PROTECTING LEADERS

With highly trained guards and sophisticated means of gathering intelligence, protecting a world leader is still a dangerous and deadly business. The assassination of Israel's Yithak Rabin is the latest example of how vulnerable even the most protected individuals are when someone decides to cross the line into political mayhem.

There have been plenty of examples of how expensive protective measures have failed in the most elementary ways. Not too long ago the pilot of a small airplane managed to avoid airspace controls around the White House. Although the plane crashed into the president's residence, no one inside was injured. The potential for calamity was immediately clear to everyone.

The attempt some years ago on the life of Pope John Paul II in St. Peter's Square is still a vivid memory for millions of Roman Catholics and others who watched in horror as he was critically wounded by a gunshot.

Who can forget the much-televised scene of the attempt on President' Reagan's life on a Washington, D.C., street?

Some time ago an intruder in London's Buckingham Palace managed to make his way to the queen's bedroom without tripping any security alarms or being accosted by guards. A cool and calm Queen Elizabeth managed to talk the pistol-wielding man into surrendering to authorities. More recently the queen's privacy was invaded with a Canadian radio talk-show host impersonated the Canadian prime minister and spoke to the queen at length -- while on the air -- until the hoax was revealed.

And even Canada's own Prime Minister Chretien was the target just last week when a knife-carrying intruder in the official residence in Ottawa found his way unhindered to the master bedroom. It was left to the prime minister's wife to keep the potential murderer at bay while trying to summon the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. It took the Mounties and embarrassing seven minutes to respond.

Collectively, these incidents paint a bleak picture of security and readiness on the parts of those responsible for protecting heads of state. In the case of Rabin's assassination, however, the concern goes even deeper. It turns out the Israeli security agency, Shin Bet, had information about the assassin before he got close enough to shoot Rabin.

Those involved in the Rabin plot are growing in numbers. Instead of a lone gunman who killed for motives known to the assassin alone, it now appears there were many others involved -- and Shin Bet knew about the plan as early as last June.

No wonder Rabin's widow was vocally outraged on the day of her husband's funeral.

America's experience with presidential assassination gives its citizens some understanding of the national anguish and sense of loss when a strong leader's life is snuffed out.

There continues to be an understanding that protecting the president or any world leader isn't always successful. A number of potential assassination plots have been thwarted, much to the credit of the Secret Service. But the attempts continue to underscore how even the best security efforts can fail.

In the case of Rabin's death, there are many questions left to be answered. Could Shin Bet have been better prepared? How far did the plot to kill him extend? Why did those assigned to protect the prime minister heed his request for less extreme security measures?

A government probe is planned to seek answers to these and many other questions. In the end, Yitzhak Rabin will still be dead. The question is whether future prime ministers -- or presidents or queens or popes -- will be better protected because of what the probe uncovers.