Guy Fawkes in D.C.: Is the Capitol next?

Global New Matrix -- up and running again -- argues that the United States Capitol complex may be the next terror target. At first, I dismissed the idea as mere sensationalism. But GNM links to a fascinating story which appeared in The Hill last March 29, and after reading it, I must now confess to being intrigued. Not convinced, not persuaded, not greatly worried -- but intrigued.

In essence, the article concerns the crumbling network of steam tunnels beneath the Capitol buiilding. The Capitol Police do not venture into this dark labyrinth, due to exposed asbestos and unstable concrete walls. Even police dogs may not venture down there.

A special police unit has received training to enter the tunnels if the need should arise. D.C.-area firefighters say they will go in if circumstances require.

These concerns arose after employees of the Capitol Power Plant sent four members of Congress a letter describing the obvious potential dangers from terrorism. The following section of the letter struck me as particularly noteworthy:

"This should be a real concern to the Congress and Senate as all buildings on the complex can be entered through the steam tunnels," they wrote. "Realize that it is on a regular basis [that] we see people in the tunnels that we don’t know why they are down there."

(Emphasis added.) Who are these spelunkers? More than likely, they belong to the city's homeless population. Still, if they can get down there, how difficult would it be for someone of bad intentions to join their numbers?

The folks at GNM cite another indicator of a possible Capitol strike. While I consider their argument a bit of a reach, the points they raise deserve some consideration.

On April 3, the Capitol Building was evacuated after a power outage. GNM sees a parallel to a similar power outage in the South Tower of the World Trade Center the weekend before the great tragedy. The latter link goes to an interview with one Scott Forbes, who worked in the WTC complex, and whose words have been seized upon by the dreaded "controlled demolition" aficionados.

As readers know, I do not accept that theory of 9/11. (No doubt the bomb brigadiers will now fill the comments section with their usual predictable prattlings. Must you?) And yet, in a theoretical sense, I can see how a power outage might serve as a cover for the planting of explosives, although such an operation would surely take much more time than the Scott Forbes description allows. Electrical blackouts do happen; some of us have even experienced them first-hand. But, as the linked story makes clear, the recent difficulties at the Capitol appear to have increased the presence of police and firemen, and their presence cannot have made work easier for any of the nefarious covert operators presumed, in GNM's scenario, to have been scuttling around the complex. Besides, the lights merely flickered (except in the visitors gallery); the entire building did not go dark.

On the other hand -- an imaginative person might posit a scenario derived from the first Mission Impossible film, in which fake firemen use an "emergency" to gain access to off-limits areas. This idea seems rather fanciful.

Still...the notion of a Capitol Hill blast is chilling, especially when one considers the controversy over the new film V For Vendetta. I've not yet seen the film adpatation, although I possess the Alan Moore piece that inspired it. Right-wingers have made this movie the centerpiece of one of their usual hate campaigns, while many on the left have -- perhaps unwisely -- embraced V's actions without caveat. (Moore himself has expressed mixed feelings about his protagonist.) If a bomb destroyed much of the Capitol building, many would automatically blame the act on a left-wing radical (or group of radicals) inspired by Guy Fawkes and his updated cinematic counterpart.

Such an event would give the conservative propagandists an unimaginable coup. If life imitates art, the radio rightists will surely scream, once more, about their imaginary conspiracy of Hollywood "libruls." That meme always succeeds in riling the rubes.

Not only that. For years, the Rovian hordes have attempted to link progressives with terrorism -- even though the only destructive incidents of domestic origin during the past three-and-a-half decades have all originated with the militia maniacs and their reactionary comrades. (A few lefties did commit violent acts during the Vietnam era, but the worst of those outrages was insignificant compared to, say, the Oklahoma City blast.) An explosion in the Capitol would insure the election of a Republican congress -- which would, in turn, insure that impeachment remains a dream.

A number of people have noted the similarities between the tragedy of 9/11 and the finale of another Alan Moore graphic novel, Watchmen. Pray, if you are the sort to pray, that this history does not repeat itself. "Remember, remember/The Fifth of November" -- and while you're at it, consult your rhyming dictionary to see what goes with April, May, June or July...