• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

US to lower transit terrorism alert level- sources

Posted on: Friday, 12 August 2005, 12:12 CDT

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.

Source: REUTERS

More News in this Category