The question almost asks itself:
If a Russian tourist and two German artists can get past security to make it to the top of the Brooklyn Bridge, how hard would it be for a determined terrorist?
On Friday tourist Yaroslav Kolchin will appear in court in Brooklyn to answer charges stemming from his jaunt up the bridge’s cables. Meanwhile, there have been no charges filed yet against the German artists who claimed credit for replacing the American flags on the towers with white flag just a few weeks earlier.
These were stunts. But they highlight the vulnerabilities of a free and open city. They are especially timely in light of the warnings that the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria aim to attack us on our home soil.
Now, there are those who dismiss the idea that a few thousand fighters, no matter how savage, can threaten America. You would think these people would have learned something from September 11.
On that terrible day fewer than two dozen men managed to murder nearly 3,000 innocent men, women and children — armed with nothing more than boxcutters.
New York remains a target too. One man is serving time in prison for having cased the East River’s most famous crossing for al Qaeda after the mastermind of the 9/11 attacks, Khalid Sheik Mohammed, ordered him to “destroy the Brooklyn Bridge.”
ISIS has already beheaded one American and used a video to boast about it.
“They are terrorists who have expressed for over a year an interest in attacking the United States,” says Mike Rogers, chairman of the Houe Intelligence Committee. Let’s not make it any easier for them.