U.S. Tightens Airport, Rail Security

(AP)  The United States is adding air marshals to overseas flights because of concerns about potential terrorism threats originating in Britain and Europe, the homeland security chief said Sunday.

The Bush administration said it was satisfied with its current terrorism alert level following an attack at a Scottish airport and two foiled car bombs in London.

"I think given what we know now, we're comfortable that we're at the right posture," Michael Chertoff said during a round of television talk show appearances.

U.S. airports and mass transit systems are tightening security ahead of the Fourth of July holiday and more air marshals will travel on overseas flights.

"We will be doing operations at various rail locations and other mass transit locations in cooperation with local authorities. Again, not because of a specific piece of credible threat information, but because we are going into a holiday season. There will be a larger number of people traveling," Chertoff said.

Airports are at the second of five security threat levels — orange — indicating a high risk of terrorist attacks. The current national threat level is yellow, or the third highest, indicating an elevated threat.

Chertoff said he does not plan to change those levels. "At this moment we don't have a specific credible threat against the United States," he said.

Britain has raised its security alert level to the highest possible level, indicating terror attacks may be imminent.

Chertoff said he has spoken out for some time about U.S. worries involving potential terrorist threats originating in Britain and Europe.

"I think one of the issues we're increasingly concerned about is the movement of Europeans, including people with European citizenship, into areas of South Asia to get trained and get experience and then the prospect of these people coming back to carry out operations in Europe or in the United States using Europe as a departure point," Chertoff said.

"It's one of the reasons we've been very focused on increasing our security for people incoming from Europe. And that's something we're going to be looking at for the rest of the summer," he said.

The U.S. increased the number of air marshals on flights between the United States and Europe last August and stepped up the pace over the past few months, Chertoff said. Last August, British police foiled an alleged plot by Muslim extremists to use liquid explosives to blow up as many as 10 flights between the United States and Britain.

"We haven't singled out Glasgow until a couple of days ago as a particular location for focus, but there has been a strategy of mixing up the deployment of these air marshals, sometimes more in one destination, sometimes more in another destination," he said.

"Going forward, we will be doing some enhanced air marshal work and similar types of activities with respect to U.K. travel."

Britain's new prime minister, Gordon Brown, said his country was dealing with terrorists associated with al Qaeda. Chertoff said, "If they are comfortable in confirming that, then that's fine. I have no reason to disagree."

After the Glasgow airport attack, police stepped up curbside patrols with canine units at Hartsfield-Jackson Atlanta International Airport in Georgia. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, which operates Newark Liberty in New Jersey and John F. Kennedy and LaGuardia airports in New York, took "a number of measures as we always do to respond to security situations immediately," spokesman Steve Coleman said.

At Los Angeles International Airport, additional police, including canine units, were on duty Saturday, said spokesman Marshall Lowe. Operations at Miami International Airport went on heightened alert through at least July 4, and in Philadelphia officials were increasing patrols around the perimeter of the airport.

At Washington's Reagan National and Dulles International airports, spokesman Ron Yingling said some measures are behind the scenes. "I don't think there's anything different in what passengers have to physically do to get through security that's different from yesterday."

FBI spokesman Richard Kolko said the bureau stood ready to help British authorities.

A burning Jeep Cherokee rammed into Glasgow's airport terminal on Saturday. The day before, police in London found two cars packed with explosives.

One of the men in the airport attack was in critical condition at a hospital with severe burns, while the other was in police custody. Kenny MacAskill, the nation's justice secretary, said the two men were not born and raised in Scotland.

"Any suggestion to be made that they are homegrown terrorists is not true," MacAskill said.

Chertoff mentioned Iraq as a place where would-be terrorists can hone their skills in preparation for possible attacks around the world.

"What I do think we see in Iraq is a laboratory for techniques where people experiment with sophisticated forms of explosive devices, and we do get concerned that that will ultimately lead to importing those kinds of techniques to the West."

Chertoff appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press," ABC's "This Week," "Fox News Sunday" and "Late Edition" on CNN.

[speakinup]

janem4, you have to realize that feelfree1 is most likely an islamofacist. He has open stated hatred towards Jews as a whole, and seems to support every anti-terrorist comment/article published by SeeBS.

He has paranoid delusions about our government as is obvious from his post to you. Probably he/she is the same person as j-whitman and seven-pesos. It is extremely suspicious how all three seem to be logged on at the same time. I suspect he/she/it is incarcerated at some federal penitentiary, as it is logged on all day long.

It often speaks about 'spooks' (I guess it means government agents) perpetrating things like the flaming vehicle that was crashed into London's airport. Then claims it was a fake claim.

Don't bother to ask it questions. It has it's mind made up and doesn't want to be confused by the facts.

[SIDNEYWILLIAMSMD]

To Feelfree1: Have you been living in a time warp. I think you have the magic slipper buster. The islamic teach "taqqiya" according to the Koran which is to teach deception about peace until the non-islamic is at a disadvantage, then he will be givin a chance to convert or die. The current Fatwahs have already been delivered to the US and the Brits and they did not convert, thus no further warning is necessary. This is like trying to mix oil and water, and the islamic religious intolerance is contradictory to a diverse set of religions. Yes there will be disagreements among the religious and atheists on abortion, death penalties etc but the unity sufficient for civilization is based on the right to disagree and still work together. Once a group crosses the line whether it is white supremism, black supremism, or islamic supremism, we all have to come down on it big time.

[nskduke]

US tighten up airport sercurity. Better to be safe than sorry.

[feelfree1]

janem4,

I believe that I answered your questions. Here they are again:

Re: "I have just one question for you and it is a serious a truly islamic threat to the US??"

I do not understand this question, but in my opinion, our greatest and most dangerous enemies, by far, are the illegitimate chronic liars and criminals that have seized control of our government, and are driving our country over a cliff. All other threats, real and imagined, pale in comparison, in my opinion.

Re: "Did you believe binLaden, back in the mid 90's, that he declared jihad on the US?"

I don't care about this, because I do not find it relevant. First off, I have extreme doubts as to whether he ever had the resources or ability to materialize any significant threat to the U.S., and please don't point to the events on 9/11/01, because I have seen nothing convincing that would lead me to conclude that he was involved in this.

Secondly, I do believe that Osama was supported by the CIA and other U.S. agancies, in Afghanistan, during the 80s, and I have yet to see any evidence that he was ever removed from the payroll. Have you?

Lastly, the term 'islamofacists' is (an illogical) term and makes no sense to me.

[hypnotoad72]

People should always keep their eyes open. It is easier ask forgiveness. Especially if it's about preventing mass murder.

[rheola-2009]

No doubt somebody so perfect as yourself, given the circumstances would have done so much better.

Like all fools, you find it so easy to critcize in retrospect.

We can only feel terribly sorry for that unfortunate person and his family, but his actions on the day, did raise serious suspicions of his possible guilt.

[feelfree1]

Will they be murdering any more innocent people from South America in their subway system, as component of this effort?