New Situation Room: Secure Communications, Cable TV
WASHINGTON, Dec. 20 — -- Plastic is still covering the new carpets. The high-sheen wooden desks are wrapped in cardboard. And everywhere you look, busy experts are running around testing diagnostic computers.
But the new White House Situation Room is nearly ready to be unveiled and put to use.
The new and improved Situation Room is set to be operational on Jan. 1, with new technology, double the number of conference rooms (there were two, there will be four) and enough space to conduct five simultaneous teleconferences and reach the president anywhere in the world -- including Air Force One -- through secure communications.
Among the new features are two Space Age-looking phone booths with secure telephones and digital encryption fax machines, a central office with privacy glass that goes from transparent to milky with the flip of a switch, and massive flat-screen televisions that will be tuned to cable news shows 24/7 because, we're told, that's how White House officials often learn of developments around the world.
Deputy White House Chief of Staff Joseph Hagin described the redo as a radical overhaul.
"We gutted the old Situation Room down to the brick and into the dirt," Hagin said.
He also boasted that the project is ahead of schedule and under budget. And, he said, it's a "legacy project" designed to allow future administrations flexibility to install new technology quickly and with minimal disruption. Rack systems, trenches in the floor, and a new Situation Room budget are all intended to make quick upgrades feasible.
Hagin said the Situation Room is now fitted with the latest telecommunications equipment, allowing for a significant improvement in "the amount and quality of data that can be brought in."
According to Hagin, the idea for a Situation Room renovation dates back to the spring of 2001 when the White House commissioned the Department of Defense to study a communications upgrade. This became a priority after President Bush had difficulty communicating during the Sept. 11 attacks, Hagin said.
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