Brooding Cynyc: Port Authority of NY/NJ

Showing posts with label Port Authority of NY/NJ. Show all posts

Tuesday, July 8, 2014

INSECURE AIRSPACE ABOVE NYC?

HARMLESS HOBBYISTS PROVIDE

TERRORISTS WITH INTELLIGENCE

TERRORISTS TAKE NOTE OF RECENT

EPISODE ABOVE GWB.

RADIO CONTROLLED AIRCRAFT HOBBYISTS

UNINTENTIONALLY GIVE A DEMONSTRATION

ABOUT SECURITY OF AIRSPACE ABOVE NYC

TAGS: NYPD AVIATION DIVISION, RADIO CONTROLLED

AIRCRAFT, “NEAR MISS” NEAR GWB?,

NYPD INTELLIGENCE DIVISION, NYC METRO AREA

THREE MAJOR AIRPORTS IN NYC METRO AREA

(Tuesday July 8, 2014, Upper Manhattan, NYC) Minutes after midnight yesterday an NYPD Aviation Unit helicopter encountered a pair of “drones” while conducting regular aerial patrol operations near the George Washington Bridge (GWB). According to the NYPD pilots report they were forced to make an evasive maneuver to avoid the small unmanned crafts. The NYPD helicopter crew was able to provide Patrol Officers on the ground as to where the devices had landed. Two men were arrested here in Inwood on the uppermost tip of Manhattan after they were discovered with the pilotless aircrafts and radio control devices in their possession.

AGAIN

Time and again we have here reported on security breaches occurring at high-value terrorist targets in New York City and beyond. Just as such lapses in security procedures and policies have been duly noted by the appropriate authorities, there should be no doubt that these events have been as scrutinized by those bent on bringing asymmetrical terrorist tactics to their war against the United States itself and our overseas interests.

Just days before this early morning drone incident near the GBW, new heightened security measures had been announced. Intelligence officials here and abroad were cautioning that bombs undetectable by current technology and screening practices may be concealed in small digital devices including laptops, tablets and cell phones. Our adversaries in this fight against terrorist have proven their abilities to adapt and be nimble enough to counter some of our most sophisticated technology, armament, and tactics. Terrorists have been honing their ruthlessly brutal tactics on the killing fields of Afghanistan and Iraq and many have become particularly adept in constructing Improvised Explosive Devices (IED’s) and in urban warfare. As their sphere of influence has broadened significantly since September 11, 2001 there has been an alarming proliferation of terrorist groups and alliances and none of them have trouble recruiting new members. In a perverse twist the Laws of Unintended Consequences has seen the ranks of terrorist groups swell even as our high powered military engaged them in fierce, unforgiving guerilla warfare that required some serious realignment of our military’s doctrine over the course of our protracted engagements in Afghanistan and Iraq.

ONE TRUE STRATEGY

We have also widely reported on the importance and value of the lowest common denominator, that being vigilance. Constant rigorous vigilance enlists virtually every citizen to be on the alert when something or someone looks “out of place” near our jobs sites, during our daily commutes and in proximity to the locations we are most intimately familiar with such as our blocks and neighborhoods. NYPD’s “See Something, Say Something” campaign has proven effective and people riding the MTA buses and subways are much more likely to report an unattended item such as a case, knapsack or shopping bag than they were prior to the rollout of this campaign in 2011.

FROM A HOBBY TO A WEAPON OF WAR

Flying small radio controlled aircraft has long been a staple of the hobbyist community. With the advent of smaller, lighter electronics and more sophisticated high resolution digital cameras, radio controlled aircrafts are being flown by a greater number of people than ever before. In a real sense the pilotless aircraft currently employed by the United States Military and Intelligence communities known as drones, are products of the evolutionary process of pilotless flight. They are the next leap forward in technology and the use of highly advanced air power during military engagements. This generation of drones can be outfitted with a wide range of armament and surveillance platforms. The military drones can fire rockets and missiles, can fly and hover at impressive altitudes while providing “real time” actual intelligence. More controversially, the use of drones is not always as precise as it is touted to be. Drones deployed over combat areas remove the pilot from harm’s way and there have been reported instances when drone attacks have been widely off target and, in reports, claim to have been responsible for the loss of innocent civilians. In many ways the sophistication of the drones and their weaponry as well as having the “pilot” safely ensconced at a computer station half a world away, have seen the overall incidents of “collateral damage” drastically decreased when compared to conventional air tactics.

RADIO CONTROLLED CONCERNS

There have been several reported security breaches at the three major New York City Metropolitan Area airports since 9/11/01. Investigative reporters have been able to gain entry to the fuel storage area at JKF approaching the airport via a small watercraft. Others have gone unchallenged as they sought and gained entry into restricted areas at Newark Liberty Airport in New Jersey. The most valuable and dangerous airspace for any aircraft is in the “transition zones” from approximately 2,500 feet above the tarmac when the planes are approaching to land or gearing up for takeoff. With the volume of air traffic in the NYC Metro airspace, a radio controlled aircraft, even if unequipped with any explosive device could still cause havoc. A large flock of seagulls brought down US Airways Flight 1549 on January 15, 2009 forcing veteran Pilot Sully Sullenberger to make an emergency landing of the Airbus A320-200 in the middle of the Hudson River. A single radio controlled craft could be deliberately aimed at an engine during takeoff or landing potentially resulting in mass casualties and fatalities. We have even seen the airspace over the White House and central area of Washington, DC compromised on several occasions in the last decade. These incidences expose faults and flaws to our national security and have certainly not gone unnoticed by our adversaries. Given the magnitude of the ineptitude of the Federal Aviation Administration (F.A.A.), and North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) on the morning of September 11, 2001, one would think that the airspace over such vital locations would be far more robust and responsive than it has been at times recently.

As radio control flight enthusiasts defend their activities as a simple hobby, akin to flying a kite, others beg to differ. Typically, radio controlled aircraft had a top ceiling between 250 and 300 feet. Now there are models constructed of alloys, carbon-fiber and PCV that are capable of attaining altitudes over 5000 feet. Some of the more advanced and dedicated enthusiasts report their crafts reaching altitudes above 10,000 feet. Granted, the overwhelming majority of radio control flight operators are in fact just hobbyists using this latest generation of materials and electronics for benign purposes. But an event such as that which occurred at low altitude in close proximity to one of New York City’s most iconic bridges could inspire more malevolent types to undertake different kind of “missions”.

Since the attacks on 9/11/01 were airborne with fully fuelled passenger jets used as guided missiles one would think that the NYC Metro airports would be the most cognizant of the security of the airspace they control. True, a small radio controlled device that that used yesterday is too small and typically flies far too low to have a radar “signature”, it is disconcerting to imagine the possibilities that commercial jets may encounter at low altitude on the final approach or on the liftoff. These two phases are the most vulnerable for any aircraft but one need spend too much energy realizing what a bomb or explosive-laden radio controlled craft could do to such a low flying large aircraft.

IRONY

This morning’s edition of the New York Daily News on-line featured a long piece titled, “Beyond the Smoking Guns: Inside NYPD’s 21^st Century Arsenal”, detailing some of the ultrahigh tech hardware and software currently in use by the NYPD assisting in their historical mission as the City’s Law Enforcement Agency and in its far more shadowy mission regarding Anti - and Counter Terrorism as well as in Intelligence. NYPD’s efforts and innovation now serve as models for cities around the world. Everything from top shelf surveillance cameras, facial recognition software, advanced ballistics and other innovative technologies some that were developed under former NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly who early on identified our City’s needs as far as Intelligence gathering, analysis and threat assessments are concerned.

While NYC, all our waterways, bridges, transportation networks, infrastructure and harbors are under the jurisdiction of NYPD, the United States Coast Guard, the Port Authority of NY/NJ, and MTA Police work in cooperation with each other in an array of unified operations that provide the level of safety and security our City demands and circumstances dictate. That is why it is so ironic that two men from Inwood were able to navigate their radio controlled airplanes so close to the GWB and NYPD Aviation Unit’s copter. An historical hallmark of terrorists tactically is the use of sometimes simple, crude almost primitive devices. Those who manufacture IED’s and bombs have gotten increasingly more capable over the last 12 years. The complexity, efficacy and lethality of the bomb making skills of the insurgency in Iraq increased over the years we were engaged there and much of that bomb making knowledge and technical acumen has been shared between different terrorist factions throughout the world. Iraq provided a convenient proving ground for IED manufacturers. Terrorists intent to do us harm continue to refine their devices to better conceal them and construct them with elements that standard screening technology and processes at airports are unable to detect.

UNDERESTIMATING AT OUR PERIL

We have learned a great deal about our threats over the last 13 years but all of that learning has been reactive. Our Military, Intelligence, Counter Terrorism and Law Enforcement communities have each had to “adapt on the fly” as one retired Department of Defense Intelligence analyst recently noted. “They (terrorists) are always forward thinking, always looking for new ways to create the type of destruction and havoc they seek”, he continued. His sentiments have been echoed by others in the corridors of power in the CIA, DOD, FBI as well as in many foreign countries intelligence services including Interpol and Scotland Yard, that partner with us in our broader national security efforts. Still, despite all our combined resources and efforts terrorists will always have something of an advantage. As it has been said since the earliest days of our “War on Terror”, the terrorists only need to be right one time; we, on the other hand, have to be right 100% of the time. It is such a lopsided equation that it has steered some to promote policies and procedures that take the path of least resistance. A new measure of “stovepipe thinking”, that narrow focus that came to light after 9/11/01 when we were made aware of the inertia, ineptitude, and inefficiency among our sprawling federal intelligence apparatus seems to be creeping in to some areas of the vast bureaucracy. Such return to the pre – 9/11 mindset should not be tolerated and it ought to be countered at every turn.

While we here in New York City can remain confident that NYPD Commissioner Bill Bratton and his Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence John Miller have largely left the outstanding handiwork of former Commissioner Ray Kelly’s Intelligence and Counter Terrorism Divisions intact, we are ever mindful of what our City represents to terrorists. Conducting another successful attack in NYC is their Holy Grail; their ultimate goal, their preeminent target.

http://diydrones.com/profiles/blogs/how-long-will-unregulated-fpv-and-rc-last

http://spectrum.ieee.org/tech-talk/aerospace/aviation/that-toy-is-now-a-drone-says-the-faa

http://nypost.com/2014/07/07/two-drones-in-near-miss-with-nypd-copter-over-gwb/

http://www.forbes.com/sites/gregorymcneal/2014/07/08/two-drones-nearly-collide-with-nypd-helicopter-operators-arrested/

http://gothamist.com/2014/07/08/drones_nypd.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/09/nyregion/two-men-arrested-after-drone-flies-near-new-york-police-helicopter.html?ref=nyregion&_r=0

Saturday, February 8, 2014

THE ISSUE IS CHRISTIE NOT THE MEN & WOMEN OF THE PORT AUTHORITY

PORT AUTHORITY OF NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY

BEING DRAGGED THROUGH THE MUD BY POLITICAL SCANDALS

THE GEORGE WASHINGTON BRIDGE AS SEEN FROM

UPPER MANHATTAN

TAGS: PORT AUTHORITY NEW YORK/NEW JERSEY, PA FACILITIES,

SURFACE AND RAIL TRANSPORT, HUDSON RIVER CROSSINGS,

FREIGHT TERMINAL, DOCKS, PIERS, PA POLICE DEPARTMENT,

PAPD 9-11-2001, LaGUARDIA, JFK AND NEWARK/LIBERTY AIRPORTS,

PATH TRAINS, CRITICAL INFRASTRUCTURE, WTC, NYC HARBOR

(Saturday February 8, 2014 JFK Airport, Queens, NYC) Since its formation in 1921 the Port Authority of New York / New Jersey (PANYNJ) has been a highly regarded and much emulated bi-state alliance. When the original charter was crafted, those involved in that process could never have envisioned what it would become. The Port Authority as locals refer to it daily fulfills a mission that has only grown in scale and scope in the post 9-11-2001 era. Much of this regions critical infrastructure from the three local airports to Hudson River crossings, road and rail transportation as well as properties on both sides of the Hudson they own and operate, the Port Authority is a vital element assuring the safety and security of their facilities while moving hundreds of thousands of New Yorkers and commuters from the NYC Metropolitan Area.

Until very recently the PANYNJ was seen as a non-political Agency left alone to carry out their mission. Recent headlines regarding the alleged malfeasance of New Jersey Governor Chris Christie and his high ranking appointees to the PA have begun to tarnish an impressive reputation of efficiency, effectiveness and competence. Some of the most heavily travelled bridges and busy airports are often stricken by unforeseen events such as heavy surface congestion, power interruptions and other delay inducing events and those affected by such delays and inconvenience will complain to no end. However, these very same people are dependent on the Port Authority and, when the systems are functioning without any glitches are able to take the PA for granted. Given the density of the NYC Metro Area population, aging infrastructure in New Jersey and New York, the PA keeps the region moving by the dedication and expertise of their rank and file employees from their own Police Department to the legions of specialists charged with insuring the whole interconnected regional network runs as trouble-free as possible.

AN UNWITTING PAWN

One would be hard pressed to find incidents of corruption, political wrangling or run of the mill chicanery in the Port Authority. Actually the fact that in its almost 90 year history it has remained among the brand of political corruption, influence peddling, extortion and greed that has come to define the political landscape of this region, is in itself remarkable. To see the PA now to have been used as a pawn in the most amateurish spiteful manner as recent media reports suggest, is an insult to all who work or have every worked for the PA. It appears that Governor Christie installed a small cadre of loyalists into the hierarchy of the PA and used them to carry out some sort of retribution against Mark Sokolich, the Mayor of Fort Lee NJ, the host city of the western terminus of the George Washington Bridge. If these allegations are proven to be true everyone involved should be punished to the fullest extent of the law.

AIR FORCE ONE AT A FAMILIAR DESTINATION – NEW YORK CITY

LANDMARKS AND ICONS

Some of this region’s most critical infrastructure and iconic sites fall under the control of the PA. From the majestic George Washington Bridge, the Bayonne Bridge the Holland and Lincoln Tunnels, Outerbridge Crossing, The PATH trains, as well as Kennedy, LaGuardia and Newark Airports, such locales are almost as familiar to the millions who come to visit here annually as they are to those of us who live and work here. The Twin Towers of the World Trade Center were built, owned and operated by the PA under the vision of Austin Tobin who ran the PA for almost 30 years. There were political agendas to be addressed, no politicians’ egos to stroke; Director Tobin saw the value in each and every project he presided over not just as the head of the PA but also as an accomplished engineer. It was during his long, successful tenure that the Port Authority was planted in the fertile soil that allowed it to flourish unencumbered by petty politics. Some may argue this point as an inaccurate portrayal of the man Tobin and his Agency, the PA but extensive research into the PA yields no stories, rumors, innuendos or suppositions that credibly contest this point.

PORT AUTHORITY BY THE NUMBERS

Operating two bus terminals, one near the upper tip of Manhattan on 178^th Street, the other on 8^th Avenue and 42^nd Street, these two locations transport upwards of 70 million people annually. Every work day the PATH Trains move over 29,000communters from Hoboken and Jersey City to the west side of Manhattan. Fleets of ferries that had long plied the Hudson but died away until the late 1990’s once again are plentiful from New Jersey and Brooklyn into lower Manhattan. Between JFK, LaGuardia and Newark/Liberty airports over 60 million travelers pass through these PA operated hubs.

Living in the NYC Metro Area sometimes it is easy to forget that NYC became what it is today due to geography. From Colonial days the value of NYC as a seaport, as a major deep water maritime harbor capable of handling heavy volume of immigrants and freight, made our waterfront the premier shipping destination between the fledgling United States and the rest of the world. After the introduction of containerized freight in the late seventies many saw the days of New York’s waterfront as over. But, ever adaptable to change the PA cast their gaze and attention to the rapidly increasing freight brought to dock at the Port Elizabeth/Port Newark complex. Today that complex is one of the busiest in the country. The Port Authority is also responsible for the safety and security of the piers in Red Hook Brooklyn and adjacent docks.

One of the more obscure but important numbers, a figure that illustrates the enormous domain of which the PA is responsible is that the Port Authority Police Department (PAPD) is the 26^th largest Police Force in the United States. Think about that for a moment. Hundreds of cities and urban centers have smaller Police Forces than does the Port Authority. Given that the PAPD does not operate within the well-defined borders of a jurisdiction, this fact is impressive. The PAPD are, in a sense, far flung being that they are deployed at facilities all across the NYC Metro Area. Their tasks have only gotten more difficult since the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001. On that day the PAPD lost 37 of her Members of Service (MOS), the single most lethal day in their history is another sad chapter in the stories of courage, duty and sacrifice exhibited so valiantly by all the Agencies involved as First Responders.

The initial claim at the beginning of Governor Christie’s now scandal ridden administration was a mysteriously authorized land closure of designated roads leading from Fort Lee onto the George Washington Bridge (GWB).The GWB is the most heavily travelled bridge in the United States and is the only link directly from Interstate 80 and 95 onto the Cross Bronx Expressway which links to the network of highways going north to New England. Sure, commuters in this area are more than familiar with traffic congestion and jams but the four days of lane closures in question affected far more than frustrated motorists; school buses and emergency response Agencies had their movements and response time impacted by the enormous gridlock that had, in effect, made Fort Lee a parking lot. If for no other reason than this the various legislative committees and federal prosecutor investigated this sloppy episode need to find answers. If Chris Christie did have ANYTHING to do with the lane closures he should either resign a la Sarah Palin and take a job with the other barking seals at FOX News or gut it out and wait to be impeached. Either way his once notable political potential is gone; the luster of a “straight-shooting” Republican Governor from a Democratic state has been sullied beyond repair.

EVERY OTHER DAY

Christie’s most highly placed appointees at the PA as well as his Chief odd Staff, Deputy Chief of Staff, Lt. Governor and about 20 others within Christie’s innermost circle have been subpoenaed, resigned orr have been unceremoniously fired. At some point the truth should emerge given the intense focus on the local and national media. However, no matter when and where fault is laid, regardless of which political hack or “no show” appointee is left holding the bag; the one truth that ought to be recognized is that this entire sordid tale is not about the PA. It is about politicians and pettiness, about hubris, power and corruption. It should not in any way reflect on the thousands of hard working men and women of the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey.

http://www.panynj.gov/

http://www.panynj.gov/port-authority-ny-nj.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Authority_of_New_York_and_New_Jersey

http://www.panynj.gov/wtcprogress/index.html

http://www.nydailynews.com/new-york/lupica-wtc-ice-problem-port-authority-falling-safety-article-1.1607469

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Port_Authority_of_New_York_and_New_Jersey_Police_Department

Tuesday, January 28, 2014

PROTECTING THE BOWL

SUPER BOWL SUPER SECURE

MEETING THE CHALLENGES,

ANTICIPATING THE THREATS

UNPRECEDENTED SECURITY MEASURES WILL GREET

THE FANS IN ATTENDANCE

FOR THE BIG GAME WHILE SUPER BOWL BOULEVARD

IN MANHATTAN IS ALREADY A HARDENED TARGET

TAGS: SUPER BOWL, METLIFE STADIUM, FOOTBALL BOULEVARD –

TIMES SQUARE TO HERALD SQUARE, NYPD, DHS, NJ STATE POLICE,

SECURING ALL SUPER BOWL RELATED SITES, TERRORIST RISKS,

SECURITY PLANS TWO YEARS IN THE MAKING

(Tuesday January 28, 2014 Herald Square, NYC) Super Bowl XLVIII will be played Sunday at MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford just a few miles across the Hudson River from here but the game itself will be the grand finale of a week-long celebration of everything NFL. Since this past Sunday a 13 block swathe of Midtown Manhattan from Herald Square to Times Square has been transformed in Football Boulevard; a temporary football oriented theme park that has already attracted thousands of visitors. While bookies and odds makers are setting the betting lines, the NYPD is defining and manning the boundaries of Football Boulevard as well as providing an unprecedented level of security for this one of a kind event.

In this post 9 -11 - 2001 world any mass gathering, be it a professional football game or a shopping mall, have become increasingly attractive targets for terrorists to ply their trade. The most readily available and broadly effective tactical tool in the terrorist arsenal is simply inducing fear. By nature terrorists must utilize the tactics of asymmetrical warfare and one of their most effective methods is issuing threats. They score a victory every time fear settles into a public’s consciousness and their threats of impending attack prompt a reaction including the alteration of the flow of events. Yes, every terrorist threat, each byte of “chatter” the NSA catches in their broad nets must be taken seriously. That is a fundamental of security today. Osama bin Laden declared war on America time and time again; in printed manifestos, in interviews with CNN and CBS and, sadly, no one in our sprawling federal and military intelligence apparatus took him seriously.

The threat of terrorism is now firmly implanted in our collective and institutional conscious. As New Yorkers we constantly see billboards on the streets and in the subways encouraging us to “say something” if we “see something”. The capabilities of the NYPD today are exponentially more focused on terrorism and on interdiction than ever before. Hundreds of men and women in NYPD labor night and day in specialized Units that did not exist as they are now on September 11, 2001. “Football Boulevard” will be blanketed with additional surveillance cameras, uniformed and plain cloths Officers as well as sophisticated devices that can identify even the smallest amounts of nuclear material. Many of the measures being enacted remain classified but there can be no doubt how vigorous the NYPD will be in this neighborhood from now until the Super Bowl is over late Sunday night.

UP TO THE CHALLENGE

There is arguably no better prepared municipal Police Department than the NYPD. The challenges this Super Bowl present are not unfamiliar to our City or our Police Department. NYPD has decades of experience providing safety and security for events that take place on the world’s largest stage. From regular Presidential visits, to the annual United Nations General Assembly and ever type of high visibility event, NYPD has developed and enacted a series of contingency plans that have been carefully crafted, rigorously tested and regularly practiced.

While throngs of visitors have already visited this oddball Midtown attraction with its 60 foot high toboggan ramp, NFL sponsored attractions and events; the attention on the actual site of the big game is also ramping up. Personnel from the local towns around MetLife Stadium to the New Jersey State Police, FBI, and Department of Homeland Security comprise just a few the elements that have been assembled from 35 different Law Enforcement Agencies.

But, according to former head of the New York Police Department’s Intelligence Unit, Ed Hartnett told NBC News this Super Bowl, “truly defines the word ‘challenge’ when it comes to security.”

In an interview with NBC News Lt. Col. Edward Cetnar of the New Jersey State Police commented, “Everything that we're doing has an air, land and sea concept,” given the unique geography surrounding the MetLife property. The East Rutherford stadium property is accessible via a network of rivers, small waterways and marshlands, or, as Bruce Springsteen has sung, “…The swamps of Jersey”. There has been a perimeter fence constructed enclosing a 2.5 mile radius setting the boundaries that will be patrolled by helicopters with sophisticated visual devices and small boats from Agencies as diverse as the NYPD Harbor Unit, The NJ State Police Maritime Division and the United States Coast Guard.

THE “MASS TRANSIT” SUPER BOWL

For those unfamiliar with the proximity of MetLife Stadium to Midtown Manhattan (which means anyone not from the NYC Metropolitan Area) New York City is inextricably physically linked to North Jersey. There are three prominent crossings of the Hudson River, the waterway separating New York and New Jersey; The George Washington Bridge, and the Lincoln and Holland Tunnels. There is a heavily used ferry network extending from Staten Island to Manhattan as well as those small ships that traverse the Hudson from New Jersey’s “Gold Coast” from Hudson County communities including West New York, Weehawken, Hoboken and Jersey City.

The NYC Metro Area boasts one of the country’s most efficient mass transit systems. The components of this network seamlessly connect at various nexuses; NYC Subways are easily accessible to the Path System with subways to and from North Jersey as well as the New Jersey Transit system itself running trains from Penn Station in Midtown all the way out to suburban New Jersey. In many ways the life blood of the Metro Area is the mass transit network. For as densely populated as this small region is, without mass transportation options, the region would be prone to shut downs, gridlock, traffic jams of epic proportions and the local economy would suffer greatly. Actually every institution from Wall Street to the major media outlets that call this region home would be susceptible to the logistical nightmares that the Metro region and its approximately 16 million people who live here.

The participants in the Super Bowl, the Denver Broncos and Seattle Seahawks have taken up residence this week in newly constructed swanky hotels in Jersey City. The “Media Day” events yesterday took place at the Prudential Center in Newark a scant few miles from the game’s venue.

TAKE A LOOK AT A MAP

The PATH network linking NYC with northern New Jersey

For some intents and purposes Hudson and Essex Counties in New Jersey are appendages of New York City. If not for the Hudson River they would constitute a contiguous landmass home to the most densely packed population in the United States. What people from other parts of America be they from the Deep South, Midwest or Southwest is that the states in the Northeast were parts of the original 13 Colonies; home to the first waves of ‘huddled masses yearning to be free’. In colonial days the only mode of distance transportation was the horse and buggy. Our founding fathers exchanged communiques via lone carriers on horseback and, as a direct result of the limitations of those days, the Northeast states are small and clustered in a distinct corner of our country. The population density of the Northeast Corridor is a direct result of our nation’s historical birth.

New York City sits in the center of this most densely populated region. On any given day the tasks associated with keeping the peace, enforcing the law, insuring the safety and security of all who live here, work here, visit here and travel through here is a Herculean effort requiring coordinated operation between multiple Law Enforcement Agencies. Add into the mix an event the scale and scope of the Super Bowl and its extravagant list of week-long attractions and activities based in a chunk of Midtown stretching from Times Square to Herald Square and the daily tasks become that much more demanding.

THE BOSTON MARATHON: LESSONS LEARNED

We have seen the faces of terror evolve and mutate since September 11, 2001. Across the world in perpetually troubled “hot spots” to distant locales that attract American and European tourists’ terrorist have struck at what have previously been designated “soft targets”. The security of virtually every United States Embassy where ever it may be is robust. Our foreign embassies and Consulates today are more akin to fortified military bases than diplomatic outposts where business is conducted.

We have seen terrorist strikes soft targets from plush hotels in India and the Philippines, to night clubs in Beirut and Germany. American Embassies in 1998 Kenya and Tanzania were hit by the forward guard of what ultimately became the most feared terrorist organization, Al Qaeda. Since the death of Osama bin Laden Al Qaeda has become a decentralized collection of terrorist cells operating autonomously utilizing both well developed and carefully planned tactics to the simple but deadly use of suicide bombers hitting “targets of opportunity”. The asymmetry of this equation gives a decidedly lopsided advantage to the terrorists.

The 2013 Boston Marathon bombing as cold and callous as it was deadly and terrifying illustrated the inherent asymmetry of the threats we face. Two young men, for whatever reasons, assembled crude explosive devices similar to the IED’s (Improvised Explosive Devices) that were so brutally effective in Afghanistan and in particular Iraq where insurgents, ragtag militias and small terrorist cells did battle against the full might and strength of our Armed Forces with deadly efficacy. The axiom that has come to define the field of battle, the line of scrimmage if you will, as amorphous and free floating as it is says that the terrorist only have to be “right” once while we, the Counter-terrorism, Intelligence and Law Enforcement Community have to be right all the time. This challenge is a near impossibility. It is for these reasons that as many variables as there are that can be controlled, in even a rudimentary manner, are.

Aside from erecting physical barriers, implementing strict organized crowd control tactics, deploying large numbers of uniformed and non-uniformed Officers and Agents, relying on blanket coverage of the various sites by surveillance and closed circuit monitoring, vigilance is the mantra of the NYPD and all the other Agencies tasked with securing the Super Bowl and all its far flung related events.

All involved in this enormous undertaking are hoping that contending with the possibility of blustery winter weather will be the only threat for the rest of this week and for game day.

http://www.cbsnews.com/news/super-bowl-xlviii-security-inside-the-events-secret-command-center/

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72FP8p1Cgx4&feature=youtu.be (featured NYPD video)

http://nypost.com/2014/01/27/nypd-plans-high-security-on-super-bowl-boulevard/

http://investigations.nbcnews.com/_news/2014/01/28/22470990-super-bowl-security-net-cast-wide-to-protect-game-and-related-events?lite

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/12/10/nypd-super-bowl-security-will-be-high-tech-and-unprecedented/

http://pix11.com/2014/01/27/inside-the-secret-joint-operations-super-bowl-security-headquarters/#axzz2rj42MdYs

http://www.komonews.com/home/video/Why-is-Times-Square-a-Super-Bowl-security-nightmare-242121541.html

http://www.ny1.com/content/news/super_bowl_xlviii/202425/nypd-to-step-up-security-at-times-square-s--super-bowl-boulevard-

http://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/dhs-providing-extra-security-for-super-bowl/2014/01/28/c7576288-8851-11e3-a760-a86415d0944d_story.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/01/16/sports/football/security-for-super-bowl-is-a-far-reaching-task.html

http://www.myfoxny.com/story/24218799/times-square-security-for-super-bowl-week

http://fios1news.com/newjersey/node/23448#.UugOErQo6M8