“Recent world events call for increased vigilance in homeland security,” Johnson said. “Today, I have directed an enhanced presence of the Federal Protective Service at US government buildings in an expanded list of major cities around the country.”
Additionally, last week the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) was encouraged to conduct random searches of passengers who board airplanes at US airports. Enhanced screening at certain unnamed foreign airports that are last points of departure to the United States was ordered too, according to the statement.
Johnson highlighted that the measures are precautionary, and the agency has no specific intelligence that an attack, similar to what happened last week in Paris, is being planned by terrorist organizations in the United States.
“The reasons for these measures should be self-evident to the public: the recent attacks in Paris, Ottawa, Sydney, and elsewhere, along with the recent public calls by terrorist organizations for attacks on Western objectives, including aircraft, military personnel, and government installations and civilian personnel,” Johnson said.
According to the statement, DHS will continue to partner with the French government and other key counterterrorism allies to share information about terrorist threats.
On January 7, terrorists entered central Paris offices of French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo and killed 12 people. Two days after, a gunman took hostages at a kosher food supermarket in one of Paris' districts, demanding freedom for the Charlie Hebdo attack suspects. An al-Qaeda affiliate in Yemen claimed responsibility for the massacre.
