Ten Dangerous Scenarios

Attack a nuclear plant

Cripple the
Transportation System

Destroy the
Fort Peck Dam

Detonate a suitcase bomb

Attack the Alaska pipeline

Contaminate a ventilation system

Cut off power to
a major city

Shoot down
Air Force One

Attack a chemical factory

Destroy a stadium

>> See the entire list <<

Scenario: Kidnap the President's Children

Scenario

Kidnap the President's children in order to either: 1) demand a huge ransom or 2) to distract and hurt the president.

Description

In the book Executive Orders, Tom Clancy discusses the following scenario. A small group of terrorists stage a raid on the President's daughter's preschool and attempt to kidnap her. Although the child is protected by secret service agents both inside the preschool and nearby (6 total), there are enough terrorists to outgun the smaller group of agents. In the book, a terrorist is actually able to get into the building and grab the child, but he is eventually shot by an FBI agent who coincidentally happens to be in the building picking up his own daughter.

It is just as easy to imagine a scenario where a group of terrorists simply raid the building and shoot the president's child (or all the children) and then shoot themselves.

Terrorists might try this scenario in order to:

  • Hurt the President personally so that he is either distracted or derailed by the event.
  • Unnerve the secret service and/or tie them and the FBI up investigating the incident.
  • Make demands using the child as a hostage.
This scenario is a possibility. The president's wife and children are protected by the secret service, but they are vulnerable to an attack by a group of armed terrorists large enough to outgun the secret service. When the president goes anywhere, there is an advance team that arrives a day ahead of time to prepare the site. There are 100 cars in the motorcade. There are snipers on nearby roofs. And so on. This same level of protection is not afforded to the President's children.

Damage Potential

The primary damage from this event is psychological. Both the president and the general public would be destabilized by an event like this because it indicates that all of our children are vulnerable.

If a kidnapping is successful, there is damage that might come from successful hostage demands. For example, the nation might think about paying a large sum of money or make other concessions in order to get the child back.

Potential Solutions

This is a difficult scenario to guard against completely. However, it is a vulnerability and it would have a big effect on any President.

The most promising option is to limit the public exposure of the children and increase the secret service detail so that we can protect the president's children with the same level of force applied to the President himself. This would mean the creation of a complete bubble around the children that protects them at all times. In Tom Clancy's book, the children were protected by a handful of agents and there is certainly no "bubble."

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