By Jeff Schogol
Published: June 2, 2011

WASHINGTON – Vanity plates are meant to catch your eye, and this one certainly does.
A photograph obtained by Stars and Stripes shows a car allegedly parked in the Pentagon parking lot with a vanity license plate that reads “VBIED,” the military acronym for “Vehicle-Borne Improvised Explosive Device,” known in layman’s terms as a car bomb.
A Pentagon Force Protection Agency spokesman confirmed that the car is registered with them.
“There are numerous cars within the system that have vanity plates – it’s up to the individual to apply for the tags and for the state to issue – when registering for a parking permit we honor all state/(DC) issued tags,” spokesman Terry Sutherland said in an e-mail.
Force protection at the Pentagon is no laughing matter. In March 2010, a man was killed in a shootout with Pentagon police outside the building. The following month, a contractor was arrested for bringing a pistol into the building. And that October, someone fired at the Pentagon, shattering two windows. The culprit remains at large.
But Pentagon police are not worried about the person with the “VBIED” license plate, Sutherland said.
“We are aware of the license plate and who it is registered to,” he said.
http://www.stripes.com/blogs/stripes-central/stripes-central-1.8040/car-with-vbied-license-plate-parks-at-pentagon-1.145469