A Justified Warning
This article is from the archive of The New York Sun before the launch of its new website in 2022. The Sun has neither altered nor updated such articles but will seek to correct any errors, mis-categorizations or other problems introduced during transfer.

Apparently it’s better for New Yorkers to be sorry rather than safe. That’s the message coming from Democratic mayoral challenger Fernando Ferrer and some of his supporters who have been questioning Mayor Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Kelly’s decision last week to increase security on the city’s transit system following warning of a terrorist attack. Mr. Ferrer has repeatedly issued statements asking the mayor to explain his actions. While he has denied his questions are political, they clearly imply the mayor’s actions were amiss.
Eric Adams, the leader of 100 Blacks in Law Enforcement Who Care – a group that has endorsed Mr. Ferrer – reportedly went further and when asked if the timing of the mayor’s announcement was political, replied: “Well if it quacks like a duck and looks like a duck, it is a duck.” They’re sore because the mayor’s warning of a terror threat came on Thursday and deflected attention from criticism they had been making of the mayor’s skipping out on a mayoral debate taking place at the Apollo Theater in Harlem that evening. Since then reports have circulated that the informant who warned of attacks on the city’s transit system admitted it was a hoax.
For the benefit of Mr. Ferrer, here’s a reminder of what led the mayor to increase security: An informant in Iraq warned American intelligence that terrorists were planning an attack on New York’s transit system. The FBI then warned the mayor and Mr. Kelly. They in turn warned New Yorkers and increased security on the transit system. New Yorkers would be interested in learning how the wannabe mayor would have acted differently.
As our Russell Berman reports, the mayor said yesterday he didn’t know whether the informant was lying or not, but “what I do know is that we can’t wait until a threat materializes to act.” When a reporter asked him to respond to Mr. Ferrer’s statement the mayor replied: “The implication that Ray Kelly or I would try to scare people for some sort of petty political game is pretty cynical, and I’m not sure what the FBI’s motivation would be under that theory anyway.”
Just because an attack didn’t happen doesn’t mean the threat was a hoax. Increased security could have scared away would-be terrorists – that’s why the security was beefed up. American intelligence took the threat seriously and arrested three people in Iraq last week. As Mr. Berman reports, the mayor said yesterday that one of the men shouted when arrested “You’re too late to stop us.” If Mr. Ferrer was mayor and he received such warnings would he not immediately increase security on the subway?
A terrorist attack on New York’s subways is not an idle threat. New York has already been the victim of a major terrorist attack. London and Madrid have had their transit systems attacked. There is little doubt that the terrorists would love to strike at New York again. New York is fortunate to have Mr. Bloomberg and Mr. Kelly in office at times like these; They did the right thing in sharing the news of the threat with the public.