PUBLICATION

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MTI Report 97-04
Protecting Surface Transportation Systems and Patrons from Terrorist Activities
Principal Investigator: Brian Michael Jenkins

Contemporary terrorists have made public transportation a new theater of operations. Algerian extremists set off bombs on the subways of Paris in 1995 and 1996; the Irish Republican Army has waged a long running terrorist campaign against Britain’s passenger trains and London’s subways; Palestinian terrorists have carried out suicide bombings on Israel’s buses; and an individualor a group calling itself “Sons of the Gestapo” derailed a passenger train in Arizona in 1995. Islamic extremists planned to set off car bombs in New York’s tunnels and bridges in 1993 and in 1997 they plotted suicide bombings in New York subways. The nerve gas attack on Tokyo’s subways by members of the Aum Shinrikyo sect in 1995 raised the specter that terrorists in the future might resort to weapons of mass destruction to which public transportation is uniquely vulnerable.

ABSTRACT

Contemporary terrorists have made public transportation a new theater of operations. For those determined to kill in quantity and willing to kill indiscriminately, public transportation offers an attractive target. Because it is public and used by millions of people daily, there is necessarily little security. Passengers are strangers, promising attackers anonymity. Concentrations of people in contained environments are especially vulnerable to conventional explosives and unconventional weapons and attacks on public transportation, the circulatory systems of urban environments, cause great disruption and alarm, which are the traditional goals of terrorism.

In order to effectively meet the threat posed by terrorism and other forms of violent crime, it is essential that transportation system operators have a thorough understanding of the security measures employed elsewhere, especially by those transportation entities that have suffered terrorist attacks or that confront high threat levels.

This volume reports on the first phase of a continuing research effort carried out by the Norman Y. Mineta International Institute for Surface Transportation Policy Studies (IISTPS) on behalf of the U.S. Department of Transportation. It comprises a chronology of attacks on surface transportation systems; four case studies of transportation security measures (in Paris, Atlanta, and New York, and at Amtrak); security surveys of nine additional cities in the United States; and an annotated bibliography of current literature on the topic.

ABOUT THE AUTHORS

BRIAN MICHAEL JENKINS

Brian Michael Jenkins is one of the world’s foremost authorities on terrorism and sophisticated crime. He works with government agencies, international organizations and multinational corporations as an analyst, investigator, and crisis management consultant. From 1989 to 1998,Mr. Jenkins was the Deputy Chairman of Kroll Associates, an international investigative and consulting firm. Before that, he was chairman of RAND’s political science department, where from 1972 to 1989, he also directed RAND’s research on political violence. He is currently a senior advisor to the president of RAND.

Jenkins has BA in Fine Arts and a Master’s degree in History, both from UCLA. He studied at the University of Guanajuato in Mexico and in the Department of Humanities at the University of San Carlos in Guatemala, where he was a Fulbright Fellow and recipient of a second fellowship from the Organization of American States.

Commissioned in the infantry at the age of 19, Mr. Jenkins became a paratrooper and ultimately, a Captain in the Green Berets. He is a decorated combat veteran, having served in the Seventh Special Forces Group in the Dominican Republic during the American intervention and later as a member of the Fifth Special Forces Group in Vietnam (1966-1967). He returned to Vietnam on a special assignment in 1968 to serve as a civilian member of the Long Range Planning Task Group; he remained with the group until the end of 1969, receiving the Department of the Army’s highest award for his service. Mr. Jenkins returned to Vietnam in 1971 on a special assignment. Mr. Jenkins is the author of International Terrorism: A New Mode of Conflict, the editor and coauthor of Terrorism and Personal Protection, co-editor and co-author of Aviation Terrorism and Security, and co-author of The Fall of South Vietnam. He is also the author of numerous articles, book chapters, and published research reports on conflict and crime.

In 1996, President Clinton appointed Mr. Jenkins to be a member of the White House Commission on Aviation Safety and Security. From 1999 to 2000, he served as an advisor to the National Commission on Terrorism and in 2000 was appointed to be a member of the U.S. Comptroller General’s International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) and a member of the board of directors of the ICC’s Commercial Crime Services. Mr. Jenkins was also a member of the Transportation Research Board/National Research Council Panel on Transportation: Science and Technology for Countering Terrorism, 2002.

Mr. Jenkins has led the Mineta Transportation Institute’s counter-terrorism research team since 1997, producing three volumes of case studies of major terrorist attacks on surface transportation and participating in symposia to disseminate best practices distilled from lessons learned in the attacks. attacks.

FRANCES EDWARDS-WINSLOW, PH.D., CEM

Frances Edwards-Winslow is a nationally known leader in emergency management, especially in terrorism preparedness, as the Director of the San Jose Metropolitan Medical Task Force. She was recognized as Public Official of the Year 2002 by Governing Magazine for her leadership in terrorism preparedness. She was also recognized as one of the Power 100 of the Silicon Valley by San Jose Magazine. Shortly after the tragedy of 9-11, San Jose was named best prepared city in articles in the Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Christian Science Monitor, and other national publications. The overall preparedness program was featured on MSNBC and was the model of 21st century civil defense on The History Channel.

Ms. Edwards-Winslow is also Director of Emergency Preparedness for the City of San José, CA. She is responsible for San Jose’s Office of Emergency Services, including public education programs regarding terrorism preparedness, as well as natural and technological disasters that may occur in the community. OES also maintains the City’s Emergency Operations Plan, Emergency Operations Center, and coordinates the RACES and CERT programs of the city, involving over 1,000 volunteers.

Ms. Edwards-Winslow represented emergency management on the five night “Bio War” series on Nightline with Ted Koppel in 1999. She is a a published author in terrorism studies, a frequent speaker at conferences and training events, including Mineta Transportation Institute symposia. She is a member of the Executive Session on Domestic Preparedness at Harvard University, the Bioterrorism Working Group at Stanford University, and the National Academy of Sciences Institute of Medicine Metropolitan Medical Task Force Evaluation Committee.

Winslow teaches emergency management courses and public administration courses at various universities, including graduate courses at San José State University and Santa Clara University. She was a faculty member of the Political Science Department at Kean College of New Jersey, where she developed the Public Administration Program. She holds degrees from Drew University (BA and MA) and New York University (MUP and Ph.D.) and a certificate in Hazardous Materials Materials Management from University of California at Irvine. She is a Certified Emergency Manager (CEM).

TECHNICAL

MTI Report 97-04
Protecting Surface Transportation Systems and Patrons from Terrorist Activities
Principal Investigator: Brian Michael Jenkins
Published: January 1997 (Out of print)
Keywords: Bombings, Crisis management, Derailing, Emergency Communications, Emergency response, Liaison with authorities, Restoration of services, Role of the public, Sabotage, Security, Security organization, Security technology, Treat assessment.
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