Army accidentally reveals Mark Center's bomb security

The Examiner ^ | April 21, 2011

[La Lydia]

The Pentagon mistakenly posted online plans for its new office building in Alexandria, showing exactly how big a bomb would have to be to destroy the facility. The 424-page Army Corps of Engineers document detailed the bomb-proofing design of the Mark Center...into which 6,400 defense workers are expected to move this fall...

"If a bad guy can get his hands on that information, then he can know to bring a little bigger bomb," said Kirk Martini, a professor of structural architecture at the University of Virginia...

Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said the corps' error is further evidence of the Army's poor handling of the move to Mark Center, which was part of a Pentagon realignment of military bases and facilities. Local officials have been complaining that the site isn't at all convenient to public transportation ...

Reuters news service...reported that the Mark Center was designed to withstand the blast from 220 pounds of TNT-like material if it's detonated outside the Mark Center's security perimeter, or 55 pounds if the perimeter is breached. That limit is a fraction of the size of the bombs used in attacks against the World Trade Center in 1993 and an Oklahoma City office building in 1995.

The bomb-proofing of office buildings varies greatly, Martini said. There are no industry standards for such threats. "Probably [the Pentagon's] greater concern is that the information in those documents probably applies to lots of other buildings, and that their entire strategy here may be compromised because of the release of something like this."...

The plan was removed from the Army Corps of Engineers' website and from Internet search engines, according to corps spokesman Ken Wells. It's unclear how long the document was online. The file was dated 2009 ...

[La Lydia]

Duh. In addition, the traffic on 395 at Seminary Road will be a freaking nightmare -- or, I should say, more of a freaking nightmare. When they built the building, they did nothing to improve vehicle access or public transportation. If terrorists manage to blow up the Mark Center building, there won't be many victims because they'll all still be stuck in traffic on 395.

[muawiyah]

This is the problem with bringing in General grade officers from outside the Shirley highway corridor! They actually think the Mark Center is "way out there" so they misdesign accordingly.

It's inside the Beltway, on America's second most crowded stretch of highway, and will be taken out in the same low yield atom bomb blast that removes the Pentagon and downtown DC.

There's a chance that Quantico (which really is "way out there") will survive.

[yldstrk]

accidentally on purpose?

[Buckeye McFrog]

DOH!

Either this is going to result in a terrorist attack, or a really entertaining hour of Mythbusters...

[Zeppo]

Rep. Jim Moran, D-Va., said...

That's as good an introduction as saying "prepare yourself to hear some idiocy spoken by an America-hating fool"...

[La Lydia]

Broken clock...

[hoosierham]

I really,truly, DON”T believe we need all records online,even all “public records”.I much preferred it when then real estate speculators and housebreakers couldn’t cruise my neighborhood from the anonymity of a laptop whilst plotting ways to rob me.