"Security added to overseas flights"

Monday, July 2, 2007

Security added to overseas flights 
By STEPHEN OHLEMACHER
The Associated Press

 
Washington - The U.S. is adding more air marshals to overseas flights
because of concerns about potential terrorism threats originating in Britain
and Europe, Homeland security chief Michael Chertoff said Sunday.

The Bush administration said it was satisfied with its current terrorism
alert levels following a fiery attack Saturday on a Scottish airport and two
car bomb attacks foiled Friday in London.

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

U.S. airports and mass transit systems were 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 [and] there will be a larger number of people
traveling," Chertoff said.

Officials at Atlanta's Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport said Sunday
they had no plans to implement other measures unless Homeland Security
ratchets up the threat level, an airport spokesman said.

"We aren't doing anything out of the ordinary other than what we normally
do," said spokesman Herschel Grangent. "We're always on the alert just by
virtue of what we do, and there are certain measures we go through every
day."

Grangent could not elaborate on the measures because they are related to
airport security.

American authorities also were running the names of five suspects arrested
in the British attacks through their databases to look for links to the
United States.

Those checks could include watch lists such as the no-fly list; any clue
that the suspects had shared an address with people in the U.S.;
intelligence indicating the suspects made calls into the U.S.; and other
similar types of investigations.

U.S. 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 did 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 to "critical" - the highest possible
level - indicating more terror attacks may be imminent.

And officials there intensified their hunt Sunday for what they called an
al-Qaida-linked network behind the Friday and Saturday attacks, conducting
raids across the country.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown said "it is clear that we are dealing, in
general terms, with people who are associated with al-Qaida."

Authorities were still struggling to pin down the five suspects' identities
- even the two arrested after they drove a Jeep Cherokee into Glasgow's main
airport terminal Saturday and set it ablaze. Police and MI5, Britain's
internal security agency, did not even know if the suspects were British
born, from overseas, or some combination of the two, and officials released
few other details of the investigation.

A suspect severely burned in the Glasgow attack remained in the city's Royal
Alexandra Hospital, where police on Sunday carried out a controlled
explosion on a vehicle they said might be linked to the plot. Police said no
explosives were found, but gave no other details.

"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.

Chertoff said officials are also concerned about the possibility of a
copycat attack in the U.S., saying it is "another reason why we have put
some additional security measures in place."

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.

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

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