Panelists: Threat advisory system too focused on air travel
Warning in response to August plot to bomb planes should have extended to other types of transportation, analyst says.
The Homeland Security Department's color-coded threat advisory system fails to adequately capture dangers to roads, rails and other modes of ground transportation, panelists told House lawmakers Tuesday.
John Rollins, the former chief of staff for DHS' Office of Intelligence and now a policy analyst at the Congressional Research Service, said he "wondered why other modes of transportation, specifically rail lines -- the most attacked target in the post-9/11 environment -- were not included in the raising of the alert level" last month when United Kingdom authorities foiled a multi-airliner bomb plot.
Rollins told members of the House Government Reform Subcommittee on National Security, Emerging Threats and International Relations that DHS needs to expand its definition of at-risk methods of transportation, given that terrorist organizations have succeeded in bombing Spanish, Indian and British transit systems in recent years.
The federal reaction to last month's terror plot should have included closer coordination with industry leaders, state governors and metropolitan officials to better protect local modes of transportation in addition to airplanes, he said.
British and U.S. intelligence experts testifying at the hearing and lawmakers clashed on issues pertaining to detainment of alleged terrorists and how they are tried in courts.
Baroness Kishwer Falkner of Margravine, a member of the British House of Lords, criticized what she characterized as "kidnapping" of terror suspects who are yet to be charged with any crime. Subcommittee Chairman Christopher Shays, R-Conn., in turn criticized a statement from Falkner that it could take until 2008 to begin prosecuting suspects in the Aug. 10 terror plot. He called the delay "absurd."
Panelists also discussed the differences in American and British law pertaining to intelligence gathering. The United Kingdom has succeeded in identifying potential suspects through community and local law enforcement efforts. The apprehension of suspects last month came after a tip from neighbors of some of the men.
In contrast, the United States has used federal surveillance modes as "a matter of pre-emption," said Tom Parker, a former British counterterrorism official.