On Jan 14, 2012, at 10:11 AM, Srini RamaKrishnan wrote:
On Sat, Jan 14, 2012 at 8:18 PM, John R. Sundman
<[email protected]> wrote:
Barak Obama & family vacation here.
I hear it's popular with the hunted because it's easy to secure. True?
In one sense, yes. The island is about 100 square miles, most of it
rural. In the part where Obama goes, there is only one road, which
the Secret Service guards. There are 4 main harbors that can be
easily watched -- each one has a harbormaster that monitors every
boat that comes in -- and one small airport (with a paved runway long
enough to handle the president's jet, however). So in that sense, the
island is probably pretty easy to secure.
(In the banks on Martha's Vineyard there is no protective glass
between patrons and tellers. Nobody would rob a bank here because
there's no way to get off the island undetected. Police would just
watch the ferries and harbors and airport.)
ON THE OTHER HAND,
If some Mumbai or 911 type terrorists wanted to take the island
hostage, it would be pretty easy to do. Three passenger ferries & 2
freight ferries transport about 95% of people and goods. In the
summer, our population goes from about 15,000 to 120,000. If bad
guys took over the ferries, nobody would leave unless they had a
private boat or airplane. As a novelist, I've thought of all kinds of
bad scenarios that determined bad guys could pull off.
The President, of course, is well protected. About a week before he
comes the big airplanes start flying in & unloading all kinds of
miliatry and command gear. When he goes about the island to play golf
or get an ice cream cone, there are secret service guys all over the
place. The President & family arrive by hellicopter. That helicopter
flies in a formation of about 10 other helicopters, and the formation
flies right over my house. The windows shake, the walls shake, the
earth shakes.
jrs
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