By Paul Thompson and Liz Hazelton
Last updated at 7:14 PM on 09th January 2009

It’s official call sign is Cadillac One, but it will always be known as the Obamobile.

This is the top – security armoured limousine which has been custom built to be Barack Obama’s presidential car.

It will travel with him wherever in the world he goes. The President- elect, pictured inset, will have his first ride in the stretch limo when he parades along Pennsylvania Avenue in Washington after his inauguration on January 20.

But his Secret Service agents have already been familiarising themselves with the machine they call ‘The Beast’, built by General Motors in Detroit and based on a Cadillac chassis.

The company refuses to give precise details of how it will perform its primary purpose – protecting the president.

But bulletproof glass and armourplatingare standard throughout and the car is hermetically-sealed to withstand chemical weapons.

As with previous presidential limos it is packed with electronic communication systems to allow Mr Obama to keep in contact with the outside world.

One personal touch will be the remote-controlled ten-CD changer on which he can play his favourite artists, said to include Stevie Wonder and Bob Dylan.

Despite the protection afforded by Cadillac One, the Secret Service will be taking no chances when Mr Obama is sworn in as the 44th president.

A three-mile security perimeter will be thrown around the U.S. capital, with no vehicles allowed inside, to prevent a car bomb attack.

The expected two million visitors have been told to be in place at least three hours before the swearingin ceremony begins.

In his first major speech since his election triumph, Mr Obama warned last night that the U.S. could be mired in recession for years if his plan for a £515billion rescue package is delayed too long.

He had been hoping to sign it into law on his first day, but it has been the subject of prolonged wrangling in Congress.

The bailout, which is in addition to the £450billion fund approved last year, offers tax cuts to the middle class and small businesses as well as a massive cash infusion to modernise roads, bridges, schools and medical care.

Money would also be provided for renewable energy projects.

A US intelligence document has revealed the Secret Service fear a ‘lone wolf’ type attack on the day rather than an organised, well-planned plot to kill Obama.

According to the intelligence document,  no specific threat to Obama  has been uncovered.

But  the report makes it clear the number of dignitaries and the significance of  the swearing-in of America’s first black president make the inauguration vulnerable  to attacks.

The level of security is unprecedented – and already Mr Obama says he feels trapped.

In a candid interview, the American President-Elect described his frustration at being suffocated by the White House bubble.

He is already cosseted in a security cocoon, driven around in a heavily guarded motorcade and unable to walk down the street without a massive security operation.

The 47-year-old revealed how his staff even discouraged him from going body-surfing in Hawaii – and that wife Michelle was amused after pictures of him on the beach without a shirt appeared in the press.

‘It was silly, but, you know, silliness goes with this job,’ he said.

Mr Obama has vowed to hang on to normal life as long as possible after moving to the White House, which Harry Truman once dubbed ‘great white jail.’

The President-Elect said he particuarly determined to keep his Blackberry to have a link with the wider world.

He is trying to avoid the fate of President George W. Bush, who gave up e-mail when he took power in 2001 on the advice of his lawyers.

‘They’re going to pry it out of my hands,’ he told The New York Times and CBNC. ‘I don’t know that I’ll win, but I’m still fighting it.

‘What it has to do with is having mechanisms where you are interacting with people who are outside of the White House in a meaningful way.

‘And I’ve got to look for every opportunity to do that – ways that aren’t scripted, ways that aren’t controlled, ways where.. people aren’t just complimenting you or standing up when you enter into a room, ways of staying grounded.

‘And if I can manage that over the next four years, I think that will help me serve the American people better because I’m going to be hearing their voices.

‘They’re not going to be muffled as a consequence of me being in the White House.’

President Bush was forced to give up emails as his lawyers feared electronic communications would have to be preserved for posterity as presidential documents.

There are also concerns that presidential electronic communications could be hacked into by the mischievous or the malevolent.

25,000 Deploy for Security at Inaugural

Most protected event ever includes 5,265 security cameras, snipers

WASHINGTON – Security in downtown D.C. was high Monday after officials promised the largest inaugural security operation in history, with 58 federal, state and local agencies working together.

Some 25,000 police, military troops and law enforcement agents — including plainclothes officers roaming the crowds — will be on hand to handle the potentially 2 million people who could descend on the nation’s capital Tuesday.

The far-reaching security includes thousands of video cameras, sharpshooters and air patrols to safeguard President-elect Barack Obama’s swearing-in.

In addition, 155 intelligence teams will be mingling with the crowds and taking public transit to keep an eye on the situation. Snipers trained to hit a target the size of a teacup saucer from 1,000 yards away have also been deployed.

Along the Potomac River, the U.S. Coast Guard had patrol boats watching the waters and all river traffic was to be cut off Tuesday.

Some 150 city blocks will be closed to traffic on Tuesday, and while buses will be allowed into the city, private vehicles will not.

The Army National Guard 2nd Brigade of Washington, Penn., is securing the bus routes to and from the inauguration Tuesday morning. “It’s great to be part of it,” said Scott Bukovec of Johnstown, Penn., who has worked inaugurals before, but none like this. “This is a much greater scope.”

The security forces include bomb-sniffing dogs like Samson, a 125-pound black Labrador assigned to patrol the National Mall overnight. He’s even wearing a bullet-proof vest made from a decommissioned human flak jacket.

Command center, 5,265 cameras
A multi-agency command center, run by the Secret Service eight blocks from the White House, is receiving video feeds from the 5,265 surveillance cameras spread around the city.

The center has more than 100 officials monitoring inaugural activities and public areas via live video feeds from the Federal Bureau of Investigation, Metropolitan Police Department, National Park Service, District of Columbia Transportation Department, National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency and others.

Under the plan, if the Metropolitan Police Department needs to speak to someone at the Federal Aviation Administration, those officials are already in the same room. And each person there will have a list of radio frequencies so that one agency can easily communicate with another in the field.

The command center has five 8-foot-square monitors that can display anything from street maps to newscasts, situation reports and live camera feeds. There’s a so-called “burn bag” at every desk for disposal of classified information — and a list of nearby fast-food options.

On Sunday, snipers watched over the inaugural concert and officials responded to some suspicious packages around Washington, but all were eventually determined not to be dangerous.

“This is to be expected over the next few days, considering the security level surrounding the inauguration,” FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said.

There were also a few protesters Sunday, one group at 17th and Constitution, protesting gay rights, according to the FBI.

“It’s actually been a very quiet day,” Secret Service spokesman Malcolm Wiley said Sunday. The Secret Service is the lead agency for inauguration security operations.

No specific threats
Intelligence officials say there are no specific threats to the inauguration. But the high visibility of the event, the presence of dignitaries and the significance of swearing in the first African-American president make it a vulnerable target.

The security forces include 10,000 national guardsmen, 8,000 police, and 1,000 National Park police. Some 4,000 police are from 99 departments outside Washington, D.C.

Not only is the inauguration security the most intense ever, the inauguration will be the most heavily secured public event in U.S. history. And it’s expected to shatter the previous attendance record of 1.2 million for President Lyndon B. Johnson.

For the first time, the president declared an emergency in the District of Columbia in advance of the inauguration. That will cover 100 percent of eligible local inauguration costs for emergency protective measures on Tuesday. It is in addition to the $15 million Congress set aside for inauguration security costs.