NickLappos
9th Aug 2004, 12:10
Anybody out there want to discuss (in generalities so as to be less instructive!!) what their companies do for security?
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/politics/09terror.html?hp
Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: August 9, 2004
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - Pakistan has given American officials what they regard as credible and specific information indicating that Al Qaeda has considered using tourist helicopters in terror attacks in New York City, domestic security officials said Sunday.
As a result, the officials said, security measures for helicopter operators in New York City will be stepped up in a new directive as early as this week. Among the new measures under review is a requirement for operators to conduct airport-style screenings of passengers for suspicious items, said an official with the Department of Homeland Security who had been briefed on the plan. So far, no groundings of helicopter operators are planned.
Personnel at several Manhattan helicopter charter companies said Sunday that although they had already conducted varying degrees of passenger screening themselves, they had heard of no specific safety concerns in recent days from the federal government.
Separately, a senior American intelligence official said that more than 1,000 computer disks had been seized by British authorities during arrests last week of 12 suspected operatives for Al Qaeda in England.
The seized files are now being subjected to intensive analysis by British and American intelligence, but they appear to contain evidence of previously unknown terrorist planning activities in the United States, the official said. As a result, Bush administration officials are preparing for the possibility of expanded public and private threat alerts.
The senior official, who has been briefed on the information from Britain and Pakistan, would not discuss specific operations that were emerging from the new computer data, saying that the evaluation of the material was still under way.
The Bush administration raised the country's terror alert level on Aug. 1, after computer information turned over by authorities in Pakistan about possible reconnaissance gathering by operatives of Al Qaeda led American officials to tighten security at five financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington.
The senior intelligence official and security advisers to President Bush have said they increasingly see the intelligence about the financial institutions and about possible plans by Al Qaeda to stage an attack in the United States as part of a unified terror plot to disrupt the elections in the fall.
The reconnaissance missions appear to have been conducted three or four years ago, but officials said they considered the information about Al Qaeda's possible interest in things like helicopters and financial institutions to be critical in understanding how or where terrorists might strike, if not when.
"Current intelligence streams, concurrent with our own threat analysis, is leading us in this direction," the homeland security official said of the threat to chartered helicopters.
Still, intelligence officials have long pointed out that Al Qaeda has planned for possible attacks over several years only to abandon many of them. It was still unknown whether the group's top leaders had decided whether to carry out any specific plot against the financial companies or tourist helicopters.
An article in the Aug. 8 issue of Time magazine said that after conducting surveillance of the Prudential building in Newark, operatives of Al Qaeda wrote a report suggesting that a limousine carrying enough explosives to destroy the building might be able to enter the parking lot more easily than trucks or vans. A law enforcement official who has received regular briefings on counterterrorism matters in the region confirmed the report on Sunday.
The computer information found last month in Pakistan and last week in Britain continues to yield new details about who carried out the reconnaissance operations at the five financial institutions in 2000 and 2001, the official said.
The authorities now believe that one of the men who conducted the surveillance at the New York Stock Exchange was Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah, who was born in Saudi Arabia, has relatives in Florida and on May 26 was the subject of an F.B.I. bulletin seeking information about seven men with suspected ties to terrorists.
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/09/politics/09terror.html?hp
Tourist Copters in New York City a Terror Target
By DAVID JOHNSTON and ERIC LICHTBLAU
Published: August 9, 2004
WASHINGTON, Aug. 8 - Pakistan has given American officials what they regard as credible and specific information indicating that Al Qaeda has considered using tourist helicopters in terror attacks in New York City, domestic security officials said Sunday.
As a result, the officials said, security measures for helicopter operators in New York City will be stepped up in a new directive as early as this week. Among the new measures under review is a requirement for operators to conduct airport-style screenings of passengers for suspicious items, said an official with the Department of Homeland Security who had been briefed on the plan. So far, no groundings of helicopter operators are planned.
Personnel at several Manhattan helicopter charter companies said Sunday that although they had already conducted varying degrees of passenger screening themselves, they had heard of no specific safety concerns in recent days from the federal government.
Separately, a senior American intelligence official said that more than 1,000 computer disks had been seized by British authorities during arrests last week of 12 suspected operatives for Al Qaeda in England.
The seized files are now being subjected to intensive analysis by British and American intelligence, but they appear to contain evidence of previously unknown terrorist planning activities in the United States, the official said. As a result, Bush administration officials are preparing for the possibility of expanded public and private threat alerts.
The senior official, who has been briefed on the information from Britain and Pakistan, would not discuss specific operations that were emerging from the new computer data, saying that the evaluation of the material was still under way.
The Bush administration raised the country's terror alert level on Aug. 1, after computer information turned over by authorities in Pakistan about possible reconnaissance gathering by operatives of Al Qaeda led American officials to tighten security at five financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington.
The senior intelligence official and security advisers to President Bush have said they increasingly see the intelligence about the financial institutions and about possible plans by Al Qaeda to stage an attack in the United States as part of a unified terror plot to disrupt the elections in the fall.
The reconnaissance missions appear to have been conducted three or four years ago, but officials said they considered the information about Al Qaeda's possible interest in things like helicopters and financial institutions to be critical in understanding how or where terrorists might strike, if not when.
"Current intelligence streams, concurrent with our own threat analysis, is leading us in this direction," the homeland security official said of the threat to chartered helicopters.
Still, intelligence officials have long pointed out that Al Qaeda has planned for possible attacks over several years only to abandon many of them. It was still unknown whether the group's top leaders had decided whether to carry out any specific plot against the financial companies or tourist helicopters.
An article in the Aug. 8 issue of Time magazine said that after conducting surveillance of the Prudential building in Newark, operatives of Al Qaeda wrote a report suggesting that a limousine carrying enough explosives to destroy the building might be able to enter the parking lot more easily than trucks or vans. A law enforcement official who has received regular briefings on counterterrorism matters in the region confirmed the report on Sunday.
The computer information found last month in Pakistan and last week in Britain continues to yield new details about who carried out the reconnaissance operations at the five financial institutions in 2000 and 2001, the official said.
The authorities now believe that one of the men who conducted the surveillance at the New York Stock Exchange was Adnan G. el-Shukrijumah, who was born in Saudi Arabia, has relatives in Florida and on May 26 was the subject of an F.B.I. bulletin seeking information about seven men with suspected ties to terrorists.