Security Boosted at Transit Points

Holiday travelers will see increased patrols and other security measures at airports, train stations and subways across the USA, but Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff says the United States will not raise the terrorism threat level here in response to the London plots discovered this weekend.

"You'll see some additional security measures at airports and transit points during this holiday week, but that's really a matter of prudence as opposed to a response to a specific piece of intelligence," Chertoff said on Fox News Sunday. "We do, however, view the summer as a period of special vulnerability."

Air travel in the USA has been at Code Orange, or "high," the second of five color-coded warning levels, since Aug. 13, while the national security alert remains "elevated," or Code Yellow, the third-highest level. Also in August, the Transportation Security Administration began adding more air marshals to flights to and from Europe, Chertoff said.

"What we have done since last August ... is increasingly put our air marshals on flights to various airports in Europe," Chertoff said. "We do mix it up a bit. It's not always the same airport."

Chertoff said his agency plans to increase its focus on travel to and from Britain.

Britain is at its highest state of alert after terrorists tried to detonate at least two car bombs in central London and another group of terrorists crashed a fuel-laden car into the entrance of a Glasgow, Scotland, airport. Last summer, U.S. and British security authorities briefly raised the terror threat to its highest level after British authorities said they discovered a plot to detonate liquid explosives on flights between the two countries last summer.

Chertoff, speaking on several Sunday morning television news shows, said U.S. intelligence agencies had no specific evidence of a coming attack on the USA. He continues to have concerns about terrorists traveling in and out of Europe and has been working with the European Union on an agreement to exchange passenger manifests.

"We're increasingly concerned about 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 on Fox News Sunday.

*5 arrested in British plot, 1A

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