January 22, 2007, - 3:03 pm
Well, It’s About Time/What Took So Long?: TSA Now Guards Toxins on Trains . . . Some of the Time
By Debbie Schlussel
Hmmm . . . 5.5 years after 9/11, and the TSA has just now decided to finally start monitoring rail shipments of potentially deadly cargo passing through cities.
Mazel Tov (“Congrats” in Yiddish). Glad the folks at the falsely name Transportation Security Administration have finally discovered America.
The TSA says that unguarded rail cars filled with toxic chemicals in cities are the single biggest terrorist threat related to the nation’s railroads.
Really? Then, why did it take 5 1/2 years to do something about it?
Just curious. More:
The U.S. Naval Research Lab has said an attack on such a rail car could kill 100,000 people. Railroads carry 105,000 carloads of toxic chemicals a year, and 1.6 million carloads of other hazardous materials such as explosives and radioactive items, the government says.
The new tracking system lets the TSA enforce an agreement it reached with railroads to cut the amount of time hazardous rail shipments spend unguarded in cities. The agreement, signed by the 257 railroads that transport toxic chemicals, aims to reduce by 25% this year the number of hours hazardous rail shipments sit unguarded in each of 46 major urban areas.
Uh, why do these rail shipments spend ANY time unguarded? Again, just curious.
The THSA (Transportation Hardly Secure Administration) at work.
Tags: America, Debbie Schlussel Hmmm, rail car, toxic chemicals, Transportation Hardly Secure Administration, Transportation Security Administration, U.S. Naval Research Lab
It’s really sad. Doesn’t surprise me 🙁 .
It took decades for us to realize that handing out our ss number everywhere we went (ie. dentist, doctors, and whatever form asked for it) ended up making many people victims of identity theft.
Highrise on January 22, 2007 at 5:49 pm