Thousandsof NYPD officers to secure Ground Zero for Anniversary

Associated Press
NEW YORK — There are no specific terror threats against New York City but the NYPD still plans a major show of force for 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.

Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said Wednesday that police will form a frozen zone around the World Trade Center site. They'll flood it with thousands of extra officers for the Sunday observance there with President Barack Obama and former President George W. Bush in attendance.

The beefed up security also will include hundreds of surveillance cameras trained on the site.

The commissioner said the department will deploy "quick strike reaction forces" to respond to potential threats outside lower Manhattan. The teams include officers in heavy armor, bomb squad technicians and hostage negotiators.

New Yorkers also will see extra subway patrols.

http://online.wsj.com/article/AP3798ef60be654ec188ae3aead0df894d.html

San Diego on Alert for 9/11 Anniversary

Reporting from San Diego -- With the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks approaching, San Diego political and law enforcement officials launched a campaign Wednesday to warn residents to look for signs of terrorist planning.



"Al Qaeda and others have always had a fascination with significant dates in history," Keith Slotter, special agent in charge of the San Diego office of the FBI, told a news conference.



Public service announcements are scheduled for local television stations warning residents to be on the alert and to contact police if they see anything suspicious.



A locally produced six-minute video titled "The Eight Signs of Terrorism" is posted on a county government website: http://www.ReadySanDiego.org.



San Diego's proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border and the presence of numerous military bases require an extra level of vigilance, said San Diego Mayor Jerry Sanders, a former police chief.



The eight warning signs were compiled by the San Diego Joint Terrorism Task Force and the federal Department of Homeland Security. The department has begun a national campaign, "If You See Something, Say Something."



Among the signs of possible terrorism: People appearing to watch potential targets to gain information and people impersonating law enforcement officers or letter carriers.



Other signs include people using cash for large purchases; people buying large quantities of products such as fertilizer, weapons or uniforms; and people appearing to rehearse an attack or moving equipment or supplies into position.



"When in doubt, call law enforcement," San Diego County Sheriff William Gore said. "We'll handle it.... We're not targeting any particular group, we're looking at suspicious activity regardless of who is doing it."



San Diego Police Chief William Lansdowne recalled the police and firefighters who dashed into the second building of the Twin Towers when it was struck by a plane.



"Remember what happened on 9/11 and show that level of courage," he said.



Three of the hijackers who flew a plane into the Pentagon had lived in San Diego. Two of the three had taken flying lessons in San Diego.



In the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, there was criticism about lack of coordination and sharing of information between federal and local law enforcement and U.S. intelligence agencies.



Without directly mentioning that criticism, officials at Wednesday's news conference said that coordination has improved.



"We've never been more prepared," Lansdowne said.



tony.perry@latimes.com



http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-0825-terrorism-20110825,0,4826580.story

72 POLICE OFFICERS KILLED ON 9/11 TO BE REMEMBERED ON 10TH ANNIVERSARY

It remains the deadliest day in U.S. law enforcement history: 72 peace officers killed in the line of duty during the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001, according to the director of Washington, D.C.'s Law Enforcement Officers Memorial.



Ten years after that tragic day, these heroic men and women will be remembered during a ceremony at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C.



On Friday, September 9, at 10 AM (et), U.S. Attorney General Eric H. Holder, Jr. will join Board members, supporters and staff of the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, as well as dignitaries from law enforcement agencies that lost (an) officer(s) on 9/11, at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial in Washington, D.C. for a special ceremony.



The names of the 72 officers are engraved together on Line 23 of Panels 9 through 22 of the Memorial's west wall. Following brief remarks, the officers' names will be read aloud, and a wreath will be laid in their honor.



"Over the past 10 years, the horrific events of September 11, 2001 seem to have faded a bit from our collective consciousness. But the service and sacrifice of the 72 courageous law enforcement heroes who laid down their own lives that day for the safety and protection of others will always be remembered here at the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial," said Craig Floyd, CEO of the Memorial.



Among the law enforcement officers who died on 9/11 were 71 killed at the World Trade Center, plus one officer — Richard Guadagno, a sworn refuge manager with the U.S. Fish & Wildlife Service — who was among the passengers who died in Pennsylvania while fighting to regain control of Flight 93 from the terrorists.



Thirty-seven members of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey Police Force, including its Superintendent, Fred Morrone, died on 9/11; that represents the most fatalities suffered by a single law enforcement agency in one day in U.S. history.



Also killed at the World Trade Center that day were 23 members of the New York City Police Department; five members of the New York State Department of Taxation & Finance; three members of the New York State Office of Court Administration; a special agent with the FBI; a master special officer with the U.S. Secret Service; and a New York City fire marshal who had sworn law enforcement powers.



The names of all 72 officers killed on 9/11 can be found on the Memorial Fund's web site at www.LawMemorial.org/911RollCall. The National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial contains the names of 19,298 officers who have died in the line of duty throughout U.S. history.



http://www.thecypresstimes.com/article/News/National_News/72_POLICE_OFFICERS_KILLED_ON_911_TO_BE_REMEMBERED_ON_10TH_ANNIVERSARY/49496

On Eve Of 9/11 Anniversary, NYPD And FDNY Push For National Emergency Radio Network

The city's fire and police commissioners urged Congress Wednesday to approve a national emergency radio network in time for the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.



Our Cunningham and Gendar report:



Gathered at a Staten Island firehouse that lost five members in the attacks, Fire Commissioner Salvatore Cassano and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said their crews couldn't talk to any federal agencies if another terror strike happened tomorrow.



"We've gone light years ahead of where everybody else has gone," Cassano said. "But to have a nationwide system would be even better."



Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, a key proponent of the national radio network, noted, "Congress has yet to fulfill one of the key, outstanding recommendations of the 9/11 Commission Report....We needed to have interoperability between local, state and federal first responders."



The nation's police, fire and rescue operations use more than 55,000 separate radio networks.



The goal would be to create a single network on the radio spectrum so rescuers could talk across city, state and regional lines - and share crucial documents like building blueprints or arrest records.



"To reserve part of the spectrum for first responders is critically important to New York and nationally," Kelly said.



Money is not the primary congressional stumbling block.



A review by the Congressional Budget Office estimated a nationwide system would pay for itself through the auction of unused broadband - generating up to $6.5 billion in surplus that could go toward cutting the nation's debt.



The legislation has languished amid partisan squabbling over whether the government or private companies should own and run the network.



"We're going to go back [to Capitol Hill] in September," said Gillibrand, who joined Cassano and Kelly at the station housing Engine 160 and Rescue Company 5. "I think we'll have the support when we have the vote."



"The status quo is unacceptable," she added

http://www.nydailynews.com/blogs/dailypolitics/2011/08/on-eve-of-911-anniversary-nypd-and-fdny-push-for-national-emergency-radio-netw

NYPD Heighten Alert for "Lone Wolf" on 9/11 Anniversary

NEW YORK (WCBS 880) – The NYPD is strengthening its safety net around the city as the 9/11 anniversary approaches and the city’s top cop says he’s very concerned about an attack timed to coincide with the memorials.



in New York City. (Photo by Mario Tama/Getty Images)



Reporting Marla Diamond



LISTEN: WCBS 880′s Marla Diamond reports



http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2011/08/18/police-commissioner-ray-kelly-nyc-on-heightened-alert-for-911-anniversary/



Police Commissioner Ray Kelly says the city has not received any specific threats, but is on heightened alert for the 9/11 anniversary.



“We have to be concerned,” Kelly said. “Osama bin Laden spoke about some event on September 11, 2011 twice in the last two years.”



Kelly says bin Laden’s death is not a game changer





Kelly says some of the avengers may be so-called lone wolves, radicallized by what they read online.



President Barack Obama has also said a “lone wolf” terror attack in the U.S. is more likely than a major coordinated effort like the September 11 attacks

NYPD Dedicated to Fighting Terrorism as 9/11 Anniversary Approaches

As we approach the 10th anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center, the question of New York's vulnerability to terror attacks is again in the forefront of public discussion.



While the NYPD's main focus has been and continues to be conventional crime fighting, we devote considerable resources to deterring another attack.



In the immediate aftermath of 9/11, many thought another terrorist attack on New York was inevitable.



While the NYPD never subscribed to that notion, we knew that Al Qaeda and its adherents kept New York at the top of its target list and plotted feverishly to come back and kill New Yorkers.



There have been 13 plots against New York that have been thwarted by either the great work of our Federal partners, NYPD officers, just plain luck, or a combination of all three. They were:



-- Khalid Sheikh Mohammed's plot to take down the Brooklyn Bridge a year after the destruction of the World Trade Center was abandoned only after Al Qaeda operative Iyman Farris found security at the bridge made it too difficult to attack.



-- The December 2002 plot to disperse cyanide gas in the subway system. It was called off at the last minute by Iyman Zawahiri for what he said was "something bigger."



-- Al Qaeda's Al Hindi plotted against the New York Stock Exchange, Citigroup Headquarters in midtown Manhattan and the Prudential Center in New Jersey.



-- The Parachas, father and son, abetted Al Qaeda in what was ultimately believed to be a plan to use shipping containers to smuggle explosives -- possibly even a nuclear device -- into Manhattan's Garment District.



-- An undercover NYPD police officer helped disrupt a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station by lone-wolf admirers of Al Qaeda.



-- Other Al Qaeda sympathizers plotted to bomb fuel storage tanks at JFK International Airport and blow up the Buckeye pipeline that transports jet fuel from New Jersey to JFK and LaGuardia via Staten Island, Brooklyn and Queens.



-- The plot to flood Manhattan's financial district by simultaneously bombing the PATH subway and the retaining wall at the World Trade Center site.



-- A British-based plot to destroy seven commercial aircraft over the Atlantic Ocean or fly one or more of them into East Coast targets, including New York City.



-- A plot to bomb a Manhattan-bound LIRR commuter train was discussed at the highest levels of Al Qaeda operational leadership.



http://articles.nydailynews.com/2011-08-07/local/29878464_1_ahmed-ferhani-najibullah-zazi-plot

Paul Mccartney to Air 9/11 Film on Anniversary

Piecing together a new documentary about the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York has brought back bad memories for Sir Paul Mccartney, who watched the Twin Towers burn from the tarmac at the city's Jfk Airport.

MCCartney's TV love story to the Big Apple, which features the rocker roaming the streets in the days after 9/11, will air next month (Sep11) on the eve of the 10th anniversary of the atrocities, and he admits all that happened on that fateful morning came flooding back to him as he watched the footage.

Speaking at the Television Critics Association festival in Beverly Hills via satellite from Ohio on Thursday (04Aug11) MCCartney said, "We were at Jfk on the tarmac and the pilot just suddenly said, 'We can’t take off, we’re gonna have to go back to base.' Out of the window, on the right hand side of the airplane, you could see the Twin Towers. First of all you could see one plume of smoke and you could see two shortly thereafter and I said, 'Well, that’s an optical illusion... or it’s probably just some little fire or something, but it does look pretty serious.'

"We were just looking at that for a while and then suddenly one of the stewards came to me and said, 'There’s something really serious that’s happened in New York and we’ve got to get you out of here.'

"I ended up in Long Island watching it on TV... wanting to go into New York, but nobody was allowed back in, and while I was sitting out there twiddling my thumbs thinking, 'What to do? Was there any role I could play in this?' The idea came to me that maybe we could do a concert, get something together."

The film, The Love We Make, chronicles the concert and features footage of MCCartney on the streets of New York speaking to fans.

He added, "There was fear in the air and I’d never experienced that, particularly in New York."

The bad memories of 9/11 have since been replaced by happier ones of the city - and he admits the Big Apple has always had a big place in his heart: "I married a New York girl - Linda - and I’m about to marry another one, so I think I would think first of Linda and her family and our family and her connections with New York and then my upcoming connections... I have a lot of connections. I love New York."

National Geographic secures George Bush exclusive for 9/11 doc

National Geographic Channel (NGC) is to mark the forthcoming anniversary of 9/11 with an exclusive interview with George W Bush (pictured), in which the former president recounts and reflects on his personal experiences of the terror attacks a decade ago.

George W. Bush: The 9/11 Interview will air on NGC in the U.S. on August 28 and in the UK on September 6, representing the cornerstone of the network’s 9/11-themed programming.

The documentary was taped over the course of a two-day interview, and sees Bush opening up “with candid details and personal experiences on the grueling hours and pressure-packed days following the attacks,” according to the network.

The doc will also feature never-before-released archival footage and exclusive materials directly from the George W. Bush Presidential Library. With the interview, the president did not request final approval or ask to see the questions beforehand, but stipulated that the questioning be limited solely to 9/11, and not to other aspects of his presidency.

Recalling his visit to Ground Zero on September 14, Bush says in the doc: “From the air it looked like… a giant scar. But when I actually got to the site, it was like walking into hell.” Elsewhere, he reflects on the death of Osama Bin Laden, saying, “I didn’t feel any great sense of happiness or jubilation. I felt a sense of closure. And I felt a sense of gratitude that justice had been done.”

The interview represents a notable coup for Nat Geo. Bush has received thousands of interview requests since leaving office in 2008, but has kept a low profile. The doc will represent the first time the former president has discussed on camera what he was thinking and feeling, and what drove his real-time decisions in the first minutes, hours and days after the attacks.

The doc is produced by Partisan Pictures. The director-producer is Peter Schnall; the producer-writer is Don Campbell; the editor is Connie Rinehart; the coordinating producer is Whitney Johnson, and the associate producer is Kyle Giddens.

For National Geographic Channels International, the exec producer is Allan Butler, while the senior VP of programming and production is Michael Cascio.

In the UK, the special will form part of Nat Geo’s ’9/11 Week,’ premiering from September 5-9 and encompassing eight hours of new programming. During the week the net will investigate not only what happened and why, but also subsequent events, including the hunt for Bin Laden.

As previously reported, Seconds From Disaster (airing September 5 at 9 p.m. GMT) focuses on the critical minutes as air traffic controllers and the U.S. air force reacted to the hijackings and attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Elsewhere, 9/11: Washington Under Attack (September 5 at 10 p.m.) tells the stories of the people of Washington DC, the other 9/11 city where a passenger jet was crashed into the Pentagon; while 9/11: Ten Years Later (September 7 at 9 p.m.) updates a doc filmed partly inside the Twin Towers by two French filmmakers in the chaos after the attacks.

The film has been updated 10 years on to tell what happened to some of the surviving firemen featured in the original film, which was simply called 9/11.

Finally, 9/11: The World’s Fallen (September 8 at 9 p.m.) looks at “the lives of those who were making a new life in America when they found themselves in the Twin Towers on the fateful day,” according to the network; while Inside 9/11: What Happened Next (September 9 at 9 p.m.) is the story of what occurred after the attacks – America’s war on terror, the invasion of Afghanistan and the secret operations to take out Al Qaeda figures.

“9/11 is a terrible milestone in world history. Ten years on we have the benefit of time to take a closer look at these unforgettable stories,” said National Geographic Channel UK general manager Simon Bohrsmann.



Read more: http://realscreen.com/2011/07/27/nat-geo-secures-george-bush-exclusive-for-911-doc/#ixzz1TMXfrAqI

Central Florida Ballet "9/11: An American Moment."

Central Florida Ballet commemorates the 10^th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on the United States with a performance of its ballet, "9/11: An American Moment." Created in 2006, the performance pays tribute to the heroes and survivors of the attacks. In 2007, the U.S. House of Representatives recognized the production, which celebrates American courage, resolve and pride.

MORE INFO: centralfloridaballet.com

Westport (MA) Fire Department to retrieve steel beam from 9/11

WESTPORT — A steel beam salvaged from the World Trade Center will become part of the new fire station as a permanent memorial to those killed on Sept. 11, 2001.

Fire Chief Brian Legendre said he received official notification Wednesday that the department's request for the steel was approved and is ready for pickup.

"We knew when we went to (New York City) following the attacks that we were watching history unfold before us," Legendre said in a statement. "Now we are bringing a part of that history back to Westport as a reminder for everyone to see and touch."

Plans call for members of the Fire Department to make a pilgrimage March 10 to New York City to retrieve the 435-pound steel I-beam and escort it back to Westport.

Eighteen months ago, Westport submitted a formal request to the Port Authority of New York & New Jersey for one of the beams. Distribution of artifacts from the trade center building began recently, according to Nancy Johnson, manager of the WTC Artifacts Program. Johnson said the goal is to distribute 1,000 pieces of steel before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks later this year.

http://www.southcoasttoday.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20110218/NEWS/102180315/-1/NEWS06

Cleveland Orchestra plans 9/11 tribute concert for the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 11,

CLEVELAND — The Cleveland Orchestra is planning a free, outdoor concert this year to mark the 10th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attacks and honor those who were killed.

The tribute concert is planned for the afternoon of Sunday, Sept. 11, at downtown Cleveland's Public Square. It will be directed by Loras John Schissel and will be titled "Hope. Remembrance. Dedication."

The event will take the place of the orchestra's annual "Star-Spangled Spectacular" on the square.

http://www.daytondailynews.com/news/ohio-news/cleveland-orchestra-plans-9-11-tribute-concert-1086531.html

NYPD K-9 dog who scoured WTC after 9/11, is mourned

A beloved 9/11 hero has gone to Rainbow Bridge.

Charlie, a former member of the NYPD K-9 Unit who scoured the rubble at Ground Zero after the World Trade Center attacks, died last week of natural causes. He was just months shy of his 13th birthday.

"We cherished him," said Police Officer Suzanne McCrosson, Charlie's owner and handler, who spent six years patrolling the streets of New York with her loyal companion.

"What I remember most vividly of the day I first got him was his sweet eyes and all that hair!" she recalled. "Little did I know at the time what a rare and special gift I was given."'

http://www.nydailynews.com/lifestyle/pets/2011/01/22/2011-01-22_a_tribute_to_charlie_k9_who_scoured_wtc_after_911_is_mourned.html