Washington goes into lockdown for security nightmare

Washington DC is being turned into a fortress city with a 45,000-strong force of police, soldiers, spies and special agents.

As the first black President prepared to take office, security chiefs were planning for a range of potential assassination scenarios, from a lone gunman to a terrorist attack.

In the most striking precaution, a US Army brigade was believed to be on standby at Fort Stewart, Georgia, in case of a chemical or a biological attack. The unit could despatch hundreds of planes and helicopters to the Washington region if needed to deal with the aftermath of an attack.

Mr Obama, who spent the weekend taking part in public engagements, was today marking Martin Luther King day. He was expected to volunteer at a community project - the traditional way of honouring the civil rights leader murdered 41 years ago.

Tonight Mr Obama will host three dinners to honour his defeated presidential rival John McCain, former Secretary of State Colin Powell, and vice president-elect Joe Biden. Michelle Obama will host a children's concert for military families, with singer Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers. From the early hours tomorrow dozens of roads and two bridges into central DC will be closed. All16 US intelligence agencies are keeping watch on suspected extremists, including white supremacists.

The president-elect and his family were shielded by bulletproof glass at the We Are One inauguration concert last night and there were snipers on the roof of the Lincoln Memorial.

Mr Obama used the event to warn of the huge task Americans face to beat the recession. "Only a handful of generations have been asked to confront challenges as serious as the ones we face right now," he said.

"Our nation is at war, our economy is in crisis. Millions of Americans are losing their jobs and their homes. I won't pretend that meeting any one of these challenges will be easy. It will take more than a month or a year, and it will likely take many. Along the way there will be setbacks and false starts and days that test our resolve as a nation."

American unemployment hit 7.2 per cent last month, the highest level in almost 16 years.

A poll yesterday found that 89 per cent think Mr Obama has done well during the transition.

The run-up to the inauguration began on Saturday with a 137-mile train ride from Philadelphia to Washington DC watched by cheering families. Before last night's concert Mr Obama laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns in Arlington National Cemetery and attended the Nineteenth Street Baptist Church.

Tomorrow's inaugural speech, chief of staff Rahm Emanuel said, will call on Americans to embrace a new era of responsible behaviour - in government and in business. He said the speech would echo John F Kennedy's call for personal sacrifice in his 1960 inaugural address and will ask the nation to reject the "culture of anything goes."

Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi broke ranks today to call for the early abolition of tax breaks for people earning more than $250,000. "Nothing contributed more to the budget deficit than the tax cuts for the wealthiest people in America," she said. Mr Obama has indicated he will let the tax breaks run another year.

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