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NYPD: "No Specific" Terror Threat To Make You Crap Your Pants (Yet)
By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 23, 2009
Modified Sep 23, 2009
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By
Jen Chung
Published Sep 23, 2009
Modified Sep 23, 2009
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As the authorities continue to investigate the alleged terror attack plans on "places of amusement, immorality, and sin" as well as "vital economic centers," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly has been trying to assure New Yorkers that the NYPD is on top of things as always, saying, "There is no specific threat. In a post-9/11 world, we're concerned. We do more than any other city in the world," and "Our operating premise is that the city is the top of the terrorist target list. That there are always those people that want to come here and hurt us." We guess that's why more raids were conducted yesterday.
However, as the NYPD and FBI say they work well together, the feds are implying that the police messed up their investigation of former Queens resident/current Denver-area resident Najibullah Zazi. According to the AP, "Police acting without the FBI's knowledge may have inadvertently helped blow the surveillance of a terrorism suspect and compromised a bomb plot investigation at a sensitive stage by questioning an imam about him, a criminal complaint suggests." The feds claim Queens imam (and one-time NYPD source) Ahmad Alfazi told Zazi that the cops kept asking Alfazi about him. Additionally, the NYPD's towing of Zazi's rental car also clued him in that he was being watched.
Anywhere from six to 24 more associates of Zazi (or at least people he called) are reportedly sought. Attorney General Eric Holder told CBS News, "I think we've disrupted that which they've planned and it's not totally clear to us at this point what it is they had in mind, though I think it is clear that something very serious and something very organized was under way."
Tagged
Ahmad Afzali
fbi
Najibullah Zazi
nypd
queens
terror
terror threat
Jen Chung
Jen Chung is a former WNYC and Gothamist editor.
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Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
Gothamist is funded by sponsors and member donations
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