Mass Transit Placed On Alert After Alarms

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The New York Sun

WASHINGTON – American mass transit systems should remain alert against possible terror attacks, the Homeland Security Department said in a new warning that highlighted suspicious activity at unnamed European subway stations last fall.


Homeland Security spokesman Russ Knocke said yesterday there is no specific or credible intelligence to indicate transit systems are being targeted, and he described the notice, sent Tuesday, as a routine reminder for transit authority operators, state security advisers and police to remain on guard.


At issue were two incidents last November of what the notice described as a foreign man who was arrested in an unnamed European city after videotaping the interior and exterior of several subway cars and stations, including trash cans and stairwells.


The man taped nearly 17 minutes of subway pictures, the notice said, but “the camera contained no footage of tourist sites.” Three other people were later arrested for similar activity, the notice said.


The incidents “prove indications of continued terrorist interest in mass transit systems as targets, and potentially useful insights of the terrorists’ surveillance techniques,” said the notice, a copy of which was read to the Associated Press.


[Officials in New York said they were taking no additional measures because of the alert, but emphasized they were already engaged in a vigilant watch over the subways.


“We’re aware of this, but we haven’t taken any additional steps because of it,” an NYPD spokesman, Paul Browne, said.


The city’s subway system has been on Orange Alert, the second highest in the national security gradient, since the September 11,2001,attacks.A transit spokesman, Paul Fleuranges, said straphangers should report any suspicious activity to an MTA employee or police officer patrolling the subways.


Following the London subway bombings last summer, the NYPD started randomly searching bags at the entrances of some subway stations during peak hours.]


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