Boston, New York rail lines vulnerable

A national intelligence agency warns in a new report that al Qaeda terrorists can easily attack U.S. rail lines in Boston and New York, where the presidential nominating conventions will be held later this summer.

Disclosure of the new information came yesterday as Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge reported that al Qaeda is moving ahead with plans for a major terror attack “in an effort to disrupt our democratic process.”

Mr. Ridge repeated warnings issued by federal authorities in May that terrorists are planning to attack either at this summer’s political conventions or some time before the November presidential election. The attacks could be carried out against trains or large gatherings using truck bombs or hijacked airliners, according to intelligence officials.

The National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency (NGA) stated in a classified report circulated within the government last week that rail lines in both cities are vulnerable to a terrorist bombing, according to officials familiar with the report.

The report is based on an assessment of the Northeast rail systems and the fact that al Qaeda terrorists scored a major political success by attacking rail cars in Madrid on March 11. The 10 bombs exploded on four trains killing 191 persons and injuring more than 1,800.

The bombing came three days before elections that ousted Spain’s pro-U.S. government and voted in an anti-war socialist government.

“There has been fairly steady stream of threat reporting directed toward Northeast corridor,” said one security official.

The NGA report did not include specific threats to the Boston and New York rail systems but contained a detailed assessment of the weaknesses in the security of the rail network, the officials said.

Asked about the threat to rail systems in Boston and New York, Mr. Ridge said: “Al Qaeda and other terrorist organizations have targeted mass transit,” noting the terrorist attacks by Islamist groups on trains in Spain and Russia and a Japanese terrorist group’s use of nerve gas in a Tokyo subway.

“Clearly, given the particular venues that have been selected and the proximity to railroad and mass transit, that is of a concern, but we feel we can adequately address it,” he said.

Mr. Ridge said both the Republican convention in New York and the Democratic convention in Boston were designated as special security events, making the U.S. Secret Service the lead agency in charge of security.

“As part of the overall comprehensive security plan, the Secret Service is working with those mass transit agencies,” he said.

Mr. Ridge said worries about rail and subway attacks “at the local level at the convention sites” and nationally are based on past targeting by terrorist groups.

In New York, Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told reporters that “additional precautions” have been taken to protect transit systems from attack because of the Republican convention, which begins Aug. 30. The Democratic convention begins July 26.

Meanwhile, Amtrak recently dismissed its police chief for the mid-Atlantic region amid security problems for the national railroad system, Amtrak officials said.

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