Schumer Calls on Chertoff to Apologize and Retract Statements on Mass Transit Immediately
SCHUMER CALLS ON CHERTOFF TO APOLOGIZE AND RETRACT STATEMENTS ON MASS TRANSIT IMMEDIATELY
Chertoff said that Responsibility to Protect Transit Systems Lies with States, Localities - not the Federal Government
Schumer: To Simply Wash the Federal Government's Hands of Mass Transit Security is an Abrogation of Responsibility
Today, Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, in an interview with the Associated Press, said that the United States government can provide only very limited assistance to protect transit systems from terrorist attacks. Chertoff said, "The truth of the matter is, a fully loaded airplane with jet fuel, a commercial airliner, has the capacity to kill 3,000 people. A bomb in a subway car may kill 30 people. When you start to think about your priorities, you're going to think about making sure you don't have a catastrophic thing first."
In response to Chertoff's comments today, U.S. Senator Charles E. Schumer called on Chertoff to apologize and retract his statements immediately. Schumer released the following statement:
"The fundamental responsibility of the Federal Government is to prevent terrorism at home, whether it occurs, in the air, on the rails or in the water. And those that seek to do us harm look for our most vulnerable places - our weakest pressure points. Right now those points are the "soft-underbelly" of our bus and train systems - the place that clearly become the terrorists' favorite target. To simply wash the federal government's hands of responsibility at a time when this Administration is cutting back on mass transit funding and localities have very little money is an appalling abrogation of responsibility.
"I'd like Secretary Chertoff to go to Penn Station or Grand Central Station or to the Atlantic Avenue Station in Brooklyn or the Woodlawn station in the Bronx and tell the commuters there that Washington doesn't have the responsibility to protect them.
"Secretary Chertoff should retract his remarks - I think everyone can agree that the federal government has a real responsibility to protect rail riders in this country from terrorism."
Following the attacks in London last week Senator Schumer introduced an amendment to the Homeland Security Appropriations bill to quadruple funding for mass transit.
http://schumer.senate.gov/SchumerWebsite/pressroom/press_releases/2005/PR41768.NYC%20Chertoff.071405.html