Germans Leave Terror Alert Status Unchanged

Sitting in his office at the Frankfurt International Airport, Wolfgang Schwalm has one wish.

"I haven't seen any tanks on the runway yet, and let's hope there won't be any," says Schwalm, a spokesman for Fraport, the company that operates Germany's largest airport.

Such thoughts have been crossing his mind lately as camouflage-clad British troops and tanks moved in this week to protect London's biggest airport, Heathrow. The 450 British troops were deployed as new warnings about possible terrorist attacks were issued by the CIA on Tuesday.

German lawmaker worried

In Germany, officials have not issued any new warnings yet. But at least one member of the German parliament said this week she was worried about airport security as the likelihood of a U.S.-led war against Iraq grew. "Even though religious fanatics in the al Qaeda network seem to disagree ideologically with Saddam Hussein, their immense hatred of their hyper enemy, the United States, could drive terrorists to commit suicide bombings even in Germany," Cornelie Wolgast-Sonntag told DW-WORLD this week.

An official for the German Interior Ministry said the government had seen no reason yet to take additional steps.

"Nothing has changed. But it goes without saying that the terror situation is under constant review," said the spokeswoman, Anette Stephan. "At present, there are no definite hints that would justify sending out concrete warnings as U.S. President George W. Bush and British Prime Minister Tony Blair have done. But there is what we call an abstract imminent danger of terrorist attacks."

Airport personnel in Germany intensified security immediately after terrorists steered their hijacked airliners into the World Trade Center and Pentagon on Sept. 11, 2001, Schwalm said. But because the German government has not issued concrete warnings so far, airport security has not been put on the same level as at Heathrow.

Security measures evolving

However, Klaus Ludwig from the Frankfurt airport branch of the Federal Border Guard said that since the Sept. 11 attacks, security measures have been gradually upgraded: Airport police have increased their presence significantly, new precautions have been taken in landing and takeoff areas, and freight and air-mail are undergoing special inspections.

"If we needed to, we could easily double our personnel at the airport. Right now, we have 2,000 men. We're wide awake and constantly on alert," he said.

The British government's decision to take the highest security precautions at Heathrow ever since Sept. 11 came after CIA Director George Tenet warned Tuesday that intelligence indicated al Qaeda was planning attacks in the United States, on the Arabian Peninsula and in Europe. The worries generated by that warning led police to evacuate part of the airport for more than one hour on Friday after an unidentified package was discovered in Terminal 2.

The opposition in the British parliament has objected to the new measures, saying the precautions taken at Heathrow were meant to terrify people and suggest to them a certain level of danger. But during a debate on Thursday, Interior Minister David Blunkett replied there was "a clear and present danger" of attacks by Islamic terrorists.

U.S. deploys anti-aircraft missiles

In the United States, officials began on Wednesday to step up their preparations for attacks. The Pentagon installed special radar systems and stationed Avenger anti-aircraft missiles in the area around Washington's airports.

But Washington also has symbolically increased its precautions. Last week, Bush announced that the national threat level had been raised to its second-highest stage, Code Orange. In all, there are five levels, Green, Blue, Yellow, Orange, and Red. To help inform Americans about the alert, the television news network CNN has begun to show a square indicating the code level on the bottom left-hand corner of the screen.

Across the Atlantic, Stephan said Germany had no such security levels. "And there won't ever be any numbers, colors or squares," she added.