EXPLOSIVE
DEVICES “INTENTIONALLY “SET
NYPD
INVESTIGATES AND
PREPARES FOR
THE UN GENERAL ASSEMBLY
NYPD
DETECTIVES, CRIME SCENE ANALYSTS AND FBI RESPONSE TEAM
COMB THE AREA
OF LAST NIGHT’S EXPLOSION ON W 23rd STREET
BREAKING NEWS: NYPD INTEL/COUNTER-TERRORISM BUREAU,
IMPROVISED EXPLOSIVE
DEVICES (IED), “PRESSURE COOKER-TYPE” BOMB,
NYPD BOMB SQUAD, FBI RESPONSE
TEAM, NYPD PREPARES FOR UNGA,
NYPD SOURCES: “3 BOMBS ARE
NO COINCIDENCE”
(UPDATED LINKS BELOW)
(Sunday September 18, 2016
NYPD Ops Center) An explosive device detonates along the route of a marathon benefiting the families of injured and killed-in-actions members of the US
Marine Corps in Seaside
Park, New Jersey close to 11 o’clock yesterday morning. Approximately 12 hours later an explosive
device exploded sending 29 injured people to hospitals. This second blast occurred on West 23rd
Street in the Chelsea neighborhood of Manhattan. Another suspicious device, what appears to be
a “pressure cooker” type bomb was located on west 27th Street. The
NYPD removed this unexploded device to the Rodman’s
Neck Bomb Squad HQ for analysis as hundreds of Police Officers and MOS of
the FDNY scoured the neighborhood for additional devices. The commonalities
between these three apparently “homemade” bombs are not simply in their
construct and placement; they were all placed in public areas within a 35-mile
(as the crow flies) radius from the Jersey Shore to Lower Manhattan. All three
devices were placed in trash receptacles of one kind or another likely with the
intention of turning the garbage can and dumpsters into flying shrapnel. Such a primitive, essentially crude
improvised explosive device (IED) is not necessarily about a “body count” although
any death resultant of the explosions bolsters the perpetrators cause in
fomenting terror in the purest sense.
The primary goal is the incitement of terror itself; planting the notion
via bloody example that certain operatives are among us and can reach out and
do harm at any place or time of their choosing.
That is the essence of a terror campaign.
We who inhabit the environs
that constitute the New York City Metro Area are acutely aware that we live in
a “target rich environment” as far as terrorist groups and lone wolf actors are
concerned; the most densely populated and world renowned City in the United
States. We are no strangers to living
with a bullseye hovering above our towering skyline. Our landmarks and neighborhoods inspire a
degree of coveting that terrorist are intent on attacking in any fashion or
form possible. Despite the protection
and other services provided by the 34,000 MOS of the premier Law Enforcement
Agency in the world, NYPD, complimented by an Intelligence/Counter-terrorism Bureau
that surpasses the capabilities and resources of some countries Intelligence operations,
this war is characterized by asymmetry; small cadres of terrorist and “lone
wolf non-state actors” present an exceptionally difficult challenge. The cat and mouse game, the hunt for the
proverbial needle in the haystack oddly tilts the playing field drastically in
favor of the terrorists; we, NYPD, have to be right 100% of the time while a
single, isolated jihadi only needs to
be right – effective – once to make his point and cause the ripple effect of
fear and doubt throughout Our City.
Adding a level of depth and
intensity to this environment, NYC will once again play host to the annual United
Nations General Assembly (UNGA). This large
international meeting brings the heads of state from virtually every member
nation of the UN to NYC. The robust
visible and invisible layers of security provided since 9/11 for such major
world events will be further enhanced as a precaution in the wake of these
three explosions. The timing of these IED’s has not escaped the attention of the
NYPD and other federal LEA including the State Department Personnel Protection
Service. “We pray that no other
incidents will occur today and everyday going forward but we must be aware of
the significance of the General Assembly”, noted an NYPD Lieutenant just
moments ago. “but, you know, we do all
we can to mitigate the possibilities.
REMEMBER THE “DOTS”
UNCONNECTED IN 2001
Over the last 15 years and one
week, we have all learned a great deal about terrorism, the firebrand
extremists of the radical Islamic jihadi movement. After years of blue-ribbon commissions, empaneled
to analyze the intelligence and failures across the entire apparatus of our
federal intelligence community, a host of Congressional hearings, countless well
sourced and researched books, scholarly papers, journalistic investigations and
more, our vulnerabilities, ineptitude, inefficiency; the gross lack of
appreciating unconnected “dots”, the shameful lack of intelligence sharing
between the CIA and FBI, for example, as well as myriad other glaring, fatal
blunders, clearly demonstrate how the 9/11 hijackers were able to perpetrate
their lethally brilliant heinous acts of mass murder on our soil. Some of that sacred soil exists a few short blocks
away from this hi-tech facility. As former NYPD Commissioner used to say with
no small trace of irony, “This is the Ops Center that al Qaeda built”.
It is beyond comprehension
that even before all available physical evidence, reviews of closed circuit
cameras video, interviews with victims and others in the areas at the times of
the blasts, that NYC Mayor DeBlasio has already said “it was too soon to say if
the bombings were a terrorist act”. The
Mayor continued, “It was intentional, it was a violent act, it was certainly a
criminal act, it was a bombing. That’s what we know,” he said, adding, “Was it
a political act ... we don't know yet. …We will keep the public informed as we
get real factual information”. These
statements are not only extremely irresponsible and grossly premature but fly
in the face of some of the basic tenets of criminal investigations. Just as physicians take the approach of “ruling
out” the presence of various diseases in a patient who present with ill-defined
symptoms, Detectives are taught to rule out various theories of mode and method
of death in a Homicide investigation going so far as treating virtually every
unwitnessed “suicide” initially as a Homicide until the evidence rules murder
out of the realm of possibilities in any such individual case.
Given the inherent disadvantages
of waging asymmetrical war there is no logical reason to justify not
classifying, at least for investigational purposes, these three IED’s as
deliberate acts of terror. Three IED’s
are discovered within a short radius of NYC within a 12-hour period of time is
thought by some, including the buffoonish NYC Mayor as some sort of fantastical
coincidence is simply ludicrous.
Downplaying the suspected nature of these devices and whose handiwork
they might be in the press to “prevent public panic” might have some efficacy
elsewhere but certainly not here among New Yorker’s. We know the nature of the beast; we have
looked him in the eye on February 26, 1993, September 11, 2001, and in many
smaller-scale acts of terror. We are
largely adapted and learned to live with the ever-present threats just as we
have mastered the art of “See Something, Say Something”. It was the practice of
that simple principle, of enlisting the eyes and ears of each and every New
Yorker that has been directly responsible for thwarting what were potentially disastrous
terrorist events including a car
bomb that was discovered in Times Square on May 1st, 2010.
FROM DISORGANIZED TROPICAL
DEPRESSION TO ORGANIZED HURRICANE
In meteorological forecasting
designations matter. What may begin as a
“disorganized tropical depression” far from the Gulf of Mexico may pick steam
as it approaches landfall in the form of a hurricane. Hurricanes are ‘organized” weather events
with very clear and concise criteria.
Perhaps some measure of similar classification would make it easier for
our spineless politicians including Mayor DeBlasio and New Jersey Governor
Chris Christie, to call a spade a spade.
It is the height negligence
employed by half-assed political hacks like DeBlsio and Christie to foment a
line of deceit meant to shift the public perceptions from what they largely
believe to the version of events the politicians want the public to believe. Speaking what they insist are the facts
before all the facts have yet to be collected and analyzed may be motivated by
some self-serving political purpose.
Some of the hacks claim that by NOT designating these events as
deliberate acts of extremists’ terrorism somehow diminishes them in the minds
of the perpetrators; that if they were to call them by their actual nature they
would be providing “credit and advertising” for any like-minded actor or
actors. In essence that argument is childishly inappropriate. While the investigating Agencies already have
as yet to be disclosed to the public solid information
regarding the three IED’s, it is information that should be reported to the
media in an objective and timely manner. Our security posture should be that we
allow the terrorists to know that we know (or at least have a growing body of
evidence) who they are and that we are on their trail. Political correctness and the usual blather
from our politicos serves no real purpose; certainly no beneficial purpose to
us.
Here in the Ops Center the
investigation is being directed and monitored on all fronts. But, as usual since 9/11/01, “constant
vigilance” is the operation, tactical and strategic imperative. While there is already an impressive show of
force out on the streets and at high-profile landmarks, and the UNGA will have
a significantly “beefed up” security presence, there are far more extensive efforts
engaged in beyond the view from the streets.
As one veteran Detective commented, “Sure, this could be the start of a
larger effort but it certainly does have the potential to “inspire”, if you
will, other like-minded zealots. That is
troubling but it has been a fact of our lives for 15 years now”.
That is a large component of
Intel efforts today – mitigation. Since
prediction is nearly impossible we have to be finely tuned to mitigate. And that we are.”
Copyright The Brooding Cynyx 2016 © All Rights Reserved
Copyright Brooding Cynyc 2016 © All Rights Reserved
