By Brigitte L. Nacos
As they heard the news of a plane flying into a building at Manhattan’s East Side,
most New Yorkers had the same reaction: In sudden flashbacks of horrific 9/11 images they feared that another terrorist attack had occurred. One man in the neighborhood thought that a dirty bomb had been exploded. Although
it became soon clear that the plane crash was the result of an accident without any relation
to terrorism, the incident raises nevertheless pressing questions—ironically
shortly after the President had assured Americans once again a high state of security. This is the time to ask: How
safe is New York City ?
How safe are other cities around the country? How safe is the homeland?
It is disconcerting that an admittedly small plane crashed
into a building in Manhattan
While an accident this time, it could have been an act of political
violence—terrorism. Nothing and nobody would have stopped a suicide attacker from using a small airplane as weapon—and probably not by piloting a large airliner. It is not
at all comforting to know that fighter planes were in the airspace over New Yorkwithin ten
minutes or so. That was after the fact.
New York’s
Mayor Bloomberg told New Yorkers that the emergency response community reacted
exactly according to plan. That is the good news. But now the Mayor, the
Governor, Senators Schumer and Clinton und all New Yorkers must insist that the
FAA and the Department of Homeland Security must reconsider how to police the
airspace over New York so that planes like the
one that crashed into the East Side building
cannot fly under the radar and cause unthinkable damage.The same is true for other vulnerable areas in the United States, such as Washington, D.C.
The unsafe air space is only one of the counterterrorism
concerns with insufficient sea port security just as high on the list of security problems.
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