To view this site you need Adobe Flash Player and your browser must allow javaScripts. Go here to get the latest Flash Player. A NEW DAY FOR MASS TRANSIT and platforms, providing a terrorist numerous options for carrying out an attack.” In addition, the report noted, “passengers routinely wear bulky outdoor clothing and carry a variety of packages or bags on board, which gives terrorists an easy way to conceal weapons or explosives. Limitations in current technology make screening millions of commuters impractical, and existing chemical and biological weapons sensors are only useful after an attack has already begun.” “Mass transit is the perfect target for terrorists. Where else can you take hundreds of innocent lives and effect such chaos as to effectively shut down a city?” David Cid, the former Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) counterterrorism specialist, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) consultant and deputy director of the Oklahoma Citybased Memorial Institute for the Prevention of Terrorism, told Homeland Security Today. “Terrorists recognize that mass transit systems are inherently accessible targets and easy to attack,” said Cid. “They’re attractive targets for killing large numbers of people because of the difficulty in monitoring the activities and behavior of these large numbers of people—physical security is limited because of” this. But Paul Lennon, general manager of the Transportation Security Administration’s (TSA) Mass Transit Sector, explained to Homeland Security Today that “if we are to maintain the open, immediate transportation service characteristics of our public transportation systems—that is, without implementing draconian or very costly security and interruptive measures—no one can guarantee that they can prevent someone who is single-minded and bent on destroying themselves in the process.” Charles “Sam” Faddis, a 20-year veteran CIA counterterrorist, insisted, though, that mass transit security—even in the Washington, DC, metro area—is alarmingly vulnerable. Having tackled terrorists from Southeast Asia to the Middle East, where he was a station chief before heading up the weapons of mass destruction counterterror branch at the National Counterterrorism Center, Faddis is a down and dirty, no-nonsense counterterrorist who thinks like a terrorist. From a “terrorist’s perspective, I can say that over the past few months of closely observing transit systems in the Washington metro area, I haven’t seen a lot that I can say is encouraging,” Faddis said. “There just isn’t much of anything [in the way of effective security] that matters from the perspective of Madrid, or London, or the Mumbai rail attacks.” He was brutally blunt: “The norm … is there is no worthwhile security of any kind. … It’s a real rarity when you do see the kind of security that would either deter or make terrorists think twice about trying to carry out an attack.” A counterterrorist’s perspective After taking his first post-9/11 passenger train ride last spring from Baltimore-Washington International Airport to Penn Station in Manhattan, Faddis said he couldn’t believe that it “was possible that seven years into the war on terror there were no visible changes of any kind to security. … There was no impediment of any kind, no matter how small, to any terrorist attempt to stage an attack.” Wondering what’s being done to prevent attacks on Capitol area rail transit, Faddis enlisted the aid of associates and over a period of eight months did his own assessment of the security of capitol area transit systems like the Virginia Railway Express (VRE) and Maryland’s MARC. VRE, which provides commuter rail service throughout northern Virginia and into Washington, DC, transports more than four million 22 April 2009 | www.HSToday.us This month’s issue is now available online at…