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Cdn Airports Watching JFK Airport Plot, but Not Planning Security Boost

Posted on: Saturday, 2 June 2007, 21:00 CDT

By PAT HEWITT

TORONTO (CP) - The terrorist plot targeting John F. Kennedy International Airport has some major Canadian airports taking notice, but two terrorism experts in Canada are casting doubt on whether the suspects had the means or know-how to carry out such a devastating attack.

U.S. federal authorities said Saturday they had arrested three men - two from Guyana and one from Trinidad - and were seeking a fourth in Trinidad. Authorities said they were planning to destroy JFK airport and kill thousands of people by blowing up a jet fuel artery that runs through residential neighbourhoods.

One of the suspects, a U.S. citizen native to Guyana, is a retired JFK air cargo employee.

The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey said JFK and the area's other airports remained at a heightened state of alert on Saturday. But a spokeswoman for the Canadian Air Transport Security Authority - or CATSA-said despite the U.S. plot, it's the status quo at Canadian airports.

"At this stage, our airport screening operations are going on as normal. CATSA is following and analyzing the situation with Transport Canada," said Anna-Karina Tabunar from Montreal on Saturday.

"From what we are told the threat appears to be an isolated situation," said Tabunar.

But officials at Canada's largest airport, Toronto's Pearson International, which served 31 million passengers last year, are taking note.

Scott Armstrong, media relations manager for the Greater Toronto Airports Authority, said Saturday that anytime something happens that may affect an airport that's the size of Toronto's airport they'll take a look at procedures and protocols.

"Anytime there's an arrest like this whether a terrorist plot or a security risk, obviously we watch it," said Armstrong.

"Based on the evidence that comes out and based on the case that's presented, our security staff take it away, review what's in place now and take any necessary steps to make the airport as safe as possible," said Armstrong.

A spokeswoman for the Ottawa airport couldn't go into details about any steps her airport might take for security reasons.

But Krista Kealey, vice-president of communications for the Ottawa Airport Authority, did say Saturday that incidents like these do cause officials to take notice.

"Certainly when we hear about events at other airports we do take action. Obviously the safety and security of our passengers is of paramount importance to us, so of course we do react," said Kealey.

Ralph Eastman, manager of communications with Vancouver Airport Authority, said no additional security measures were being planned in Vancouver in light of the JFK incident.

"Security is always a priority at airports in Vancouver. Incidents like this just illustrate the need for security at airports," said Eastman.

Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day said in an e-mail to the Canadian Press that the Canadian government is aware of the current situation in the United States.

"We are monitoring the situation closely and our officials are in touch with their American counterparts. Canada is not immune from the threat of terrorism. We have been specifically mentioned as a target on more than one occasion by al-Qaida," said Day.

"We remain vigilant to the threat of terrorism and we are unwavering in our determination to safeguard our national security," said Day.

The minister noted the government has added more RCMP personnel, invested in combating terrorist financing and is arming border officers to protect the country.

In March, the Senate defence and security committee released a 144-page report that said security at Canadian airports remains dismal more than five years after 9-11 and called for tighter security, including daily checks of the 100,000 people who work at Canada's airports.

An internal CATSA report obtained by The Canadian Press under the Access to Information Act last month said Canada's major airports are vulnerable to terrorists and attackers bent on storming through preboarding checkpoints with weapons and called for a beefed-up police presence.

Transport Minister Lawrence Cannon is reviewing proposals to improve airport security.

Prof. Sunil Ram, a former Canadian Forces officer who teaches military history at the private American Military University in Virginia and writes on the fast evolving nature of warfare today, questions how serious a threat the alleged JFK plot was.

"These guys... I don't think rate the threat that (U.S. authorities) are claiming. And ultimately even if they had somehow got the explosives and blown up that pipeline, the fact is it may have caused localized problem, but it wasn't going to burn down JFK the way they had somehow envisioned ... because the technology doesn't lend itself to that kind of effect," said Ram in an interview in Toronto on Saturday.

Ram said blowing up a pipeline is demolition and is pretty sophisticated.

"These guys didn't have any of those skills," said Ram.

U.S. authorities said the men had tried to contact a Trinidadian radical Muslim group, Jamaat al Muslimeen, which launched a failed coup in 1990 that left two dozen dead.

But Ram said what Jamaat al Muslimeen is known for today is criminal-based activity, predominantly kidnap-for-ransom and drug related crime.

Ram doesn't think Canadian airports should be worried, saying while all airports are vulnerable facilities, the JFK plot was an isolated event.

"To ramp up the type of security you need, you have to put a lot of security and a lot of money into it. And currently I don't think there's a political willingness to do it," said Ram.

Because of this one event, Ram said, "You can't just run off and try to secure pipelines and fuel systems on airports, because it's one component of a much larger holistic security shield that needs to be developed," said Ram.

Canadian terrorism expert Thomas Butko, a professor at the University of Alberta, said in an interview Saturday from Edmonton, that he too questions how big a threat the plot was.

"It seems like there's about four people. How serious a threat was it going to be? I mean... all of these threats are taken seriously but when you're talking about four people, at this particular time, how serious?"

Butko said despite last summer's arrests of 17 alleged homegrown terrorists in the Toronto area, he believes Canada is less likely to be attacked, saying terrorists' targets seem to be the U.S. and Britain.

"You'd always want to be vigilant.... Again, I wouldn't say we aren't at risk," Butko said.

"So I certainly wouldn't say there is no threat but I don't think people should get too worried at this time."

Source: Canadian Press

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