"Fliers likely to face chaos for foreseeable future"

Friday, August 11, 2006

Fliers likely to face more chaos 
By César G. Soriano and Bill Nichols
USA TODAY


LONDON — Air travelers in the USA face chaos and disruption for the
foreseeable future in the wake of an alleged plot to blow up several
U.S.-bound aircraft over the Atlantic.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday that until a full
investigation is completed into the plot reportedly thwarted by British
authorities, stringent new security measures will remain in place at U.S.
airports.

"The motto has to be, 'Better safe than sorry,' " Chertoff told CNN. New
guidelines barring U.S. passengers from carrying liquids or gels onto
flights produced long security lines as the uncovered plot roiled air travel
worldwide.

Beginning Friday, airline passengers will go through double screening to
make sure they're not carrying liquids onto planes, the head of the airline
industry's largest trade group said.

Passengers and their carry-on luggage will be checked not only at the main
security checkpoint, but also a second time at the boarding gate. The
stepped-up screening began Thursday at 25 airports where planes leave for
Britain.

"It's going to spread across the whole system tomorrow," James May,
president of the Air Transport Association, said.

The response to the terrorist threat produced long lines at airports
Thursday as security officials scrambled to put new measures in place and
passengers faced perplexing new restrictions — including the ban on carrying
liquids onto aircraft.

At a news conference, Chertoff said the plotters planned to use liquid
explosives disguised as beverages and other products and set them off with
detonators disguised as electronic devices.

The alleged plot, which FBI Director Robert Mueller and Chertoff said had
"the earmarks" of an al-Qaeda operation, appeared to be the most extensive
and potentially life-threatening terrorist threat since the Sept. 11 attacks
in 2001.

If the plot had succeeded, "we would have seen a disaster on a scale
comparable to 9/11 with hundreds, maybe thousands of people being killed,"
Chertoff said on PBS' NewsHour with Jim Lehrer.

President Bush said the planned attack was a "stark reminder" that the
United States is still "at war with Islamic fascists."

Chertoff and British authorities said an investigation was ongoing into the
plot. Twenty-four people were arrested Thursday by British police.

London's Heathrow Airport was closed to most European flights, and many
flights from U.S. cities to Britain were canceled. British authorities
prohibited carry-on luggage on all flights, as well as liquids other than
medicine and baby formula. 

In the USA, the Bush administration raised the threat level for flights from
Britain to Code Red, the highest possible. It was the first time the red
alert has been used in the Homeland Security warning system. All other U.S.
flights, including domestic flights within the country, were put on Code
Orange, one step below Red.

"What a mess," said Ramesh Doshi, 59, a Los Angeles physician, as he waited
in a long line at Los Angles International Airport to see his niece off to
Mumbai, India.

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