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Posted on: Monday, October 8, 2001

The September 11th attack | America strikes back
Strikes prompt more tightening of security nationwide

Associated Press

WASHINGTON — From nuclear labs to ocean ports, Americans are tightening security to guard against revenge attacks by terrorists in the aftermath of the U.S. military strikes on Afghanistan.

The Coast Guard mobilized its largest security force since World War II while the FBI yesterday urged local law enforcement agencies nationwide to move to their highest level of alert.

"The current operating instructions are based on the possibility of additional terrorist activity occurring somewhere in the world," the FBI said.

Local police were urged to "be at the highest level of vigilance and be prepared to respond to any act of terrorism or violence should it become necessary."

Phil Orlandella, spokesman for Logan Airport in Boston, said there were no threats at the facility where terrorists boarded two flights on Sept. 11. "Everything's going smoothly," he said.

Julie Wong, spokeswoman for Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn, said police were working extra hours but received "no credible threat" against the city.

FBI officials said they had no specific threats, but U.S. intelligence officials and Attorney General John Ashcroft had been warning for days there was a high likelihood of additional terrorism activity, particularly after the United States took its first military action.

The bureau issued the advisory through its National Threat Warning System after yesterday's U.S.-British air assault on Afghan military sites and camps belonging to Osama bin Laden.

Within hours of the first strikes by American and British warplanes, Missouri shut the doors at its state Capitol to visitors, Utah state troopers were shifted from their desks to the highways and airport officials in Chicago, Detroit, Kansas City and Florida further tightened security.

The Energy Department placed its facilities, including nuclear weapons laboratories and nuclear materials storage areas, on a heightened level of security, spokeswoman Jeanne Lopato said.

The State Department issued a warning to Americans overseas of the possibility of "strong anti-American sentiment and retaliatory actions against U.S. citizens and interests throughout the world," and urged them to monitor local news, limit their movements and stay in touch with U.S. embassies and consulates.

Meanwhile, the Coast Guard increased from 51 to 72 the number of special security zones surrounding such facilities as nuclear power plants and piers where oil is loaded and unloaded, Cmdr. Jim McPherson said.

Together, the changes added up to the largest Coast Guard mobilization to defend U.S. ports in more than 50 years, he said.

"A lot of this is because of the USS Cole incident," McPherson said, referring to the suicide attack on a Navy ship moored in Yemen last year that killed 17 sailors and injured 37.

The changes followed an increase Thursday in the amount of notice that all ships must give to enter U.S. ports, McPherson said. Instead of 24 hours, ship captains must provide 96-hour notice, and the Coast Guard then checks crew, passenger and cargo manifests.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, the Coast Guard also has maintained separate naval protection zones around Navy and Coast Guard ships, a procedure that had not been used since World War II, McPherson said.

The zones mean that both U.S. and foreign ship captains must notify the Coast Guard if they will pass within 500 yards of a Navy or Coast Guard ship. If a violator closes to within 100 yards the ship may defend itself or the intruding vessel may be seized. The violator faces up to six years in federal prison and a $250,000 fine, McPherson said.

President Bush remained at the White House, working from the Oval Office and residential quarters. Vice President Dick Cheney was taken to an undisclosed location, presumably so the two leaders would not be in the same place should disaster strike.

In a sign of the heightened suspicions, two rental trucks carrying nothing more than staging equipment from a tribute to fallen firefighters Bush had attended in the morning were stopped in suburban Maryland. Bomb-sniffing dogs found nothing.

Airport traffic was running normally, Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Marcia Adams said. She said the FAA did not send out any new directives to airlines or airports.