LAX Might Remain a Target, Parks Says

Los Angeles Police Chief Bernard C. Parks told legislators Monday he fears that Los Angeles International Airport--despite new security measures--could remain a target of terrorists for years.

The comments came in a daylong Los Angeles hearing held by Assembly Speaker Bob Hertzberg’s new task force on the impact of terrorism. Among other concerns, several legislators expressed frustration with long lines at the airports.

But when Assemblywoman Hannah-Beth Jackson (D-Santa Barbara) asked if risk assessments could be performed to reduce long lines where threats are deemed minimal, Parks objected.

No risk assessment, he said, can accurately tell what terrorists will do.

“Terrorism is based on an individual act, so you can’t ignore all the possibilities,” he said.

Parks gave several reasons that he is uneasy about the airport. He noted that a terrorist plan to bomb the airport was revealed with the arrest of Algerian Ahmed Ressam in Port Angeles, Wash., in 1999. Ressem confessed that he was carrying explosives as part of a plot to hit the airport and began cooperating with federal authorities.

Though this attempt was foiled, Parks said: “Terrorists never throw away a plan. It could happen years from now”--just as, he said, a second plan to destroy New York’s World Trade Center was successful eight years after the 1993 bombing.

Parks said he is concerned that the airport has 12 miles of perimeter fencing, some of it beyond the range of surveillance cameras, and he believes this could prove possible to breach.

As for security inside the terminals, “we are looking at all systems at LAX,” Parks said. Not only is it necessary to be vigilant, but frequent audits are necessary to ensure it is working as designed, he said.

In other testimony at the hearing, Sacramento Police Chief Arturo Venegas Jr. said “we have to be more creative” with handling lines at the airports. He suggested there might be other ways to check in passengers.

Venegas, who flew out of Sacramento on Monday morning to Los Angeles for the hearing, said he “felt the fear” of crowds regarding anthrax on his way.

His message to the public is: “Don’t freak out.”

Meanwhile, Michael Brown, chief of administration in the CHP’s Glendale-based southern division, said the CHP is alert to the possibility of a terrorist strike at either the California Aqueduct or the state’s power grid.

But he said California, in comparison with some other states, has more extensive experience with handling emergencies, because of earthquakes, floods and other natural disasters that have occurred in the state.

Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn also testified, telling legislators of such achievements since the attacks of Sept. 11 as the city assessing the risks in 741 mid- and high-rise buildings and increasing quality tests of the water supply by 55%.

Also upbeat was Brig. Gen. Ezell Ware, assistant adjutant general of the California National Guard, who said that by Friday the National Guard will be patrolling 30 airports throughout the state.

But Ware also said the Guard needs new aircraft, and he agreed with one longtime legislator, Assemblyman Bill Leonard (R-San Bernardino), who said he was alarmed that the National Guard troops, unlike other security at the airports, were not wearing body armor.

Hertzberg, a Democrat from Sherman Oaks, suggested several times during the hearing that the Legislature would be receptive to making budget changes and other changes in the law, if security and health officials suggested them.