Official visits: protocol and security in the Capitol

The Capitol Rotunda swarms with wrinkled amateur historians, women in dark knit sweaters and exuberant children. It hums with the familiar as word zips through BlackBerrys and cell phones, “He’s coming from the House side, and he’s being detailed.”

The president of Colombia swoops in, and the humming turns into buzzing as tourists hush and shout at once. The scene is as familiar as it is extraordinary for Senate Sergeant at Arms Bill Pickle and others in charge of protocol and security for the hundreds of heads of state who visit Congress each year.

It plays out like a scene from a movie. There are cameras but no actors, and the stakes are higher. There is a temptation to look around for the director, but in the Capitol, the closest thing is Pickle. He is responsible for the safety of not only heads of state but other foreign dignitaries, members of congress, staffers and tourists.

“You literally have thousands of moving parts in the system. It’s a pretty well-oiled machine.” Pickle said.

Foreign dignitaries or heads of state come to the Senate side every couple days, so Pickle has a script for the relatively routine event. His job is to walk the leader to his or her meeting place.

Colombian President �lvaro Uribe-V�lez stops for pictures with Pickle, and then the entourage heads north to meet with the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Sen. Richard Lugar (R-Ind.)

If Pickle is the director, than Becky Daugherty would be the producer.

Daugherty is a protocol officer in the sergeant at arms’ office. She leads the procession and routinely works with the Secret Service, the State Department and the White House to ensure the safety of foreign dignitaries.

There is a flurry of flashbulbs before Uribe-V�lez disappears into the committee room to meet with Lugar. His press secretary, Andy Fisher, says the senator meets with the president of Colombia several times a year to “work with Colombia to combat narcotics [trafficking].”

Capitol Hill police, presidential military aids, embassy staff, U.S. and Colombian Secret Service, Colombian ministers and ambassadors all swarm around and eventually rest imposingly before the wooden doors of the Fulton Room, where the committee meets.

“It looks like a gaggle, but at least with the Secret Service we all have a purpose.” one Secret Service agent says.

The agent doesn’t like to see her name in the paper but does like to ensure the safety of her visitors. She makes it clear that details are not for public knowledge, as the exposure could compromise security.

The agent’s job is to work with officials at each stop on the dignitary’s route to ensure safety. An advance agent greets and sends off foreign dignitaries at every location en route. By law, the Secret Service protects foreign dignitaries from the moment they arrive in the country until the moment they leave.

A uniformed woman demands to get a note to the president, and after much debate the woman is allowed to enter the room. “Once the meeting starts, you can’t just walk in the front door,” the Secret Service agent says.

Agents and officers make what they do look easy, but the process is far from simple. The dignitary’s staff calls his country’s embassy in Washington and the congressman’s office to arrange a meeting. The senator’s or representative’s office or committee calls the sergeant at arms and arranges security.

The sergeant at arms’ office exchanges many phone calls and e-mails in the months, weeks or days leading up to a visit from a head of state.

“It’s all logistics,” Pickle says. “It’s kind of like an iceberg. People only see the tip of it; they just don’t see what’s under the surface.”

If a particular location might be especially dangerous or confusing, an advance agent working for the visiting head of state asks for one or several walk-throughs to locate exits and become familiar with floor plans.

The Secret Service develops a threat assessment for every visiting head of state. Through a spokesperson, the agency declined to comment on the assessment itself but said, “We do have an assessment but would not be able to provide any further information on security.”

Forty-five minutes pass, and Uribe-V�lez bursts out of the room in a cloud of rich cologne. He nods solemnly to his hosts under his wire-rimmed glasses before he motorcades to the White House.

Daugherty says goodbye politely, as if saying goodbye to the leader of a country is routine — and for her it is. The humming on this end of the Capitol gives way to quiet. Daugherty and Pickle each let a labored breath escape before they rush off to repeat the scene with different players.