NYPD Dedicated to Fighting Terrorism as 9/11 Anniversary Approaches

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the question of New York's vulnerability to terror attacks is again in the forefront of public discussion.

While the NYPD's main focus has been and continues to be conventional crime fighting, we devote considerable resources to deterring another attack.

In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, many thought another terrorist attack on New York was inevitable.

While the NYPD never subscribed to that notion, we knew that Al Qaeda and its adherents kept New York at the top of its target list and plotted feverishly to come back and kill New Yorkers.

There have been 13 plots against New York that have been thwarted by either the great work of our Federal partners, NYPD officers, just plain luck, or a combination of all three. They were:

-- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plot to take down the Brooklyn Bridge a year after the destruction of the World Trade Center was abandoned only after Al Qaeda operative Iyman Farris found security at the bridge made it too difficult to attack.

-- The December 2002 plot to disperse cyanide gas in the subway system. It was called off at the last minute by Iyman Zawahiri for what he said was "something bigger."

-- Al Qaeda's Al Hindi plotted against the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup Headquarters in midtown Manhattan and the Prudential Center in New Jersey.

-- The Parachas, father and son, abetted Al Qaeda in what was ultimately believed to be a plan to use shipping containers to smuggle explosives -- possibly even a nuclear device -- into Manhattan's Garment District.

-- An undercover NYPD police officer helped disrupt a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station by lone-wolf admirers of Al Qaeda.

-- Other Al Qaeda sympathizers plotted to bomb fuel storage tanks at JFK International Airport and blow up the Buckeye pipeline that transports jet fuel from New Jersey to JFK and LaGuardia via Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.

-- The plot to flood Manhattan's financial district by simultaneously bombing the PATH subway and the retaining wall at the World Trade Center site.

-- A British-based plot to destroy seven commercial aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean or fly one or more of them into East Coast targets, including New York City.

-- A plot to bomb a Manhattan-bound LIRR commuter train was discussed at the highest levels of Al Qaeda operational leadership.

http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-08-07/local/29878464_1_ahmed-ferhani-najibullah-zazi-plot