Train Wrecks and Track Attacks: An Analysis of Attempts by Terrorists and Other Extremists to Derail Trains or Disrupt Rail Transportation

Attempts to sabotage rails and deliberately derail passenger trains have a long history in conventional and guerrilla warfare as well as during some particularly bitter labor disputes in the past. Since the 1970s, political fanatics have become a major adversary. Terrorists have sought to derail trains to achieve high-casualty events, while anarchists and issue oriented extremists have attacked rails to attract attention to their causes and impose economic damage. In this report, we examine the more than a thousand attempts to derail trains and to attack rail infrastructure to discern overall patterns and trends. We then look at four subsets of attacks in greater detail: those by India’s Maoist guerrillas; those by separatist insurgents in Thailand; those by various jihadist groups worldwide; and those by an assemblage of anarchists, environmental and similar cause-oriented extremists in Europe. How do these adversaries compare in terms of tactics, success rates, lethality, and other factors? Do their different objectives and circumstances affect their actions? Perhaps most important, is there evidence that they become more effective and lethal over time

“Smashing Into Crowds” -- An Analysis of Vehicle Ramming Attacks

Vehicle ramming attacks are not new. But since 2010 Jihadists have urged their use. Is this the wave of the future, or a terrorist fad? To answer this and other questions the authors expanded and updated the database used in their May 2018 MTI Security Perspective entitled An Analysis of Vehicle Ramming as a Terrorist Threat to include 184 attacks since January 1, 1970. They also reviewed literature and examined some cases in detail. This MTI Security perspective indicates that while not new, vehicle rammings are more frequent and lethal since 2014, although the number of attacks seems to be dropping in 2019. Still it is too early to know if this is because of government countermeasures or because it is a fad that has come and gone. They also found that: (a) the majority of attacks occur in developed countries like the US and Europe; (b) though not more lethal than some other tactics they can be easily carried out by those who cannot get bombs or guns in a target-rich environment that is difficult to protect; (c) while Jihadists (responsible for only 19% of the attacks) have exhorted their use since 2010, it isn’t clear these calls have been successful -- instead the pattern of attacks suggest a kind of wider contagion; (d) attackers plowing vehicles into public gatherings and pedestrianized streets are the most lethal, particularly the attacks are planned and the drivers rent or steal large trucks or vans driven at speed; and finally, (e) government authorities cannot prevent these attacks but can and are doing things to prevent them and mitigate fatalities when they occur

An Analysis of Vehicle Ramming as a Terrorist Threat

Ramming attacks in which drivers deliberately plow their vehicles into public gatherings, pedestrians, or bicyclists, have become an increasingly common terrorist tactic. This MTI Security Perspective, by Brian Michael Jenkins and Bruce R. Butterworth analyzes 78 vehicular attacks between January 1973 and April 2018. According to their analysis, it is a growing trend, and a frightening one. The 78 attacks led to 281 deaths and around 1,200 injuries. Sixteen attacks took place between 1973 and 2007, while 62 took place between 2008 and April 2018. Thirty of these occurred in 2017 and the first four months of 2018 alone

Does “See Something, Say Something” Work?

Do “See Something, Say Something” programs work? The evidence strongly suggests that in the specific case of public surface transportation, the answer is “yes.” Transport staff and passengers play an important role in the prevention of terrorist attacks. By discovering and reporting suspicious objects, they have prevented more than 10 percent of all terrorist attacks on public surface transportation. Detection rates are even better in the economically advanced countries where more than 14 percent of the attempts are detected—and have been improving. This MTI Security Perspective analyzes detections since 1970 and suggests that “See Something, Say Something” campaigns are worthwhile

Implementation and Development of Vehicle Tracking and Immobilization Technologies

Since the mid-1980s, limited use has been made of vehicle tracking using satellite communications to mitigate the security and safety risks created by the highway transportation of certain types of hazardous materials. However, vehicle-tracking technology applied to safety and security is increasingly being researched and piloted, and it has been the subject of several government reports and legislative mandates. At the same time, the motor carrier industry has been investing in and implementing vehicle tracking, for a number of reasons, particularly the increase in efficiency achieved through better management of both personnel (drivers) and assets (trucks or, as they are known, tractors; cargo loads; and trailers). While vehicle tracking and immobilization technologies can play a significant role in preventing truck-borne hazardous materials from being used as weapons against key targets, they are not a & ”silver bullet.” However, the experience of DTTS and the FMCSA and TSA pilot projects indicates that when these technologies are combined with other security measures, and when the information they provide is used in conjunction with information supplied outside of the tracking system, they can provide defensive value to any effort to protect assets from attacks using hazmat as a weapon. This report is a sister publication to MTI Report 09-03, Potential Terrorist Uses of Highway-Borne Hazardous Materials. That publication was created in response to the Department of Homeland Security´s request that the Mineta Transportation Institute´s National Transportation Security Center of Excellence provide research and insights regarding the security risks created by the highway transportation of hazardous materials

Security Awareness for Public Bus Transportation: Case Studies of Attacks Against the Israeli Public Bus System, Research Report 11-07

This report presents 16 case studies of attacks planned or carried out against Israeli bus targets, along with statistical data on the number, frequency, and lethality of attacks against bus targets that have taken place in Israel since 1970 and during the Second Intifada, which occurred between September 2000 and the end of 2006. The statistical data come from MTI’s Database on Terrorist and Serious Criminal Attacks Against Public Surface Transportation. The report also includes an analysis of the effectiveness of different improvised explosive devices and methods of delivering them and raises questions for future discussion. The case studies of bus attacks were selected not because they are statistically representative, but because they provide a variety of interesting observations. They include both lethal and nonlethal attacks, attacks in which security measures were effective or were not followed or were ineffective, and attacks in which the attackers’ tactics and/or devices were lethal or failed or reduced the lethality of the attack. It is hoped that the cases presented in this report and the accompanying analysis will increase understanding of what can happen and of what can deter, prevent, and/or mitigate the occurrence of terrorist attacks against public bus systems

Novel esters of cysteine as potential chemoprotectants

Novel esters of cysteine have been synthesized to evaluate their potential as chemoprotectants. The increased lipohilicity of the esters relative to cysteine should facilitate their entry into cells. Following hydrolysis, the esters should provide an intracellular source of cysteine, to be utilized either for the synthesis of glutathione (GSH) or to act as a direct nucleophilic chemoprotectant. Several esters of cysteine have previously been show to protect against the acute pulmonary oedema induced by perfluoroisobutene, an electrophilic pyrolysis product of Teflon. Cysteine isopropylester (CIPE) produced a rapid but transient elevation of the levels of non-protein sulphydryls in several mouse organs, which was particularly marked in the lung. In laboratory animals with induced hepatic cytochrome P450 activity, CIPE protected against paracetamol and bromobenzene- induced toxicity. CIPE ameliorated the toxicity of paracetamol as effectively as N-acetylcysteine. However, CIPE did not prevent naphthalene-induced damage to the lung. Following exposure of mice to diethyl maleate, CIPE did not support the replenishment of hepatic GSH, in contrast to N acetylcysteine. CIPE appeared to offer best protection against electrophilic attack of short duration, coinciding with elevated levels of tissue cysteine. High doses of CIPE alone were toxic when administered to mice induced with benzo(a)pyrene but not to control or mice induced with phenobarbitone. In a rat lung slice model, the esters of cysteine, CIPE and cysteine cyclohexylester, produced considerable rises in intracellular cysteine when compared to other potential cysteine delivery systems, cysteine, N-acetylcysteine or L, 2- oxothiazolidine-4-carboxylic acid. All these cysteine delivery systems were capable of replenishing GSH in slices previously depleted of their GSH by diethyl maleate. Cellular esterases played a key role in the metabolism of cysteine esters by isolated cells. Inhibiting esterase activity, while increasing the extracellular half life of the cysteine esters did not greatly increase the pool of unmetabolised ester detected within cells. A novel role for esterase, mediating the rise in cellular cysteine by the esters, is hypothesised. Paraquat is a herbicide whose pulmonary toxicity is associated with its selective accumulation into the lungs via a polyamine uptake system. The iron chelators, desferrioxamine, CP51 and 2, 3-dihydroxybenzoic acid, partially ameliorated the toxicity of paraquat to rat lung slices. Desferrioxamine was the most effective because it also blocked accumulation of paraquat. Exogenous GSH moderately alleviated the toxicity of paraquat but raising the pulmonary content of GSH with phorone pretreatment did not

Theater Education and Emerging Technologies

Theater educators need compelling arguments for including the use of emerging technologies in the secondary theater classroom. The research documents the current uses of emerging technologies in the secondary theater classroom and contrasts the uses of traditional theater technologies with the uses of emerging technologies. Interviews with theater professionals identify current issues and practices in the theater community regarding the usage of technology. A telephone survey of theater teachers reveals patterns of technology use in the Seattle School District. The research concludes that theater teachers have many tools at their disposal to teach students the processes of artistic problem solving and the tools of technology are one of those very compelling and powerful tools

Soft interactions in Herwig++

We describe the recent developments to extend the multi-parton interaction model of underlying events in Herwig++ into the soft, non-perturbative, regime. This allows the program to describe also minimum bias collisions in which there is no hard interaction, for the first time. It is publicly available from versions 2.3 onwards and describes the Tevatron underlying event and minimum bias data. The extrapolations to the LHC nevertheless suffer considerable ambiguity, as we discuss.Comment: 10 pages, talk given by Manuel Bahr at First International Workshop on Multiple Partonic Interactions at the LHC, "MPI@LHC'08", Perugia, Italy, October 27-31 200