American Cities Brace for Terror and possible Mumbai-Style Attack?

The largest American cities are conducting drills, beefing security and testing vulnerabilities revealed by the devastating terror attacks in Mumbai, and many hotels continue to play Ostrich.
Security personnel around the country and world are intensively reviewing what happened in Mumbai to learn more about terrorists’ tradecraft and shifting tactics.
The shift has already begun, Police are addressing Mumbai-like scenarios where teams of terrorists fan out and use small arms and explosives to lay siege to hotels, hospitals, and other major institutions, and take hostages.
“We look at these new kinds of tactics and the way they orchestrated this, and modify our approach,” Michael Downing, the head of the Los Angeles Police Department’s counter-terrorism unit, told the media. “We’re looking at it very closely.”
Close to 200 persons died in Mumbai in a series of coordinated attacks that terrorized the city for more than three days.
On Friday, New York City police conducted the first U.S. training exercise based on the Mumbai experience. “Our goal,” New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly told security officials, “is to find out as much as we can about terrorists worldwide, to understand who’s behind them, what motivates them, and what tactics they use.”
Other cities are responding to the Mumbai threat as well:
• In Boston, police have stepped up surveillance and are keeping an especially close eye on hotels.
• The Department of Homeland Security has warned hotels throughout the country to beef up security.
• Authorities at port cities are particularly concerned, given that the terrorists traveled to Mumbai by boat. “Our great vulnerability is the water,” Miami Police Chief John Timoney told USA Today.
• InterContinental Hotels says it has taken additional, unspecified security precautions in “high-risk markets” nationwide.
When the Los Angeles Times asked city Police Chief William J. Bratton the likelihood that city would face a Mumbai-style attack, he replied, “First off, we’re all surprised something has not happened since 9/11.”

Terror and The Opportunist.........

What makes a terrorist choose one target over another
when planning to machine gun and grenade attack
innocent people in a crowded public place?
Is the target selection based on some perceived
geopolitical transgressions against the terrorists'
demented cause? The terrorist would like the world to
think so, but if that was the case, why didn't the
latest attack happen in a place like Israel? Why
Mumbai, India?


FYI
A recent ABC report should be of concern to all Americans and to our elected leaders. It regards Shirwa Ahmed, a naturalized U.S. citizen who is believed to have committed a suicide bombing in Somalia and – even more disturbing – may have been involved in the recruitment of young men of Somali descent here in the United States.

The news report further states that more than a dozen such men, perhaps as many as 40 and mostly in their 20s, have "disappeared."

Wakeup America if you see something say something!

Please do not play Ostrich, America needs more Eagles!

Stay Safe, Andrew


NYC Worried about Mumbai-Style Attacks

Saturday, November 29, 2008 4:17 PM


The terrorist attacks in Mumbai, India, have prompted authorities in New York City to beef up security at large hotels and Jewish centers, including the Lubavitch headquarters. We Knew this was coming....


Accrording to WCBSTV.com, the New York City Police Department had already been on high alert over concerns of a possible strike over the Thanksgiving holiday. But the attacks in India, which claimed about 200 lives, prompted enhanced security.


According to The Associated Press, victims of the Mumbai attacks include New York Rabbi Gavriel Noach Holtzberg and his wife, Rivkah, who were found at a Chabad Lubavitch Jewish center attacked by Muslim militants. Their son, Moshe, was saved.