Capital Police on Terrorism Alert for New Year’s

Police in the nation’s capital will be on heightened alert for terrorism on New Year’s Eve in light of the arrest of an Algerian-born man caught with bomb components at the Canadian border, Washington’s police chief said Monday.

Charles Ramsey stressed, however, that “there is no reason to believe that Washington, D.C., has been targeted at this time.”

Ramsey said that the heightened alert ordered for Washington was similar to upgraded security for April’s three-day 50th-anniversary summit of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization here.

Manned street intersections, electronic surveillance of well-known tourist sites and even reserves of water are among the preparations underway in the nation’s capital for the New Year’s weekend.

“We would be less than responsible if we didn’t take certain precautions, especially in light of the fact that an individual was arrested in the U.S. with explosives,” he said.

The United States has been tightening security along its borders since the Dec. 14 arrest of Ahmed Ressam, 32, who is accused of trying to enter the country from Canada with the ingredients for a powerful bomb. He is in custody in Seattle.

Local and federal law enforcement agencies have begun boosting security in the District of Columbia, which is expected to draw an estimated 500,000 revelers to planned millennium festivities.

Electronic monitoring and security sweeps will intensify for sites that could draw huge crowds during the year-end rollover, including the National Mall and the Ronald Reagan International Trade Center.

And all over town, officials are beefing up safety in the district’s buildings and adding officers.

The 3,520 officers in district’s Metropolitan Police Department will work extended shifts throughout New Year’s weekend, with the D.C. National Guard and the Defense Department also playing security roles.