The Pentagon’s new office building in Alexandria could be a vulnerable target for terrorist attacks, a newly leaked Defense Department report says.
A truck bomb the size of the one used to destroy a federal office building in Oklahoma City in 1995 could potentially kill or wound many of the 6,400 defense workers now being moved to the Mark Center along Seminary Road near Interstate 395, according to the report leaked to Time magazine.
Such a bomb would produce “many serious injuries and many fatalities in outer offices,” the report says. “Wall and window debris in these areas will be thrown toward interiors and will cause moderate to severe injuries with potential fatalities in inner offices.”
Local officials have berated the Pentagon for building the new offices on a site that will only add to the congestion of local roads. But now authorities say they’re worried the site isn’t secure.
A spokeswoman for Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., whose district includes the Mark Center called the new report “another example of how poor planning and a lack of coordination with all the stakeholders has resulted in a less than optimal situation for those working and living at and near the site.”
“The security concerns are legitimate and must be addressed by DOD,” she said.
But military officials insist the Mark Center is safe.
“The protection levels have been carefully reviewed by the authorities having jurisdictions and are in accordance with the same levels of protection currently in place at the Pentagon,” said Army Corps of Engineers spokesman Scott Harris. “The bomb-resistant protection is a single aspect of what is actually a much larger series of protective measures that work as a system and have been put in place to protect the future residents.”
Others said the main concern is how close the building is to I-395.
“You could park on the highway and bring down the building,” said Peter Stockton, a researcher for the nonprofit Project on Government Oversight, which wrote to the Pentagon in April warning of the threat a truck bomb posed to the Mark Center. POGO did not receive a response.
About 1,200 workers have moved into the Mark Center so far, an Alexandria city spokesman said. The rest are expected in the coming months.
The newly leaked report follows reports in April that the Army Corps of Engineers had determined that the Mark Center wouldn’t withstand a blast by a bomb over 220 pounds, which is a fraction of the size of the 5,000-pound bomb used in Oklahoma City.
