US to lower transit terrorism alert level- sources

By Deborah Charles

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Department of Homeland
Security is going to lower its terrorism alert level to
“elevated” from “high” for buses, subways and trains on Friday
– a month after raising it in response to bombings in London,
two U.S. government officials said.

The officials said the decrease in the threat level was
expected to be announced later on Friday and would take place
in the evening, after rush hour.

The department had raised the alert level on July 7, after
bombings on the London transport system killed more than 50
people.

Homeland Security spokeswoman Katy Montgomery would not
confirm the change in threat level to “yellow” or “elevated”
for mass transit from “orange” which represents a high level of
risk.

“At this time, the mass transit system remains at orange,
but it is reviewed several times every day,” she said.

Last month, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff
said the increase in the threat level was being made in the
short term because of fears of a possible copycat attack.

At the time, Chertoff had said there was no specific,
credible information of an imminent attack on the United States
but has said that al Qaeda and its affiliates remained
determined to target Europe and the United States.

The increase state of alert on mass transit meant more
police were on watch and patrolling stations and platforms.
There were also bomb-sniffing dogs on patrol, increased video
surveillance of stations and more frequent inspection of trash
receptacles.

In New York, police conducted random searches of bags
carried by subway passengers. The subway system also added more
security after a second wave of explosions in London later in
July and locked seats on the subway train cars to prevent
objects being placed underneath them.

The searches in New York sparked a lawsuit by the New York
Civil Liberties Union, which claimed that random searches
violated constitutional rights of privacy and invited racial
profiling.

Separately on Friday, Homeland Security and FBI officials
confirmed that a warning had been sent out this week about
potential terror attacks using tanker trucks in three major
U.S. cities.

But the officials said the warning, sent to intelligence
officials across the country, was uncorroborated and not based
on reliable information.

It referred to potential attackers who might try to steal
tanker trucks to inflict mass casualties on Chicago, New York
and Los Angeles sometime in September.

“This is a single-source, uncorroborated statement of
questionable reliability,” one FBI official said. He noted that
officials have long warned that tankers could be used for a
possible attack.