Appearing Monday before the New York City Council’s hearing on the Department of Homeland Security’s 40% reduction in counterterrorism aid to New York City (other cities experienced increases), Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly identified “17 chapters in New York City’s recent history that the Department of Homeland Security may want to commit to memory” as follows:

1. November 5, 1990: El Sayyid Nosair shot Jewish Defense League leader Meir Kahane in front of the Marriot East Side Hotel in Manhattan. Nosair would later become a co-conspirator with blind sheikh Omar Abdul Rahman in a plot to destroy New York City tunnels and bridges.

2. February 26, 1993: New York City sustained the first terrorist attack on the World Trade Center, in which six innocent people were killed.

3. In the same year, 1993: an Al Qaeda plot to destroy the Holland and Lincoln tunnels, the George Washington Bridge, and United Nations Headquarters was uncovered, and the plotters successfully prosecuted.

4. March 1, 1994: Rashid Baz, a Palestinian angered by an Orthodox Jew’s attack on a Muslim holy site, drove his livery cab to the Brooklyn Bridge where he opened fire on a van occupied by Hassidic students, killing one of them – 16-year-old Ari Halberstam.

5. February 23, 1997: Abu Kamel, a Palestinian residing in Florida, selected the Empire State Building to carry out his intent of “annihilating” perceived enemies. He went to the observation deck on the 86th floor and shot seven people, including a Danish tourist who was killed. Kamel then turned the gun on himself and committed suicide.

6. July 31, 1997: the New York City Police Department stopped a plot at the last minute to bomb the subway complex at Atlantic Avenue in Brooklyn. The bombers were assembling the devices when police officers entered their apartment and shot and wounded them before they could detonate the bombs.

7. September 11, 2001: The World Trade Center was destroyed by Al Qaeda with the loss of 2,700 lives.

8. October 2001: In the space of a week, employees and visitors of the New York Post, NBC, CBS, and ABC News in New York City fall victim to anthrax attacks. Later the same month a New York City woman died of inhalation anthrax because of cross contamination of mail she handled at work with that of the targeted media.

9. June 2002: Security personnel from Iran’s Mission to the United Nations were observed by NYPD videotaping landmarks and infrastructure. They were expelled from the United States by the State Department because of their suspicious activities.

10. Late 2002 and Early 2003: Al Qaeda operative Iyman Faris, on orders from his handlers overseas, twice examined the Brooklyn Bridge to evaluate the feasibility of destroying it.

11. November 2003: Two more security personnel assigned to Iran’s Mission to the United Nations were caught by the NYPD videotaping tracks and tunnel of the No. 7 subway line as it entered the tunnel under the East River. They returned to Iran soon after the incident.

12. April 10, 2004: Al Qaeda operative Mohammad Babar was arrested by NYPD detectives and FBI agents in Queens, New York, for his role in a plot to bomb pubs, restaurants and train stations in London.

13. June 2004: Once again, two more security personnel from Iran’s Mission to the United Nations were caught – this time by the FBI – videotaping sensitive locations in New York. Suspected of conducting reconnaissance of New York City landmarks and infrastructure, they were again expelled by the State Department.

14. July 2004: A laptop computer of an Al Qaeda operative overseas is recovered. On it are detailed reconnaissance plans that show Al Qaeda operatives had been in New York City to plan an attack on the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup headquarters in midtown Manhattan, and the Prudential building across the river in Newark.

15. August 2004: A week before the convening of the Republican National Convention two Islamic radicals from Brooklyn were arrested in a plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station. One pleaded guilty and cooperated with the investigation. The other was convicted in Federal court earlier this month. He was found guilty on all four counts.

16. November 2005: Uzair Paracha, a Pakistani-born resident of New York City, was convicted of providing material support to Al Qaeda. While residing in New York, Uzair posed as an Al Qaeda operative who wanted to disguise the fact that he had entered Pakistan illegally.

Paracha’s father, who had met Osama bin Laden, was part owner in a Manhattan garment district business. It was suspected that Paracha’s ultimate goal was to use that business’s shipping containers to smuggle weapons and explosives into New York City.

17. Just last week, on June 6: Syed Hashmi, a Queens resident active in the New York City chapter of a radical Islamic group known as al-Mujairoun, was arrested in London where he was engaged in providing material support for Al Qaeda fighters in Afghanistan.