Feds: Airline Security is Federal Responsibility, While Mass Transit is Local

WASHINGTON -- The government must focus on preventing airline hijackings and other terrorism threats that could inflict mass casualties, and it is limited in the help it can give cities and states to protect trains and buses, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said Thursday.

His comments, in an Associated Press interview, drew criticism from Senate Democrats from metropolitan areas who said mass transit systems are highly vulnerable to terrorists -- as shown in last week's bombings of three subway lines and a bus in London.

The head of the local transit authority said it can only do so much to ensure security.

"We don't have the luxury of being able to close up our security system like airports do," Centre Area Transportation Authority General Manager Hugh Mose said. "The best we're going to be able to do is be as watchful and to observe as much as we can."

CATA has taken steps to make its employees more aware of potential problems and has developed a response plan to terrorist incidents, he said.

That means such things as checking buses for items that may be suspicious and keeping an eye on passengers who seem nervous or may be hiding something.

Mose said he's spoken with Penn State police about responding to a situation, and he was informed that the department's bomb-sniffing dog would be readily available.

"It's appropriate for transit systems large and small to be very concerned," Mose said.

An incident is more likely in cities with larger transit systems, but Mose said it could happen anywhere, so it is best to be aware.

"To me this is just like any other aspect of providing safe service for our traveling public," he said.

With finite resources and a looming range of threats, Chertoff said the federal government is forced to set priorities to prevent attacks that would produce the highest number of casualties. In the interview with AP reporters and editors, Chertoff noted that mass transit systems are largely regulated by state and local authorities that he said should provide the bulk of security.

By contrast, he said, the commercial aviation system is "almost exclusively a federal responsibility" and demands extensive funding.

"The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the capacity to kill 3,000 people," Chertoff said. "A bomb in a subway car may kill 30 people. When you start to think about your priorities, you're going to think about making sure you don't have a catastrophic thing first."

He added: "But it doesn't mean that we only focus on aviation. It means we do aviation, we do other things as well, but we scale our response based on the nature of the architecture."

The remarks touched off criticism among Democrats as the Senate debated a $31.8 billion Homeland Security Department spending measure. Senators rejected a plan to spend $1.16 billion on mass transit security measures, favoring instead a competing $200 million proposal.

Sen. Jon Corzine, D-N.J., who has described Chertoff as a friend, said he hoped the secretary would reconsider whether "funding for rail and transit security is a lower priority for the federal government."

"It certainly isn't a lower priority on the terrorists' minds," Corzine said. "It wasn't in Madrid. It wasn't in Moscow. And certainly and unfortunately was not in London most recently."

Confronted later at a Senate hearing, Chertoff sought to clarify his remarks, saying the government has "an equal responsibility to protect Americans across the board."

Still, he said, "we have to be partners with everybody but we have to recognize there are differences in the way we apply our partnership."

The AP-Ipsos poll indicated that 57 percent of Americans believe a terrorist attack on buses, trains or subways is inevitable, while just over a third said they think such an attack can be prevented.