By Robert MacMillan
washingtonpost.com Staff Writer
Tuesday, July 12, 2005
9:03 AM
If you see suspicious activity on your commute into Manhattan from New Jersey, don't call the police. It can wait until you get out of the tunnel.
Or at least that's the early line on a rather confusing post-London bombings story. Here's the recap, based on what we know to be true right now:
New York's Metropolitan Transportation Authority and the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey cut cell-phone service last Thursday in the tunnels that link Manhattan with New Jersey, Brooklyn and Queens.
Security was the reason. The MTA runs the Brooklyn-Battery and Queens Midtown tunnels. The Port Authority supervises the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. We're talking a lot of vehicles and plenty of opportunities for terrorist mayhem.
Not only that, mass transportation systems are working under an "Orange" alert after Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff raised the threat level last week after the London attacks.
The New York Post and the Daily News ran stories on the cell-phone-tunnel matter Monday. USA Today followed up with a national report quoting an official at Verizon Wireless, the sole provider of cell service in the N.Y.-area transit tunnels:
"Verizon Wireless spokesman Jim Gerace says his company assumes it was to avoid a repeat of the London attacks, in which terrorists may have used phones to coordinate or detonate bombs. Gerace says the Port Authority has been mum about when, or even if, it plans to restore power. The agency has only told the company that power will stay off 'until further notice,' Gerace says."
The article said that the tunnels have been wired for cellular service for about a decade. The service has never been shut down before, including after Sept. 11, 2001.
Here's where things get funny: MTA spokesman Brian Dolan told me late Monday that his agency restored cell service to its tunnels. The decision to shut it off last Thursday was the result of a "miscommunication" between the authority and the New York Police Department. An NYPD spokesman confirmed that it never asked anyone to cancel service in any tunnel.
Fuhgeddaboutit.
Or not... the Port Authority's Lou Martinez told me that the outage will continue, either for as long as the Orange Level endures or until the authority decides otherwise. "We feel it is the proper decision" for security's sake, he said.
What about the MTA and the other tunnels? Was the Port Authority aware of the original miscommunication that prompted the wireless phone service to be shut down? Yes, Martinez said, and as far as the Port Authority is concerned, the MTA can do whatever it wants; the Authority's tunnels will remain cell-free zones.
Driver reaction was mixed, as the Daily News reported:
* '"I would feel safer if I could use my phone,' said Shelley Moore, 36, who wore her phone headset in the Midtown Tunnel [Sunday]. 'What if there's an accident?'"
* "Driver Deuce Martinez, 38, of Newark said cutting cell service to prevent bombings seemed like a fair tradeoff. 'If this betters the system in order to stop terrorist attacks, then I don't mind it,' Martinez said [Sunday] on Ninth Ave. as he crept toward the Lincoln Tunnel. 'I have no problem. It's just a couple of minutes.'"
A Verizon Wireless spokesman said the company is eager to work with public safety authorities against terrorism. Still, the overwhelming undertone that I detected from this person and others runs just this side of skeptical. (See also the New York Times and BBC coverage of the tunnel phone service flap.)
I discovered no other transportation agencies with similar plans to cut cell-phone service in tunnels or on bridges. The Maryland Transportation Authority has no plans to shut off access inside the Fort McHenry and Baltimore Harbor tunnels, said spokeswoman Teri Moss.
Neal Belitzsky, general manager of the company that runs the tunnel connecting Detroit and Windsor, Ontario, didn't say whether service would be cut, but noted that Homeland Security officials have issued no such advisory. Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said that there was little chance that one would be forthcoming.
The Chesapeake Bay & Bridge-Tunnel is a 17-mile span that connects Virgina's eastern shore with southeastern Virginia and the Norfolk Naval Shipyard. It's one more high-risk target that probably isn't planning on cutting service. In fact, Paul Burnette, the head of maintenance operations for the bridge, was unaware of the New York situation when I called him Monday morning. I called a few more times to get an update, but I don't have one yet.
Finally, the Eisenhower Memorial Tunnel in Colorado that carries I-70 through the Continental Divide at more than 11,000 feet, also will continue to carry wireless service, Senior Supervisor Rod Henderson told me.
Oh, if you're an Amtrak customer, cell-phone service is spotty in the tunnels to begin with, but spokeswoman Tracy Connell said there will be no intentional shutdowns.
And the N.Y. Post explained why it's probably useless to turn off phone service: "A police source said disabling cellphones in the tunnels is a good security measure, but not a foolproof one. Last year's deadly Madrid terror blasts were detonated by cellphones. But in that case, the blasting caps were connected to phones with alarms. The timers were set so that when the alarms went off, the power ignited the blasting caps, detonating the bombs. 'You didn't have to call in to that phone,' the source said. The source noted that if terrorists use timers, cutting off cellphone service in the tunnels would not help. 'Even if you were to shut power, [the bomb] would still go off,' the source said."
The N.Y. Post also offered a history of using cell phones to trigger bombs: "The tactic apparently was first used by the Irish Republican Army, and has since been embraced by Islamist terrorists. Virtually every terror group has used mobile phone detonators, experts say. Other explosions reportedly triggered by cellphones included the July 2002 cafeteria bombing at Hebrew University in Jerusalem, which killed seven; the Bali bombings in October 2002, which killed 202; and a car bombing that killed 12 at a Jakarta, Indonesia, hotel in August 2003."
There's something to chew on. See you in the tunnels.
London Wants Your PhonesLondon police officials are urging people who took pictures and video near the crime scenes of last Thursday to share their results, the Wall Street Journal reported.
"Brian Paddick, deputy assistant commissioner of the metropolitan police, said there have been 1,700 calls made to a special antiterrorism hot line to report tips about the bombings and that some of the callers were providing 'some very important information,'" the Journal wrote. "He issued a special appeal for videos, photos and cellphone images from people who were in the area of the crime scenes Thursday morning in case they provide clues."
The paper also quoted British Home Secretary Charles Clarke as telling BBC TV that he would seek new rules from the European Union that would make phone and Internet companies store their records for lengthy periods.
A Defining Moment in SpywareSpyware is such a crazy phenomenon for us technology reporters. Everyone agrees that it's not only a pain in the rear, but a threat to our identity. The only problem is, no one could ever put a finger on exactly what it is.
Now we can.
The Anti-Spyware Coalition today said that it has come up with a definition for spyware -- as opposed to adware and other kinds of programs that we didn't ask for but wound up on our computers anyway.
Here's how I distinguished between the two in a column I wrote last week:
* Adware: Software programs that report back to advertising companies about the sites that you visit online. They arrive at your computer via free programs such as instant-messaging icons and games that you find online. Ever wonder why you get random pop-up ads when you're not even surfing the Web? Blame adware and the companies whose ads are addling you. People tend to download these programs because they failed to notice the consent they were giving on page 2 million of the user agreement.
* Spyware: Same thing, only worse. Spyware not only reports to its maker what you're doing online, it can deliver your personal data to hackers who then use it for their ends.
The coalition's definitions are far more intricate because they were developed by the legal teams at dozens of technology companies. You can parse to your CPU's content at the group's Web site. The coalition also is taking public comments until Aug. 12.
Ari Schwartz of the Center for Democracy and Technology noted that the absence of a definition frequently has kept Congress and the technology industry from finding ways of handling the problem. "The definitions will serve as a foundation for all future efforts to help users make more informed decisions about which programs to keep and which to delete," he said in a statement the group released today.
Among its members is Microsoft Corp., which is getting some unwanted attention over reports that it is considering whether to buy Claria. That company used to be called Gator, and its main business was depositing something-ware (I don't want to make Claria mad by calling it "spyware") on people's PCs.
To some of our more paranoid geek users out there, it might appear strange that the spyware definition that Microsoft agreed to excludes Claria's product lineup. (See this story in Wired on how Microsoft's anti-spyware tool suggests that users "ignore" Claria software when it shows up on their PCs instead of "removing" it.) Just check the statement that Claria sent me: "We're pleased that the Anti-Spyware Coalition has completed its work on a draft set of definitions for use by participating anti-spyware software vendors. A consistent set of definitions will improve the user experience for consumers who use anti-spyware software tools to understand what software is on their desktops, and to make informed decisions on whether to keep any particular software title."
We'd feel the same way if we were about to score millions off the coalition's biggest member.
Send links and comments to robertDOTmacmillanATwashingtonpost.com .
