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Home Front: Tech
Navy Keeps a Secret in Plain Sight
2004-11-27
Shortly after dawn on a recent morning, two dump trucks and a water tanker pulled up to a new, unmarked complex of buildings at East Potomac Park, the grassy peninsula near the Jefferson Memorial. The drivers exited their cabs, knocked at a gatehouse with blacked-out windows and waited for a security guard to emerge from behind a locked door. A few minutes later, a panel of 10-foot-high security fence slid open, and the trucks disappeared inside, leaving the joggers and cyclists along the waterfront none the wiser about their mission. What goes on beyond the fence is a mystery. The multi-agency review normally required to erect anything on federal parkland did not apply to the beige, metal buildings. The Navy, which operates the site at Ohio and Buckeye drives SW, calls the work a "utility assessment and upgrade" and volunteers nothing more...
Posted by:Anonymoose

#13  Damn! I told them the secret lair was to be *secret*!!!
Posted by: CrazyFool   2004-11-27 9:20:23 PM  

#12  Surface-to-air missile battery.
Posted by: Tom   2004-11-27 9:19:07 PM  

#11  Yep, it's cheaper to bury em. Else it some cheap ass Lewis and Clark Festiva.
Posted by: Sacajawa   2004-11-27 3:34:33 PM  

#10  At the Jefferson Memorial? Hmmmm.....
Posted by: Sacajawa   2004-11-27 3:33:53 PM  

#9  Mudpies.

Really BIG mudpies.

You got a problem wit dat?
Posted by: mojo   2004-11-27 3:32:31 PM  

#8  Oh great, tell everybody, lol!

The Secret Bunker graphic is needed...
Posted by: .com   2004-11-27 1:21:23 PM  

#7  Homeland Security is slated to move to Fort McNair in S.W. DC next year. If I remember right that's not far from the Jefferson Memorial, so perhaps it is some sort of comm center.
Posted by: lex   2004-11-27 1:17:27 PM  

#6  Oh, okay: and black helicopter pads with maintenance shacks in the middle of nowhere. ;-)
Posted by: .com   2004-11-27 12:55:37 PM  

#5  Just for what it's worth, the Customs guys actually do use black helicopters.
Posted by: RWV   2004-11-27 12:48:47 PM  

#4  I can picture it now... 1/4 mile away are these HUGE parking lots in the middle of nowhere... MIB-III...
Posted by: .com   2004-11-27 12:32:32 PM  

#3  FWIW, I don't think it's a visitors center.

#begin arrant_speculation

Based on the intense secrecy, and the description of the planned final appearance, I would guess that its a comm center. Prolly a backup for the primary one in the pentagon. after all, the 1/5 bite taken out of fort fumble had to make an impression. Personaly, it seems pretty stupid to be this "what excavation?" about it. Since there appears to be no plan for easy access for wachstanders from the surface (think parking for cars) the facility prolly has underground access (ooh, sekrit tunnels!), or is inteded to operate un-attended. Some guide to size would give me a better Idea of what its importance/function is.

Btw, from the article its clear that all the appropriate political/offical/permit silly walking has been done. along with appropriate secrecy paperwork and dire threats to officials to hush them up. 3 years is about right for a medium importance project.

Nothing to see here, Citizens. Move along, move along...

#end arrant_speculation
Posted by: N Guard   2004-11-27 12:27:40 PM  

#2  Well, they've installed aproximately fifteen milles of ten foot high blank white fencing around the Washingon Monument whlie they construct an underground visitors' center and new security measures. The East front of the Capitol looks like Isingard as they rip out trees and install an underground visitors center and new security measures. The Vietnam Veterans Memorial is temporarily closed while its being cleaned and polished and they begin construction on a new underground visitors center.

I'm sensing a theme, here.
Posted by: Seafarious   2004-11-27 10:39:56 AM  

#1  Ooooooooh... looks sinister to our friends at the Post.
Lefty reeducation camp? Black helicopter squadron headquarters? The secret government facility where they rig the voting machines?
What could it be???
Posted by: tu3031   2004-11-27 10:26:57 AM  

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