Report: Schools likely terror target.
SAN DIEGO - In the post-Sept. 11 world, U.S. schools need to realize they are potential targets for attacks not only from mentally unstable students, but from terrorists looking to strike at the heart of the American fabric, a leading school security expert told a meeting of school board administrators Friday.
Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services, said many school districts have neglected to prepare for terrorism because of limited money, pressure to spend more time on raising test scores and, in some cases, denial of the risk.
"People are reluctant to talk about schools as terror targets because of fear," he told members of the National School Boards Association. "And yet we'll talk about protecting bridges, monuments and Capitol Hill. Where is the logic?
"If you want to strike at the heart of America, you'd strike at America's children."
The seizure of a school in Beslan, Russia, by Chechen rebels in September was one example Trump used to remind school officials of the reality of the threat. More than 330 people, most of them children, died in the raid.
Too often, U.S. schools are too loose with security, allowing easy access to vendors or anyone "who seems to belong" on campus, he said. Some continue to post campus maps on Web sites that could help potential attackers plan their assaults.
The anthrax mail attacks of 2001 should have halted the practice of having student aides open mail, but the practice is common, he said. And many school employees who could spot a threat, such as custodians or bus drivers, are not involved with emergency planning. Parents, likewise, are often left out.
Several administrators in the audience at the San Diego Convention Center agreed with Trump's assessment and said their schools are beginning to look at the variety of threats they face, including potential terrorism.
Trump credited schools with tightening security after the Columbine shootings, in which two students killed 13 people and themselves at their campus near Denver in 1999. And many re-evaluated safety plans after a student killed nine people and ended his own life last month in Red Lake, Minn. But over time, he said schools grow lax and fail to keep up their crisis team training or update emergency incident plans.
Trump said federal funding for emergency preparedness also ebbs when the shock of a mass assault wears off. Congress' proposed 2006 budget would cut $437 million in state allocations for safe and drug-free school projects.
http://www.montereyherald.com
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,154122,00.html
"Philippines Troops Rescue Hostages"
Thursday, April 21, 2005
MANILA, Philippines —
ARTICLE SNIPPET: "The captives, mostly female university students, were traveling in a jeep in Saguiran town in Lanao del Sur (search) province, 800 kilometers 500 miles south of Manila, when armed men took control of the vehicle and herded the captives into a hinterland area while being chased by troops and Muslim guerrillas, Melo said.
Of the 19 passengers, six captives, including the driver, an old man and two Muslim women, were released shortly after the abduction, apparently because some of them bruised their feet during the uphill hike and could not walk fast enough while the abductors tried to flee from marines and police, military officials said."
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002249616_ressam22m.html
Prosecutors say Ahmed Ressam's "aborted cooperation" with federal agents will force them to dismiss charges against two major terrorism suspects, including one who reportedly planned to detonate a gas truck in a Jewish neighborhood in Montreal.