Does it really matter?

Rep. Chuck Schumer just showed how he can't read. (He wants to make a 'no ride' list for Amtrak like the 'no-fly' list)

The intel coming back from Pakistan said that bin Laden was thinking about trying something on 9/11/11. One idea was to sabotage a train to make it fall off a bridge and, presumably, kill everyone on board.

Now, let's put our thinking caps on.

Does it make sense to repeat the mistakes of the past and try to smuggle a bomber on a train? It hasn't worked well. In addition, a bomb that is 'smuggle-able' would most likely take out one car and cause a derailment of the others.

I think the Bad Guy would have emulated a VERY successful sabotage of a train line out west where some rails were pried partially apart so that they were misaligned. Train goes over, derails, plunges into a small ravine.

Do that on a large bridge for a train that is scheduled to pass over in the middle of the night and you have a terror-inducing attack.

That's right. Attack the TRACK, not the train and you can do it when nobody is around. Sure, there's a lot of track out there that is geared towards signaling an alert if someone starts tampering with it, but I know more than one railroad that does NOT employ that technology.

What does a "no-ride" list for Amtrak accomplish? Nothing. It's more Security Theater to make you thing they are Doing Something so that they can justify their ever-increasing budgets.

Perhaps legislooters should have to take an IQ-test before being sworn in.