Chertoff Confident of U.S. 4th of July Security

The U.S. is adding additional air marshals to overseas flights ahead of the Fourth of July holiday, and because of concerns about potential terrorism threats originating in Britain and Europe, Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff said Sunday, July 1.^[1] 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," asserted Chertoff.^[2]

"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.^[3]

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.^[4]

"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....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.....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....Going forward, we will be doing some enhanced air marshal work and similar types of activities with respect to U.K. travel." Chertoff said.^[5]

A burning Jeep Cherokee rammed into Glasgow's airport terminal on Saturday. The day before, police in London found two cars packed with explosives.^[6] 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.^[7]

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^[1] Stephen Ohlemacher, Air marshals added to overseas flights, Associated Press Newswire, July 2, 2007, available at LEXIS, News Library, Wire News Services File.
^[2] Id.
^[3] Id.
^[4] Id.
^[5] Id.
^[6] Id.
^[7] Id.