New Yorkers can expect to see extra subway bag checks, vehicle checkpoints and more police officers throughout the city as U.S. intelligence officials have picked up threat information about possible terror attacks to coincide with the 10th anniversary of 9/11.
The “threat information” is of the usual caliber – uncorroborated and unsubstantiated. “But we live in a world where we must take these threats seriously, and we will,” promised New York mayor Michael Bloomberg. “We know the terrorists regard the anniversary as an opportunity to strike again.” He was flanked by Police Commissioner Ray Kelly and Janice K. Fedarcyk, the director of the FBI in New York.
According to “intelligence” allegedly gleaned from Osama bin Laden’s hidey-hole in Pakistan (where he didn’t live), al-Qaeda is fixated on anniversaries. The FBI’s Janice Fedarcyk said: “al- Qaeda has shown an interest in important dates and anniversaries. In this instance it is accurate that there is credible, specific but unconfirmed information.”
Reading from their government script, the corporate media also reports that the new al-Qaeda chief, Ayman al-Zawahiri, pledged to avenge the death of Osama bin Laden earlier this year.
“Intelligence collected from overseas indicates a possible threat involving car bombs, as well threats to bridges and tunnels, according to a security official. The information indicated that three men would travel from Pakistan to the U.S. to carry out an attack…. New York City and Washington, D.C., are mentioned in the non-specific car bomb threats, according to another source.”
The supposed plot fits the forever war on manufactured terrorism like a glove. According to authorities, the threat emanates from Pakistan’s tribal region – where CIA drones work overtime killing government declared bad guys (and no shortage of innocent civilians) – and may include a U.S. citizen, which plays into the “domestic terror” and “white al-Qaeda” angle pushed by the government over the last few years.
“It’s accurate that there is specific, credible but unconfirmed threat information. As we always do before important dates like the anniversary of 9/11, we will undoubtedly get more reporting in the coming days,” said the Department of Homeland Security. “Sometimes this reporting is credible and warrants intense focus, other times it lacks credibility and is highly unlikely to be reflective of real plots underway,” NBC reports.
Fedarcyk refused to get into the details on the source of the threat and whether it was “operational or aspirational.” It is “specific” and “credible,” she added.
New York will be on display as an in-your-face police state. “The public is likely to see, and maybe somewhat inconvenienced by, vehicle checkpoints at various locations throughout the city,” Kelly said.
The New York Times reports that authorities will reinforce patrols across the city, pay special attention to bridges, tunnels and other transportation hubs, and use even more bomb-sniffing dogs than in the past.
Police officialdom activated 12-hour shifts in response to the unspecific and uncorroborated threat and will continue the extended duty indefinitely. Cops will pass out fliers to city businesses and storefronts, advising the public to alert authorities about abandoned or suspicious vehicles or suspicious people who are loitering.
Ditto in Washington, D.C., where Police Chief Cathy L. Lanier said the public should expect increased security measures and more stopped vehicles.
Former Bush regime terrorism bureaucrat Frances Townsend admitted that the threat is overstated and probably overblown. Townsend was briefed twice by senior government officials and said the quality of the information suggested that the threat was “plausible” but needed further corroboration.
“There are lots of things that are deemed ‘plausible’ that turn out not to be real,” Townsend said. She said the officials who are briefing policymakers were “leaning forward on their skis. But nobody gets in trouble for being forward-leaning.”
A federal law enforcement official told the Times that the government is erring on the side of caution. “Given the dates that are coming up, nobody wants to underplay anything,’’ said the nameless official. “The government is going to do everything it can to run this to the ground and assess its accuracy.’’
The government will also do everything it can to remind the public that the war on terror is forever, even though al-Qaeda has not attacked since September 11, 2001, and a mountain of information about that event remains classified.
9/11 Anniversary: Reminding Americans They Live In A Police State
Fri Sep 09, 2011 12:13 pm