Ridge: U.S. tightens security for New Year's Eve
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A member of the New York City Police Department's Hercules Team patrols Times Square Monday.
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CNN's Kelli Arena reports on possible attacks by al Qaeda and related groups.
British plan for marshals on some flights to U.S.meets resistance.
CNN's Barbara Starr reports on the U.S. plan to order air marshals on some foreign carrier flights.
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WASHINGTON (CNN) -- With New Year's Eve on the way, security efforts across the United States have been "ramped up in an unprecedented way" through the end of the week, Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday.
The U.S. government will keep the terror threat alert level at orange -- the second-highest on the five-tiered, color-coded scale -- for the rest of the week as officials remain concerned about airline security, Ridge said.
On Monday, the Department of Homeland Security announced it was ordering non-U.S. air carriers to place armed government officers on some flights to, from and over the country.
Some major cities such as New York; Washington; Chicago, Illinois; and Las Vegas, Nevada, plan to close parts or all of their airspace on New Year's Eve, when huge crowds traditionally gather to celebrate in public.
Ridge said people who go to New York's Times Square on New Year's Eve will be safe. "I don't think there's a city that has done more and sustained a higher level of security and protection than New York City," he said.
The Department of Homeland Security is working with New York officials and providing additional assistance at their request, he added. (Full story)
The department asked foreign air carriers to place marshals aboard some flights because "there's a continuous stream of threat reporting that we've seen now for two years that al Qaeda continues to look at commercial aviation, passenger traffic, as either a target or as a weapon," Ridge said, adding that the information comes from credible sources.
Airliners that fail to place marshals on board the flights may be refused government permission to land or fly over the United States.
Some reports have suggested that al Qaeda pilots may have infiltrated staffs of non-U.S. air carriers.
"Given the fact that millions of people travel around the world with dozens and dozens of airlines, we've decided to just put the world -- not necessarily on notice -- but remind them that we're all in this together," Ridge said.
It's unclear whether al Qaeda operatives are "able to take off and land these flights," he said, but "we have to assume in part that they are credible, and for that reason we deal with the reality of getting our international friends to help us secure these flights."
Ridge said it is more difficult for terrorists to seize airplanes, as they did in the September 11, 2001, attacks, but that his department would like to bolster security even more.
"We're going to arm some of the pilots; we've hardened cockpit doors; we've got thousands and thousands of air marshals," he said. "We've got baggage screeners and passenger screeners, we're going to see even greater improvements in technology. ...
"We have Transportation Security Administration inspectors going around the country -- going around the world to see what additional measures other countries are taking to screen people and cargo and baggage."
In announcing the elevation of the nation's terror threat alert level last week, Ridge warned of possible terrorist strikes more devastating than the 9/11 attacks.
On Christmas Eve and Christmas Day, all Air France flights into and out of Los Angeles, California, were canceled due to concerns over the possibility of a terrorist attack.
Specifically, Air France Flight 68, originating from Paris and destined for Los Angeles, wasn't allowed to take off based upon advance information, Ridge said at a Monday press conference.
Ridge declined to say if the action thwarted a possible attack, but he said, "We had specific information that needed to be acted upon relative to the Air France flights."
Without elaborating, he also said authorities in Britain and Mexico took "similar cooperative action."
British officials announced Sunday they would begin placing armed officers on some flights to the United States. U.S. officials said Tuesday that the United Kingdom had received intelligence recently regarding general threats to Britain's airliners. (Full story)
