National Anti-Terror Campaign Launched Ahead of 9/11 Anniversary

As the 10-year anniversary of the 9-11 terror attacks approaches, the Department of Homeland Security has launched a national television campaign to remind citizens to be vigilant and report any suspicious activity to authorities.



The government agency announced the public-service campaign in a blog post Wednesday by Secretary Janet Napolitano. "As I've said in the past, hometown security is the key to homeland security," she wrote. "Time and again, we've seen terrorist attacks thwarted by alert individuals who notify authorities when something just doesn't seem right ... security is a shared responsibility and we all have a role to play."



The TV spots are inspired by a local campaign that began across New York subways and buses in the wake of the 9/11 terror attacks. The Big Apple's Metropolitan Transit Authority owns the rights to the campaign idea -- and its memorable tagline, "If You See Something, Say Something" -- and has licensed that tagline to Homeland Security for its anti-terror and anti-crime efforts. The MTA's work has proved successful, and was credited with thwarting a potentially deadly attack in New York's Times Square last May.



In one of the national spots (watch below), a woman exits a cab at a train station only to walk in and drop off a bag unattended. With dark, thumping music in the background, the voiceover says: "Maybe you see something suspicious but you don't want to get involved. 'It's nothing,' you think. Can you be sure?"



Along with the TV spots, the the department is running two 30-second radio ads to help raise awareness; one takes place is a shopping mall setting and another at a sporting event.



It's unclear if the radio and TV ads were created internally or with the help of an agency; Homeland Security representatives didn't respond to a request for comment by press time.





While the ads don't reference the 9/11 attacks or other terror attempts specifically, it's clear the U.S. government is on heightened alert in the weeks before the 10th anniversary of the biggest terrorist attack on U.S. soil. The launch of the campaign comes just a day after President Barack Obama, in an interview with CNN's Wolf Blitzer, said he's especially concerned by the potential of a "lone-wolf" terrorist incident similar to the one that caused mayhem in Norway last month



http://adage.com/article/news/feds-launch-national-anti-terror-tv-campaign-ahead-9-11/229342/

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

Firefighters Not Invited to Ground Zero on 9/11 Anniversary

Firefighters and other responders will be on the outside looking in when a ceremony is held marking the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks next month, according to The Daily News.



A city official told the newspaper that that the amount of space at the new memorial and security logistics have forced to city to schedule a separate ceremony for responders on a later date.



Family members of the nearly 3,000 killed in the attacks were invited, along with President Barrack Obama and former president George W. Bush.



"To have a separate service on another day has no significance, no meaning," David Jacobs, who volunteered at the site sifting debris, told the newspaper. "For many of us, we gave a lot at that site."



His childhood friend, a city firefighter, died in the attacks.



In previous years, responders were welcomed at the site, but little construction had begun and space wasn't an issue.



One construction worker told 1010 WINS that he believes they should be invited this year.



"I think that they should be allowed to go because too many of their brothers and sisters lost their lives and they should be the first ones that are included," he said. "They should make it happen. I'm sure there are going to be a lot of people here who shouldn't be here



An estimated 91,000 police, firefighters and other responders helped with the search and rescue efforts in the wake of the attacks



http://www.firehouse.com/news/911news/responders-not-invited-memorial-911-anniversary

A&E 9/11 anniversary with “Portraits from Ground Zero”

A&E Network and BIO Channel are lining up four doc specials to mark the 10th anniversary of 9/11, with the former set to air Portraits from Ground Zero, a two-hour special centering on photojournalist Andrea Booher’s pictures taken at Ground Zero in the days following the September 11 attacks.



The special will air on A&E at 10 p.m. EST on September 10. According to the network, Booher was one of the only photographers given full 24-hour access to Ground Zero in the immediate aftermath of 9/11. The doc will feature the subjects of Booher’s photographs, including a firefighter searching for the body of his life-long friend; a teenage girl mourning her stepfather; and a Franciscan friar ministering to the dead.



Elsewhere, BIO will premiere When Pop Culture Saved America on September 5 at 8 p.m., a two-hour documentary that looks at the days and months following the attack, showing “how the non-news media pitched in to bring the nation together,” with comedians, singers, actors and entertainers putting on a variety of concerts, telethons and specials.



Also on BIO, the network’s original series I Survived… will air a special profiling the stories of 12 fire fighters, ambulance workers, defense officials and office workers who all survived 9/11. I Survived…9/11 airs September 6 at 8 p.m.



Finally, A&E’s hour-long special Beyond: Messages from 9/11 looks at people who say they have received signs and messages from lost loved ones, who died during 9/11, from beyond the grave. It airs September 10 at 10 p.m.



Portraits from Ground Zero is produced by Left/Right, When Pop Culture Saved America is made by BrainStorm, I Survived…9/11 is produced by NHNZ, and Beyond: Messages from 9/11 is made by September Films.







Tags: A&E, A+E Networks, Beyond: Messages from 9/11, BIO Channel, BrainStorm, I

Seal Team 6 shot down on Rescue Mission

..KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — The 30 American service members — most of them elite Navy SEALs — who died when their helicopter was shot down had rushed to help Army Rangers who had come under fire, two U.S. officials said Sunday.

The heavy loss shows that clandestine tactics carry huge risks despite the huge success of the SEAL mission that killed Osama bin Laden more than three months ago. Most of the SEALs who died Saturday were from the same unit that killed bin Laden, although none of the men took part in that mission.

The U.S.-led coalition plans to rely more on special operations missions as it reduces the overall number of combat troops by the end of 2014.

This weekend, the rescue team had subdued attackers who had pinned down the Rangers and were departing in their Chinook helicopter when the aircraft was apparently hit, one of the officials said.

Thirty Americans and eight Afghans were killed in the crash, making it the deadliest single loss for U.S. forces in the decade-long war in Afghanistan. The Rangers, special operations forces who work regularly with the SEALs, secured the crash site in the Tangi Joy Zarin area of Wardak province, about 60 miles (97 kilometers) southwest of Kabul, the other official said.

Both officials spoke on condition of anonymity to describe the event, as the investigation is still ongoing. The SEAL mission was first reported by CNN.

NATO was recovering the remains of the twin rotor Chinook helicopter. A current and a former U.S. official said the Americans included 22 SEALs, three Air Force combat controllers and a dog handler and his dog. The two spoke on condition of anonymity because military officials were still notifying the families of the dead.

All but two of the SEALs were from SEAL Team 6, the unit that killed bin Laden, U.S. officials said on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to release the information.

Eight Taliban fighters were also killed in the battle, Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement.

Afghanistan has more U.S. special operations troops, about 10,000, than any other theater of war. The forces, often joined by Afghan troops, are among the most effective weapons in the coalition's arsenal, conducting surveillance, infiltration and capture missions and night raids.

From April to July this year, 2,832 special operations raids captured 2,941 insurgents and killed 834, twice as many as during the same time period last year, according to NATO.

SEALs, Rangers, and other special operations troops are expected to be the vanguard of the American military effort in Afghanistan as international military forces start pulling out. By the time combat troops plan to have left the country, the coalition will have handed control of security to the Afghan forces they have spent tens of billions of dollars arming and training.

Special operations troops are expected to remain in the country after 2014 for counterterrorism missions and advisory support. Just how many will remain has not yet been negotiated with the Afghan government, but the United States is considering from 5,000 to 20,000, far fewer than the 100,000 U.S. troops there now.

Special forces are frequently used to target insurgent commanders as part of an effort to force the Taliban's leadership to agree to a negotiated peace. The operations, mostly in the form of night raids, are often carried out by Afghan and coalition special operations forces.

Night raids have drawn criticism from human rights activists and infuriated Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who says they anger and alienate the Afghan population.

But NATO commanders have said the raids are safer for civilians than relatively imprecise airstrikes.

As U.S. forces removed the wreckage Sunday, nearby Afghan and NATO forces battled insurgents as they carried out clearing operations in the areas around the crash site, a region that is just a stone's throw from the capital. The province, which borders Kabul, has increasingly come under Taliban control in recent months — even as the U.S.-led coalition has begun handing over security for parts of Afghanistan over to the government of President Hamid Karzai.

"There have been a small number of limited engagements in the same district" as Saturday's helicopter crash, NATO said in a statement. "However those clashes have not been in the direct vicinity of the crash site. As of now, we have no reporting to indicate any coalition casualties resulting from these engagements."

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Associated Press Intelligence Writer Kimberly Dozier contributed to this story from Washington. Associated Press writer Lolita C. Baldor also contributed from Washington.

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