Posted on 06/24/2011 12:32:59 AM PDT by Cindy
SNIPPET: "WASHINGTON – Some of the first information gleaned from Osama bin Laden's compound indicates al-Qaida considered attacking U.S. trains on the upcoming anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. But counterterrorism officials say they believe the planning never got beyond the initial phase and have no recent intelligence pointing to an active plot for such an attack.
As of February 2010, the terror organization was considering plans to attack the U.S. on the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. One idea outlined in handwritten notes was to tamper with an unspecified U.S. rail track so that a train would fall off the track at a valley or a bridge, according to a joint FBI and Homeland Security bulletin sent to law enforcement officials around the country Thursday."
(Excerpt) Read more at jihadwatch.org ...
I hear that one of Bin Laden’s pseudonyms was “Willie Green.”
I have often wondered why this did not come up sooner. With 233,000 miles of track, the number of vulnerable spots as described must number in the few thousands, somewhere between 3000 and 5000, I would guess.
Metropolitan areas are covered, but in open country there is an enormous vulnerability.
Web cameras exist for watching border areas on the internet that anyone can access and monitor. Perhaps a similar system can be installed in all critical remote areas that can be be active 24/7 and monitored by volunteers. Shut-ins, retired people, insomniacs, the list is endless. I hate to even imagine creating an army of unionized high paid morons to do the job. With each camera identified on screen, the reporting of suspicious activity can be reported to a central location in seconds.
The same can be done to a few other similar critical items of infrastructure that need not be listed or discussed here, but which would profit from round-the-clock surveillance.
IIRC, there was an Amtrack derailment some years back blamed on some white-guy fringe group. Not sure, but it may have been during the Clinton Regime. They consistently downplayed ROP involvement in ‘man-made disasters’.
Sabotage suspected in Amtrak derailment
Commentary on the 'official version':old secrets and lies blogspot (Make of that what you will--nowadays, I'm slow to summarily dismiss anything.)
We should nuke them over and over, instead of waiting around hoping they kill a few million Americans. What away to save medicare some money.
This is the key vulnerability of high speed rail.
Terrorists can tunnel under the tracks to set charges, set off a nearby truck bomb, or simply put a steel beam over the tracks in front of the oncoming train.
This is far simpler than taking down an aircraft and with greater loss of life.
For us, the ONLY path to safety is to identify potential jihadis and capture them before they can launch an attack.
Our problem is not with devices; our problem is certain people with a certain twisted ideology.
In the long run, we must defeat the ideology just like we defeated Nazi facism.
Good points Darth.
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