Bush also said he would push ahead with measures to make workers at airports submit again to background checks, increase and make permanent the number of undercover cops--federal marshals--on flights, and put passenger and baggage checks under federal supervision. Agents from the Drug Enforcement Administration, Immigration and Naturalization Service, and other federal cop agencies have been on commercial flights as "air marshals" after the September 11 attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Under the security package federal agents will assume supervisory responsibilities for background checks on all baggage handlers, food service workers, and other airport and airline employees, and for passenger and baggage inspection. The measures have been applauded by the airline bosses.

Democrat James Oberstar, a Congressman from Minnesota, urged Bush to go further by having federal employees replace workers currently employed in baggage and passenger screening jobs. Oberstar advocates the government taking over the cost for greater airport security. "This nation has been at war," he stated. "Airlines are the frontline of that war. We wouldn't think of contracting out our Army to protect us against an open foreign invasion. We shouldn't think of contracting out responsibility of defending the internal United States against covert attacks."

Within hours of Bush's announcement the state of Illinois notified military police units of the Illinois National Guard that they would be receiving instructions from the Federal Aviation Administration about their airport deployment. California governor Gray Davis informed reporters that armed National Guardsmen will be on duty for four to six months. In Colorado, Governor William Owens said the soldiers will have the authority to detain passengers and shoot if necessary. "These are fully armed combat soldiers. This is really one case where the United States is catching up to the rest of the world," added Owens.

South Dakota governor William Janlow deployed the National Guard and offered to have the state pay for cops to be put on domestic flights. "I think all 50 states ought to do this in a very coordinated manner," he told CNN. "We're at war. We've got to kill the enemy."

Just hours before Bush's press conference in Chicago, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld announced a new set of rules of engagement authorizing U.S. Air Force pilots to shoot down hijacked commercial airlines with the approval of regional commanders of the North American Aerospace Defense Command. The Washington Post reported that there are more than 100 fighter jets on alert at 26 bases across the country. Fighter jets continue to patrol the skies over Washington and New York.
 
 
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