Dirty Bomb Threat In New York
New York City has deployed radiological detectors throughout the subway system and at bridges and tunnels tonight in response to a threatened terrorist attack. The city has not raised its alert status yet, but the attack was specific for tonight (via One Jerusalem):
New York city police increased security throughout Manhattan on Friday and at bridges and tunnels in response to what they called an "unverified radiological threat," but said the city's alert status remained unchanged.The New York Police Department said in a statement it has increased the deployment of radiological sensors on vehicles, boats and helicopters and had set up vehicle checkpoints in lower Manhattan and at bridges and tunnels.
Police confirmed the increased security was in response to receiving information that a dirty bomb may go off around 34th street in Manhattan on Friday evening.
The Empire State Building, New York City's tallest building, Madison Square Garden and Macy's department store are in the 34th Street neighborhood.
A spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security in Washington said they assessed the radiological threat to New York as "unsubstantiated" and there was "no credible information telling us there is an imminent threat to the homeland at this time."
Tomorrow is August 11th, and al-Qaeda has a penchant for symbolic timing. It could also be a feint to test our systems. It could also be a joker with nothing better to do with his life than to see us spend millions of dollars in a wild goose chase.
Unfortunately, we have to prepare for the worst. More details will certainly follow.
UPDATE 11:01 PM CT: Authorities are playing this down as simply a precaution after a threat on an Internet web site (same link as above):
"Earlier this evening, the NYPD began taking several public precautionary measures visible to New Yorkers to guard against an unverified threat that was found on the Internet," [Mayor Michael Bloomberg] said."These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day -- precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize," Bloomberg said.
One Jerusalem says in an update that an Israeli terrorist watchdog group picked up the chatter on a jihadist website.
UPDATE II, 11:52 PM: Dan Riehl has more on the source of the threat. It came from a DEBKA translation of chatter on a jihadist website:
The al Qaeda communications accuse the Americans of the grave error of failing to take seriously the videotape released by the American al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gaddahn last week. “They will soon realize their mistake when American cities are hit by quality operations,” said one message.Another said the attacks would be carried out “by means of trucks loaded with radio-active material against America’s biggest city and financial nerve center.”
A third message mentioned New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets. It drew the answer: “The attack, with Allah’s help, will cause an economic meltdown, many dead, and a financial crisis on a scale that compels the United States to pull its military forces out of many parts of the world, including Iraq, for lack of any other way of cutting down costs.”
DEBKA is hit-and-miss, but I'm sure that intel checked it out for themselves first.
Posted by Ed Morrissey on August 10, 2007 10:28 PM | Comments (22) | TrackBacks (6)
Comments (22)
Posted by GeorgeH | August 10, 2007 11:03 PM
Katrina destroyed most of New Orleans, we found out we didn't need most of it.
Would the destruction of most of NYC or the District of Columbia really matter after a year?
I mean, as long as the museums could be rescued, what's the downside?
Posted by azpatriot | August 10, 2007 11:33 PM
This has been on Debka for awhile now DEBKA file
Posted by Tom Holsinger | August 11, 2007 12:12 AM
We can only hope that they waste their effort on radiological devices rather than anything possibly effective. Like chemical explosives.
The worst case here would be weaponized anthrax powder, of the post-9/11 grade, spread using NYC's subway system. That would be catastrophic.
Posted by jaeger51 | August 11, 2007 12:44 AM
Wouldn't it be really nice if we hadn't established ourselves as being really nice? If we had the rep around the world as carrying a big stick? Now picture this: Al Qaeda types are living in countries. We know which ones. If anything goes off in one of our cities, we make the exact same thing only worse happen in one of these countries' cities. We're just too nice. Remember, the reason the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor was because they believed we wouldn't fight back if they hit us hard enough. The reason Hitler declared war on us was because he believed we had no stomach to fight. We probably would have to nuke an Islamic city to convince them we meant it after the sad foreign policy we have had....but after we did don't you think Al Qaeda would have a much harder time operating? Wouldn't the people around them turn them in? But of course, we're too "civilized" for that. So we'll just go on spending millions and millions of our hard earned dollars jumping every time they make some windy threat, playing policemen with these &(**&() primitive turds.
Posted by Anthony (Los Angeles) | August 11, 2007 1:50 AM
DEBKA is about as reliable as flipping a coin, but they do come up heads every now and then. Verifiable or not, New York had no choice but to take this seriously, and I imagine other cities (such as my own LA) did too, just in case it was a diversion.
Sad part is, the head-in-the-sand crowd will nod sagely and talk about how we "overreacted again," yet, when something finally does happen, these same post-modern cognoscenti will wonder why we didn't catch it and then decide it was a Rovian plot.
You know, if we spent half the energy going after these medieval psychos that we do screaming at each other, this "Long War" would have been very short, indeed.
Posted by Jazz | August 11, 2007 5:39 AM
A proposal:
Technology for radiological protection devices has gotten fairly common and efficient. (I'm not saying "cheap" but a lot better than it used to be.) It's also almost entirely passive, so you're not bombarding people with x-rays, etc. without their knowledge. Major population centers could reasonable have passive radiation monitors installed at intervals along all of the major road and pedestrian traffic areas with the feed from the sensors going to central monitoring stations. (Police HQ, DHS, etc.)
The thing is, the fixings for a dirty bomb won't be that huge or unwieldy to move. (Though an actual, functioning hydrogen bomb would weigh more than most criminals could hope to move.) But trying to put *SHIELDING* on it makes it the weight of a mountain. You need a lot of lead, hafnium, etc. which literally weighs a ton. It should be more than possible to detect and monitor the movement of any noticable supply of radioactive material through an urban center.
It would be expensive to initially install, yes, but the follow-on maintenance and monitoring shouldn't be too burdensome. We allocate a lot of homeland security money. I would like to see a candidate seriously research a program like this and propose it as part of their campaign platform.
I'm a big defender of privacy rights, etc. and probably come down on the "wrong" side of many of those arguments compared to many readers here, but nowhere are we assured any right to carry radioactive materials in the public square. I see no constitutional issues on this and would call out anyone who objected as a retarded dumbass.
We haven't gotten hit by a dirty bomb yet, but isn't this one area where we have the technology and the capability to get out in front of it? Money well spent, I should think.
Posted by Rabidfox | August 11, 2007 5:54 AM
Jazz, your suggestion should be option #3. Option #2 would be catch these mideavel bedlamites BEFORE they can cause problems. Jaeger51 has the right idea. Option #1. Respond in such a way that the bad guys won't even THINK of trying it again.
Posted by docjim505 | August 11, 2007 6:26 AM
jaeger51 has a good point. I've often wondered what the world would be like if we WEREN'T quite so nice. Hmmm...
THE SCENE: A dimly lit office in the basement of a hostile country's intelligence service
TERRORIST: We have a great plan to attack the Great Satan! We will kill thousands of infidels! BWA-HAH-HAH! We only need your help to procure the most destructive weapons and provide financial support.
INTELLIGENCE OFFICER [leaps to his feet, screeching in fury]: ARE YOU INSANE??? Don't you remember what the Americans did the last time somebody attacked them? The spot where (insert capital city of terrorist-sponsoring state here) used to be will glow in the dark for another fifty years! And you want US to help you piss them off again??? Guards! Take this idiot out and shoot him. And then dump the body someplace where the American spy agency will find it so they'll know we're trying to cooperate with their War on Terror... What?... I KNOW they can't find their butts with both hands, but even they should be able to find a dead body if we put it in an obvious place... Try dumping it in front of their embassy... Yes, yes, with a note attached explaining everything... Yes, it WILL have to be pretty obvious... Yes, drawing a picture would probably help... NO! Not in front of one of their wire services offices! They never get anything right... Oh, dammit! I'll just call the CIA station chief and explain everything myself... sigh... I hate dealing with stupid Americans...
Posted by patrick neid | August 11, 2007 7:00 AM
Another example of why our general approach to the war on terror is backwards. We are always running around looking for the guys at the bottom while feting the terror masters at the top.
Tell me after all these years of dead and dying what personal price have the leaders of iran, syria, hamas, hezbollah, al sadr, sudan and half the house of saud paid for their sponsorship of terror. These are the people personally responsible for the planning and financing of this war. If there is a dirty bomb in new york, they arranged it through their tangled web.
While I doubt Debka could possibly be accurate on this one, aside from the broken clock routine, these mongrel monsters get their orders from the folks I just mentioned. Here's a thought. Bush gets up one morning, walks in front of the cameras and states:
"We have changed our approach. From now on our targets will include the leaders of these nations and groups if any terrorism takes place in the future. You all have been warned."
I have a very strong feeling they will modify their behavior. If not, say hello to my little friend. As long as we play this stupid cat and mouse game we are doomed. They have more murderers than we have money, guns, soldiers or fortitude.
Posted by MaaddMaaxx | August 11, 2007 7:27 AM
The discussion of how to respond to a major attack is long overdue, unfortunatley the last time a politician even broached the subject the screaching from the Dhimms and their mouthpieces in the archaic media was deafening (Tom Tancreado, 2005). And all he did was ask was if we shouldn't be discussing how to respond.
I also have concerns that when we broadcast these warnings that we are helping the terrorists identify and eliminate our intelligence assets in the ME (both of them...all three?).
It is classic mole hunt strategy to put out a story that is too good to pass up and track its travel.
Posted by SkyWatch | August 11, 2007 7:41 AM
At first thought, I agree with most of you about causing some serious damage if we are attacked. On second thought, why wouldn't the terrorists use that against us?
They could plan and implement their plans in places like India, Turkey or Jordan. If we followed your foreign policy suggestion we would have to destroy the more moderate place because they had a few high level murderers infiltrated in their government.
Posted by Bennett | August 11, 2007 7:46 AM
I don't think too much of the rest of the world thinks we're all that nice. This is why when we're attacked, they so often find it perfectly understandable and justified.
I wish whenever one of these "threats" is made public we wouldn't have some spokesman from Homeland Security immediately chiming in with "there is no credible information..." Because the message seems to be: we have no idea if anything is going to happen but we're going to deploy all these assets just in case something bad is planned. In other words, they're treating the information as credible even while they tell us that there isn't any credible information.
Or maybe it's more that the issue of credibility isn't even relevant, that they react to threats whether or not they're credible just so they won't get blamed if it turns out something does happen. So why even bring up the issue of how credible the information is?
Posted by FromTheTop | August 11, 2007 9:35 AM
The following is a letter from a pilot. This well spoken man,
who is a pilot with American Airlines, says what is in his heart,
beautifully. ... Read, absorb and pass this on.
"YOU WORRY ME!"
By American Airlines Pilot - Captain John Maniscalco
I've been trying to say this since 9-11, but you worry me. I
wish you didn't. I wish when I walked down the streets of this country
that I love, that your color and culture still blended with the
beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country.
But you don't blend in anymore. I notice you, and it worries
me. I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your
homelands, professing to be Muslims, have been attacking and killing my
fellow citizens and our friends for more than 20 years now. I don't
fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing can
justify the inhumanity of their attacks.
On September 11, nineteen ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners
in my country. They cut the throats of women in front of children and
brutally stabbed to death others. They took control of those planes and
crashed them into buildings killing thousands of proud fathers, loving
sons, wise grandparents, elegant daughters, best friends, favorite
coaches, fearless public servants, and children's mothers.
The Palestinians Celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was
most of the Arab world. So, I notice you now. I don't want to be
worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same rage and hate and
prejudice that have destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need
your help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and
family in an irrational and unsafe world, I must know how to tell the
difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim terrorist.
How do I differentiate between the true Arab / Muslim-Americans
and the Arab Muslim terrorists in our communities who are attending our
schools, enjoying our parks, and living in OUR communities under the
protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the next attack that
will slaughter these same good neighbors and children?
The events of September 11th changed the answer. It is not my
responsibility to determine which of you embraces our great country,
with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its different citizens, with all
of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this country to
determine it for me.
I want to know, I demand to know, and I have a right to know,
whether or not you love America? Do you pledge allegiance to its flag?
Do you proudly display it in front of your house, or on your car? Do
you
pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless this nation, that
He will protect and prosper it? Or do you pray that Allah will destroy
it in one of your Jihads? Are you thankful for the freedom that only
this nation affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of
hundreds of thousands of patriots who gave their lives for this
country?
Are you willing to preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate
sacrifice? Do you love America?
If this is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME
know about it.
Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media
at this time with hard facts on your faith, and what hard actions you
are taking as a community and as a religion to protect the United
States
of America.
Please, no more benign overtures of regret for the death of the
innocent because I worry about who you regard as innocent. No more
benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks because I
worry about what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more
sympathy. I am only interested in action.
What will you do for America - our great country - at this time
of crisis, at this time of war?
I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the
streets. I want to hear you chanting "Allah Bless America " I want to
see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the military. I want to see a
commitment of money, time, and emotion to the victims of this
butchering
and to this nation as a whole.
The FBI has a list of over 400 people they want to talk to
regarding the WTC attack. Many of these people live and socialize right
now in Muslim communities. You know them. You know where they are. Hand
them over to us, now! But I have seen little even approaching this sort
of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and
secretive community close even tighter. You have disappeared
from the streets. You have posted armed security guards at your
facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for
protection from reprisals. The very few Arab/Muslim representatives
that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and equivocating.
They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United
States proves who was responsible before taking action. They seemed
more
concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed
towards them in the United States and abroad than they did with
supporting our country and denouncing "leaders" like
Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and Arafat.
If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and
love for all people, then I want chapter and verse from the Koran and
statements from popular Muslim leaders to back it up. What good is it
if
the teachings in the Koran are good, and pure, and true, when your
"leaders" are teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and
intolerance?
It matters little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of
the world's Muslims interpret the teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and
adhere to a degenerative form of the religion. A form that has been
demonstrated
to us over and over again. A form whose structure is built upon
a foundation of violence, death, and suicide. A form whose members are
recruited from the prisons around the world. A form whose members (some
as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and week
out, year after a year, marching in the streets around the world,
burning effigies of our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting
weapons into the air. A form whose members convert from a peaceful
religion, only to take up arms against the great United States of
America, the
country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that
their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security
checkpoints, in the name of Islam.
We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others
for that matter, to take away that which is so precious to us: Our
rights under the greatest constitution in the world.
I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands
and I think it is my right and the right of every true citizen of this
country to demand it. A right paid for by the blood of thousands of my
brothers and sisters who died protecting the very constitution that is
protecting you and your family. I am pleading with you to let me know.
I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my friend, as a
fellow American.
But there can be no gray areas or ambivalence regarding your
allegiance and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand. Until
then. "YOU WORRY ME!"
THIS IS TOO GOOD TO JUST READ AND DELETE.... LET'S SATURATE THE
USA WITH THIS ONE
FromTheTop, Mobile, USAAug 11, 2007 @ 08:37 AM
Posted by Al in St. Lou | August 11, 2007 12:25 PM
The Soviet Union had just about no trouble with Muslim terrorists. The reason for this was that they followed the advice Sean Connery's character gave to Kevin Costner's character in The Untouchables: If they hit you, you have to hit them back harder; if they kill one of your men, kill three or four of theirs. The medieval terrorists only understand actions. They laugh at the West's diplomacy. Look how Arafat spun lies and got treated as a head of state for it. They believe Allah has a hand it helping the infidels confuse themselves. They know we have the material capability to defend ourselves, but they believe we lack the will to use it. We need to change their minds about this.
Posted by english teacher | August 11, 2007 12:55 PM
why don't you lame brains go suit up and fight them over there? you think "they" should be hit harder, then go sign up and do some hitting. otherwise, all the hyperventilating over yet another unconfirmed threat makes you look even more silly than you already do.
Posted by Al in St. Lou | August 11, 2007 1:42 PM
Why is it that capitalization, spelling, and punctuation seem to be too much for some leftist trolls to handle? Geez, talk about looking silly!
y dnt u lrn 2 rite like n adult? ur nam iz "english teacher" 4 cryin aloud!
Posted by english teacher | August 11, 2007 2:02 PM
what is it about signing your name on the line at your local recruiter's office? you want to hit them harder, go sign up and do some hitting. otherwise, you (collective you) are just blowing hot air, as usual.
Posted by jaeger51 | August 11, 2007 3:11 PM
Hey, english teacher. I'd love to sign up to actually kill some of the #*$(). However, I'm 45, so they wouldn't accept me. And also, because people like you and your friends in the media won't shut up, if I did go over there, I'd have to act like a policeman and be very careful to triple verify they actually were terrorists caught in the act of causing terrorism before I did kill them or I'd be in Leavenworth waiting for courtmartial. Maybe you should talk to your friend the history teacher about what happens to countries that don't fight their enemies.
Posted by english teacher | August 11, 2007 4:05 PM
all this hot air over the violence you wish you had the guts to commit. it is to laugh.
Posted by Jerry | August 11, 2007 8:07 PM
All:
I wouldn't want to totally discount Roggio's account but I am afraid that he is probably being used to spread disinformation rather then real info. No "Senior Intelligence Officer" is going to confide that kind of operational intelligence to a blogger or journalist. If he was told on background he just burned his source and will be declared persona non grata around the intelligence community. Let us realize that the left has no monopoly on fabulists or people willing to be used for a cause.
Note to English Teacher:
I have a great deal of sympathy toward the kill them all and let God sort them out approach to taking care of Terrorists and their supporters. I am submariner who has spent most of his adult life in uniform or as a civillian in the defense and intelligence communities. I was in the Pentagon on 9-11. So why don't you go bugger off with your chickenhawk chicken s**t.
Posted by jaeger51 | August 12, 2007 2:26 AM
Lol, english teacher. The chickenhawk argument is pretty stale. Perhaps you are a Robert Heinlein/Starship Troopers advocate? Noone should be allowed to vote unless they are a combat veteran? Guess that would leave us both out, then, and I for one would probably be content with the decisions made by those that COULD vote.
Posted by swabjockey05 | August 12, 2007 6:22 AM
Don't pay no never mind to the cowardly "english teacher". You know what they say...if you're too dumb to do anything else, you become a teacher (or join the military).
According to the nitwit dhimmicrats, you CQ shipmates can’t comment on Iraq etc because you aren’t in the military…meanwhile, those who did join the military (where huge majorities support the Iraq effort) can’t comment either because they are automatons / minions / lackeys / pawns…that is unless they are the military assclowns who make up stories to be printed in the New Republic. Those lying assclowns are to be heralded as speaking truth to power.
When my colleagues and I were in Bosnia/Kosovo…killing people Clinton told us needed killing…where were these same sniveling coward “english teachers”? I’ll bet most of you don’t know how many career military men had second thoughts about that whole “project”. But did the “english teacher” and his comrades celebrate news that large percentages of the military did not support the CinC’s “project”? No, it’s only when a Republican is president…and the “project” has undeniable, overwhelming National Security implications that the dimwits tell us: “If you’re a Chickenhawk, your opinion doesn’t matter…If you’re a military person, your opinion only matters if it is the same as ours…”
Dhimmicrat shills, liars and cowards.