WASHINGTONConcluding that too many federal buildings are too vulnerable to terrorist attack, the Justice Department Wednesday recommended that as much as $1 billion be spent nationwide to implement 52 new security standards intended to protect against an Oklahoma City-style bombing.
June 29, 1995
President Clinton signed an executive order requiring federal agencies to fully implement the study’s recommendations by Feb. 1.
The new standards range from tighter parking restrictions and the addition of physical barriers to installation of shatter-proof glass and alarm systems as well as roving patrols outside buildings, closed-circuit television monitoring and tougher rules for employee and visitor identification.
Deputy Attorney General Jamie Gorelick, at a news conference, said it was impossible to know whether the new standards would have prevented the Oklahoma City bombing.
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While she said the tougher rules would make it more difficult to park a bomb-laden truck on the street outside a federal building, as was done in the April 19 Oklahoma City blast that killed 168 people, she added:There is no guarantee against someone determined to do terrible harm.
The study of 1,600 federal buildings across the United States, ordered by Clinton the day after the Oklahoma bombing, found the greatest need for security improvements at the estimated 400 large multitenant federal buildings classified as Level 4.
The destroyed Oklahoma City building would have fit in that classification, officials said.
Gorelick said if all Level 4 facilities required extensive retrofitting, an estimate of the cost would be $1 billion.
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