Pentagon removes newspaper boxes, cites security risk

WASHINGTON — Citing security concerns, the military has removed external newspaper dispensers from Pentagon property.

All boxes that used to hold copies of papers, popular with commuters, such as The Washington Post's Express and the Washington Examiner are gone from walkways around the building.

Officials are "continuously looking for ways to improve security at the Pentagon," Air Force Lt. Col. Tom Crosson, a Pentagon spokesman, said in e-mail. "No specific threat has been identified, but the Pentagon Force Protection Agency is being proactive in removing newspaper dispensers that could potentially contain unsafe items."

Several major newspapers are available at concessions inside the building, he said. But the thousands of people who travel daily through the Pentagon property's subway and bus hubs will have to get their news elsewhere.

Unlike other military installations, the Pentagon property is not walled or fenced off to the public since it is a major transit hub within the Washington metro area.

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But military installations both stateside and abroad have beefed up security within the past year. Each of the services is expanding its automated visitor-vetting system for on-the-spot background checks, officials said in January.

Also this past month, troops overseas began "additional force-protection measures and random security enhancements at facilities across the EUCOM area of responsibility," according to spokesman Navy Capt. Greg Hicks of the U.S. European Command.