Romney activates National Guard for Logan Airport

BOSTON --Members of the Massachusetts National Guard were sworn in as deputy sheriffs Thursday to help ease congestion at Logan International Airport, where news of a foiled terror plot in Britain targeting U.S.-bound flights prompted heightened security measures.

Gov. Mitt Romney spoke to about 50 members of the 972nd Military Police Company who were deployed to the airport to man new Logan security checkpoints -- at each departure gate -- where passengers will be screened again, after going through terminal security.

"I appreciate your honor and integrity," he said, "your willingness to respond so quickly to the emergency that we face."

As deputies, the guard members will screen baggage for blacklisted items, which now include almost all liquids. They will also have the power to make arrests.

Romney told the guard members, some of whom worked similar details following Sept. 11, 2001, that many of the people they encounter will be just exasperated travelers.

"Visitors," he said, "who hopefully will remember the wonderful experience they had in our town."

Col. Tom Sellars, commander of the Massachusetts Army National Guard, said the group is well-suited to its new mission.

"The military police units are familiar with dealing with the public," he said, and many of their superiors were involved in post-Sept. 11 security. "Leadership sets the tone....and they're good soldiers."

Romney said earlier Thursday that the guard troops would complement additional safety measures put in place hours after the thwarted attack was exposed, including increased police patrols, road blocks and car searches, as authorities sought to keep travelers safe and keep flights moving.

"The security is not only being beefed up in visible ways but also in invisible ways," the governor said.

Lines of passengers filled terminals at the airport as they learned they could no longer carry on anything liquid -- from cosmetics and beverages to hair gel and toothpaste. Only medications and baby formula were exempt from the new rules put in place after authorities said the suspects in London planned to detonate liquid explosives disguised as beverages and other common products in flight.

By Thursday evening, the morning backlog had mostly dissipated, but passengers weary from all day travel continued to make their way to baggage checks and taxis.

John Aker and co-workers Pamela J. Lisiewicz and Pierre Corriveau, from the Naval Undersea Warfare Center in Newport, R.I., were supposed to leave Seattle at 6:45 in the morning. They arrived more than an hour early and got through security in 10 minutes.

But their flight was delayed, then canceled. They finally boarded a plane at 8:45 a.m. and arrived in Boston just before 8 p.m.

But they were originally headed to Providence, R.I., so Lisiewicz's husband drove to the airport to pick them up.

"He was probably trying to watch the Sox beat Kansas City," Corriveau said.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said the plot appeared to be engineered by al-Qaida, the terrorist group that hijacked two planes from Logan on Sept. 11, 2001, and flew them into the World Trade Center towers in New York.

Romney cited Logan's involvement in the Sept. 11 attack in his decision to deploy the Guard.

"Logan has a specific history with regards to the initiation of terrorist activity on airlines, and therefore we have a heightened degree of concern here," said Romney, a potential Republican presidential candidate in 2008 who canceled a planned political fundraising trip to Wisconsin.

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and New York Gov. George Pataki said Guard troops would be used there, as well.

Rep. Edward Markey, D-Mass., a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said terrorists' continued interest in attacking passenger planes should prompt the Bush administration to yield to suggestions it screen the billions of pounds of cargo shipped on airliners each year.

Currently, passenger bags are screened by X-ray and explosive machines, but cargo is not. Instead, the system relies on shipping conducted by vetted companies. Nonetheless, it allows packages weighing up to 16 ounces to ship without such vetting.

Markey said a package of similar size downed Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.

"This is now, I hope, on the fifth anniversary of 9/11, and this incident today, the point at which -- finally -- the Bush administration will close this backdoor loophole on all passenger plans in the United States," the congressman told reporters at Logan.

The National Guard was last activated to help with patrols at Logan shortly after the attacks. Troops were removed in April 2002.

Phil Orlandella, spokesman for the Massachusetts Port Authority, which runs Logan, said passengers were given flyers with the new regulations as the airport raised its security level to orange -- one below the top level of red.

Romney said hundreds of Guardsmen would help with security at the airport.

Massachusetts State Police had already increased patrols at Logan, using bomb-sniffing dogs. Troopers were also carrying semiautomatic weapons as a deterrent.

"It's still safe to fly. At the same time everyone should be aware and be on alert for people who are acting out of the ordinary," said Sgt. Steven Hines, who carried an MP-5 machine gun on his patrol.

Security was also increased on the subway, commuter rail and in buses operated by the MBTA, and extra police were stationed at the MBTA's Blue Line station near the airport and Silver Line underground stations connecting to Logan, though overall security levels weren't being adjusted, said Daniel Grabauskas, head of the MBTA.

"There's been no specific threat to the transit system," Grabauskas said. "We just thought it was a prudent step to have additional visibility, especially on the Silver Line because it runs to the airport."

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Associated Press writers Glen Johnson, Jay Lindsay, Brandie M. Jefferson and Denise Lavoie contributed to this report.