Britain, US lower security alert

LONDON: British and US authorities eased curbs for airline passengers Monday as Britain lowered its terror alert, deeming the threat of attack to be no longer imminent though still "highly likely."     

 

However, officials at Heathrow and Gatwick, the main airports serving the capital London, reported further flight cancellations and delays as security measures remained tight, albeit less stringent, for a fifth day.   

 

British Airways, Virgin Atlantic and other airlines criticized the British Airports Authority (BAA) for needing until around dawn Tuesday to communicate and implement fully the relaxed measures at Heathrow and Gatwick.        

 

The carriers earlier criticised BAA's instruction for airlines at Heathrow to cut flights to ease congestion.   

 

Under new government guidelines, passengers could Monday take aboard one small bag or case that held books, magazines, a laptop, mobile phones and other electrical devices, but were still denied non-essential liquids and gels.          

 

Since the government announced on Thursday it had foiled an alleged plot to blow up US-bound airliners, passengers could take aboard only essential items like money, tickets, keys, medicine and eyeglasses in see-through plastic bags.    

 

BAA said the five other British airports it operates -- Stansted, Southampton, Edinburgh, Glasgow and Aberdeen -- had put the new measures into effect by noon (1100 GMT) Monday.       

 

The measures were announced after the government downgraded the alert level early Monday to "severe," the fourth highest of five levels, from an unprecedented "critical," where it had stood since Thursday.           

 

Britain's Home Secretary John Reid said that the threat of attack was no longer imminent as police "believe that the main suspects in the alleged plot were arrested last week."       

 

British authorities last Thursday arrested two dozen men suspected of plotting to smuggle volatile chemicals on to several passenger jets headed for the United States with intent to set off explosions in mid-flight. But Reid warned that an attack remained "highly likely" as police investigated other suspected plots.         

 

Following the British decision, the US Department of Homeland Security announced it was downgrading the threat level for inbound flights from Britain to "code orange" from "code red," its highest security risk alert.           

 

The US Transportation Security Administration's (TSA) now allows airline travelers to take in their carry-on luggage limited amounts of baby milk, personal prescription medicine and personal insulin.           

 

Four ounces of non-prescription medicine will be allowed as well. However, all passengers in the United States will now be required to remove their shoes for X-ray inspection alongside their carry-on bags at airport checkpoints.              

 

US Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff echoed Reid's warnings. "Let me be clear: this does not mean the threat is over," he said.             

 

Chertoff also told Fox News on Sunday that US and British investigators were still digging to see whether or not the plot broken up on Thursday was directed by Al-Qaeda.         

 

Reid on Sunday told BBC television that Britain had thwarted "at least four major plots" since the July 7, 2005 bombings in London that left 56 people dead, and indicated that up to a dozen were under investigation.         

 

Meanwhile, the global investigation into the alleged plot is turning increasingly to Pakistan and the Al-Qaeda network, amid media suggestions that worse plans could be afoot.          

 

Photographs of British Al-Qaeda suspect Rashid Rauf also appeared in newspapers after Pakistani authorities claimed he was a "key person" in the plot.    

 

In Pakistan, two senior officials said that Britain's intelligence services had asked their Pakistani counterparts to trail Rauf after he entered the country. He was arrested on August 4 in the eastern city of Bahawalpur.        

 

One of the officials said that after Rauf told Pakistan interrogators of the plot to blow up airplanes, which was apparently not yet known to British or US authorities, British police carried out Thursday's raids.