New York faces “a greater likelihood of attack than we have seen in years”, police commissioner Bill Bratton said at a hearing of the House committee on homeland security at the 9/11 Museum on Tuesday.
At the hearing, Beyond Bin Laden’s Caves and Couriers to a New Generation of Terrorists: Confronting the Challenges in a Post 9/11 World, Bratton said that “lone-wolf” terrorist attacks were one of the greatest threats that New York City faced. Groups like Islamic State have “shunned al-Qaida’s model, which focuses on the next grand attack”, and instead encourage “unaffiliated independent operators to do whatever damage they can with whatever is at hand”, he said.
“In many respects, we currently face a greater likelihood of attack than we have seen in years,” the NYPD police commissioner said. “With regard to crime, we just experienced the safest summer in 25 years, with murders and shootings at modern lows. But with regard to the current terrorism threat environment, we now face multiple hazards: ‘known wolves and lone wolves.’”
Representative Michael T McCaul, who opened the ceremony, said: “We have made progress since 9/11 ... But our enemies have come a long way, too.” He cited last year as the “deadliest year on record for global terrorism” and credited terrorists’ ability to “inspire new recruits online, tweet marching orders, and wait for fanatics to act”.
“We are in unchartered territory,” he said. “Even at its height, al-Qaida never reached this kind of operational tempo.”
The committee also heard speeches from former mayor Rudolph Giuliani, FDNY commissioner Daniel Nigro, president of the September 11th Families’ Association Lee Ielpi, and president of the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives Gregory A Thomas.
They discussed lessons learned from the 9/11 terrorist attack, highlighting protocol in place so that first responders, intelligence professionals and border authorities were better equipped. But both Bratton and McCaul spoke about the dangers the US still faced.
“Terrorists still have their sights set on the west,” McCaul said. “In fact, in the past 18 months Isis [Islamic State] alone has inspired or directed nearly 60 plots or attacks against western countries, including America. Authorities have also arrested, on average, almost one American a week on terrorism charges.”
“Fortunately, its direct impact has not yet been felt here,” Bratton said of Islamic State. “But the important words there are ‘direct impact’ and ‘yet’.”
