By Michael Aron
Chief Political Correspondent
From the Emergency Operations Center at state police headquarters to key facilities around the state, New Jersey law enforcement officials were on heightened alert today.
The terror threat is changing, state Homeland Security Director Chris Rodrguez said, so America has to adapt.
“This threat has evolved substantially in the years following 9/11,” he said. “Our adversaries are more decentralized, more diffuse, more global and more committed than they have ever been. What we know is that the Paris attacks likely took months to plan and span several countries.”
Things looked normal at Newark Penn station this afternoon. At the airport, out of camera range, we saw an armored personnel carrier.
New Jersey is a suburban state. Logic would say a terror attack is more likely in New York City or Philadelphia, but Essex County Sheriff Armndo Fontoura says New Jersey’s joint terrorism task force sprang immediately held two conference calls Saturday.
“We are as vulnerable as anybody else is, and we need to be as vigilant as we possibly can. Right now, we’re dealing with an enemy that has taken communication to a different level. They’re not using cell phones anymore,” he said. “They’re using special apps and encrypted messaging, so we’re having trouble getting advance notice of these things.”
Gary Chin is a retired FBI agent.
“The exchange of intelligence is very important, not only between law enforcement agencies — federal, state and local — but also between the communities, the ethnic communities, and that’s a very good source of information,” Chin said.
The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey is randomly searching buses, trucks and bags at the Hudson River crossings.
Meanwhile, Governor Christie drew notice Saturday for remarks about the Paris attack, which he sees as more evidence of a fuzzy idealism at the heart of President Obama’s foreign policy.
“Just hours yesterday before they struck in Paris, he told ABC News that his strategy was containing ISIS. All of these statements were a lie,” Christie said. “He sees the world as he likes to see it; as a fantasy. I see the world as it really is, and it’s time to have a president who sees the world as it really is, not how he wishes it would be.”
Obama, without naming names, seemed to respond this morning: “Folks want to pop off and have opinions about what they think they would do, present a specific plan. If they think that somehow their advisors are better than the chairman of the Joint Chief of Staff and the folks who are actually on the ground, I want to meet them.”
By coincidence an active shooter drill in the Meadowlands will take place tomorrow.