"Congressman Allocates $2.4 Million For JFK Security"

Thursday, August 21, 2003

Meeks Allocates $2.4 Million For Kennedy Airport Security
by Bryan Joiner
The Queens (NY) Chronicle


 Congressman Gregory Meeks (D-St. Albans) announced Wednesday that he had
secured $2.4 million in descretionary funding to beef up security at Kennedy
Airport, in the wake of the incident where three young boaters washed ashore
and walked the airport’s runways for over an hour.

The money came from the Air 21-reauthorizations bill, a Meeks spokesperson
said. It will go toward confidential security measures the Port Authority is
implementing in the wake of the incident.

“These grants will provide needed federal funding to bolster on-going
security efforts at JFK. Security at our nation’s ports is a national
security function. The federal government must provide the necessary aid to
help state and local governments, and our first responders, secure the
homeland. If we’re asking them to do more, we must provide them the
resources to be successful,” Meeks said.

Meanwhile, local elected officials continue to express their outrage at the
perceived lack of security at the area’s largest and busiest airport.

Councilman Joseph Addabbo Jr. (D-Howard Beach) said police need to do a
better job of preventing boaters from getting near the airport.

“This is far beyond dropping the ball. Where was everybody? They need to get
everyone away from there. There shouldn’t be anybody close to those waters,”
he said.

The three wanderers turned out to be harmless, but Addabbo was nonetheless
enraged that they were able to get so close to departing planes and fuel
tanks.

“A lot of councilmembers are angry, especially those surrounding the
airport. It’s really burning a hole in my stomach,” he said.

Addabbo’s colleague Peter Vallone Jr. (D-Astoria), who is head of the
council’s Public Safety Committee, had lobbied for state aid last week in a
Queens Chronicle article.

“There was a complete breakdown. That’s why we need more federal and state
aid. There are not only planes but huge fuel depots that store the fuel for
these planes, which are also terrorist targets,” he said.

The airport has 10 miles of perimeter that extends into Jamaica Bay. The
area is difficult to protect because environmental and airplane safety
requirements prohibit construction of a fence.

Joel Phagoo, 21, of Brooklyn, was rafting in Jamaica Bay with his younger
brother, Josh, and his cousin, Amit Sinanan, both 13, near dusk on August
10th when the wind picked up, pushing them to a pier near Runway 4 Right.

Phagoo decided they were unable to control their boat further and walked
onto the runway expecting to be picked up by Port Authority police. They
were not found until they walked into a Port Authority police station one
hour later.

They were held for three hours and released at around 10:30 p.m. when police
determined they did not pose a security threat.

The incident came days before a Forest Hills man and two others were
arrested in a plot to smuggle a shoulder-mounted missilelauncher into the
country, and before two grenade launchers were determined to be missing from
a Hillcrest weapons store.

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