City On Alert for Qaeda Tanker Truck Attacks
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.
New York City, Los Angeles, and Chicago are under threat of an Al Qaeda attack involving a fuel tanker truck between now and September 19, according to a law enforcement official.
The federal government released the information recently to law enforcement agencies but not to the public, and its credibility is uncertain, according to an official in law enforcement, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
“We are aware of the reported threat. The New York City Police Department has measures in place to protect against truck bombs and other threats. We are expanding those measures, not in response to the latest information, but as part of ongoing refinements to out counterterrorism posture,” the city’s police commissioner, Raymond Kelly, said yesterday.
The police will not make any changes in direct response to the threats, a law enforcement official said last night, but the department will, by coincidence, be stepping up truck checks in the city. The department currently has truck checks in the Wall Street area.
The department has considered the possibility of a fuel truck’s being blown up or a car crashing into a fuel truck since 2001, a law enforcement official said, and it has barriers around the Citibank tower and in the financial district to protect against such an attack.
The NYPD has not communicated with the Chicago or Los Angeles police departments about the threats, but all three cities are taking the threats seriously.
The chief of the Los Angeles Police Department, formerly the commissioner of the NYPD, William Bratton, said in a prepared statement released yesterday, “We were made aware if the information several days ago. Our counter-terrorism and criminal information bureaus routinely look at any reports of stolen or missing trucks that carry anything hazardous. The Los Angeles Police Department’s traffic coordination section has stepped up random checks of larger vehicles. This stream of reporting is similar to other’s we’ve seen since 9/11.”
A spokesman for the Chicago Police Department, John Mirabelli, said last night, “We take every threat seriously.” In response to this latest threat, he added, “We are taking every precaution to make sure the city is secure.
“We have stepped up patrols throughout the city, especially in the downtown area,” he said.
