Cops on fast react after terror scare
Checkpoints, radiation sensors out after 'unverified' threat spooks city
Saturday, August 11th 2007, 1:05 PM
The NYPD was out in force in response to a potential threat of a dirty bomb.
Cops use radiation-detecting devices at the Bowery checkpoint near the Manhattan bridge.
NYPD inspect vehicles at the Lincoln Tunnel entrance.
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A dirty-bomb scare triggered a huge police response last night, with NYPD choppers, boats and special trucks searching the city for radioactive devices even as police brass assured New Yorkers the threat was not verified.
Deputy Police Commissioner Paul Browne said extra radiological sensors were deployed across the city and vehicle checkpoints were set up. He called the mobilization, which began about 6 p.m., "precautionary."
Browne stressed the terror threat, picked up on a Jerusalem-based, English-language Web site with links to Israeli intelligence, was uncorroborated. He said the city's alert status remained at "orange" or high - one step below the highest level of "red" or severe.
But the response was significant. Officials said the alert was for a 50-mile radius around New York.
If the NYPD does not obtain independent confirmation of the threat, it will ratchet down the response by noon today, sources said.
"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 Bloomberg said. "These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day - precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize."
The threat was picked up on www.debka.com, which posts commentary and analysis on terrorism, intelligence, security, and military and political affairs in the Middle East. The site is known to have solid links to the Israeli intelligence and military communities, but only a so-so record on accuracy.
Debka monitors picked up a rush of suspected Al Qaeda chatter Thursday, the site said. One communication accused Americans of the "grave error" of failing to take seriously the videotape released by American Al Qaeda spokesman Adam Gadahn last week.
"They will soon realize their mistake when American cities are hit by quality operations," the message said.
Gadahn, a 29-year-old Californian indicted on a charge of treason, is thought to be hiding out in Pakistan.
Another message said the attacks would be carried out "by means of trucks loaded with radioactive material in America's biggest city and financial nerve center." A third mentioned New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets.
Top counterterrorism officials in Washington were deeply skeptical of the Debka report.
"The threat is not terribly credible," one senior FBI official told the Daily News.
The FBI said it wasn't mobilizing agents in any of the cities mentioned.
While the Internet threat had dubious credibility, it comes in the wake of several terror-related developments, including Al Qaeda's success at regrouping in Pakistan, the large number of video propaganda releases by Al Qaeda's media wing, the release of old films of terror kingpin Osama Bin Laden giving speeches, the discovery of two car bombs in London and the Glasgow Airport attack.
NYPD brass knew word would leak out as soon as they began deploying radiation detectors, so they decided to announce the mobilization publicly, a source said.
Near a checkpoint at Bowery and Canal St. in Manhattan, more than a dozen cops stopped vehicles so an eight-member radiological detection team could scan them. The process slowed traffic to a crawl, but few motorists complained.
"This is fine. In fact, it's great," said electrical worker Kenny Rodriguez, 38, of Brooklyn, who was moving some furniture in a truck.
"They're protecting us from all the bad things that could happen," he said. "I have no problem with it. It's keeping us safe."
Source: http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2007/08/11/2007-08-11_cops_on_fast_react_after_terror_scare-2.html
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