Are Our Nations Railways Safe from International Terrorism?
By: Lance Winslow
We have recently heard of International Terrorists Cells attacking Oil Refineries. We know they have an affection for commuter trains, ferries, buses, embassies, airliners and hotels. What about our nation’s railways in the United States; commuter trains are far and few between and we really do not use them much in the States, but what about cargo trains? We ship a lot by train in the United States. It is a big country and it makes sense for us to maximize our railways, but does this make it an international terrorist target?
This subject was recently brought up by an online think tank as one think tanker asked the question; “Are our railways and rail yards safe?” The group decided that this was indeed a worthy topic and the subject needed to be addressed and one member said;
“Sure we could hypothesize on this I suppose, there are lots of ways one might go about this. If we are concerned and looking at these things, we need to look for the multiplier affects, where pipelines cross, rail bridges, natural gas lines, major Interstates with choke points, you just mentioned one or perhaps water supplies or an all in one, where everything; that is to say rail, freeway or highway and water supplies comes thru a mountain pass and downwind is a town in a valley.”
Indeed these are very good points and perhaps that might be the target of international terrorists and there are only a handful of places like that I know about, so we could secure such locations fairly easy. One thing that concerns me is the trains coming from Mexico to the US. Or a cargo container piggy-back scenario dropped at Delta Port in British Columbia running thru the Canadian Rockies and down into the upper Midwest United States on the Canadian Rail Road.
What if the International Terrorists then set off a nuclear detonation in mid Downtown Chicago for maximum impact. But planning all that without tipping someone off would be a tough one even for a close-knit group like these International Terrorists. Remember there is always someone going to ask a question somewhere along the line. And let’s hope the FBI follows up on tips like someone is learning how to fly but does not want to learn how to land next time? Dah? We should consider this in 2006.
Lance Winslow - Online Think Tank forum board. If you have innovative thoughts and unique perspectives, come think with Lance; www.WorldThinkTank.net/wttbbs/