Security at LAX Highest Since 9/11

Prompted by the national orange-level alert, local and federal authorities moved on several anti-terrorism fronts Tuesday in Los Angeles and raised security at Los Angeles International Airport to its highest level since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

No curbside drop-off or pickup will be permitted, effective from 5 a.m. today through Jan. 4, a measure that Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn called a precaution. All private cars will be diverted into central parking lots and banned from stopping at the curbs.

Hahn nonetheless urged residents to “proceed with your holiday plans.”

The heightened security at LAX was announced at the end of a day in which these developments had occurred:

* Sources said federal grand jury subpoenas had been issued in recent days for local transportation companies as part of the FBI’s nationwide investigation into the latest threat of Al Qaeda attacks. Details of the investigation, such as which businesses had been served with subpoenas, were unavailable. Sources said the action had been taken at the direction of counterterrorism officials.

“We are concentrating on trying to get ahead of any attack,” one official said. He said officials thought they had information “that constitutes a threat ... and we are trying to run that down” with the subpoenas.

The subpoenas, sources said, were obtained after Los Angeles and several other U.S. cities were identified by the FBI last week as potential Al Qaeda targets.

* With concerns raised on the federal level that terrorists were trying to infiltrate foreign flight crews, airport spokesman Paul Haney said some members of foreign flight crews arriving at LAX were being checked closely by the Bureau of Customs and other federal inspectors.

“Certain crew members are getting extra scrutiny as they come into the country,” Haney said Tuesday

* Los Angeles police said Tuesday that they had arrested an individual under investigation in a terrorism-related inquiry. The LAPD refused to identify the man, other than to say that he had been taken into custody in connection with a forgery offense.

“This is an arrest that spawned from a terrorism-related investigation,” said Assistant Police Chief Jim McDonnell. “A terrorism investigation, like any other police investigation, can take you in a number of different directions and, during those investigations, you often become aware of criminal activity that may or may not relate to the original focus. But you have an obligation to take appropriate action.”

McDonnell declined to comment further on what he described as “this ongoing criminal investigation.”

The restrictions on travel at LAX, which handles a daily average of 150,000 people during the holiday period, will have the greatest effect on travelers.

Hahn warned people to get to the airport 3 1/2 hours before international flights.

Private vehicles entering the central terminal area roadways are now required to park in the central parking structures to pick up and drop off passengers. City sources said they had been asked by the federal Transportation Security Administration to restrict vehicle access, and one source cited an accumulation of intelligence information indicating that LAX could be a target of terrorists. Curbside service will be limited to licensed taxis, limousines and shuttle buses during the holiday season.

Although the action is the first restriction on curbside access at LAX since the days after the 2001 terrorist attacks, Hahn said the restriction was being imposed out of caution, not because there had been a specific threat.

“I would like to reassure the people of Los Angeles that we are taking all appropriate measures possible to ensure the safety and security of the traveling public,” Hahn said. “These actions are being taken as a precautionary measure during a period of heightened readiness. People should go about their daily business and enjoy their holiday shopping, travel and family gatherings.”

At Orange County’s John Wayne Airport, beginning today, access will be limited to two entrances: one from Campus Drive, via MacArthur Boulevard, and the offramp from the southbound Costa Mesa Freeway. All other entrances will be closed. There will be random inspections of vehicles entering Airport Way and the east and west parking structures.

LAX was shut down after the Sept. 11 attacks until Sept. 13; private vehicles were barred from the central terminal area until Dec. 15, 2001, according to airport spokesman Haney.

Earlier in the week, Hahn announced enhanced security at LAX in response to the elevated threat level. The mayor said there were increased police patrols at the airport, perimeter checkpoints and random vehicle inspections at all three entrances.

“This is just a precautionary measure,” Hahn told reporters at LAX. “All the airline operations are going to continue as usual. We want everyone to enjoy the holiday season. We just felt that looking at all the information that has been provided to us and reanalyzing that -- and based on the recommendations made to me -- that this was a further security enhancement that we could add as a precaution.”

Hahn said officials had based the decision on Homeland Security Administrator Tom Ridge’s description of Los Angeles as a potential target and on accumulated intelligence that included the unsuccessful targeting of LAX by Al Qaeda in 1999 to coincide with the Millennium celebrations. A suspected terrorist was arrested at the Canadian border with alleged plans to attack LAX with explosives in 1999.

Hahn also cited a letter from Larry Fetters, federal security director at LAX, that recommended the move and referred to consultations with the FBI, LAPD and the Transportation Security Administration.

“Collectively and individually, we have received and analyzed the information available regarding the current threat of terrorism on American soil,” Fetters wrote, strongly urging that officials alter the flow of traffic at the airport.

“I am not alarmed by any particular threat to the airport that may involve vehicles,” Fetters said, “but I do feel that it would be prudent to remove vehicles from the front of the terminal on a temporary basis.”

Recent intelligence alerts also mentioned several other possible targets, including Valdez, Alaska, where FBI officials -- like their counterparts in Los Angeles -- quietly opened a command center last week, days before Ridge announced the heightened security measures nationwide.

Meanwhile, LAPD sources said the man they had arrested was a forger, one of several suspects involved in the production of unspecified false documents. The other individuals alleged to be part of the scheme were arrested weeks before the latest suspect was taken into custody.

In response to the increased threat, LAPD officials reviewed terrorism investigations and noticed that one of the forgery suspects had not been taken into custody and decided to arrest him.

The man’s apartment was searched Monday night after a judge issued a search warrant. Sources said categorically that the man was not connected to the current threat but was part of an ongoing series of arrests the LAPD has made since Sept. 11. The department, sometimes working in conjunction with other law enforcement agencies, has made a total of 85 arrests triggered by terrorism investigations but involving crimes not related to terrorism.

Times staff writer Richard Winton contributed to this report.