The secret service knew about the tunnel but didn't expect it to be breached. Yes in the book a guard had to screw up to get the plot going. Regards to the terrorists using fake names actually yes. The master mind faked being a prince from Oman and used it to to make a donation to the DNC giving the 500,000 dollars to the chairman who was at the white house and killed later on. It is acknowledged in the book that the truck was the Secret Service's fault. Also a sniper was placed on the roof of the Washington Hotel killing Secret Service men on the roof of the White House. The terrorist cut the communications to the outside world preventing the president from contacting anyone acter it is known he is safe. When the terroist entered the building a forklift is used destroying a white house basement and go up the stairwell with grenades (smoke and fragmentation) and use a rpg. Out of bostage casualties i know that one man was killed for asking for some items for a pregnant woman and the National security advisor and his secretary were killed.Gosh. I bet the sneaky terrorists didn't use their real names, either.
The post-event debriefing would be entertaining. "So you see, Mr President, it was hardly the fault of the secret service that they didn't know about a way in to the White House that these sneaky foreigners knew about. I understand it was built by the British when they burned the White House in 1812. OK, I know they did it in 1814, but everyone calls it the war of 1812. Anyway, we didn't know about this entrance. And then, when they did get in, all our men were in the wrong place, and we didn't have anyone watching the surveillance cameras. I suppose that might be because sometimes they had been caught watching porn films. Oh, that was watching you? Never mind, we all make mistakes. Anyway, they caught us completely by surprise, and we simply couldn't do anything effective to protect you. The bounders even ignored the 'Do Not Enter' notices, and how could we plan for that level of perfidy? Not even Canadians are rude enough to ignore such notices. Anyway, they made their way from the entrance to where you were really quickly, much faster than we could think, and we can count up to ten in three minutes, tops. How many of them were there? Well, they came with bombs and guns and they were in a linen truck, and our guard didn't see them hiding them, so there could have been, oh, six of them. Maybe seven. How many of us are there? Well, obviously, we couldn't have used anyone not in the White House, that might have looked like we were over-reacting, so there were no more than sixty of us actually nearby. Yes, all right, we did outnumber them ten to one. How much explosives did they bring in with them? Enough to destroy the White House. How big is the White House? Oh, pretty big. Yes, I guess it was a lot of explosives. Did our sensors detect any explosives? Sir, I'm afraid you don't have the security clearance to know what sniffing devices we have available. I know you're the CinC, and I know that such devices have been in common use since the 1980s at least, and even the British use them, but well, we didn't think to have any in place. What were the terrorists trying to do? They were trying to drill into the bunker. How were they drilling? With drills. Where did they get the drills? I guess they brought them in with them, or they found them lying around in the White House. Yes, I suppose they were carrying drills around. Yes, drills are quite heavy. Yes, it is difficult to carry guns and bombs and drills and make your way around a place you don't really know that well, but you have to understand, they took us by surprise."
The phrase nonsense on stilts springs to mind. I would suggest that the author needs to have his artistic licence revoked.
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