WSDOT cameras blacked out during Pres. Obama's departure

SEATTLE — President Barack Obama left Seattle on Wednesday morning amid an unusual level of secrecy that the Secret Service refused to comment on.

The agency is always relatively vague about the routes they take when moving the president, but as Pres. Obama’s motorcade moved from his hotel in Bellevue to Boeing Field, Secret Service officials ordered that Washington State Department of Transportation cameras on the route be shut off.

That was completely different from just 15 hours earlier, when WSDOT cameras showed the motorcade traveling from Boeing Field to a fundraiser on the Eastside. For past visits, those cameras have always showed the motorcade.

Pres. Obama also made an unusually speedy and secretive exit from the Bellevue Hilton. KIRO 7 cameras were on site to cover the president’s departure, but it turned out the motorcade left from the back of the hotel. After that came the 12-minute WSDOT camera blackout, and the motorcade wasn’t seen again until it arrived at Boeing Field, where the president boarded Air Force One.

KIRO 7 called the White House and Secret Service offices in Washington, D.C., to ask why such extensive security measures were taken, but both said they wouldn’t comment at all about security strategy or any potential risks with regard to the president’s movements.

Several people at both offices said they wouldn’t event entertain questions about whether there was a specific threat that led to Wednesday’s apparently heightened security. All those officials would say was that when it comes to moving the president, the Secret Service takes any and every precaution to make sure he’s safe.

KIRO