Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly says there are no specific terror threats against New York City. But the NYPD still plans a major show of force for 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Kelly said Wednesday that police will form a frozen zone around the World Trade Center site. They’ll flood it with thousands of extra officers for the Sunday observance there with President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush in attendance.
The beefed up security also will include hundreds of surveillance cameras trained on the site.
The commissioner said the department will deploy “quick strike reaction forces” to respond to potential threats outside lower Manhattan. The teams include officers in heavy armor, bomb squad technicians and hostage negotiators.
New Yorkers also will see extra subway patrols.
The Defense Department also announced Wednesday that the military is raising the alert level at all military bases in the US, including the Pentagon.
George Little, the Pentagon press secretary, said the decision to step up force protection measures at military bases was not in response to any specific terrorist threat, but a recognition that al Qaeda has planned attacks on significant anniversaries in the past.
“It is no secret that al Qaeda has focused on holidays and milestone events in the past,” Little said. “As you have all seen, the 10th anniversary was mentioned in the documents seized at the Abbottabad compound.”
After the SEAL raid in Abbottabad, Pakistan, last May that killed Usama bin Laden, intelligence officials discovered documents that showed the al Qaeda leader was interested in mounting an attack on the 9/11 anniversary.
Capt. John Kirby, the chief Pentagon spokesman, declined to say what specific measures would be taken to step up security at military bases in the US. Overseas military bases typically already have more stringent security measures in place.
The alert level went up Wednesday and the Department of Defense will maintain the additional security measures at least through the 9/11 anniversary on Sunday, Capt. Kirby said.
With AP and Newscore.