We Are Targets! Give Us The Money

Michael Chertoff, Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), stood up on Thursday, August 10, and announced that for the first time the red alert level in the Homeland Security warning system had been invoked.
In what was characterized by the authorities here and in England as an extraordinarily serious plot to commit mass murder on a gigantic scale, terrorists had planned to mix up explosives from liquids and gels hidden in benign looking bottles and containers packed into their carry-on luggage.
The suicide bombers planned to use the batteries from carried on personal electronic devices like cameras or digital music players to set off their deadly concoctions and cause explosions on as many as 10 United, American and Continental airline flights from the United Kingdom to major airports in New York, California and Washington.
Shudder!
This terrorist cell, 25 people in all, so far, was rounded up in London, its suburbs and allegedly included the &#8220main players” in the plot. Authorities in Britain claimed to be hunting five more suspects.
Security officials here and overseas said the plot had all the earmarks of an al-Qaeda operation. They added that the terrorists were getting quite close to the execution phase of the heinous plot and stopped just short of linking the plan to the upcoming fifth anniversary of the 9/11 attacks.
Shudder again!
Al Qaeda mastermind Ramzi Youssef was blamed for the bombing of a Philippine airliner en route to Japan in 1994. Officials believe that act of mass murder was a dry run to a much more ambitious plot to massacre hundreds of passengers by blowing up 12 western airliners simultaneously over the Pacific using liquid explosives hidden in contact lens solution containers smuggled on board in carry-on luggage.
Shudder some more!
Perhaps now Chertoff will listen to Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Senator Charles Schumer - who was stuck at London's Heathrow Airport - and Senator Hillary Clinton and our other politicians who have been trying to convince him to restore the 40 percent cuts made to New York's federal security funding.
There should be no question in anybody's mind, including Chertoff's pea brain, that New York is a prime terror target. We are at the center of al Qaeda's bull's-eye. Change your rules Chertoff - fund recurring costs like police overtime and for &#8220target hardening” construction projects that make infrastructure installations less vulnerable to attacks. Give us our fair share and help us to fight terrorism here in New York before it is too late!
Shudder with fear and anger!