Vulnerability Assessment the Terrorist Incident in New

Vulnerability Assessment

The terrorist incident in New York on September 11, 2001 woke many individuals and organizations to the realities of vulnerabilities within the airline industry. The particular problems seemed to be that crucial training for individuals who wished to work as commercial airline pilots had very little monitoring. Of course, security on flights was the most critical oversight as people within the industry believed that inflight incidents would not happen. Other transportation industries also realized the immediacy of the need for change, and have been implementing new protocols also. It may seem that the most vulnerable are those that travel in international waters or skies, but dangers exist within the United States because of a reliance on rail transportation of people and goods also. The United States could face significant problems if a major rail transportation system was interrupted due to terrorist infiltration. The research into this system proves that there remain major vulnerabilities in the U.S. rail system that could result in large scale death and destruction.

The most significant issue would be a rail system that is used as transportation for a major city. In Washington, D.C., the metro is used by approximately 800,000 people every day (Post, 2007). According to research all of the trips that occur throughout the system are controlled through a single master command structure (Brainard & Derrick-Mills, 2011). This system is well guarded and there are multiple fail-safes within the system, but a large detonation could be used to cause significant damage to the system. Another singular feature of the rail system is that it connects, and operates below, some of the seminal structures of United States government. Stops are located close to the Pentagon, Capitol Building and the White House. It would be possible for organizations to use these stops to cause a great deal of damage to seats of American government.

Many terrorist organizations in the world would be interested in gaining access to the Metro rail system in order to disrupt the United States. One primary concern that law enforcement agencies have been particularly concerned about is the possibility of either a dirty bomb or other small nuclear device. Iran has been linked to Hamas and other groups, and there is the possibility that these groups could use some type of nuclear device supplied to them by Iran. It would not be necessary for the bomb to cause a nuclear reaction as long as there was the fear of the release of nuclear contamination. Since the Metro system is used by a great number of government employees it would be a delivery system that could be used to cause a great deal of destruction.