Sen. Lieberman Holds a Hearing on Rail and Transit Security

So those are the things that -- there are other things, but those are some of the highlights.

LIEBERMAN: So is it fair to say that we increased -- we raised our guard in response to that information for bin Laden?

PISTOLE: Yes, there are actually -- in terms of other activity, we also did several things in terms of operational deterrence. For example, the industry on its own -- with the information from us, obviously -- but conducted what's known as a rail safe day and that involved over 1,000 law enforcement, security officials really from across the country -- major transit agencies that stepped-up patrols, either uniform patrols, K-9 patrols, additional awareness, information awareness, that given the bin Laden death that there may be something going on. So that was done, I believe, on Thursday or Friday of that week.

And so that was something that was done based on prior funding from DHS and TSA were really done unilaterally. So there are other steps that were taken.

LIEBERMAN: How about the suggestion that there might be an attempt to essentially disable some track over a valley or a bridge, do we -- do we have a way or are we raising transit systems raising their surveillance on tracks to prevent that kind of episode from happening?

PISTOLE: Yes, and we believe, Chairman, that this is consistent with bin Laden's idea of trying to cause a great number of casualties...

LIEBERMAN: Right.

PISTOLE: ...because, as also been mentioned, the (inaudible) economic impact.

LIEBERMAN: Yeah.

PISTOLE: So if you could get a train and to derail into a valley, just the psychological aspects of that. As part of that, the transit agencies -- Amtrak, in particular -- stepped up their patrols on the rails to look for that perimeter fencing where appropriate and especially look at the critical areas over bridges and areas that also maybe more -- seen as more vulnerable, obviously, the CCTV, where appropriate especially at stations.

The concern is not only the derailment but also the possible attack like we saw at the Moscow...

LIEBERMAN: Right.

PISTOLE: ...where somebody could go into a crowded station, in this case, a train station whether Union Station, 30th Street Station, Penn Station with explosives and suitcases or bags, whatever, and then do -- do a bombing in that regard. So it's not just limited to the intelligence we have. We've been stepped up vigilance across the board.

LIEBERMAN: OK. That's important to hear.

The bottom line I'm seeing that anybody is listening that there's -- there's a lot more going on to protect mass transit systems then is visible. It's very visible in the air transport case, of course, with TSA less so with rail and -- and buses.

Commissioner Boynton, give us just a few moments of both your -- the response from a state perspective to the intelligence from the bin Laden compound and -- and if you can, how you work both with TSA but also how you work with the Metro-North and Amtrak in Connecticut.

BOYNTON: Chairman, we used our fusion center -- our Intelligence Fusion Center. It's a state-run entity -- 72 around the country -- to disseminate that intelligence bulletin, and we did that in two ways.

First, for those who have security clearances, we provided a classified briefing. We have tripled the number of people in Connecticut like police chiefs with those clearances, and we're adding more.

And secondly, with the terror line -- the unclassified part -- our fusion center has an existing network to send that out quickly to every police department. And in this case, since it was not law enforcement sensitive, also to all first responders. And so -- and when I say -- I shouldn't say police department -- all police partners -- so that includes not only municipal police, state agencies with police forces but also Amtrak and MTA within Connecticut.

I do want to add that part of our reaction from that intel took place a year ago and prior to that, that we have been doing things in my view that help us now but we didn't start now. And one example of that is getting that TSA intelligence analyst into our fusion center as a primary worksite.