City Still at Terror Risk

Yesterday, the NYPD's counterterrorism head Richard Falkenrath said that the city is still viewed as "a prime target for another terrorist strike." The AP reports that Falkenrath was briefing security executives in prepartion for the UN General Assembly. And what do you know, a Al Jazeera airs a tape of Osama bin Laden and some September 11 hijackers (well, supposedly September 11 hijackers - their faces are masked). While the President sought to point out that Al Qaeda is not as strong as it used to and that it's still important to capture bin Laden, some wonder if the tape was released by new Al Qaeda head Abu Hamza al-Muhajer. As Middle East expert Marwan Shehadeh tells the times, “They released the videotape to prove to the Americans that their strategy in the war against terror has failed.”

The NYPD do not know of any threats for the General Assembly, which opens on September 12, but they are concerned with not just al Qaeda groups but Hezbollah operatives as well. In other words, we're still at heightened alerts, we'll hear about terrorist plots at bridges, tunnels, and/or buildings and there will be times when police presence in crazy-heavy. And we keeping moving forward. Well, is it any wonder that there's still fear in the city? Or that majority of Americans don't have confidence in the government's abilities during a terrorist attack?