Nearly half of the terror plots aimed at the city since 1992 have targeted Jewish people or institutions, prompting police to ramp up security around such facilities during the holiday season, according to an NYPD intelligence analysis.
Friday, police Commissioner Ray Kelly said there was no specific threat against the city around the Christmas holiday season but that officers were remaining on alert as has become the usual practice.
The intelligence division study showed that in addition to Jews being targeted in eight of 18 plots in the city since 1992, there have been 44 suspected terrorists who have lived in the five boroughs. Aside from Samir Khan, editor of the al-Qaida-linked Inspire who was killed in September in a drone attack in Yemen, all the other suspects have been arrested in prior cases. The NYPD intelligence findings was first reported Thursday by Reuters.
A summary of the intelligence reports provided to Newsday included plots such as the Brooklyn Bridge shooting in 1994 that killed student Ari Halberstam, a 2001 surveillance of synagogues by an associate of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and the May 2011 arrest of two people who authorities think wanted to blow up a synagogue in Manhattan.
The summary listed terror suspects that included Jose Pimentel, who was arrested in November when authorities said he was plotting to make a pipe bomb; and Jose Padilla, a convicted al-Qaida associate who investigators said wanted to make a radiological dirty bomb as far back as 2002.
"The reality is that both are in play: a propensity to target Jews and the facts that many terrorists call New York home," said police spokesman Paul Browne. "Fortunately, the NYPD has gotten close to several before they could pull the trigger."
Responding to reports that the NYPD counterterrorism program has had "mixed" results, Kelly said such criticism appears to be coming from "apparently jealous individuals."
"It is the consensus of the intelligence community that we are the number one target," Kelly said. "We feel we have to do what we are doing to supplement the federal authorities."
Copyright 2011 - Newsday, Melville, N.Y.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
