“This is nothing alarming,” officials told the passengers. Ignore that bomb-sniffing dog. Not that I am saying that they shouldn’t have tried to calm passengers, but I think this is part of a larger official pattern of downplaying every incident, leaving the public largely unaware of the magnitude of the continuing threat. From AP, :
NEWARK, N.J. — A threatening note found aboard a Washington-to-New York Amtrak train prompted police to detain it for an hour and a half Thursday morning while they checked all passengers for identification and examined the overhead luggage racks.
After officers videotaped the passengers and searched the cars with at least one bomb-sniffing dog, the train was declared safe and allowed to leave Newark Penn Station to continue on its way.
Amtrak spokesman Dan Stessel said he did not know the exact contents of the note, but a law enforcement source said it contained “pro-Muslim, anti-Jewish rhetoric.” The note included the phrase, “You’re all sitting ducks,” said the source, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
The note was attached to the mirror in a restroom of the train’s cafe car, Stessel said. The passenger who found it notified the train crew, and police were waiting for the train when it reached Newark, its next scheduled stop.