Major cities and transportation hubs around the nation increased security patrols Sunday in response to the raising of the national terror alert to its highest level in months.

December 21, 2003

Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney flew home from vacation in Utah to oversee his state's response and sat in on a conference call with federal Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge.

"We take any threat against our homeland seriously," Romney said in a statement. He gave few details of what the governors were told but said his state had significantly increased its security personnel.

The FBI's Joint Terrorist Task Force in Philadelphia set up a command post to receive and check out tips, said FBI spokeswoman Linda Vizi. Residents who hear or see something suspicious should call 911 if they think a threat is imminent or the FBI if it's something that can wait, she said.

"People shouldn't determine in their own mind whether they think it's significant, they should let us take a look at it," Vizi said.

People around the country took the news in stride. Even those who said they were nervous didn't think the alert would change their plans.

"What are we supposed to do differently? Either they're going to bomb us or they're not," said Curtiss Jacobs of Lafayette, Calif., who was meeting friends for lunch in downtown San Francisco.

"I'm scared because they proved two years ago that they can do evil things," Jacobs said. "But the odds are that it won't happen where I'm standing. You just have to live your life."

Ridge announced in a hastily arranged news conference Sunday that he was raising the national threat level to orange, the second-highest level, saying attacks were possible during the holidays and that threat indicators are "perhaps greater now than at any point" since Sept. 11, 2001.

Orange means a high risk of terrorist attack. Since May, the level had been at yellow, or an elevated risk, and in the middle of the five-color scale.

Ridge cited reports that Al Qaeda, Usama bin Laden's terrorist network, is trying find holes in U.S. aviation security, and that "extremists abroad" are anticipating attacks that will rival or exceed the scope of the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

New York Gov. George Pataki said the state would send National Guard troops and state police to protect "critical infrastructure" including airports, subways, tunnels, bridges, trains, and utilities in the tri-state region.



"Since New York City and the Empire State represent freedom and democracy throughout the world, New York will always be a potential target for America's enemies," Pataki added.

The Golden Gate Bridge and other San Francisco Bay-area spans now have beefed-up patrols, undercover officers and mandatory checkpoints for trucks, said Sgt. Wayne Ziese, division spokesman for the California Highway Patrol. Areas around oil refineries and nuclear facilities also are getting extra attention, he added.

Emergency officials in California and other states said other relevant agencies, including local health departments and the National Guard, had been notified, but they were waiting for more detailed information before deciding to what degree security measures should be increased.

"We have gone through these many times, and we don't want to ramp up the full operation and find ourselves sitting there waiting and wasting a tremendous amount of money," said Dale Chessey, a spokesman for the California Office of Emergency Services.

Patrols were increased immediately at Florida's Port Everglades at Fort Lauderdale, where some 50,000 passengers were on 15 cruise ships, port spokeswoman Ellen Kennedy said. She said there were no specific threats to the port and couldn't comment on the specific security procedures.

"You might see more patrols and it might take a little longer to get through a checkpoint, but basically its just a heightened awareness," she said.

At Boston's Logan Airport, where the two hijacked planes that hit the World Trade Center on Sept. 11 originated, officials added more state police at curbs, terminals and along perimeter roads Sunday, Logan spokesman Phil Orlandella said.

Many airports resumed or were planning to resume random vehicle searches, including those for Minneapolis, Philadelphia and San Francisco.

At U.S. Customs in Washington state, where officials in 1999 arrested Algerian Ahmed Ressam, later convicted of plotting to bomb Los Angeles International Airport, Mike Milne said, "We are doing what we do when we go to orange.

"We are increasing our vigilance. That translates to several concrete things: We will be performing intensive inspections at our airports, seaports and land border crossings," Milne said. "We will search more vehicles and more trunks of vehicles. We will increase our cargo examinations.

"We echo what Secretary Ridge said in his announcement: The borders are open. We encourage people if they had plans [to travel] to maintain their plans."

Many Americans reacted to the announcement with a mix of resignation and defiance against terrorists.

"Would it stop me [from holiday travel]? Absolutely not. I have no fear," said Michael Patrick McCormack, a retired fire lieutenant in Brooklyn. "You just can't prepare for everything. To crawl in a hole — no pun intended for the butcher of Baghdad — but that's what he had to do, not us."

The alert came at a bad time for the nation's retailers, who are hoping for a strong end to what has been an uneven holiday shopping season. Major mall operators such as Taubman Centers Inc., which owns and manages 31 shopping centers in 13 states, immediately stepped up their security, though company officials declined to elaborate.

John Courtney, a Bostonian standing by the tree in New York's Rockefeller Center on Sunday, said he was "maybe just a little more cautious."

"You can't stop your life because of this. That gives them exactly what they would want," Courtney said.

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