WASHINGTON,
December 30 (IslamOnline.net & News Agencies) - The United States
said Monday, December 29, that any foreign airliner entering U.S.
airspace could be required to have armed police on board, hours after
Britain decided to put gun-toting sky marshals on board British
airliners to prevent hijackings.
"We
are asking international air carriers to take the protective action as
part of our ongoing effort to make air travel safe for Americans and
visitors alike," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a
statement.
The
announcement came after U.S. officials said intercepted intelligence
indicated that al-Qaeda may try to hijack foreign airliners for a
repeat of the September 11, 2001 attacks in which 3,000 died.
Homeland
Security Department spokesman Dennis Murphy said U.S. officials would
notify foreign carriers when air marshals are needed.
"It
is on a flight-by-flight basis. We will notify airlines when we have
information on a specific flight," he told Agence France-Presse
(AFP).
Murphy
said the carrier's country would have to provide the law enforcement
personnel who are to be armed, trained and qualified to protect the
passengers, crew and the plane.
The
rule "requires the same level of cooperation from all
airlines," he said. "We are getting voluntary cooperation
from several airlines. This makes cooperation mandatory, not
voluntary."
The
new requirement was issued under an emergency amendment to existing
regulations, Homeland Security said. It applies to all passenger and
cargo planes.
The
United States boosted the scope of its sky marshal program in the wake
of the September 11 attacks, in which allegedly al-Qaeda operatives,
armed with box cutter knives, hijacked U.S. airliners and flew them
into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in
Washington.
While
the exact number of U.S. sky marshals is classified, it is reported to
be in the thousands.
Security
in the United States was stepped up this past Christmas week after
Washington raised the nationwide terrorism alert level from
"elevated" to "high" on December 21.
British
Marshals
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"We are asking international air carriers to take the protective action," Ridge
|
Meanwhile,
the British government decided Monday, December 29, to put armed
marshals on board British airliners to prevent hijackings, a move
which ran into a lot of flack from the national carrier and the main
pilots' union.
It
announced that plainclothes sky marshals, traveling incognito among
passengers, would be placed on selected British airline flights in
response to a heightened state of alert in the United States.
"Air
marshals will be deployed where appropriate," said a joint
statement from Transport Secretary Alistair Darling and Home Secretary
David Blunkett.
Transport
Secretary Alistair Darling said pilots would be informed if there was
a sky marshal on their flight.
"The
captain of the aircraft would know - for perfectly obvious reasons. He
has got to fly the aircraft," he said.
He
added that sky marshals were only one of a series of measures being
put into place, including improved screening of passengers and
baggage.
"It
is someone who is there when people have got on to the plane and is
intent on trying to take over that plane. It is one of the last lines
of defense," he said.
The
Air Navigation Order - the "rules of the road" for British
aviation -- stipulate that pilots must be told in writing whether
anyone will be on a flight with an authorized weapon.
Security
at London's main Heathrow airport was dramatically increased last
February, with more than 400 soldiers deployed, amid fears of a
terrorist attempt to shoot down a departing airliner.
Britain's
own domestic security level was raised to its penultimate level on the
weekend before the November 20 suicide
bomb attacks on the British consulate and HSBC bank in
Istanbul that left 62 dead and hundreds injured.
Risk
However,
British Airways and the main pilots' union said it would do "more
harm than good" and put passengers at risk.
A
spokeswoman for British Airways, one of the world's biggest air
carriers, said: "We have always said we have concerns about
having armed people on aircraft.
"We
feel it is best to have strong security on the ground and that is
where the focus of attention should be," she said. "We have
always been of the opinion that if it is not safe to fly then we will
not fly."
Another
airline spokesman added: "We have reservations about this. If you
bring arms on to a plane then you raise the level of danger."
"Introducing
a weapon into a cabin could lead to that weapon being used against
passengers," he added. "If the level of risk is so high that
a sky marshal has to be deployed, then it would be easier to just not
operate that particular flight.”
The
British Air Line Pilots Association (BALPA) said it was never
consulted on the measures - the latest in a series introduced in the
wake of the September 11 attacks in the United States in 2001.
"We
cannot agree with the government's decision to put armed guards on
aircraft as we believe this will do more harm than good," said
BALPA's general secretary Jim McAuslan. "We do not want guns on
planes."
The
British move is the latest in the sky marshals program adopted by
several countries.
On
Thursday, December 25, the Australian government decided to put armed
marshals on Qantas flights to Singapore, while flights to the United
States could be added to the list early next year.
