SSO Newsletter No. 6, Page 11

First, individual acts of terrorism and extreme violence are producing increasing casualties. As reported by the U.S. Sate Department, bombings of transportation targets in India, France, Israel, and Colombia are killing growing numbers of people. Individual incidents, while occurring in lesser number, are more violent than ever before.

Second, assessments prepared by the U.S. intelligence community indicate both the growing attractiveness of transit as a target and the growing number of incidents committed against rail and bus systems worldwide. According to the U.S. State Department, between 1991 and 1998, the number of violent attacks against transportation targets has increased from 20 percent of all violent attacks in 1991 to nearly forty percent in 1998.

Third, a growing number of terrorist groups appear no longer to be constrained by traditional state sponsors or sub-national groups. New motivations, which no longer include an over-riding concern for public support, are eroding restraint, and increasing the violence associated with terrorist attacks.

Finally, with the release of Sarin gas in Tokyo on March 20^th, 1995, the chemical, biological and nuclear threshold has now been crossed. Weapons of Mass Destruction now appear to be within the grasp of those more willing to use them.

While U.S. transit systems have thus far not been the focus of political terrorism, they have been the targets of quasi-terrorist acts such as the 1940 to 1956 "Mad Bomber" campaign that targeted transit and other infrastructure targets in New York City and the 1994 Fulton Street Firebombing on the

NYC Subway. On July 30, 1997, 300,000 commuters were stalled as police rerouted trains underneath the Brooklyn apartment of a trio of suicide bombers. The bombers were planning to attack the Atlantic Avenue terminus of the Long Island Rail Road, and New York City subway and bus targets. The February 26, 1993 World Trade Center Bombing, though not a transit-directed attack, impacted operations on both the NYC Subway and the bi-state PATH commuter railway, yielding significant damage to PATH's lower Manhattan terminus at the World Trade Center. The October 9, 1995 sabotage-induced derailment of Amtrak's Sunset Limited killed one and injured 65 people. The most violent quasi-terrorist event occurred on December 7, 1993, when Colin Ferguson, a lone gunman, killed 6 and injured 17 in an armed assault on a rush hour Long Island Rail Road train.