Al Qaeda Rail Terror Plans (was: may want to derail a train)

Reportedly, the DHS and FBI have released a bulletin, warning that among the items of information seized at Osama bin Laden's hideaway were plans to derail an American train on the tenth anniversary of 9/11/01, by means of tampering with the rails causing the train to crash off of a bridge or into a valley. Supposedly, a specific location or line was not mentioned. We are the ones watching the trains and tracks, girls and guys. If you see something, report it ! If you have any doubt, call it in. Your mind will be free of any potential "shouldas" which could haunt you for the rest of your life, and you may save many lives. Thanks !

http://abcnews.go.com/Blotter/osama-bin ... d=13536789

3rdrail wrote:If you see something, report it ! If you have any doubt, call it in.

It would be more productive to write letters to your representatives demanding that we get out of the Middle East entirely. It'll save a lot more lives and not hold up a bunch of trains because someone left a bag on the platform.

http://www.miller-mccune.com/politics/h ... ity-30874/

I know a guy who vacationed in Germany who left one of his suitcases on a train. Instead of shutting down the station, security simply brought it to lost and found and that's where he eventually retrieved it.

Derailing a train may or may not cause casualties, but then if we worry about train derailments we better watch for profesional truck drivers, they seem to derail way more trains due to stupidity, than El Quaida can do with planning.

I agree with Dutch. It's much more likely that they would park a truck with explosives in front of a train. Terrorism is not about effect. It's theater. By definition, the actual effect of terrorism is minimal. If 2001 had 367 days instead of 365, the airplane passengers killed on 9/11 would be lost in the noise of automobile crashes. The purpose of terrorism is to cause people to defeat themselves. Bin Laden may be dead, but he's still causing us to waste millions every day in misbegotten security activities.

DutchRailnut wrote:Derailing a train may or may not cause casualties, but then if we worry about train derailments we better watch for profesional truck drivers, they seem to derail way more trains due to stupidity, than El Quaida can do with planning.

Or mother nature! I've never seen a washout in progress before, but man, this happened fast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3pZlK6UFQ

But as for terrorism, I'd expect some increased security around railroad property and facilities...

There's already increased security at our nations rail stations ( has been since 9/11 ), and for that matter most of of the other railroad related facilities as well ( at least those deemed most vulnerable ). Stopping short of installing video cameras at all grade crossings, just about everything needing protection is heavily watched. Besides the last thing we need is more useless security spending, or more gruesome videos reminding citizens as to why they shouldn't play chicken with the train.

It appears the plan was over a year old and had not been updated .
"The revelation on Thursday that the raid scooped up valuable intelligence was another positive note. A Homeland Security intelligence warning sent to law enforcement officials around the country said that as of February 2010, al-Qaeda was considering tampering with an unspecified US rail track so that a train would fall off at a valley or a bridge ".

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/world/news/ar ... d=10723840

Wasnt soing to respond to this but... A very good freind of mine is a FBI agent who is currently stationed in Quanico VA. He is in charge of one of the electronic labs that is in possession of much of the lap tops and cameras that were retrieved by the seals durring the raid. Talked to him yesterday and never once did he mention anything about a pending attack on the rail system, not to say they didnt plan it but Im not going to sweat it going up and down the road.

Matt Johnson wrote:

DutchRailnut wrote:Derailing a train may or may not cause casualties, but then if we worry about train derailments we better watch for profesional truck drivers, they seem to derail way more trains due to stupidity, than El Quaida can do with planning.

Or mother nature! I've never seen a washout in progress before, but man, this happened fast! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pb3pZlK6UFQ

But as for terrorism, I'd expect some increased security around railroad property and facilities...

My thought is there should have been a culvert at that point.

I am pretty sure there was, but culverts get plugged or sometimes get more water than they were designed for.

Really?? if Al Qaeda was going to derail a train the number one point would be the Hell gate bridge, take that out and you kind of cripple Amtrak service in NYC @ there busiest point ( thats not guarded 24/7 by heavy security), also its probably the most expensive replacement Amtrak would ever need accomplished , anywhere else would be pointless, I actually agree with Dutch, semi drives cause more damage than anything terrorist can think of.

Don't buy this crap for a minute.

Amtrak police kicked the TSA to the CURB following the Savannah Illegal Searches incident, and tells TSA they can't come on Amtrak property ANYMORE.

So what does DHS do? First nugget of information that gets leaked from the intelligence probe? ZOMG AL KIDDA WANTS TO HIT TRAINS!!! LET THE TSA BACK INTO AMTRAK OR EVERYONE WILL DIE.

GMAFB.

I'm not so sure Amtrak would be the only target, there's a lot of hazardous material hauled around the country that would be a disaster if derailed. Assuming they would want the event to be big, I would think there would be multiple railroad and subway related accidents across the country at roughly the same time. If evidence has shown over a years worth of planning (which I've heard), then I believe there might have been numerous targets.

Frankly, all the terrorists have to do is make people think that there might be an attack on trains, and they've succeeded. They don't have to lift a finger or touch a single rail or spike. Their goal is to create fear and uncertainty. That's why a "war on terrorism" is not a war we can ever win, realistically, because as long as humans exist on earth, there will always be people who hate each other and who want to do harm to each other.

That said, 3rdrail is right that if we see something that is CLEARLY out of the ordinary -- e.g., an obstruction ON the tracks, or someone messing with the tracks who is CLEARLY not a railroad employee -- we should immediately report it, not wait for someone else to say something or assume that it's no big deal. That was good advice before 9/11 and it's still good advice today.

What we shouldn't do is panic or stop living our normal lives or stop doing the things we love to do or stop exercising our freedoms as Americans.

MEC407 wrote:That said, 3rdrail is right that if we see something that is CLEARLY out of the ordinary -- e.g., an obstruction ON the tracks, or someone messing with the tracks who is CLEARLY not a railroad employee -- we should immediately report it, not wait for someone else to say something or assume that it's no big deal. That was good advice before 9/11 and it's still good advice today

There isn't a rulebook on the planet that doesn't include "watch ahead for unsafe conditions" for operating crews.

How else are you supposed to notice things like lights/gates malfunctioning, fallen trees, etc ?

Heck, on the Blue Ridge Scenic, we ask our car hosts to keep an eye out, too. Mind you, they aren't trained train crew, but they know "what's normal" ... we tell them "if something tweaks you ... we want to know. We'd rather be bothered about nothing than ignore something significant."

You can never have too many eyes looking for the strange and unusual. And it's always better to report something, than to not report, and have it cause an accident.

Amtrak and BNSF's "citizen railfan" programs operate on exactly this principle -- railfans are already there. They aren't going away. And they are very observant. Why not utilize them?

It's just time for everyone to keep doing what they're doing, with this little nugget tucked away in the back of the mind, and keep vigilance for the unexpected.

- litz