Life of confinement behind ring of steel
HE MAY be the new leader of the free world, but Barack Obama and his family have been sentenced to a life of confinement in maximum security.
From now on their every move will be watched by an army of secret servicemen and FBI agents who fear that the US President is an assassination target.
They have been on high alert ever since his election victory in November amid a plethora of intelligence warnings about threats from Al Qaeda and other Islamic terrorist groups.
Even as Mr Obama was taking his oath yesterday amid unprecedented security, the US authorities were investigating unconfirmed reports of a threat to the ceremony from an East African radical Islamic terrorist group, the Somalia-based Al Shabaab network.
"The FBI, the Department of Homeland Security and the intelligence community are coordinating with other law enforcement authorities to investigate and analyse recently received information about a potential threat on inauguration day, " said Russ Knocke, spokesman for the Homeland Security department.
"This information is of limited specificity and uncertain credibility."
The authorities have been tracking the group for several days, according to US intelligence officials who have expressed concern about y oung Somalis living in the United States who have gone to train with Al Shabaab.
Such was the level of concern yesterday that US Secret Service agents used five tons of "transparent armour" to erect a virtually impenetrable shield around the President designed to protect against a chemical attack as well as gunshots.
Mr Obama was also shadowed by hundreds of close protection agents and a total of 42,500 police officers, soldiers, FBI operatives and members of the National Guard were on the streets.
There were 5,000 surveillance cameras, 150 intelligence teams mingling with crowds and surfaceto-air weapons focused on the skies where fighter jets patrolled.
Snipers positioned on roof tops near the Capitol had been trained to hit a target as small as a tennis ball from 1,000 yards.
Bridges and 150 city blocks were closed off and items like back-packs and even umbrellas were not allowed anywhere near Mr Obama.
On top of the danger from Islamic fundamentalists, white supremacists have also made no bones of their hostility towards America's first black president.
The notorious anti-black cult the Ku Klux Klan called on all its supporters to wear black armbands yesterday and fly the Stars and Stripes flag upside down.
A team of specialist FBI investigators has been assigned to work alongside the Secret Service to monitor America's 487 known white supremacist groups.
One security source said: "It's not the crazies who tell you what they're gonna do that are dangerous, it's the crazies that don't. And we all know they're out there.
"It only takes one lunatic racist with a gun, one deranged extremist with a single bullet, one determined white supremacist, to end it all. And you can bet there are plenty of angry, disturbed people lining up for the chance to be that one."
The unprecedented, multi-million dollar security operation sets the tone for a presidency during which Secret Service agents will refer to Mr Obama by the codename Renegade - his wife Michelle is Renaissance.
Mr Obama and his family spent the presidential campaign with more full time Secret Service agents - a team of 10 - than any other candidate in the history of the race for office.
That has now been increased, with six agents assigned to his wife Michelle, 45, and another six to watch over their daughters Malia, 10, and Sasha, seven.
