NYPD To Issue Transit Terror Warning

This is just the opinion of one naive cupcake-eating bunny, but considering all the money being spent on the enhanced safety precautions and police presence, money that could be spent on education or health care, I'm going to guess that there is something to this one. I mean, no one could be that Machiavellian evil, could they?

Axel Foley wrote: It sounds like the information was just more credible than the other times, and you have to draw the line somewhere. No, I'm not so naive as to think there aren't often political machinations behind these terror alerts, but in this particular case I'm not convinced. The bad press on Bloomberg just isn't that bad, not like Bush's current problems which are really dragging him down.

Since I don't yet vote in New York, I will have no say on this election.

Yeah, but they knew about this for several days, and specifically asked News 4 NY to withold the information. Pretty fishy, I think.

Right now there's something going on at the Atlantic/Pacific station. I just came home on the R and as I exited at Pacific and 4th Avenue, there were cops everywhere and they've got a couple of blocks of 4th blocked off. They're not letting anyone enter the area, they're hustling everyone out of the station, and there are sirens everywhere.

Someone must have dropped a bottle of Gatorade again.

Subject: Media Mash

The worst is the evening coverage of Bloomberg "defending" the decision after ostensibly being criticized by these Homeland Security folks who said the report from the two guys in Iraq was "uncredible." I understand the paranoid timing theory, but really it makes more sense to hook it up with the "Islamofascist" Bush speech and the "we have foiled ten plots" claim he made.

Reminds me so much of last summer, the Citi-Prudential "casing" photos on the laptop in Pakistan: all timed for TV. They kept the Pakistani officers up until all hours to be interviewed live. Wound up blowing their investigation for political purposes: they wanted to surveil the guy, see who his buddies were ...

No, no, the worst was the NY Daily News headline this morning: "Subway Terror: Bombs in Strollers." Made it sound like it was an accomplished fact. They changed it on their site by the afternoon to the whimsicial "Bombs in Baby Buggies?" Rubber baby buggy bumpers? B***heads! I'm with you guys: Down with scaremongers.

pitu wrote: [quote=Captain M][quote=Carnivore][quote=alafairnadia]
MTA officials said they were unaware of the threat until alerted by a reporter. They were expected to return calls later this afternoon.

What a bunch of idiots!


Does anyone think this is a ploy for votes? If nothing happens then Bloomberg is doing a great job fighting terror right?

I refuse to be that cynical. This is something to take seriously, albeit without panicking.

It's interesting that the announcement was made on the same night as the mayoral debate that Bloomberg didn't participate in.



1) Homeland security deemed the treat "specific but doubtful"

2) How many Bombers on 9/11, Spain, and the UK were women, none, which would make a grown middle eastern man pushing a stroller obvious.

NYC must get threats like this regularly, I think Bloomberg let this one out of the bag to kill the bad PR on skipping the debate

They are certainly looking at young women for these potential attacks.
I think it was last year that two teen girls in Brooklyn were picked up and held by immigration for some totally bogus lead on their activities. Her school did a play about it or something...memory fails on the particulars this grey morning....

Being skeptical about the possibility of political motive behind the timing of the release of this information is reasonable. However, unless there are any soothsayers or insiders who know for certain there was no actual threat - I think we should be grateful that additional security measures were taken.

It's true - shit will happen - but taking additional steps to sure things up, reduces the likelihood of risk (if only minimally) - which is all we can ask for in an open society.

boaty wrote: I think we should be grateful that additional security measures were taken.

Yes, everyone was driven into a panic for absolutely no reason. I'm so damned grateful I cannot even speak!

And by doing so, we now live in a safer city! It's so safe now it's unbelievable!

Seriously, in London--where they have had to deal with IRA bombings for years--tons of police and surveillance did nothing to prevent those bombings. If anything the only thing this extra so-called vigilance gave anyone was material to pour over AFTE THE FACT to see who could have done it.

None of it prevented anything from happening.

Curtailing personal freedoms will not prevent this from happening.

And you know what? When you issue a terror alert warning people about backpacks and baby carriages, do you think the terrorists are idiots? They'll just change their plans and do what they can to avoid the random bag check nonsense.

boaty wrote: Let's all do absolutely nothing - not the nypd - no one - let's just sit back and wait to die :x . I choose action!

Actually there's a grey area in between.

And what's funny about your response is it just shows the problem with any discussion of anything nowadays. It's either black or white and that's it. You're left or you're right. You're all for doing anything to stop terrorism regardless of facts or you're completely against it.

There's no discussion just polarized conflict and that's it.

I don't think anyone is against stopping terrorist attacks, but the reality is driving people into a panic does nothing. And in this case the informant who was "good" last week is suddenly unreliable since the last 15 tips he gave were no good as well. So now he's 0 for 16. Great source of info.

Playmobil is great. I used to collect weird Playmobil add-on sets. I had a ghost, Beethoven, some sort of vaguely hallucinogenic tree troll, a German mailman, a pirate, and a "Henker" (executioner) with a scythe.

I'm thinking that really small children don't even understand the possibility of a bomb. It's probably a game about taking your shoes off and having your dad's belt buckle cause the thing to beep.

I bet they have a playmobile baby stroller, now you have really have some terrorist adventures.