I hope this really is as unobtrusive and easy as they say it is. I wouldn't want Amtrak to lose one of its big advantages.
From what I saw in another story, your pass would exempt you from the search if indeed you were even selected for one.Yeah thats what I hate about flying. Though I work with a division of Homeland security so I have passes and what not if I want to avoid the lines, but still. The first time I flew was a few weeks after 9-11 and I was so scared. the whole thing freaked me out. That's why I don't fly. I'd hate to take trains off my list.
According to internal Amtrak information, passengers who refuse screening will be given a full refund of rail fare and accommodation charges.I wonder if one gets a full refund in the event of a refusal, or if Amtrak's normal 10% penalty still applies. I sure hope not, as that would be wrong.
While I don't totally disagree that the terrorists are winning, because they are indeed forcing us to change and to give up our freedoms, I don't really have a huge problem with this plan as outlined in the story.Sounds bad to me. I also subscribe to the belief that things like this are part of the point of terrorists attacking, their whole point is to try to disrupt lives and instill terror. We are just giving into them by doing things like this. I don't see any point in half of the security we have now. If a terrorist wants to attack bad enough they will find a way around any security measure we can come up with. I think the best thing to do is go on with our lives as normal only making changes where there is an obvious need. To me it would be more prudent to find a way to override pilot control of a hijacked aircraft and have a airtraffic controller land the plane remotely at a location with the proper law enforcement/military personnel on hand to deal with the situation. Trains have had this in the form of ATS/deadman devices for years.
well if they are going to do this kind of search. I would at least like a dinner and movie before we get friendly.All security that doesn't involve complete strip searches, up to, and including, dental and rectal examinations, a complete and total search and dis-assembly of luggage, and a total separation of people from their belongings and any way of contacting them, is essentially surmountable. A constant search can be analyzed and surmounted. A random search can be beat by "flooding" or "decoying".
I wholeheartedly agree, why do we punish ourselves with security checks that really have no point. I understand having security personnel on duty but its completely unnecessary to subject people to anywhere near the amount of security checks we do.All security that doesn't involve complete strip searches, up to, and including, dental and rectal examinations, a complete and total search and dis-assembly of luggage, and a total separation of people from their belongings and any way of contacting them, is essentially surmountable. A constant search can be analyzed and surmounted. A random search can be beat by "flooding" or "decoying".
Flooding is the theory that while some people will be stopped, others won't. So you send 100 people with missions to blow up a train, and even if one out of the hundred make it through, ya got yourself a functioning plan. Decoying operates on the theory that "Random" searches are rarely random, but are in fact a matter of profiling and leads. So you carefully leak information that indicates that an agent A of yours is going to bring a bomb onto train X. And you do send A onto X. You also send the dreaded B onto train Y, and the fearsome C onto Train Z. While people are searching for A, B and C are having a field day.
ID checks, likewise, are a concept of hilarity. I knew someone in my school who got into the business of getting people into clubs and liquor stores. That is to say, he made fake licenses. He was an 17 year old kid, and he made some that the police ran and didn't realize were fake. All identification documents are paper, plastic, and magnetic strips. Thats all they amount to. They are hilariously easy to fake. Yes, if you put them under a 40X microscope or run laboratory tests on them, people are going to discover the fake. But you don't carry science labs into border check facilities, nor carry 40x microscopes.
Now, since the average citizen can procure pretty accurate fakes of these documents, what do you think a terrorist operation, backed by an organization of thousands and millions of dollars of backing, can do?
:lol: I wasn't suggesting we start doing that. God forbid, I'd move to someplace I'd need the ARRs Hurricane Turn to get close to, about a days hike from anybody, and build myself a nice bunker I could isolate myself from society with.well if they are going to do this kind of search. I would at least like a dinner and movie before we get friendly.All security that doesn't involve complete strip searches, up to, and including, dental and rectal examinations, a complete and total search and dis-assembly of luggage, and a total separation of people from their belongings and any way of contacting them, is essentially surmountable. A constant search can be analyzed and surmounted. A random search can be beat by "flooding" or "decoying".
If you're looking for evidence I don't think you would want the evidence after the fact; a devastated coach with multiple fatalities. True, Amtrak may be small potatoes compared to the NYC subway system or an NJT rush hour train but the American traveling public deserves security at every level of transportation. I would hope that some day there would be dogs screening people getting on Greyhound buses. Thats about as small potatoes, passenger wise, that you can get but they still are subject to terrorism riding a public conveyance.Yawn,
I'm wondering if the the DHS has credible evidence that Terrorists were plotting against Amtrak?? If I were a terrorist, I'd say Amtrak was small potatoes, I'd aim for Commuter railroads and Subway Systems that carry many more people.
I don't necessarily agree. Amtrak has a bigger national and international image. It is the symbol of American rail transport that transcends NYC and other metro areas. Folks from around the world come to ride Amtrak, not NYC's subway.I'm wondering if the the DHS has credible evidence that Terrorists were plotting against Amtrak?? If I were a terrorist, I'd say Amtrak was small potatoes, I'd aim for Commuter railroads and Subway Systems that carry many more people.
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