Drones, missiles and gunships: Welcome to the 2012 London Olympics

A missile defence battery is deployed in London as part of an operation earlier this month to test security for the London 2012 Olympics. (May 2, 2012)
Peter Macdiarmid/GETTY IMAGES

thestar.com | May 21 2012

by Dave Zirin

As many as 48,000 security forces. 13,500 troops. Surface-to-air missiles stationed on top of residential apartment buildings. A sonic weapon that disperses crowds by creating “head-splitting pain.” Unmanned drones peering down from the skies. A safe zone, cordoned off by an 18-kilometre electrified fence, ringed with trained agents and 55 teams of attack dogs.

One would be forgiven for thinking that these were the counter-insurgency tactics used by U.S. army bases in Iraq and Afghanistan. But instead of being used in a war zone, they in fact make up the very visible security apparatus in London for the 2012 Summer Olympics.

London, which has the most street cameras per capita of any city on Earth, has since the terror attacks of 7/7/05 been a city whose political leaders spare no expense to monitor its own citizens. But the Olympic operation goes above and beyond anything we’ve ever seen when a western democracy hosts the Games.

Not even China in 2008 used drone planes or ringed the proceedings with a massive, high-voltage fence. But here is London, preparing a counter-insurgency, and parking an aircraft carrier right in the Thames. Here is London adding “scanners, biometric ID cards, number-plate and facial-recognition CCTV systems, disease tracking systems, new police control centres and checkpoints.”

The number of troops will exceed the forces the U.K. has had in Afghanistan.

It’s not just the costs or the incredible invasion into people’s privacy. It’s the powers being given to police under the 2006 “London Olympic Games Act” which empowers not only the army and police, but also private security forces to deal with “security issues” using physical force. These “security issues” have been broadly defined to include everything from “terrorism” to peaceful protesters, to labour unions, to people selling bootleg Olympic products on the streets, to taking down any corporate presence that doesn’t have the Olympic seal of approval. To help them with the last part, there will be “brand protection teams” set loose around the city. These “teams” will also operate inside Olympic venues to make sure no one “wears clothes or accessories with commercial messages other than the manufacturers who are official sponsors.

And, as the Guardian reported: “Officers have powers to move on anyone considered to be engaged in anti-social behaviour, whether they are hanging around the train station, begging, soliciting, loitering in hoodies or deemed in any way to be causing a nuisance.”

Not to shock anyone, but there are no signs that any of the security apparatus will be dismantled once the Olympics are over. Local police forces have just been given an inordinate number of new toys and the boxes have been opened, the receipts tossed away.

London will be left with a high-tech police force, terrible debt, higher taxes, with a camera around every corner. The only people who will leave this party enriched will be the private security industry who will tout “the peace” as their personal accomplishment, encouraging more of the global 1 per cent to get more guards, more walls, and more separation from the great unwashed.

There is no reason that the Olympics have to be this way. There is no reason that an international celebration of sports can’t take place without drones and aircraft carriers. There is no reason athletes from across the globe can’t join together and showcase their physical potential.

But the Olympics aren’t about sport any more than the Iraq war was about democracy. The Olympics are not about athletes. And they’re definitely not about bringing together “the community of nations.” They are a neo-liberal Trojan Horse aimed at bringing in business and rolling back the most basic civil liberties.

In many ways, this is what the Games have always been. From Hitler’s Berlin Olympics in 1936, to the slaughter of students in 1968 in Mexico City, to the gang sweeps in Los Angeles in 1984, to Beijing’s mass displacement of citizens in 2008, the “crackdown” has always been a part of the Olympic Games. But in the post-Sept. 11 world, the stakes are even higher to expose this for what it is. The Olympics have become the spoonful of sugar to help the medicine to down, and the medicine is that our elected leaders have seen the enemy, and it is all of us.

Shooting zombies is the fad among gun enthusiasts

Two young attendees get their picture taken with a zombie poster during the National Rifle Association’s (NRA) 141st Annual Meetings & Exhibits in St. Louis, in this April 13, 2012 file photo. The Hollywood-inspired zombie craze has extended to gun enthusiasts. REUTERS/Tom Gannam

Reuters | Apr 15, 2012

By Greg McCune

ST. LOUIS | One of Patrick Flanagan’s favorite movies as a kid was “Night of the Living Dead,” a 1968 horror film about a family trapped in a rural Pennsylvania house and attacked by zombies.

“I really dug zombie stuff since then,” said Flanagan, 23, an unemployed concrete worker from Alton, in southern Illinois.

So Flanagan combined his interest in zombies with another hobby – guns.

He was one of many gun owners crowded around a display of lifelike zombie paper shooting targets at the National Rifle Association’s Guns and Gear exhibition on Saturday during the NRA annual conference in St. Louis.

CDC Warns Public to Prepare for ‘Zombie Apocalypse’

The Hollywood-inspired zombie craze – featuring blood-soaked ghouls rising from the dead to attack the living – has extended to gun enthusiasts. At the huge NRA exhibition, vendors displayed zombie targets, zombie bullets, zombie paint coating for guns and zombie patches for a shooting jacket.

Firing ranges across the country are offering zombie-themed shooting events, some held as daylight fades for atmosphere, said Brad Ross, a division manager for Law Enforcement Targets, Inc, a maker of zombie targets.

Flanagan, who said he owns 19 guns, likes to drive out into rural areas to practice shooting. He is bored with shooting cans or simple bullseye targets and the zombie targets will be more fun, he said, clutching his roll of 40 poster-sized images.

Sales of zombie targets are booming and are expected to grow about 30 percent to a million targets this year, Ross said.

“It is absolutely dumbfounding,” said Addison Sovine, a salesman hustling on Saturday to keep up with the demand for the shooting accessory at the Law Enforcement Targets booth.

For the truly zombie-obsessed, Sovine demonstrated small packets of blood-colored liquid that can be purchased to attach to the back of the zombie target so that it bleeds when shot. If an explosion is desired, a grainy mixture is for sale that will blast like a firecracker when hit.

TAKING AIM ON “ZOMBILADIN” TARGET

Among the most popular of the 18 zombie target designs offered in its catalog are “Becky,” an image of a wounded, pale and dark-eyed female, and “ZombiLadin” a bearded and bloody likeness of the late al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, company officials said.

Ammunition maker Hornady introduced a zombie bullet last fall with a green painted tip and it was one of their most successful product launches ever, according to marketing communications manager Everett Deger. The bullets come in a bright green box saying “20 rounds certified Zombie ammunition” with a warning that it is not a toy.

Zombie-themed paint coatings for guns are among the 10 most popular camouflage designs offered by DuraCoat Firearm Finishes, which paints guns, said Operations Manager Amy Lauer-Potaczek.

Much of the interest in zombies has been fed by popular culture, such as the movie “Zombieland,” starring Woody Harrelson, and the “Walking Dead” television series about a group of people trying to survive in a world overrun by zombies. But Sovine said the obsession has gained momentum from “preppers” – people who are preparing for doomsday – and the belief by some that, according to the Mayan calendar, the world as we know it will end in December.

“As soon as we pass December if we are not all dead, we live on, and it is really not the end of the world … I think you will see it (zombie target sales) start to come back down the other side,” Sovine said.

FBI: Afghan civilian killings could spark attacks in U.S.

Afghan protesters shout anti-U.S. slogans during a demonstration Tuesday in Jalalabad, Afghanistan.

CNN | Mar 15, 2012

By Carol Cratty

Washington (CNN) — The alleged murder of 16 Afghan civilians by a U.S. soldier could spur retaliatory violence in the United States, a law enforcement advisory by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security warned.

The intelligence bulletin, which was issued Wednesday to state and local law enforcement partners, says “there is currently no specific, credible threat information” that extremists might strike targets in the United States.

However, the document, which was obtained by CNN, notes the March 11 killings of the Afghans is the latest in a series of events in Afghanistan that could cause anger and possibly lead to violent action.

“The FBI and DHS are concerned that this event could contribute to the radicalization or mobilization of homegrown violent extremists in the Homeland, particularly against U.S.-based military targets,” the bulletin said.

The document notes that the soldier suspected of committing the killings is based at Joint Base Lewis-McChord near Tacoma, Washington, and states that in the past, extremists have viewed military sites as “legitimate targets for retaliation in response to past alleged U.S. military actions against civilians overseas.”

The law enforcement advisory also lists other recent events in Afghanistan that could incite violence in the United States, including the February burning of Qurans and other religious texts by U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan and a video that surfaced in January which appeared to show U.S. Marines urinating on the bodies of Taliban fighters.

The Quran burning sparked protests that left as many as 40 people dead, including six U.S. servicemembers.

U.S. officials also have promised a full investigation into the deaths of the 16 civilians.

According to the bulletin, it’s unlikely that any one of these events alone would lead to violence in the United States, but it noted they will be used in “violent extremist propaganda and could contribute to an individual’s radicalization to violence.”

The FBI and DHS called on local law enforcement to be vigilant for possible violence, particularly against U.S. military targets.

Fighter jets alerted during terror scare after pilot locked himself in the toilet

A pilot accidentally locked himself in a airplane toilet Photo: ALAMY

A pilot who accidentally locked himself in his airplane’s toilet caused a terror scare when he asked a passenger to bang on the cockpit door to raise the alarm.

Fighter jets and the FBI were alerted.

Telegraph | Nov 18, 2011

The captain of Chatauqua Airlines flight stepped into the toilet shortly before landing at New York’s LaGuardia airport. But as he tried to step out the door jammed, leaving him stuck shortly before the jet was due to touch down.

He banged on the door of the toilet to try and summon help and to his relief a passenger came to the door, the New York Post reported.

The stranded pilot gave him a password and told him to go the cockpit and explain the situation but the sudden knocking and the unknown voice caused a panic at the aircraft’s controls.

His co-pilot immediately radioed ground control to warn them that someone “with a thick foreign accent” was trying to get into the cockpit.

“We are 180 knots 10,000 [feet], can we leave the frequency for a minute? We are going to try to, uh contact dispatch,” he said.

“The captain disappeared in the back, and, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit and I got to deal with the situation.”

He remained suspicious even after the passenger explained what was going on, saying: “What I’m being told is he’s stuck in the [toilet], and someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit.”

The co-pilot advised him to declare an emergency and land the plane, while fighter jets and the FBI were alerted.

Fortunately, the captain managed to extricate himself shortly before landing.

U.S. Planning Troop Buildup in Gulf After Exit From Iraq

United States soldiers performed a closing ceremony on Oct. 20 for a base in Tikrit, now under the control of Iraqi forces. Image: Andrea Bruce

New York Times | Oct29, 2011

By THOM SHANKER and STEVEN LEE MYERS

MacDILL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. — The Obama administration plans to bolster the American military presence in the Persian Gulf after it withdraws the remaining troops from Iraq this year, according to officials and diplomats. That repositioning could include new combat forces in Kuwait able to respond to a collapse of security in Iraq or a military confrontation with Iran.

The plans, under discussion for months, gained new urgency after President Obama’s announcement this month that the last American soldiers would be brought home from Iraq by the end of December. Ending the eight-year war was a central pledge of his presidential campaign, but American military officers and diplomats, as well as officials of several countries in the region, worry that the withdrawal could leave instability or worse in its wake.

After unsuccessfully pressing both the Obama administration and the Iraqi government to permit as many as 20,000 American troops to remain in Iraq beyond 2011, the Pentagon is now drawing up an alternative.

In addition to negotiations over maintaining a ground combat presence in Kuwait, the United States is considering sending more naval warships through international waters in the region.

With an eye on the threat of a belligerent Iran, the administration is also seeking to expand military ties with the six nations in the Gulf Cooperation Council — Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, Bahrain, Qatar, the United Arab Emirates and Oman. While the United States has close bilateral military relationships with each, the administration and the military are trying to foster a new “security architecture” for the Persian Gulf that would integrate air and naval patrols and missile defense.

The size of the standby American combat force to be based in Kuwait remains the subject of negotiations, with an answer expected in coming days. Officers at the Central Command headquarters here declined to discuss specifics of the proposals, but it was clear that successful deployment plans from past decades could be incorporated into plans for a post-Iraq footprint in the region.

For example, in the time between the Persian Gulf war in 1991 and the invasion of Iraq in 2003, the United States Army kept at least a combat battalion — and sometimes a full combat brigade —  in Kuwait year-round, along with an enormous arsenal ready to be unpacked should even more troops have been called to the region.

“Back to the future” is how Maj. Gen. Karl R. Horst, Central Command’s chief of staff, described planning for a new posture in the Gulf. He said the command was focusing on smaller but highly capable deployments and training partnerships with regional militaries. “We are kind of thinking of going back to the way it was before we had a big ‘boots on the ground’ presence,” General Horst said. “I think it is healthy. I think it is efficient. I think it is practical.”

Mr. Obama and his senior national security advisers have sought to reassure allies and answer critics, including many Republicans, that the United States will not abandon its commitments in the Persian Gulf even as it winds down the war in Iraq and looks ahead to doing the same in Afghanistan by the end of 2014.

“We will have a robust continuing presence throughout the region, which is proof of our ongoing commitment to Iraq and to the future of that region, which holds such promise and should be freed from outside interference to continue on a pathway to democracy,” Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said in Tajikistan after the president’s announcement.

During town-hall-style meetings with military personnel in Asia last week, the secretary of defense, Leon E. Panetta, noted that the United States had 40,000 troops in the region, including 23,000 in Kuwait, though the bulk of those serve as logistical support for the forces in Iraq.

As they undertake this effort, the Pentagon and its Central Command, which oversees operations in the region, have begun a significant rearrangement of American forces, acutely aware of the political and budgetary constraints facing the United States, including at least $450 billion of cuts in military spending over the next decade as part of the agreement to reduce the budget deficit.

Officers at Central Command said that the post-Iraq era required them to seek more efficient ways to deploy forces and maximize cooperation with regional partners. One significant outcome of the coming cuts, officials said, could be a steep decrease in the number of intelligence analysts assigned to the region. At the same time, officers hope to expand security relationships in the region. General Horst said that training exercises were “a sign of commitment to presence, a sign of commitment of resources, and a sign of commitment in building partner capability and partner capacity.”

Full Story

Den busters: Children in tears after park officials pull down their camps…because they might harm the insects

Just having fun: Children have had their dens pulled down in Richmond Park

Daily Mail | Oct 9, 2011

By Ian Gallagher

Children have been left distraught after seeing their makeshift dens torn down by park officials – because the camps harm insects.

The destruction took place in historic Richmond Park in South-West London, where it has long been a tradition for children to build hide-outs using fallen tree branches in an area called Spankers Hill Wood.

But last week the wigwam-style dens were pulled down after being deemed unsafe by officials, who also claimed they threatened the habitat of rare beetles.

One mother described how her seven-year-old son was left in tears as park employees moved in without warning.

‘We were at an ice-cream kiosk when six men jumped out of a van wearing high-visibility jackets,’ said the woman, from nearby Kingston-upon-Thames.

‘They were all over the den like ants, pulling it down. They also destroyed others nearby. My son and his friend were shouting, trying to get them to stop, but they carried on and then drove off.

‘The boys were upset. It was ridiculous – building dens is one of the great innocent pleasures of childhood. They were only using dead wood and branches that were lying on the ground. The den was only small and not in the least bit dangerous.’

The mother added: ‘The man at the kiosk said workers came round on a regular basis to take the camps down. He said he’d heard it was for safety reasons.

‘We’re forever being told about the dangers of children spending too much time in front of computers and televisions, yet this is what happens when they play outside. It’s such a shame because Richmond Park is a
wonderful place for them.’

The workers took down the dens opposite a mobile snack bar, where several benches and tables allow parents to relax as they watch
their children play safely on the edge of a wood.

Richmond Park has strict rules banning barbecues and prohibiting cyclists from some areas.

One park worker said: ‘You can’t stop children falling out of trees and pulling branches off. It’s not that big a deal. Perhaps they should
concentrate on the cyclists who regularly break the speed limit.’

Psychologists and education experts say it is essential for children to be allowed the freedom to explore and create their own  adventures in the open air, particularly when many spend hours cooped up at home watching television or playing electronic games.

Play England, run by the National Children’s Bureau charity, was recently awarded £500,000 of National Lottery funding for a project to encourage children to become more aware of the natural world.

Research has shown that less than 25 per cent of children regularly play outside, compared with more than 50 per cent of their parents when they were young.

Play England’s Mick Conway said: ‘It is a myth that children prefer indoor-based play activities. Playing in a park or riding a bike are far more popular with children than computer games.’

Richmond Park, one of London’s Royal Parks, has been designated a Site of Special Scientific Interest because of its wildlife, including rare
species such as the cardinal click beetle and the stag beetle. Deer also roam its 2,500 acres.

A Royal Parks spokesman said: ‘We recognise the benefits of natural play activities, but for the safety of visitors we have to dismantle dens if there is a risk they could collapse.

‘Visitors should not disturb dead wood on the ground as this is home to invertebrates, which are important to the park’s biodiversity.’

Atlanta airport travelers evacuated as police and firefighters respond to bag of fish

Bag of fish empties baggage claim area at Atlanta airport

Atlanta Journal-Constitution | Sep 26, 2011

By David Ibata

Something fishy about a satchel left unattended Monday at Hartsfield-Jackson International Airport turned out to be just that, Channel 2 Action News reports.

Half of the North Terminal baggage claim area was evacuated for about an hour, with travelers kept 200 feet away, as police and firefighters investigated the mysterious striped bag.

The incident began about noon when baggage handlers spotted the unattended satchel and started going through it to see if they could identify the owner.

They backed off when they found strange leaves and sheets of aluminum foil inside. The Atlanta Police Department bomb squad was called.

The contents of the bag turned out to be dead fish wrapped in leaves.

Police told Channel 2 that it’s not unusual for international travelers to bring in beef or fish and spice it up with herbs in their luggage.

Police threw the fish out. The bag’s owner remained unknown Monday afternoon.

No sign of the terrorists yet

AP | Sep 10, 2011

WASHINGTON – U.S. intelligence agencies have found no evidence that al Qaeda has sneaked any terrorists into the country for a strike coinciding with the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks, senior officials said Saturday.

But authorities kept a high alert as investigators looked for proof of a plot possibly timed to disrupt events planned Sunday in Washington or New York.

Since late Wednesday, counterterrorism officials have chased a tip that al Qaeda may have sent three men to the U.S. on a mission to detonate a car bomb in either city. At least two of those men could be U.S. citizens, according to the tip.

No intelligence supported that tip as of Saturday, and officials continued to question the validity of the initial information.

While such tips are common among intelligence agencies, this one received more attention, and government officials chose to speak publicly about it, because of the connection to the anniversary of the worst terrorist attack in U.S. history.

At the FBI field office in Washington, assistant director James McJunkin described the tip and the response as routine. The U.S. already had bolstered security nationwide before the upcoming anniversary and anticipated an increase in tips.

“We expect we’re going to get an increase in threats and investigative activity around high-profile dates and events,” he said. “This is a routine response for us.”

Intelligence analysts have looked at travel patterns and behaviors of people who recently entered the country. While they have singled out a few people for additional scrutiny, none has shown any involvement in a plot, according to the senior U.S. officials, who insisted on anonymity to discuss the investigation.

President Barack Obama met with his national security team Saturday, but the White House released no new information about possible threats. A statement said that counterterrorism efforts were working well and would not ease in the weeks and months ahead.

The tip that touched off the most recent investigation came from a CIA informant who has proved reliable in the past, according to U.S. officials. They said the informant approached intelligence officials overseas to say that the men were ordered by new al-Qaida leader Ayman al-Zawahri to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 by doing harm on U.S. soil.

Al-Zawahri took over as the group’s leader after the U.S. killed Osama bin Laden during a raid in May at his compound in Pakistan.

The informant said the would-be attackers were of Arab descent and might speak Arabic as well as English. Counterterrorism officials were looking for certain names associated with the threat, but it was unclear whether the names were real or fake.

Some intelligence officials have raised doubts about the threat, given the short turnaround time. Someone who recently arrived in the United States would have just days to plan and obtain materials for a car bomb attack, a difficult feat even with a long lead time.

But they did not dismiss the threat. Extra security was put in place to protect the people in the two cities that took the brunt of the jetliner attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Terror attacks, attempts since 9/11

Law enforcement agencies around the country had increased security at airports, nuclear plants, train stations and elsewhere in the weeks leading to Sept. 11. The latest threat made those measures more urgent.

Both cities were clearly on edge. Police in New York were investigating two vans stolen from a World Trade Center site contractor and another from a New Jersey storage facility, while their counterparts in Washington were on the lookout for a pair of U-Haul rental vans reported missing from nearby Prince George’s County, Maryland.

Police connected none of the threats to a terror plot, but said they were taking extra precautions because of the recent threat.

U.S. embassies and consulates also stepped up safeguards in preparation for the anniversary.

While authorities urged people to keep a watchful eye for suspicious activity as usual, they said there was no reason the latest tip should change anyone’s weekend.

“Whatever you have plans for, it’s a beautiful day. It’s going to be a beautiful weekend,” McJunkin said. “It’s college football Saturday. Tomorrow is the start of the NFL (National Football League) season. So we expect the public is going to be out enjoying what it means to be an American.”

Official: Al Qaeda Terror Threat Looking More Like a ‘Goose Chase’

An Amtrack police officer stands guard at a track entrance at Pennsylvania Station on Friday, Sept. 9, 2011 in New York.

FoxNews.com | Sep 10, 2011

A possible Al Qaeda plot to launch an attack during the 10th anniversary weekend of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks is “looking more and more like a goose chase,” a senior U.S. official told Fox News on Saturday.

Federal authorities have been questioning all day the credibility of a tip from a previously reliable source that that Al Qaeda had planned to attack Washington or New York, putting though both cities on high alert.

But authorities have not been able to corroborate any of the information from the source.

“The threat is looking less and less credible,” the official said, adding that the entire plot as outlined by the source “doesn’t seem feasible.”

“The time frame doesn’t make sense for when these operatives would have been moving into position,” the official said. “We are going back to the original source. The president will be briefed on it again in the morning, but people are questioning the credibility of this information at this time. Something is not adding up.”

But officials say they won’t rest until they review every last detail.

Word that Al Qaeda had ordered the mission reached U.S. officials midweek. A CIA informant who has proved reliable in the past approached intelligence officials overseas to say that three men of Arab descent — at least two of whom could be U.S. citizens — had been ordered by newly minted Al Qaeda leader Ayman al Zawahri to mark the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks Sunday by doing harm on U.S. soil.

According to the intelligence, they were to detonate a car bomb in one of the cities. Should that mission prove impossible, the attackers have been told to simply cause as much destruction as they can.

It’s still unclear whether any such individuals even exist, according to U.S. officials.

“We don’t have a smoking gun yet,” Brenda Heck, a top counterterrorism official in the FBI’s Washington field office, told Fox News.”It is going to take a little bit to completely flush this out. We certainly — hour by hour — we are learning more.”

Earlier Saturday, the head of the FBI’s Washington field office, James McJunkin, said he doesn’t expect that there will be any problem “over the anniversary weekend.”

If the the tip had not come on the eve of the 9/11  anniversary, the intelligence community likely would not have acted and alerted the public to this degree, the senior official said.

“We couldn’t ignore it,” the official said. “But something doesn’t add up: the routing, the timing of the assets moving into position.”

Heck said it’s “absolutely possible” authorities will never know whether the alleged plot was in fact real.

In the meantime, extra security was put in place to protect the people in the two cities that took the brunt of the jetliner attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon a decade ago. It was the worst terror assault in the nation’s history, and Al Qaeda has long dreamed of striking again to mark the anniversary. But it could be weeks before the intelligence community can say whether this particular threat is real.

The New York Police Department was paying special attention to the thefts of three vans Sunday, scrutinizing them them to eliminate the possibility of their being tied to a larger threat. One van was stolen from a Jersey City facility, while the other two were stolen last week from a company that does work at the World Trade Center site.

Briefed on the threat Friday morning, President Obama instructed his security team to take “all necessary precautions,” the White House said. Obama still planned to travel to New York on Sunday to mark the 10th anniversary with stops that day at the Pentagon and Shanksville, Pa.

Heck, the FBI counterterrorism official, said the government’s response to the latest threat “has been a little different” than at other times.

“We have been very open with the public on this,” she said. “I think there will be some debate about that after we get through this weekend. [But] I think there’s a very positive side to letting the public know a little bit more about what we are doing behind the scenes.”

In particular, she said, by letting the public know about a threat quickly, “They can help us with what’s going on out in the public areas so that we can respond if something is suspicious.”

In fact, Washington Police Chief Cathy Lanier said suspicious reporting has surged by as much as 30 percent, a change that she called “very reassuring.”

Police Crack Down on New York After Alleged Terror Threat

New York Police Department officers are posted at the World Trade Center site on September 8, 2011 in New York City.  Mario Tama/Getty Images

bloomberg.com | Sep 9, 2011

New York police increased security, including vehicle checkpoints in midtown Manhattan and armed guards in front of the Office of Emergency Management, after receiving credible information that terrorists may be plotting an attack in the city around the Sept. 11 anniversary.

Police cruisers took up positions on midtown blocks on Lexington, Park and Fifth avenues today as officers stopped trucks and other vehicles for inspection. Drivers were made to open the storage spaces of delivery trucks for police. In Brooklyn, U.S. marshals armed with machine guns guarded the federal courthouse and increased security was observed in front of the nearby city emergency management office.

“We have already had a full complement of people working shifts because of the Sept. 11 anniversary prior to this,” said Jim Margolin, a spokesman for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s New York office. “We are taking the logical investigative measures to assess this threat.”

The threat concerns a possible al-Qaeda-sponsored attack targeting New York or Washington on or near the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, attack, said a U.S. official, who wasn’t authorized to discuss the matter publicly. The official said the intelligence concerns a possible vehicle-borne attack, perhaps on a transportation hub or bottleneck, and cautioned that the options may be broader than a car or truck bombing.
Interest in Anniversaries

“As we know from the intelligence gathered from the Osama bin Laden raid, al-Qaeda has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries, such as 9/11,” Janice Fedarcyk, the FBI’s assistant director in charge of the New York office, said at a press conference yesterday. “In this instance, it’s accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed information. We take all threats reported seriously and have taken and will continue to take all steps necessary to mitigate all threats as they arise.”

A U.S. official in Washington said the credible intelligence revolved around a plot possibly hatched by al-Qaeda in Pakistan involving three individuals, including possibly one American. Another U.S. official cautioned that information wasn’t yet confirmed. The officials weren’t authorized to publicly discuss the intelligence.

Back-Up Option

A U.S. intelligence alert that federal officials sent to local law enforcement said operatives in the suspected plot may be carrying American documents, according to two people familiar with the alert who weren’t authorized to speak publicly.

New Jersey’s Director of Homeland Security Charles McKenna said state officials are concerned that as New York and Washington are “hardened targets,” the would-be attackers may turn to New Jersey as a back-up option.

McKenna said the state has increased security. He declined to specify what steps have been taken.

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, speaking at a meeting of administration officials in Princeton, said people should not alter their plans and lives.

“This is nothing that should come to folks as any surprise nor is it something that should cause any panic,” Christie said.

On Sept. 11, 2001, terrorists hijacked four airliners. Two were flown into the twin World Trade Center towers in New York, destroying them; a third hit the Pentagon in Arlington, Virginia; and one crashed in Shanksville, Pennsylvania after passengers attacked the hijackers. Close to 3,000 people were killed.
Foiled Plots

New York police have stopped at least 13 terrorist attacks since 2001, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said. While the killing of al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden has helped reduce the threat, the mayor said, “The one thing we know is the terrorists have not gone away.”

In February 2010, Colorado resident Najibullah Zazi pleaded guilty in Brooklyn federal court to a plot to detonate bombs on New York subways around the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

The Brooklyn federal courthouse has supplemented its usual security, said James Elcik, supervisory deputy U.S. marshal.

“We’re here to protect the building, and more importantly the people in it around the anniversary of 9/11 given the non- specific threat,” Elcik said, standing next to an armed guard on Adams Street, where tourists and bicyclists entered the pedestrian path over Brooklyn Bridge.

Top Priority

Elcik said it hadn’t been decided whether the extra security would also be in place Monday and throughout next week.

“The safety of our federal judiciary and security in the U.S. courthouses continue to be a top priority of the U.S. Marshals Service,” said Roland Ubaldo, a spokesman for Joseph Guccione, the U.S. marshal of the Southern District of New York. At the subway station in the Port Authority bus terminal at 42nd Street, two police officers stood guard at the turnstiles while two others patrolled the platform. Police officers in a group of four stood on the platform at Broadway and Murray streets in Lower Manhattan giving directions to tourists making their way to and from Ground Zero four blocks south.

“We have threats all the time,” Bloomberg said today during his weekly appearance on WOR radio, after having taken the subway to City Hall from his Upper East Side home. “Each time we increase our security, which obviously we had done for this. Are we increasing a little more? Yes, we’re increasing a little more but there’s a limit to how much you can have, just because you can’t have a cop on every corner. But remember, a lot of the precautions we take, you don’t see.”

Specific Threat

New York Republican Congressman Peter King, who heads the House Homeland Security Committee, said he was briefed on the threat, which he said was specific and credible.

“All appropriate agencies, the federal government, and state officials and local officials as well, are tracking it down to see if it is real, and if so, how do we stop it,” King said.

Another intelligence official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity, said the information hasn’t been fully vetted.

Terrorists view the anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks as an opportunity to strike again, the FBI’s Fedarcyk said.

The information of a new plot was specific and credible, though not corroborated, she said at a press conference yesterday with Bloomberg.

In the Washington metropolitan area today, Montgomery County, Maryland, police patrolled the Silver Spring and Forest Glen Metro platforms, north of the city.

Extended Shifts

New York police officers will extend their shifts by four hours at least through Sept. 12, said Commissioner Ray Kelly. Police will increase vehicle checks and monitoring of bridges and tunnels, Kelly said. Police will also increase baggage screenings in subways, patrol outside places of worship and government buildings and conduct bomb sweeps of public garages.

“We will deploy quick-reaction teams consisting of heavily armored officers,” Kelly said.

“Sky Watch” towers will be manned, license plate readers monitored and all manhole covers inspected and sealed. City landmarks, including Grand Central Terminal and Pennsylvania Station, will have heightened security as well as other major events Sunday, including the U.S. Open tennis tournament in Queens.

A heavily guarded “frozen zone” is being created from West Street to Broadway and Murray to Albany streets in Lower Manhattan. Several streets in the area will be closed during the weekend, including northbound West Street from Battery Place to Murray Street and southbound West Street from Battery Place to Chambers Street. Church Street between Rector and Barclay streets will be closed 5 a.m. to 5 p.m. Sunday.

Bomb Technicians

To assist the police, the FBI will mobilize specialized teams, including special agents, bomb technicians and SWAT and hazardous materials crews.

Richard Adamonis, a NYSE Euronext spokesman, declined to comment on security measure for the stock exchange on Wall Street.

President Barack Obama, who is scheduled to attend ceremonies at Ground Zero on Sept. 11 with former President George W. Bush, was briefed on the threat today by National Security Adviser Tom Donilon, White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan, and Deputy National Security Adviser Denis McDonough before leaving for a speech in Richmond, Virginia, White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

Obama directed counter-terrorism officials to redouble their efforts, which had already been increased in advance of the Sept. 11 anniversary, Carney said.

The first intelligence official said the report is credible largely because of al-Qaeda’s longstanding interest in important anniversaries and symbolic targets.

Attorney General Eric Holder said in May that intelligence retrieved from the compound in Pakistan where bin Laden was killed suggested that he wanted to harm people around the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

“As we head into the 9/11 anniversary weekend, we continue to urge the American public to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to law enforcement authorities,” Secretary of Homeland Security Janet Napolitano, said in a statement. “We take all threat reporting, including the recent specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information, seriously.

“Our security posture includes a number of measures both seen and unseen and we will continue to respond appropriately to protect the American people from an evolving threat picture both in the coming days and beyond,” she said.

The mayor is the founder and majority owner of Bloomberg News parent Bloomberg LP.