According to an announcement on 60 Minutes last Sunday night, March 28, one of the topics on 60 Minutes II tonight (Wednesday March 31) will be a report on railroads by Bob Simon. The announcement didn’t say exactly what will be covered in his report. Stay tuned.
60Minutes II airs on CBS TV at 8:00 PM Eastern Time.
I heard that it was going to talk about how supposedly vulnerable the railroads are to terrorist attacks. I’m going to watch it and I’ll have to see just what it’s like, but my prediction is that there are going to be a lot of distorted and/or ommited facts and that as a result, people are going to be more suspicious of railfans being terrorists. Hopefully I’m wrong, though.
I think I’ll set the vcr just in case I forget to tune in. And you’re probably right, it’ll be just another fear-mongering piece. After all good news doesn’t sell.
I’d like to see a terrorist try to take over my train…I’ll hit em in the head with an air hose!!!
We’ll check it out.
stay safe
joe
so far it’s just Subways. [:(]
Post, and let me know if it’s worth watching, I’m on the west cost and won’t get it for another few hours.
I watched it, and it was about terrorism on the rails. With few exceptions the show didn’t cover any new ground. It mentioned the derailment of the
Southwest Chief near Hyder, AZ in 1995, and he thinking was terrorists might have caused it. It also mentioned the New York City Transit Police found some Iranian diplomatic personnel video taping the subways from one of the platforms in the dead of night. They were declared personna non grata, and deported.
The one in Arizona was just a bunch af *** holes that wanted to cause trouble and kill people…and they called them “Domestic Terrorists”. I personally didn’t get anything out of that episode.
I did not get anything useful from the show, either. Other than another attempt of the media into scaring us into accepting Big Brother’s attempts to keep us “safe”.
I am FAR more concerned for my safety during my DRIVE to either the train station or the airport, than when I am actually on the train or plane.
Consider the above-mentioned derailment of Amtrak in Arizona. Almost the entire train left the tracks at a fairly high rate of speed. One person killed and two hundred (if memory serves) injured. Now I in no way wi***o minimize the loss of even one life, or the injuries of the passengers, but when one compares the loss of life in a single plane crash, or the 50,000 killed on the highways each year, I feel most safe when on the train.
Saw the show. Basically no “real new” info, though it’s good that it did air. Many of us are still far too complacent. I’m surprised that they didn’t cover the incident in which a bag was placed by undercover media people on a Miami to New York Amtrak train and no one questioned the bag.
Zardoz makes an interesting point that trains are generally safe. But we should consider that since “Dubya” did succeed in making “attack conditions” tougher for terrorists, soft targets like trains may be considered by these wackos.
Hopefully as a result of the show, train riders and the traveling public in general will do the simplest thing: Keep your eyes and ears open and be alert! Railfans especially can be helpful.
There have been many cases in the past where before something “horrid” occured, people witnessed the “perps” at work but said or did nothing. I was born in New York City and I remember clearly as a kid that many people tended to look the other way when something “suspicious” was occuring in front of their noses. People didn’t want to “get involved”. It’s time to take our heads out of the sand.
As for “Big Brother” trying to scare us?
Many of us furiously politicize this. We can debate this for years but regardless if Mr. Kery or Mr. Bush is in the White House next term, it must be emphasized that these terrorists do indeed want us all in one condition: DEAD!
This includes the Democrats, Republicans, Liberals, Blacks, Whites, Hispanic, Asian, Native American, Arab Americans,Seniors, children, citizens, etc!! On this point there should be no debate.
Peace out, Amigos!
Antonio-
I will not debate that terrorists have no preference in who they kill.
But I sometimes wonder if terrorists really want us all dead, or do they want us TERRORIZED? (The deaths are just a bonus; an end to their means)
Consider 9/11. The plane that hit the Pentagon could have been used to kill far more people if it had flew into the Sears Tower or the Standard Oil building in Chicago. And who knows where the plane that was shot down in PA was headed; White House? Not too many to kill there. Just political heads. The World Trade Center? Lots of people (but would have been more had it been an hour later), but possibly more important was that it certainly was a target recognizable throughout the world, as well as being a symbol of Western culture. Destroying that certainly terrorized most of the country, and continues to do so today (hence the tv show and this discussion).
Of course, I might be completely wrong.
Maybe Amtrak needs to give Train Attends how to not get annoyed by Railfans taking pictures and one that I yelled at me was very rude then I muttered another call to Amtrak
DOGGY
I agree with others in that I really didn’t get much out of it. In regards to the part about the Iranians making a video of the NY subways, these guys were up to no good, but doesn’t that sound like something a railfan would do at a station?