President Bush and the Two Car Motorcade

Monday’s Washington Post (WP) had an interesting item for the Executive Protection community regarding President Bush’s recent visit to Iraq. Seems the President used a two car motorcade to get to Andrews Air Force base from the White House to board Air Force One for his flight to Iraq recently.

In order to maintain the required level of operational security for the trip to Iraq, according to the WP, the Secret Service opted for a two car motorcade for the trip to Andrews as opposed to the normal travel options for the President such as helicopter or the typical presidential motorcade which would have attracted no small amount of interest particularly once word was out that the motorcade was heading to Andrews.

There’s no doubt the Secret Service covered the route from the White House to Andrews with various forms of security for the trip in order to compensate for the low profile motorcade. Still, using a two car motorcade is a very effective means of lower the president’s profile for those occasions when security or discretion is paramount. Adversaries count on a target’s predictability for both attack planning and attack execution. By changing the typical profile of the president’s motorcade into a two vehicle secure package, security for the trip to Andrews was actually enhanced since the element of operational security was increased.

An over reliance on the same type and level of security creates a vulnerability that an adversary can study and eventually exploit. The adage of being predictability unpredictable has a lot of merit as the Secret Service demonstrated in this case.