Protecting the President | Graphic: inauguration security | The world waits | Opinion: David Aaronovitch | A new dawn begins | Words to define history | The disadvantaged will go to the ball | Leading article

He will be protected by the largest amount of bulletproof glass to be erected around an American politician, and watched over by more security officials than any other public official in US history. His limousine can withstand chemical attack and roadside bombs.

Yet when hundreds of Secret Service agents on inauguration duty awake this morning – if, indeed, they managed to sleep at all – they will be consumed by one central question: will they be able to ensure that Barack Obama survives the day?

The fear of America’s first black president being assassinated on the day he is sworn in, before a crowd of at least two million people, is on the minds of many observers this morning. For those charged with ensuring his safety on his first day in the job, it has led to unprecedented levels of protection.

Times Archive, 1963: Let freedom ring

'All this will end one day. We will hew hope out of the mountain of despair'

• Topic: The assassination of Martin Luther King

Related Links

• Obama: world waits for the 17 minute speech

• Words to define history

• Addressing The World

Multimedia

• Graphic: the security for Barack Obama

• IN PICTURES: the inauguration build-up

Fears for Mr Obama’s safety have increased in recent days, after an intensification of “chatter” and threats on white supremacist websites. While US intelligence officials and the Secret Service say that they must be alert for a foreign-based terrorist attack, greater attention is focused on domestic race-hate groups.

Every threat, no matter how unlikely, has been followed up. On Friday the Secret Service arrested a man in Mississippi after he said on an internet chat room that he was going to kill Mr Obama. “I have decided I will assassinate Barack Obama,” Steven Joseph Christopher wrote. “It’s really nothing personal about the man . . . but I know it’s for the country’s own good that I do this.” He later said that he didn’t even have a gun, but the Secret Service is taking no chances.

Michael Chertoff, the Homeland Security director, conceded recently that Mr Obama’s skin colour “may excite the attention of some domestic groups that maybe were not engaged previously”. Reginald Ball, a former Secret Service agent whose long career included four years protecting Ronald Reagan and George Bush Sr, said: “Whoever the lead agent is, he or she is not getting much sleep. You wake up saying, ‘Did I cover this? Did I take care of that?’ – constantly going over your plan.”

He added: “As an agent in the Secret Service the ultimate opportunity is to be on that detail that particular day with the President. You have dedicated your career in the Secret Service to give up your life if you have to, and you don’t think twice about it.” Agents are trained so that moving in front of a firing gun is a reflex, rather than a conscious decision.

When Mr Obama was nominated in August, the Secret Service placed its biggest order for bulletproof glass: about five tonnes of “transparent armour” covered in four layers of plastic to withstand bullets, chemicals and flames. Mr Obama spoke behind it at the inauguration concert on Sunday night, and will be surrounded by it again today. As well as the Secret Service there will be 42,500 members of the police, the military, the FBI, the National Guard and other security bodies on duty, with fighter jets patrolling the skies.

There has not been an assassination attempt on a US president since Ronald Reagan was shot in 1981. Four have been killed, however, and the death of John F. Kennedy still weighs heavily on the Secret Service.

When asked about concerns for his safety, Mr Obama told an interviewer last year: “I’ve got the best protection in the world. So stop worrying.” His wife, Michelle, said: “I don’t lose any sleep over it, because the realities are that, as a black man, Barack can get shot going to the gas station.”

Joseph Funk, who was in the service for more than 20 years, including stints with George Bush Sr and Bill Clinton, now has his own security company, US Safety and Security. It provided protection for Mr Obama for several months before he was given Secret Service cover, early in the campaign, because of death threats.

Mr Funk called Mr Obama “one of the best protectees I ever worked with. He was very willing to sit down and listen to your thoughts on security. He listened to us. I totally enjoyed my time with him.”

One restriction that modern presidents have resisted is a bulletproof vest; Reagan was often offered one by his security detail after the shooting in 1981 that nearly killed him. He didn’t always accept the vest and joked that he didn’t like wearing it because “everybody will think I’m getting fat”. Mr Funk said that agents, even former ones, refuse to discuss if and when a politician wears a vest, but the smart money in Washington today is that Mr Obama will be wearing more than a shirt and tie under his overcoat.

The big question is whether Mr Obama, as with newly sworn-in presidents before him, stops somewhere between the Capitol and the White House to get out of his limousine to walk part of the route.

This is a nightmare for the Secret Service, because while the crowd will all have passed through security, the route is overlooked by numerous multistorey buildings. The service has removed the handles from thousands of doors that lead into rooms overlooking the parade route.

The scenario becomes even more uncertain if he leaves the motorcade to work the crowd. The security detail around a president, which is usually about 14-to 15-strong, including drivers and technicians, hate it when presidents start pressing the flesh.

“When you are working a line you are expecting something to happen,” said Mr Ball. “That’s a very dangerous situation for that protectee because you don’t know who you are going to encounter.”

The President’s day

The Obamas and Bidens arrive at the White House for a brief meeting, then travel together to the Capitol

9.45am (2.45pm British time) About 1,600 guests will begin to gather on the west side of the Capitol

11.30am The inauguration ceremony starts. About 240,000 ticket holders pass through security checkpoints to be within view of the West Front of the Capitol. Many more will view the proceedings on large screens

11.46am Joe Biden will be sworn in as Vice-President. Ten minutes later Barack Obama will be sworn in as America’s 44th President Noon President Obama gives his inaugural address

12.32pm George W. Bush and Dick Cheney will be escorted from the Capitol through a military cordon for a departure ceremony. They will then leave by helicopter

1.05pm Mr Obama will arrive at the Capitol’s Statuary Hall for the inaugural lunch

2.36pm A parade of floats and marching bands, led by Mr Obama and Mr Biden, will travel down Pennsylvania Avenue to the White House. This is expected to last about two hours.

7pm The official inaugural balls – there are ten – begin. Mr Obama is expected to put in an appearance at each

Times Recommends

• Times Charity Appeal: SolarAid
• Is it Black Monday all over again for Dubai?
• Behind the scenes at the biggest deal