By Brenda Flanagan
Correspondent
Base jumpers leap from high atop the Freedom Tower — more than 1,300 feet up. Where’s security? Here’s the Brooklyn Bridge. In July, two white flags suddenly appear — replacing American flags on the towers. Police can’t explain it. A month later — on Sunday afternoon — cops don’t notice a guy until he’s walking the bridge’s upper cable like a tightrope. Then he gets arrested. How’d he get past police?
Security expert Manny Gomez explains, “Right now they already have two marked police cars with officers in them, however they’re facing outwards instead of facing inwards. … They’re not looking at the bridge. … So people figured out, hey, once you pass that police car, nobody’s really looking.”
A retired FBI agent and NYC cop, Gomez says the recent rise of ISIS — vying with al-Queda to lead the jihad movement and claim credit for the next attack — raises the stakes.
“They’re competing for resources — both people and in money. They’re both working very hard to get the next attack in U.S. soil,” he said.
He says national symbols like the GWB and the Brooklyn Bridge attract terrorists.
“The Brooklyn Bridge specifically is an American icon. And to go to that bridge and be able to tear it down — just like they tore down the World Trade Center — would be a huge feather in their cap,” said Gomez.
“Terrorists are drawn to one, specific target: transportation,” said Nick Casale.
Casale’s former chief of counter-terrorism at the MTA and notes more than a quarter million vehicles cross the George Washington Bridge every single day.
“You just can’t secure transportation. It’s a porous, open, moving large network. That’s where they’re gonna go,” he said.
He says breaches in security — like kids climbing the Freedom Tower to snap portraits or protesters draping flags off the Manhattan Bridge — demand a more coordinated response.
“We’re not as secure as we’re led to believe. And we have every right to question government,” Casale said.
Today, two governors responded. New York’s Andrew Cuomo and Jersey’s Chris Christie agreed to organize a bi-state council of law enforcement and security officials and meet with the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force.
In a statement, Christie said: “…it is essential that we remain vigilant and ensure we continue to have a carefully coordinated, seamless preparedness and security operation between our two states and the federal government for the safety of our people, our region and our assets.”
Casale wants more: a regional, non-partisan anti-terrorism czar who’d end local turf wars over jurisdiction, direct resources where they’re most needed, and follow all the money so it’s properly spent.
“You know, it’s sad we’re having this conversation 13 years after 9/11,” he said.
Security experts have said all along, a determined terrorist will find some way to attack. The goal — make it as difficult as possible for them to succeed.