Moran: Mark Center vulnerability likely result of poor security planning

By Jack Moore
Federal News RAdio

The deadline for BRAC is here. But not everyone is hailing the latest round of base realignments and closures.

The deadline comes amid some trepidation after Time magazine reported that the Mark Center — where many defense workers have been relocated — is vulnerable to car or truck bombs because of its unprotected status near a major interstate.

The report was leaked to Time magazine, and Rep. Jim Moran (D-Va.) has said he would like to meet with Defense Department officials to discuss it.

Moran told Federal News Radio he still hasn’t seen an actual copy of the report itself, but that its findings indicate just another headache — and perhaps evidence of poor planning — in the BRAC process.

“I’ve expressed many times in the past that, from so many angles, this was the wrong thing to do — to build this enormous building in a place that has virtually no traffic access. Every intersection around the building is already at a failed level of service.”

In addition, most of the defense personnel previously worked in relative obscurity in unassuming office buildings in Crystal City, Moran said.

“So they were actually much safer than they are combined all into one building with all the publicity attendant upon building that building,” Moran said. “You can’t drive up (Interstate) 395 without asking ‘What is that monstrosity?”

His reservations about the process extend to questions of security, he added.

“I do think from a security standpoint, it was the wrong thing do,” he said. As for the specific security threat noted by Time, Moran, who sits on the military construction appropriations subcommittee, said if security threat “clearly exists,” then the committee will hold a hearing, likely in October.

“Now the building is here, and it’s only after the fact that we’re seeing all the problems attendant upon putting more than 6,000 people into it,” he lamented.

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