NYPD responds to unsubstantiated threat

[Jolie Rouge]

NYPD responds to unsubstantiated threat
11 minutes ago

NEW YORK - Authorities were taking extra counterterrorism precautions Friday in response to what they said was an unsubstantiated radiological threat to the city.

Officials said they had not changed the city's terror alert status in response to online chatter mentioning a truck packed with radioactive material. But police deployed extra radiological sensors on street, water and air patrols, and were stopping vehicles at checkpoints in lower Manhattan and around the city.

Deputy Police Commissioner Paul J. Browne called the measures "strictly precautionary." He said an Israeli Web site reported that online posts were made following a video released Sunday featuring an American member of al-Qaida threatening foreign diplomats and embassies across the Islamic world.

"We are closely monitoring the situation," said Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke. "There continues to be no credible information telling us that there's a threat to the homeland at this time."

The FBI also said there was no credible threat.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the police measures were nothing out of the ordinary.

"These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day — precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize," he said in a statement.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070811/ap_on_re_us/new_york_threat;_ylt=ApgZvd349.24x8TuHnMQsixH2ocA

[Jolie Rouge]

Unconfirmed Reports: Dirty Bomb Entered New York City

The rumors may have started with the questionable Israeli Debka File News:
http://www.debka.com/headline.php?hid=4482


New Al Qaeda threat of radioactive truck attacks naming New York, Los Angeles, Miami
August 10, 2007

The threat was picked up by DEBKAfile’s monitors from a rush of electronic chatter on al Qaeda sites Thursday, Aug. 8.

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 centers.”

A third message mentioned New York, Los Angeles and Miami as targets. It drew the answer: “The attacks, 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.”

There is also a message which speaks obliquely of the approaching attacks easing the heavy pressure America exerts on countries like Japan, Cuba and Venezuela.

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources and monitors say there is no way of gauging for sure how serious these threats are, how real, or whether they are part of a war of nerves to give the Gaddahn tape extra mileage. But it is important to note that the exchange of messages took place over al Qaeda’s internal Internet sites and that they contained the threat of radioactive terror and specific American cities for the first time after a long silence on these subjects.

In addition, a growing number of clips has been disseminated of late over al Qaeda sites instructing the faithful how to design remote-controlled gliders, pack them with explosives and launch them against predetermined targets.



7 Online News says the reports were unreliable but authorities are still being cautious: http://abclocal.go.com/wabc/story?section=local&id=5554674


The supposed threat came from an international web site that is considered by authorities to be often unreliable. Still, the NYPD and FBI both were being extremely cautious. They stepped up detection activity in town, looking for radioactive devices in Manhattan.



Police confirmed that the threat was targeting 34th street in Manhattan:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20070811/us_nm/security_newyork_dc_2


NY police receive "unverified radiological threat"
1 hour, 22 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) - 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 they said the city's alert status for an attack was unchanged at "orange."

The New York Police Department said in a statement it had 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.

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the police had received the threat from the Internet but stressed there was no reason to believe this threat was any different from countless others since the September 11 attacks.

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."

New York has remained on an orange alert -- the second highest such level, below red -- since the September 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center.

New York police played down the increased security. "It is stressed that these deployments are strictly precautionary and not the result of any verified threat," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said in a statement.

And Bloomberg also sought to soothe New Yorkers. "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," he said. "These actions are like those that the NYPD takes every day -- precautions against potential but unconfirmed threats that may never materialize," Bloomberg said.

"As New Yorkers, we've gone about our lives even with the daily threat level at 'orange' every day since September 11, 2001. That threat level has not changed because of this unverified threat, and we shouldn't let anyone terrorize us by spreading fear."

At Herald Square, the heart of the 34th Street area, late on Friday evening, there was no visible sign of increased police security as New Yorkers went about their regular activities.

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One Jerusalem is following the story.
http://www.onejerusalem.org/blog/archives/2007/08/new_york_dirty.asp