Ten years after 9/11, is NYC prepared?
NEW YORK - The State Department issued a worldwide travel alert today, advising Americans that al Qaeda is still a threat, ten years after 9/11.
Of course, New York City remains a favorite target for terrorists. Is the city prepared? CBS Evening News anchor Scott Pelley put that question to New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
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Pelley: People wonder, of course, if there's gonna be a tenth anniversary attack.
Kelly: Yeah.
Pelley: How secure is New York City?
Kelly: We're concerned about it. We have no specific threats. We, of course, are concerned particularly because bin Laden spoke about it twice in the notes that were recovered by the SEALs when they eliminated-- Osama bin Laden. There'll be special programs and additional security layers in place. But we have no specific threat that we're aware of at this time.
Pelley: There's no credible intelligence that you've seen that suggests that there's going to be an attack on 9/11 on the tenth anniversary.
Kelly: That's correct.
Pelley: And the city is as buttoned up as you can make it?
Kelly: Well, obviously the city has to function. And this memorial is on a Sunday. But we can't limit ourselves to just worrying about that - you know, Sunday September 11th.
Since 9/11, Kelly has built a 1,000 man counter terrorism force in New York City with intelligence officers in cities around the world who relay terrorist information and attack analysis straight back to police headquarters.
Pelley: Nearly every police department in this country depends largely on the federal government for intelligence in counter terrorism. Why do you not?
Kelly: We clearly need the federal government. What we also need to do is to supplement what they do. Why? Why do we need to do that? Because we're the number one target in this country. That's the consensus of the intelligence community. We're the communications capital. We're the financial capital. We're a city that's been attacked twice successfully. We've had 13 terrorist plots against the city since-- September 11th. No other city has had that.
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One of the 13 plots was a car bomb parked in Times Square in May 2010. The bomb was poorly made, and it was discovered before it detonated. The would-be bomber was caught.
Pelley:What did you learn from that?
Kelly: Well, we learned that there are no guarantees. This individual was able to find a parking spot on a Saturday night in Times Square - and tried to detonate a bomb. So, we can never guarantee safety. We work hard, but we live in a dangerous world.
Ray Kelly worked his way up from an NYPD police cadet. He's held other jobs in federal law enforcement and private security. This is his second tour as commissioner. He runs a $4 billion department with 50,0000 employees. The NYPD is bigger than the FBI.
