Device, possibly aerial drone, found on White House grounds

WASHINGTON — A device, possibly an unmanned aerial drone, was found on the White House grounds during the middle of the night while US President Barack Obama and the first lady were in India, but his spokesman said Monday that it posed no threat.

It was unclear whether their daughters, Sasha and Malia, were at home at the time of the incident with their grandmother, Marian Robinson, who also lives at the White House. The White House had said before the president’s trip that the daughters would remain in Washington so not to miss school.

The Secret Service, which is responsible for protecting the president and his family, had no immediate comment on what it found.

Obama’s press secretary, Josh Earnest, speaking in New Delhi, did not deny that the object found at the White House was an aerial drone. Drones come in various sizes, some quite small, with purposes ranging from surveillance to recreational toys.

“There is a device that has been recovered by the Secret Service at the White House,” Earnest said when asked if a drone was found. “The early indications are that it does not pose any sort of ongoing threat to anybody at the White House.”

Police, fire and other emergency vehicles swarmed around the White House in the predawn hours, with several clustered near the southeast entrance to the mansion. The White House was dark and the entire perimeter was on lockdown until around 5 a.m., when those who work in the complex were allowed inside.

After daylight, more than a dozen Secret Service officers fanned out in a search across the White House lawn as snow began to fall. They peered down in the grass and used flashlights to look through the large bushes that line the mansion’s driveway.

Obama and his wife, Michelle, were the featured guests Monday at a parade celebrating India’s Republic Day. They planned to stop in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday before returning to Washington.

While the circumstances of this incident were not immediately clear, previous security breaches at the White House have led to questions about the Secret Service’s effectiveness.

Four high-ranking executives were reassigned this month, and former director Julia Pierson was forced to resign last year after a Texas man armed with a knife was able to get over a White House fence in September and run deep into the executive mansion before being subdued.

An independent panel that investigated the agency’s leadership and practices in the wake of the September incident and the disclosure of a previously unreported security breach that month recommended hiring a new director from outside the agency.

That report was the second critical review of the agency responsible for protecting the president. In November, the Homeland Security Department, which oversees the Secret Service, released an internal investigation about the fence-scaling incident that found poor training, staff and a series of missteps led to the breach.

Homeland Security investigators found, among other things, that uniformed agents patrolling the White House grounds the night of Sept. 19 mistakenly assumed that thick bushes near the mansion’s front door would stop the intruder.