of the White House. Secret Service agents drew their weapons as they hurried White House staffers and journalists out of the West Wing through a side door.

Mr Gonzalez, of Copperas Cove, Texas, is expected to appear in federal court today to face charges of unlawfully entering a restricted building or grounds while carrying a deadly or dangerous weapon.

Less than 24 hours after Mr Gonzalez’s arrest, a second man was apprehended after he drove up to a White House gate and refused to leave, Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan said, prompting bomb technicians in full gear to search the vehicle as agents briefly shut down nearby streets.

There were no indications the two events were connected.