Where Security Strategies Fail

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff outlines public protections the government has taken since Sept. 11, 2001 [Washington in Brief, Sept. 9], but nothing seems to have been done about security on trains.

I've just returned from a trip to New York City on Amtrak. No one looked to see if my suitcase might have contained explosives. What a horribly spectacular stunt it would be for terrorists to blow up the train in the tunnel beneath the Hudson River. Dozens could be killed by the blast and possibly hundreds by drowning in the ruptured tube, with north-south train service mangled for months.

LOUIS WOOD

Rockville

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"Newly Banned Items Often Fly Past Airport Screeners" [front page, Sept. 13] identified the real threat to airport security. It is we, the flying public, who knowingly and intentionally conceal banned items that pose a threat to the security of every passenger on an airplane. Some among us have decided that the rules do not apply to them. They believe they have a right to expose hundreds of passengers to a higher level of risk because they find it inconvenient to pack banned items in their checked luggage. Their lip gloss, Chanel and hand lotions have trumped the public's need for airline safety.

I am sure that they would say that they are not terrorists, that they pose no threat, that they do not see where the threat lies in taking these items onboard, and that the new rules go too far. Regardless, their message is clear: I am above the law.

Passengers have a civic duty to comply with the law. We should make every effort to make the job of airport screeners easier, not harder by testing their ability to catch our dishonesty.

ROBERT M. COYNE

Derwood