Posted on 03/04/2008 7:47:29 PM PST by rdl6989
n a bulletin released Friday to U.S. law enforcement officials, the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) is warning of “continued strong terrorist interest” in targeting mass transit systems in the U.S. The 10-page threat assessment, labeled “Unclassified/For Official Use Only” and obtained by NBC News, cautions that the “U.S. mass transit and passenger rail systems are vulnerable to terrorist attacks because they are accessible to large numbers of the public and are notoriously difficult to secure.” Previous rail attacks in Madrid, London and Mumbai “could inspire terrorists to conduct similar attacks in the United States,” the report adds.
However, the authors of the intelligence analysis make clear that there are no known, immediate dangers. “At this time, there is no credible intelligence regarding specific plans by any extremist groups or individuals to perpetrate an act of terrorism against the U.S. mass transit system,” they write.
"Mass Transit System Threat Assessment" The report is titled the “Mass Transit System Threat Assessment” and was prepared by TSA’s Office of Intelligence. It comes just weeks after Amtrak announced a series of new security measures. Amtrak does not routinely screen passengers or their baggage with metal detectors or other devices, as all U.S. airlines do. Instead, it announced on Feb. 19 that it would use so-called Mobile Security Teams to randomly check passengers and baggage.
The report identifies Al-Qaida as one of the “most likely actors” in potential attacks. “Al-Qa’ida and affiliated extremists pose the greatest threat to the U.S. mass transit and passenger rail system,” it states. “The threat to heavy and commuter rail in the Homeland is greater than the threat to buses and light rail. Attacks on buses overseas tend to be small-scale and are carried out mainly by smaller separatist groups within their own countries.”
(Excerpt) Read more at deepbackground.msnbc.msn.com ...
Sure hope nobody needs waterboarding.
What I don’t get, is that every couple of days two or three PA police officers show up and search the bags of those entering the PATH train in New Jersey.
You would think that if terrorists wished to attack, they would send a scout and see if there are any police checking bags today.
Well LA is safe... since we dont use mass transit.
With obama promising to talk with them and mccain promising to not ‘torture’ them, well, the terrorists will have it made.
Denver is safe too, only two or three people ride the trains.
I haven’t been on a train since I took a novelty ride in grade school circa 1957-1963 and don’t know anybody who has.
We are headed to a rebellion, I’m afraid.
Actually, I’m afraid if we are not.
I’m ready to fight and die. Just waiting for a leader to step up...
Well LA is safe... since we dont use mass transit.
::::::
Yeah, but LA does have mass transit...from across the border.
You honestly believe that they aren't already doing so?
But, but, but, Code Pink says that Al Qaeda is not a threat to the U.S.
I’ve noticed more police walk throughs on the mass transit I use the past few weeks. Even at night. Definitely looking for suspicious items on the trains.
I don’t know about you, but I would love to take a train through the Rocky Mountains.
And they won't until some train falls into a canyon somewhere, or they blow up a tunnel so that the mountain falls on the train and the people in it.
They're saving the dirty bombs for y'all. But that's OK, we Texans are saving the expanding bullets for them. (No Hague Convention for Terrorists)
I had a short grade school train ride about that same time. But then in High School we took a train to the state basketball finals. We took the train in '66 and I think '67. In '68 the finals were held in our city, because of the potential for riots associated with the MLK assassination around our original venue in the "Big City". (Ours was second largest in the state and the capital city).
If every body is waiting for that, it might be a long wait.
MECCA - Crews reported significant progress Tuesday in cleaning up a chemical spill after a train derailment Monday night near this farm worker community that triggered a precautionary evacuation of a nine-square-mile rural area.
I prefer a reliable 4WD pickup or a good horse or both.
Hey, lets allow in a few million more foreigners...That’s the ticket!
Union Pacific freight train derailed near Mecca, California today.
Ya better be saving your income down there in Texas to support Bush’s millions of illegal aliens.
The PANYNJ is pathetic. Take no comfort in their presence, their incompetence can actually kill you.
Oh, fun... I’m taking a train for spring break, and I hope Amtrak doesn’t try to go through my bags cause I don’t know if I can pack them that tightly again - I even have a pillow squished into a pocket of my overhead-carryon-sized bag. I sometimes feel like my luggage is bigger on the inside than it is on the outside...
Mecca. Great.
disgusting
bttt
Ho-hum.....another threat
Nice name!!
I guess the TSA workers want more power and influence, and the scanning machine manufacturers want more sales.
Would you happen to have the exact specs on this item, material list, steel composition and hardness, sizes and such?
Thank you,
Ahmed Muhammad
Dearbornistan, MI
Maybe not for passengers but how do you think you get food and fuel for the cities stores? It's brought in by a cargo train to a railhead in one of several city wide rail yards then trucked to central distribution points where it is further trucked to retailers. Imagine a nuke put onto one of those trains in DENVER or vice versa and sent on it's merry way with timer or a detonater and a suicidal Jihadi for company.
How about one of the cargo cars packed full with propane containers charged to the max with VX Nerve Agent or a similar car packed with industrial sized fire extinguishers and charged with the aforementioned nerve agent? What's the average speed and direction of the breeze on a sunny day in LA? Calculate that and you'll get an effective idea of the downwind drift of the agent and of course as the cloud of gas moves in a linear direction it will also tend to spread in a lateral direction growing ever larger and killing more folks as well as contaminating more surfaces. Rail yards are usually located centrally, too.
You're not safe. There is no such concept that holds any measure of validity. Care to rethink your statement?
Yep, Live Free or Die.
I prefer I live free and THEY die.
UMmmm...
Durango to Silverton!
Agawa Canyon!
Whitewater Railroad
Funky Cold Medina
“PA police officers show up and search the bags of those entering the PATH train in New Jersey.”
___________________
Do you know how close any of those trains come to all of those refineries in NJ? Two birds with one stone?
I had friends who were given tickets on their 50th anniversary to take a train up through Canadian Rockies, etc. It must have been a wonderful trip!
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