BEST-KEPT SECRET: PLANS TO GUARD CLINTON, YELTSIN DURING N.Y., UN VISITS

                               CHICAGO TRIBUNE
                        Copyright Chicago Tribune 1994
                                                              TAG: 9409240021
DATE: Friday, September 23, 1994        EDITION: NORTH SPORTS FINAL
SECTION: EVENING UPDATE                 PAGE: 2                   ZONE: C
SOURCE: Reuters.
COLUMN: EVENING. People.
LENGTH:   63 lines
DATELINE: NEW YORK


   One of the best-kept secrets is how law enforcement is planning to protect
President Clinton, Russian President Boris Yeltsin, dozens of heads of state
and scores of foreign ministers due in Manhattan next week for the opening of
the United Nations General Assembly.
   The answer includes everything from police helicopters circling key
buildings and bomb sweeps, to computer name checks of potentially dangerous
people, bomb-sniffing dogs and the sealing of city sewers along motor routes.
   Secret Service and State Department agents from around the country are
being brought to the city to help guard visitors. The exact number is being
kept secret.  For months, agents from the FBI, Secret Service and State
Department, United Nations security, Coast Guard, Port Authority and New York
City Police have been closeted, mapping out every inch of the dignitaries'
itinerary and escape routes.
   "Security has definitely been heightened in the city," a police source who
asked not to be identified told Reuters.
   "There's always concern when heads of state and the president of the
United States come to New York City," he said. "But my orders this time is to
say nothing about security."
   Uppermost in the minds of agents and police is the upcoming conspiracy
trial in December of Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and 13 other Muslim militants
charged with attempting to launch a war of urban terrorism by plotting to
blow up the United Nations and other public buildings.
   "Security was tightened a great deal last year after the bombing of the
World Trade Center, and all of the security measures put in place then
continue to be in force," Ahmad Fawzi, deputy UN spokesman, told Reuters.
   He said he could not detail any new measures being imposed, except that UN
buildings will be closed Monday.
   Aside from street closings causing monumental disruptions and tieups
expected from political demonstrations, the East Side of Manhattan will take
on some of the aspects of an armed camp next week.
   President Clinton will fly into the city Sunday for an overnight visit at
the Waldorf Astoria Hotel that will include a fundraiser that evening. Monday
afternoon he will speak at the United Nations before flying back to
Washington.
   Yeltsin also will arrive here Sunday afternoon and meet UN Secretary
General Boutros Boutros-Ghali before his UN speech Monday.
   Throughout the Clinton and Yeltsin visits, sharpshooters will be stationed
on top of buildings, with agents and military specialists trained in
anti-terrorism looking for would-be assassins.
   Should trouble break out, the agents have at their command a rolling
arsenal.
   Inside black-tinted window vans that travel behind the "protectees' "
limousines are trained agents prepared to use such powerful weapons as Uzi
machine-guns, M-16 rifles, pistols, shotguns and tear-gas bombs.
   "This is the largest undertaking of manpower the Secret Service has in any
given year," Gerry Byrnes, spokesman for the Secret Service in New York,
said.