Trial opens over random search of NY subway riders

NEW YORK - An attack on New York's subway system would not be deterred by random searches of riders' bags at subway stations, lawyers for the New York Civil Liberties Union argued in court on Monday.

NYCLU lawyer Christopher Dunn told a federal court in Manhattan that the city's search policy, introduced after this summer's London bomb attacks, was unprecedented in the United States and violated constitutional rights protecting citizens from being searched without suspicion of criminal activity.

"It is simply difficult to understand that anyone could believe that sophisticated terrorists trying to attack the subway system are going to be deterred," Dunn said in opening arguments. "The only people being searched are innocent New Yorkers."

The organization filed the suit against the city and police commissioner Raymond Kelly on behalf of several subway riders after random searches began on July 22 after a second set of bomb attacks on the London transit system.

The frequency of searches was stepped up in October after Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the FBI had alerted him to a specific threat to the subway system. It was cut back four days later when the federal warning passed without incident.

City attorney Gail Donoghue said three terrorism experts would explain the benefits of the ongoing subway search program during the bench trial.

One of those experts, former Central Intelligence Agency analyst and New York Police Department Deputy Commissioner David Cohen, said the randomness of searches was a central part of deterring terrorists.

"Unpredictability is the enemy of terrorists and the ally in those trying to prevent the occurrence of another terrorist attack in this city," Cohen said.

One of the plaintiffs, Brendan MacWade, who was working in the World Trade Center when it was attacked on September 11, 2001, told the judge being searched on the subway was different from searches conducted at concerts, sporting events and airports.

"I view the freedom of movement in the subway to be similar to that of a public street," he said.

- REUTERS