U.S. EXPANDS BORDER PATROL TO COUNTER B.C. 'THREATS'

Aircraft And Boats To Scan Area Within 400-Km Radius Of
Bellingham

The U.S. plans to beef up surveillance on the B.C.-Washington border
beginning this week to counter what it sees as the threat of
terrorism, illegal migration and smuggling of weapons and drugs such
as marijuana.

"Intelligence indicates there is a threat up there [in Canada] that
needs to be responded to, so we're providing the air and marine
capability to respond to that, in support of both U.S. and Canadian
authorities," Gary Bracken, communications director for the U.S.
Office of Air and Marine Operations, said Tuesday from Washington,
D.C.

He said additional U.S. helicopters, a fixed-wing aircraft and two
marine units would scan an area within a 400-kilometre radius of the
Bellingham, Wash. airport, which is 25 kilometres south of the
Canadian border.

But it's not clear if that would allow U.S. aircraft deep into
Canadian airspace -- as far north as Williams Lake, as far east as
Creston in the Kootenays and to the northwest coast of Vancouver
Island. Canadian military officials who deal with strategic issues
could not be reached for comment late Tuesday night.

Based at Bellingham airport, the Washington state unit, the first of
five surveillance points on the U.S.-Canada border, will eventually
include about 55 staff.

Bracken said the initiative is part of America's first northern border
branch of air and marine operations.

He said the unit will share a Black Hawk helicopter and other
equipment with similar units on the U.S. southern border, until the
northern branch becomes fully operational with its own equipment.

An official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement said there
is no plan to have weapons on the Black Hawk, which the U.S. Army
describes as a utility tactical transport helicopter.

The air and marine unit will work closely with border patrol and other
agencies to provide support and reinforcement, but will also act as an
investigative arm of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

"We're kind of like an extra cop on the beat, if you will," Bracken
said.

"We're providing support across a wide range of agencies and using our
expertise that we've built on the southern border and we're bringing
that capability to the northern border."

Bracken said the 400-kilometre radius from Bellingham is a rough
guideline of how far the aircraft and boats might venture during a
surveillance or investigative mission.

A second northern border air and marine unit is scheduled to begin
operations in October in Plattsburgh, N.Y. Similar units will
eventually be established at borders in Montana, North Dakota and Michigan.

Bracken said the Washington-B.C. border was chosen first for a variety
of reasons, including the 1999 arrest of Ahmed Ressam, caught trying
to smuggle explosives into the U.S. on a ferry from Victoria to Port
Angeles.

Ressam was convicted in 2001 of nine charges connected to a bomb plot,
possibly aimed at Los Angeles airport, that caused the cancellation of
Seattle's millennium celebrations.

Bracken also said security threats include "activity with B.C. bud
[marijuana]," illegal migrants, and the flow of money and weapons into
Canada.

Joe Giuliano, assistant chief of border patrol operations based in
Blaine, Wash., noted that northern Washington has had an air
operations unit for about 30 years, and the border patrol has two of
its own boats in coastal waters.

Giuliano said he is not yet sure how the additional equipment and
personnel will help his division. But he is optimistic the two
agencies can work together.

"Exactly what an air and marine operation that's under someone else's
auspices will bring to us remains to be seen, but we're hopeful there
will be a meaningful interaction," he said.

"What they can bring us depends not only on what assets they have on
the ground, but what sort of funding they'll have in place to operate
those, what sort of staffing will come with that. Again, we're very
hopeful, but it's just something we'll have to see how it fleshes out."

Giuliano's border patrol unit already includes a Cessna aircraft and a
helicopter, but he said it differs from the new unit in a few ways.

Giuliano said the new unit will have more powerful equipment, which
will be able to follow aircraft to investigate smuggling operations in
the sky, rather than just focusing on the ground.

And, Giuliano said, the unit's equipment will be harder to identify
than the border patrol's marked cars, boats, and aircraft.

"Of course, we have no way, as border patrol, of chasing an airplane,
but they would be able to conduct a surveillance on that and be able
to do covert operations, whereas we operate with highly visible marked
aircraft and boats," Giuliano said.

"It's kind of like in a police department -- we're the uniformed guys
and they're the detectives."

In the past few years, the "uniformed guys" have had significant
successes in apprehending and deterring illegal migrants, and catching
southbound shipments of marijuana.

Giuliano said the patrol's increased presence and the addition of 32
cameras along the B.C.-Washington border in 2002 have helped deter
illegal crossings, bringing the number of people apprehended down from
more than 2,500 in 2000 to 1,402 last year.

Border guards and police have also been intercepting more marijuana
each year, discovering a record 2,100 kilograms of the drug last year
that was being smuggled between ports of entry from the coast to the
Cascade Mountains, Giuliano said.

But whether drugs, people or weapons are intercepted at the border,
Giuliano said all have to be treated on the same threat level.

"We don't see one as being more dangerous than the others," he said.
"It's the one guy with the right gear and the wrong attitude that's
going to cause a problem."