Maximum Security Ordered for U.S. Airports : Terrorism: Extra precautions are implemented as Iraq calls on Muslims to attack Western interests.

By RONALD J. OSTROW and PHILIP HAGER

Jan. 19, 1991 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITERS

WASHINGTON — U.S. airports have been ordered to the highest level of security to counter potential terrorist action stemming from the war against Iraq, Secretary of Transportation Samuel K. Skinner said Friday.

Also Friday, FBI officials in San Francisco and New York cautioned that the arrests of two Iraqi men with alleged terrorist leanings do not necessarily mean that the suspects are actively involved in performing terrorist acts.

The developments came as Iraq urged Muslims to rise up in a holy war and attack U.S. and other Western interests around the globe.

“The aggression against Iraq is directed against all Arabs and Muslims,” said an appeal by Iraq’s ruling Arab Baath Socialist Party, which was read over Baghdad Radio.

“Jihad (holy war) is now the duty of every believer, and there is no other choice. Let them (Arabs and Muslims) deal heavy blows to imperialist and Western interests everywhere. Let the interests of the aggressors burn and let them be chased in every corner of the globe.”

In announcing the official move to Level Four security at 435 major U.S. airports, Skinner said the government has received no specific threats.

The heightened security is similar to what has already been put in place at Southern California airports. Those measures include such steps as assigning more law enforcement officers to airports; eliminating curbside baggage-checking and towing cars left unattended at terminal curbsides, and questioning passengers about their destinations and the contents of their luggage.

James B. Busey, administrator of the Federal Aviation Administration, said he is “fully confident” that the stepped-up security measures, along with undisclosed steps by the airlines, will ensure American air travelers safe flights.

Skinner and Busey would not respond to questions on whether baggage will be inspected after it is checked by passengers or whether only baggage checked for a passenger known to be on a flight will be carried.

“One should not assume that because something is not listed it is not being done,” Skinner told a press conference.

Asked about delays at Los Angeles International Airport resulting from the intensified security, Busey said he had found in a systemwide check Friday that delays were “generally insignificant.” He said a few locations, such as Los Angeles, did experience “substantial delays” Thursday, but that they had been cleared up Friday.

Earlier in the week, intelligence sources said a longtime threat to U.S. travelers abroad would result if Iraq suffers heavy casualties during the conflict, but Skinner disputed that forecast. Such an assessment was “subjective,” he said, and it “goes a little further than I would go.”

Sharpshooters could be seen atop the White House as they had been in other crisis periods. They reportedly are armed with shoulder-fired Stinger ground-to-air missiles. Members of the House and Senate have been advised to vary their routes to work, to drive in a car that does not identify themselves as members of Congress.

In San Francisco, meanwhile, the FBI said Friday that Duraid (David) Jafar-Azawi would be returned to San Luis Obispo, where he faces charges of possessing a pipe bomb.

Azawi, 35, an Iraqi, was arrested Thursday on a federal unlawful flight warrant following a statewide manhunt after his car was seen near military installations in Southern California.

Azawi had failed to appear in court after being arrested last October in San Luis Obispo for carrying a destructive device.

The FBI warned against connecting the incident to war-related terrorism. “Destructive device plus Iraqi doesn’t equal terrorist and a great danger,” said Richard Held, an FBI special agent in charge of the San Francisco office. “Was he? Maybe he was. But we have no facts to that extent.”

Held repeatedly cautioned against drawing the conclusion that Azawi is a terrorist. “We can’t say what he may have done, what he intended to do, or what the device was intended to do,” he said.

Since war began, Held said, his office had been “overwhelmed” with telephone calls from people suspecting terrorist activity. If a real terrorist problem arises, he said, “we’re going to jump all over it. But we’re not going to make the quantum leap from A to Z.”

The FBI also announced the arrest in Rome of an Iraqi who allegedly tried to set off bombs during the 1973 New York visit of then-Israeli leader Golda Meir. Khalid Duhhan Jawary, who had been wanted by U.S. authorities for 18 years, was detained by Italian officials for traveling with false identification papers.

James Fox, assistant director in charge of the FBI’s New York office, said, “We can’t speculate” on whether Jawary, 45, was on a terrorist mission when he was arrested. But, he added: “We think we struck gold today in a major terrorist case.”

In Los Angeles, police were continuing to respond to bomb scares and other threats, including at least two false alarms at LAX. Even the Los Angeles Police Department headquarters at Parker Center was evacuated for 30 minutes about 4:30 a.m. after a suspicious package was discovered in a basement restroom. The package proved harmless.

Los Angeles police arrested Tony Navarro, a 60-year-old Glendale man, on suspicion of threatening in a telephone call to bomb City Hall. A police spokesman said Navarro claimed to be a former Cuban diplomat under the Batista regime, and threatened to “blow up City Hall for (Iraqi leader Saddam) Hussein.”

Private companies and the military were also beefing up security measures.

Drivers of commuter van pools for Hughes Electronics, for instance, were asked to remove the spare tire cover identifying the company name, lest they draw unwanted attention. Security at aerospace companies was also tight, with visitors being escorted throughout their stay, and packages and purses searched.

Officials in other U.S. cities were dealing with their own problems.

San Diego County sheriff’s deputies arrested a 13-year-old student at Roosevelt Junior High School for allegedly planting a homemade “hoax device that was meant to look like an explosive” at the school, according to Capt. Larry Carlson of the Metro Arson Strike Force.

In Detroit, Mayor Coleman Young has asked Michigan Gov. John Engler to consider calling up the National Guard to help provide security on a bridge and tunnel between Detroit and Canada that had been closed because of bomb threats.

Authorities in Eugene, Ore., said the Molotov-cocktail bombing of an Army Reserve Center on Thursday night was apparently the work of anti-war protesters. No one was injured, but officials said the fire burned a file cabinet and a personal computer, and melted the photocopier.

New York City police said they have investigated 550 bomb scares since Tuesday, while they normally handle only 13 a day.

Ostrow reported from Washington and Hager from San Francisco. Times staff writers Kenneth Reich and Richard A. Serrano, in Los Angeles, contributed to this story.