Romney activates National Guard for Logan Airport

Brooke Donald, Associated Press | August 10 2006

BOSTON --For the first time since the Sept. 11 attacks, the Massachusetts National Guard was put on duty Thursday at Logan International Airport, where passengers endured delays and intense security after British officials said they foiled a terror plot targeting U.S.-bound flights.

Gov. Mitt Romney said the troops would complement additional safety measures put in place hours after the thwarted attack was exposed, including increased police patrols, road blocks and car searches, as authorities sought to keep travelers safe and keep flights moving.

"The security is not only being beefed up in visible ways but also in invisible ways," the governor said.

Lines of passengers filled terminals at the airport as they learned they could no longer carry on anything liquid -- from cosmetics and beverages to hair gel and toothpaste. Only medications and baby formula were exempt from the new rules put in place after authorities said the suspects in London planned to detonate liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products in flight.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plot appeared to be engineered by al-Qaida, the terrorist group that hijacked two planes from Logan on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Romney cited Logan's involvement in the Sept. 11 attack in his decision to deploy the Guard.

"Logan has a specific history with regards to the initiation of terrorist activity on airlines, and therefore we have a heightened degree of concern here," said Romney, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2008 who canceled a planned political fundraising trip to Wisconsin.

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger followed suit in California, activating the Guard to patrol airports there.

The National Guard was last activated to help with patrols at Logan shortly after the attacks. Troops were removed in April 2002.

Peter Ottabiano, a 35-year-old health care worker from Winthrop, Maine, said his flight to Denver had been canceled. He said he understands the need for heightened security with the real threat of terror attacks.

"You just get frustrated that these people have made it this way for us," he said.

Passengers on a JetBlue flight from Boston to Austin, Texas, were detained and questioned by FBI and Transportation Security Administration agents after the flight crew found what it thought was a "suspicious note" in an airplane lavatory. The passengers were later released, and FBI spokesman Erik Vasys said the note, "had no connections to terrorism and contained no threat."

Phil Orlandella, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, said passengers were given flyers with the new regulations as the airport raised its security level to orange -- one below the top level of red.

Romney said hundreds of Guardsmen would help with patrols, and eventually with surveillance and checkpoint assignments to ensure passengers did not buy any liquids such as coffee or shampoo after a checkpoint and then attempt to bring them on aircraft.

Massachusetts State Police had already increased patrols at Logan, using bomb-sniffing dogs. Troopers were also carrying semiautomatic weapons as a deterrent.

"It's still safe to fly. At the same time everyone should be aware and be on alert for people who are acting out of the ordinary," said Sgt. Steven Hines, who carried an MP-5 machine gun on his patrol.

Security was also increased on the subway, commuter rail and in buses operated by the MBTA, and extra police were stationed at the MBTA's Blue Line station near the airport and Silver Line underground stations connecting to Logan, though overall security levels weren't being adjusted, said Daniel Grabauskas, head of the MBTA.

"There's been no specific threat to the transit system," Grabauskas said. "We just thought it was a prudent step to have additional visibility, especially on the Silver Line because it runs to the airport."

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