"Logan security tightened"

Saturday, February 8, 2003

Logan security tightened
By Ken Maguire
The Associated Press


BOSTON -- Security was beefed up considerably at Logan International Airport
and in the state's subway system after an increase in the national terrorism
alert system from "elevated" to "high" yesterday.

There is no specific threat to Massachusetts, according to state officials,
only general threats to "transportation, energy, and financial sectors,"
state Public Safety Secretary Ed Flynn said.

The Bush administration yesterday raised the national terror alert from
yellow to orange, the second-highest level. Attorney General John Ashcroft
cited an "increased likelihood" that the al Qaeda terror network would
attack Americans, either at home or abroad.

"What passengers may notice is increased state police patrols, more
roadblocks and vehicle inspections," said Jose Juves, spokesman for the
Massachusetts Port Authority, which operates Logan, where on Sept. 11, 2001,
terrorists hijacked two planes and crashed them into the World Trade Center
towers. "Passengers may see more frequent use of the bomb sniffing dogs
also."

Gov. Mitt Romney planned to return last night from Utah, where he had been
scheduled to participate in weekend events marking the one-year anniversary
of the Salt Lake Olympics. Romney was chief of the Olympics.

Despite the security changes, state officials urged citizens to carry on.

"To be honest, going from yellow to orange for the average citizen means not
much," Flynn said. "Go on with your normal course of business."

Flynn urged people "not to be paranoid, not to be hysterical, not to be
overtly afraid...There is no specific threat at this time, either to the
homeland of the United States in general, or to the Commonwealth of
Massachusetts in particular."

Ashcroft said apartment buildings, hotels or other "lightly secured targets"
in the United States could be vulnerable. The attorney general also said
terrorists might seek "economic targets, including the transportation and
energy sectors, as well as symbolic targets and symbols of American power."

All Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority workers in the subway system
are now wearing orange vests to make them easily identifiable.

"So, if any customer sees something that they think looks out of place, they
can easily located a T employee," spokesman Joe Pesaturo said.

A police officer has been posted to guard the T's control center. The T also
will inspect every subway car before use and add supervisors to the third
shift, in the hours when the T is not operating "to make sure no one is
getting into the system or a tunnel," Pesaturo said.

Boston Police have been told to pay attention to possible targets and to
wear personal protective equipment, Mayor Thomas Menino said.

Boston firefighters have been told to bring self-contained breathing
apparatus on all calls. All EMTs and firefighters, he added, have been put
on notice of possible recall if there is an emergency.

Despite the precautions, Menino said citizens should go about their ordinary
lives because the city has received no specific threat.

"We are on alert," he said. "Government is ready to act in a moment's
notice."

Federal officials also stepped up their security.

The Coast Guard is increasing air and water patrols and continues monitoring
maritime activities, according to Lt. Dean Jones of the Boston-based First
Coast Guard District, which stretches from Maine to New Jersey.

"During these times of heightened alert, we enhance our physical security of
our office environment, and it can also run the gamut of taking a more
active role in our intelligence-gathering," said Gail Marcinkiewicz, a
spokeswoman for the Boston FBI.

In downtown Boston, Ansley Dickens, a student from Columbia, S.C., said
yesterday that the news had not sunk in.

"It just hasn't hit me yet," said Dickens, 20. "Looking around, it seems
like everybody's getting on with their daily lives. Maybe they think it
doesn't affect them."

Janis Brakovskis, 32, a medical student from Riga, Latvia, said he was led
to believe that terrorist threats were much more imminent in America before
he got here.

"Watching television and reading newspapers, it sounds like America's
overrun with terrorists. But when I get here and look around, it seems
perfectly safe," Brakovskis said.

In Plymouth, officials at the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station said they
planned to be extra attentive.

"We do institute additional security measures as the terror alerts
increase," spokesman Dave Tarantino said. "We've always been required to be
prepared for a terrorist attack."

Since Sept. 11, 2001, Pilgrim has added new "intrusion detection equipment,"
Tarantino said. Visitors to protected areas are required to pass through
machines that detect explosives and metals, among other security measures.

National Grid, which owns Massachusetts Electric and energy providers in New
York, New Hampshire, Rhode Island, has been in contact with the FBI and
informed employees in those states about the terror alert.

"We've asked employees to be extra vigilant," spokeswoman Jackie Barry said.

State officials urged local police departments to identify, as they have in
the past, any likely targets in their community.

In Cambridge, home of Harvard University and the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology, police planned to put more undercover and uniformed officers on
the street.

"Any high-sensitivity areas where people congregate, we'll increase patrols
in those areas," Cambridge Police spokesman Frank Pasquarello said,
declining to specify locations or number of increased personnel. "We don't
advertise where we go."

At Westover Air Reserve Base in Chicopee, spokesman Gordon Newell said there
was no change in the base's security status. The military uses a different
system for measuring security threats, Newell said. Westover's status
remains at "alpha," which is one notch above normal, he said.

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