Security Being Tightened for Terror Attacks

U.S. military bases, government agencies, commercial airlines and other businesses with operations abroad have begun tightening security to protect themselves from a feared outburst of terrorist attacks if hostilities erupt in the Persian Gulf.

While authorities are reluctant to provide details because any disclosures could compromise the steps they are taking, they acknowledged that anxiety about possible terrorist activity is rapidly mounting as the prospects of war appear to increase.

The State Department warned bluntly Friday that “in the event of military action involving the United States in the Persian Gulf, the threat of terrorism against American citizens would increase significantly.”

The U.S. government has evidence that “terrorists supported by Iraq are planning to mount attacks in most regions in the world,” the department said in its advisory.

American air carriers operating in Europe and the Middle East have gone on “a high-alert status,” according to the Air Transport Assn. “It is not prudent for us to go into detail,” ATA spokesman Steve Hayes added.

To minimize the threat of domestic terrorism, the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service said it will begin photographing and fingerprinting all incoming visitors bearing Iraqi or Kuwaiti passports.

The FBI already has begun interviewing 200 Arab-American business leaders for any information they might possess about possible terrorist activity. Many Iraqi students in the United States also are being interviewed or watched, a Justice Department source said.

The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission said it had advised nuclear power plant operators to “heighten their security awareness,” and in London U.S. Ambassador Henry E. Catto began a series of briefings to advise American businessmen on special security precautions.

At domestic military bases, arriving personnel are being screened more closely, and the Navy has issued a low-level security alert in California as Tuesday’s deadline nears for Iraq to withdraw from Kuwait or face a possible U.S.-led military offensive.

The concern has been heightened by an incident earlier this week outside a Fresno Navy recruiting station, where a female recruiter was attacked by a man wielding a knife. Officials said the assailant, described as an Arab, held the knife to the 1st class petty officer’s throat and yelled: “On the 15th, you will die.” The attacker escaped, and the woman was treated for minor cuts.

Although government and business officials are not waiting to make their facilities more secure, one authority said in an interview that he considers terrorist acts unlikely before warfare erupts in the gulf.

“Such attacks would be seen as inspired by Iraq and would constitute a provocation,” said former U.S. Ambassador L. Paul Bremer, who is considered an expert on terrorism.

Nevertheless, Brian Jenkins, managing director of Kroll Associates, a Los Angeles investigatory firm, said he has advised overseas business clients that the risk is increasing as Tuesday’s deadline nears.

“Some groups or individuals may decide they’re not going to wait,” he said.

Both Bremer and Jenkins said that any terrorist acts probably would be directed at Americans or American interests in Europe and the Mideast rather than in the United States, largely because of the FBI’s ability to deter terrorism in this country.

“I don’t see U.S. embassies or military bases as being special targets because so much hardening of security procedures has taken place over the years,” said Bremer, a consultant with Kissinger Associates in New York. “But by contrast, some of our businesses overseas are softer targets.”

“On the other hand,” he added, “terrorists may not be as interested in blowing out the window panes of an American storefront business in Paris as in trying to cause significant numbers of casualties in places like airports, train stations or hotel lobbies.”

While minimizing the threat of domestic terrorism, Bremer said he could visualize circumstances under which it might occur. “Saddam might say to himself, ‘I’m being attacked in my homeland. I want to make the psychological point of attacking Americans in their homeland,’ ” he said.

Another government counterterrorism official said that an additional concern is the danger of spontaneous demonstrations triggered by a gulf war, particularly attacks on American embassies or military bases.

“Saddam cannot be held accountable for these, but he is likely to encourage them,” the official said. “That’s one of the reasons we’re scaling down in every potential trouble spot.”

The concern about military installations extends to domestic bases as well. In California, the Navy has issued a “Condition Alfa,” or low-level security alert, at its bases across the state. Precautions vary from site to site, but generally include more careful monitoring of incoming people, vehicles and packages.

Signs of increased vigilance are apparent at many military bases. In San Diego, traffic has begun to back up at naval installations as security guards check identification cards, as well as verifying decals on cars.

At the Long Beach Naval Shipyard, a photographer taking a pre-approved picture was detained for an hour by base police. At El Toro Marine Air Station, officers have begun changing into civilian clothes before leaving the base so they cannot be readily identified as military personnel.

A regional security advisory was issued this week to Navy bases warning of an Iraqi national who failed to appear in court after being arrested on charges of forging prescriptions in San Luis Obispo.

Authorities found a pistol-grip 12-gauge shotgun, 20 unspent shells, an explosive device, 50 credit cards and receipts for round-trip travel from San Francisco to London in the car belonging to Duraid Sadio Jahbarazowi. The 35-year-old Baghdad native had told police that his father is an Iraqi air force general.

The Justice Department said travelers could be slightly inconvenienced by the tightening of screening procedures at entry points.

“While travelers may incur some inconvenience, this is more than counterbalanced by U.S. security needs and our obligation to protect American citizens,” Deputy Atty. Gen. William P. Barr said in a statement.

Meanwhile, U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission spokesman Frank Ingram said officials were working closely with other federal agencies, including the FBI, “to make sure we have available to us any information they may have.”

The Coast Guard said it has alerted “all commands (to be) sensitive to the reports of possible threats against U.S. ports.”

In London, British Transport Secretary Malcolm Rifkind warned his countrymen that the risk of air travel would “increase substantially” if war erupts in the Persian Gulf.

Rifkind said travelers should proceed at their own risk because no government could guarantee airline security.

“Throughout the world, aviation security is at an unprecedentedly high level,” he said.

At the same time, U.S. Ambassador Catto began a series of briefings to provide a clear assessment of the terrorism threat for American businessmen, bankers and others in Britain.

An embassy security officer told the group that Iraqis are planning acts of terrorism “with teams in place, although we don’t have any particular targeting information.”

Americans in that country were cautioned to be alert for car bombs and letter bombs and to vary their routes to work in the morning.

Bruce Hoffman, a security analyst for RAND Corp., said the steps being taken by airlines and other American businesses overseas are more of “a ratcheting up of existing procedures” than the adoption of any radical new techniques to combat terrorism.

“U.S. interests abroad have long been a lightning rod for terrorists,” Hoffman said. “So we’re not being faced with anything that is brand-new.”

Times staff writers Ronald J. Ostrow in Washington, Nora Zamichow in San Diego and Dan Weikel in Orange County contributed to this report.