Truck Ramming Again Recognized as Terrorist Threat

[kscarbel2]

Heavy Duty Trucking  /  July 15, 2016

The massacre by truck that killed at least 84 persons, including two Americans, and wounded over 200 others in France on July 14 raises anew the question of what can be done to prevent low-tech but devastating truck-ramming assaults of people alongside a roadway.  

The attack came out of nowhere as revelers were gathered on the seaside Promenade des Anglais in the famed resort city of Nice to view Bastille Day fireworks. The medium-duty cabover had been rented by the perpetrator, Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year old Tunisian immigrant. several days before.

At about 10:45 pm on July 14, Bouhlel drove the truck onto the thoroughfare and began plowing through the crowd. He kept driving and swerving into people for over a mile and began firing on police officers from the cab. The police returned fire, killing Bouhlel while he was still behind the wheel. Found in the cab was a small arsenal, including an automatic pistol, a cartridge clip, several cartridges, and a Kalashnikov and an M­16 rifle.

On this side of the Atlantic, the Governor of New York, Andrew Cuomo, was quick to react, issuing a statement early the next day that outlined immediate steps that were being taken to guard against any such assault, especially in New York City.

Cuomo ordered state law enforcement officials to “step up security at high-profile locations” around the state, including airports, bridges, tunnels and mass transit systems.

“The Department of Homeland Security and Emergency Services’ Office of Emergency Management Watch Center will be on heightened alert, monitoring world events,” the governor said in a statement. “DHSES regional staff have all been notified to maintain a heightened state of awareness at mass gathering events.”

He added that the New York State Police and Joint Task Force Empire Shield (which conducts Homeland Security operations) have deployed additional troops in the New York metropolitan region. 

New York City is no stranger to attack by truck. The first attempt by terrorists to destroy the World Trade Center, back in 1983, also used a rented truck. In it was placed a homemade 1,500-pound urea-nitrate bomb. The truck was parked in an underground garage and when the bomb exploded, it blew a hole five stories deep and half-a-football field wide. Six persons were killed and another thousand were injured by the blast.

The other infamous truck bombings perpetuated against Americans were the assault on the Marine barracks in Lebanon in 1983 and the 1995 attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City that left 168 persons dead.

However, explosives in vehicles can be detected and vehicular proximity to buildings can be controlled. But preventing a truck, or a car, for that matter, from being unleashed as a lethal battering ram anywhere people are gathered is a far more difficult feat. Indeed, the thought of it imparts new, and more ghastly, meaning to the words “soft target.”

Yet the threat of vehicular ramming is not new. The Department of Homeland Security addressed it as far back as 2010 in a public document released to law enforcement and first-responder personnel.

“Terrorists overseas have suggested conducting vehicle ramming attacks— using modified or unmodified vehicles— against crowds, buildings, and other vehicles,” advised DHS. “Such attacks could be used to target locations where large numbers of people congregate, including sporting events, entertainment venues, or shopping centers.”

Chillingly prescient, the agency went on to say that “Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a Homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience.”

The document details several examples of vehicle-ramming incidents, not all of which were deemed acts of terrorism. The most severe one cited was a front-loader launched against a crowd of people in Israel that killed several and wounded dozens more in 2008.

DHS also discussed “indicators” to be aware of that might point to an imminent vehicle-ramming attack. “Although a single indicator may not be suspicious, one or more might indicate a ramming attack is being developed, based on the specific facts or circumstances.” The agency soberly noted that “a ramming attack can be conducted with little to no warning.”

Here are the indicators cited by DHS:

• Unusual modifications to commercial motor vehicles, heavy equipment, passenger cars, and sports utility vehicles (SUVs), such as homemade attempts to reinforce the front of the vehicle with metal plates
• The purchase, rental, or theft of large or heavy-duty vehicles or equipment, such as SUVs, trucks, or commercial motor vehicles, if accompanied by typical indicators such as nervousness during the purchase, paying in cash, or lack of familiarity with the vehicle’s operations
• Commercial motor vehicles or heavy equipment being operated erratically, at unusual times, or in unusual locations, particularly in heavy pedestrian areas
• Attempts to infiltrate closed areas where traffic usually moves, but where crowds are gathered, such as for street festivals or farmers’ markets
• A vehicle operator’s apparent unfamiliarity with commercial motor vehicle or heavy equipment operation (unable to back up; trouble with shifting; poor lane tracking; unfamiliarity with basic vehicle mechanics such as air brake operations, slack adjusters, fifth wheel operations, Jake brakes, engine type, or location of fire extinguishers and other emergency equipment)

Clearly, the attack at Nice has signaled that everyone from police officers to motorists to pedestrians must keep foremost in mind that the next lone-wolf terrorist attack may well come from behind the wheel of the nearest vehicle. It's also obvious that the means of preventing such an assault are extremely limited.

"Absent intelligence, the same way you can't stop someone from shooting into a crowd, there isn't a magic way to stop someone from driving into a crowd," said NYPD Deputy Commissioner John Miller, per a New York Daily News report. "What we seek to do is minimize that threat in pedestrian malls like Times Square, where you have the largest crowds."

[kscarbel2]

Bastille Day attack prompts renewed call for 'First Observers' in U.S.

July 15, 2016  /  Land Line (OOIDA)

Following a deadly terror attack involving a panel truck in the coastal city of Nice, France, which left at least 84 people dead, transportation security officials in the U.S. held a conference call Friday to discuss transportation security.

Doug Morris, OOIDA safety and security operations director and also the chair of the Transportation Security Administration’s Highway and Motor Carrier Coordinating Council, was one of the conference call participants.

He said the group discussed the latest non-classified security briefings about the July 14 attack, as well as ways to improve surface transportation security in the United States.

One of the ways Morris said truckers can help is by participating in the TSA’s First Observer program. First Observer is a voluntary program that provides transportation professionals with training on effectively observing, assessing and reporting suspicious individuals, vehicles, packages and objects. OOIDA is a subcontractor for the program.

“(TSA) is counting on professionals in the trucking industry or the bus industry who know their industry, know what is suspicious, and know to report those types of things,” Morris said.

Since its inception seven years ago, Morris said the training program and the hotline have been responsible for helping to thwart at least 47 instances of terrorist activity, including an attempted bus hijacking at Super Bowl XLV. 

“If you see something that doesn’t look right, call someone,” he said. “If it’s an emergency situation, call 911. If it’s not, then call the TSA hotline.”

Authorities have identified Mohamed Lahouaiej Bouhlel, a 31-year-old man of Franco-Tunisian origin, as the attacker. He was killed by police after driving his panel truck into a large crowd. They were watching a fireworks display that marked the end of the national French holiday similar to America’s Independence Day, celebrating the storming of an infamous prison during the French Revolution.

According to a report from the BBC, Bouhlel rented the truck from a rental company in a nearby town on July 11, and was supposed to have returned it on July 13. Police have said the suspect was in possession of an automatic pistol, bullets, a fake automatic pistol and two replica assault rifles, as well as an empty grenade.

“As the onion peels back on this, we’ll see that there were a lot of clues that could have been called in and could have probably prevented this,” Morris said. “So what TSA is saying is, if you see something out there … If there’s a situation that’s suspicious and dealing with surface transportation, call the TSA hotline.”

For more information about First Observer, click here. To report suspicious activity via the First Observer hotline, call 866-615-5150.

[kscarbel2]

Terror Truck to ‘Mow Down’ Enemies Seen in Al-Qaeda Guide

Bloomberg  /  July 16, 2016

The use of a truck as a weapon in France didn’t come as a surprise to counter-terrorism experts who have watched attacks involving vehicles surge in recent years.

There were more than 70 worldwide in the two years ending in 2015, according to a database maintained by the University of Maryland. Three others had already occurred in France in the last two years.

It’s become a weapon of choice in areas where guns and bombs are hard to obtain. An al-Qaeda guide to motivate home-grown terror attacks recommended the use of heavy vehicles.

“The idea is to use a pickup truck as a mowing machine, not to mow grass but mow down the enemies of Allah,” said a 2010 magazine called Inspire, written by members of al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. “To achieve maximum carnage, you need to pick up as much speed as you can while still retaining good control of your vehicle in order to maximize your inertia and be able to strike as many people as possible in your first run.”

An attack similar to that in Nice, France on Thursday killed at least 84 people and highlighted the risks to large, public gatherings days before thousands will convene in Cleveland for the Republican nominating convention.

U.S. Protocols

Because the danger from vehicles is well known, federal and local law enforcement have protocols to protect large public events from trucks, said John Halinski, a former deputy administrator at the U.S. Transportation Security Administration who is now a security consultant.

“When you have events like that, you should barricade off the streets,” Halinski said. Photos of the carnage in Nice appear to show that precaution wasn’t taken, he said.

No group has taken credit for the Nice attack, whose perpetrator drove a 19-ton rented refrigerator truck through crowds celebrating Bastille Day. But “this sort of action is the sort of action advocated by terrorist groups on online media,” Paris anti-terrorism prosecutor Francois Molins told reporters.

U.S. officials set up barricades and roadblocks routinely at the largest public gatherings, such as July 4 on the National Mall in Washington or New Year’s Eve in New York’s Times Square, Halinksi said.

FBI Director James Comey has been warning for months that the group known as Islamic State is encouraging supporters to kill wherever they are, rather than travel to Syria or Iraq.

Needle in Haystack

Testifying with other senior U.S. officials before the House Homeland Security Committee on Thursday, Comey said the challenge for law enforcement and intelligence agencies is harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

“It’s to find pieces of hay in that haystack that may become a needle and disrupt them before they move from consuming to acting on that poisonous propaganda,” Comey said.

The use of vehicles in attacks is growing rapidly, according to the University of Maryland’s Global Terrorism Database. There were 157 such assaults from 1970 through 2015, and 70 of them occurred in just the past two years, according to the database. The group’s list of attacks includes aircraft as well as motor vehicles.

Palestinian Militants

While vehicle-impact attacks have been used prominently by Palestinian militants in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank, such attacks have also occurred in the West, said Matthew Henman, head of IHS Jane’s Terrorism and Insurgency Centre. The three other vehicle-impact attacks in the past two years in France were conducted by suspected Islamic militants, killing one and wounding 21.

A Department of Homeland Security and Justice Department bulletin for local police departments warned about vehicle attacks in 2010, noting that there had been at least two in the U.S. since 2001. “Vehicle ramming offers terrorists with limited access to explosives or weapons an opportunity to conduct a homeland attack with minimal prior training or experience,” the agencies said in the document.

“This is something our homeland security professionals are always concerned about,” the White House said Friday.

Road Map

The 74-page second edition of Inspire issued in the fall of 2010 included a detailed guide for carrying out an attack with a large vehicle or truck. Such attacks could be done in “the U.S., Britain, Canada, Australia, France, Germany, Denmark, Holland” and other countries sympathetic to Israel, it said.

It urged the attacker to carefully study potential targets and pick areas where people can’t easily escape. “The ideal location is a place where there are a maximum number of pedestrians and the least number of vehicles,” it said.

It also warned that it would be difficult to escape afterward. “Hence, it should be considered a martyrdom operation,” it said. “It’s a one-way road. You keep on fighting until you achieve martyrdom.”

While most truck drivers in the U.S. aren’t required to pass a security clearance, those working in the most sensitive areas receive background checks. Drivers who work in ports must obtain the Transportation Worker Identification Credential, which is issued by TSA. The agency also assesses any driver who is certified to carry hazardous waste.

Steal Trucks

Trying to expand these programs in order to prevent terrorists from using trucks to kill people in the U.S. wouldn’t be an effective solution, according to Rick “Ozzie” Nelson, a former National Security Council official who now serves as a senior associate for the Center for Strategic and International Studies. Would-be terrorists would simply try to steal trucks or radicalize someone who has already received TWIC approval, he said.

“How do you determine when an individual crosses the line from rhetoric to violent action?” Nelson said. “You either have to be in somebody’s head or it requires a level of surveillance that we as a society aren’t willing to accept.”

There is no way to completely prevent attacks on the lightly guarded flanks of society, ranging from airport areas outside of security to nightclubs and restaurants, Nelson said.

“Terrorists are going to take the path of least resistance,” Nelson said in an interview. “Being able to pick out a threat profile in something as ubiquitous as automobiles and trucks is an almost impossible task.”

[kscarbel2]

TSA warns fleets, drivers that terrorists could target trucks for hijacking and ‘ramming attacks’

Commercial Carrier Journal (CCJ)  /  May 5, 2017

The Transportation Security Administration (TSA) has issued an internal report warning of the potential for terrorists to use trucks as weapons to conduct attacks. TSA also released a list of countermeasures, mostly involving awareness of surroundings and reporting suspicious activity, that truck owners and operators should heed to help prevent such attacks from occurring.

Though none have occurred in the U.S., high-profile truck-ramming attacks have been carried out elsewhere, including a July 2016 attack in Nice, France, that killed 87 people and injured 430, and a similar attack in December 2016 in Berlin, Germany, in which 12 people were killed and 56 were injured. The TSA report cites these and 15 other vehicle-ramming attacks, 10 of which occurred in the past 10 months. The straight truck used in the Nice attack was rented, but the truck and trailer used by terrorists in the Berlin attack was hijacked and driven to Berlin by the assailant. The trucker was murdered by the attacker during the hijacking.

Carriers and drivers should maintain “a high level of alertness,” the report says, and should report suspicious activity to authorities and, in the case of drivers, to their carrier. Other countermeasures for carriers and drivers include parking in secure locations, ensuring vehicles are locked, refusing rides for hitchhikers and other strangers and, for carriers, ensuring route compliance of drivers.

“Commercial vehicle owners and operators should alert their staff to possible theft or hijacking of vehicles by would-be attackers and the importance of reporting suspicious activities to appropriate authorities,” the report says.

Dubbed “Vehicle Ramming: Threat Landscape, Indicators and Countermeasures,” the memo was issued to Homeland Security staffers, law enforcement agencies and others this week. The seven-page internal memo, marked unclassified, was obtained by Overdrive Friday.

“Terrorist organizations overseas have advocated conducting vehicle ramming attacks…against crowds, buildings and other vehicles. It is likely that terrorist groups will continue to encourage aspiring attackers to employ unsophisticated attacks such as vehicle-ramming, since these types of attacks minimize the potential for premature detection and could inflict mass fatalities, if successful,” according to the report.

Trucks in particular “present an especially attractive mechanism for ramming attacks,” the report says, “because of the ease with which they can penetrate security barriers and the large-scale damage they can inflict on people and infrastructure.”

[hatcity]

Discussed this on the news last night. Also contacting rental trucks (Penske, U-Haul,...)

[TeamsterGrrrl]

Obviously we need to take additional steps to secure our trucks- Many trucks don't even have steering column locks or other anti-theft devices.

[Green Dash]

There are still too many drivers leaving running trucks unattended because waiting for the cab to heat or cool when they return is out of the question. Wasting fuel and wear and tear aren't reason enough to put a stop to unnecessary idling, I doubt this will be either.

[Red Horse]

I hate to say it but at times I think we give people too many ideas or encourgement.  Catch 22 situation- good to point out a flaw or risk-bad to give the bad guys the idea of just how big a threat it is.