The ultimate in security irony

The EPA unveiled a new system, put in place on a twin engine Rockwell Aero Commander 680 known as airborne spectral photometric environmental collection technology (ASPECT). It's designed to detect any trace levels of chemical or radiological products (dirty bombs). ASPECT has been around since 2001, but it was recently upgraded to carry gamma-ray capturing devices.

ASPECT has been providing quick-response chemical detection services since 2001, and has recently been upgraded to carry gamma-ray capturing devices to ferret out radiological threats. By flying a certain pattern over a particular site, the sensor suite captures electro-optical, infrared and gamma ray data while an operator in the back of the aircraft uses specialized algorithms to perform real-time analysis of the threat, sending actionable information to first responders through satellite links.

Source

Here's where the irony comes in. This system can be flown over every city in the US, EXCEPT the one city with the biggest bullseye on it. That's right, it can't be flown over Washington DC. There is a general aviation and air taxi no fly zone over the city, that doesn't allow the civilian operators to fly the aircraft over the city. They recently applied for a one day waiver to allow for training operations in the no fly zone, but the TSA denied it.

What do you make of this ? I find this pretty odd.

Is the american government so paranoid that they don't trust their own agencies ? Or do they have something planned and don't want EPA to find out ?

It's been a long time since I went to DC (pre-911) but is there some government plane flying the no-fly zone (exept the military) ? What about medical, traffic report or media helicopters ?

The problem isn't the airplane, it's the crew. It's flown by non-government civilian pilots, even though the plane is owned by the EPA. Since it's a civilian crew, it's considered general aviation, and you have to have a complete background check and fingerprints to get clearance through it. Medevacs may be allowed through there, but they're a special case, and have already been cleared for flying through that area.