NYPD Protects Against Terrorism: Foreign and Domestic

By Yehudit Garmaise

  During a wide-ranging Zoom meeting, the New York Police Department held today with 100 Jewish leaders to address their safety needs during Yom Tov, Rebecca Weiner, the police department’s assistant commissioner for intelligence analysis, provided a comprehensive overview of many terrorism risks today.

  While no terrorism threats against New York City appear imminent and credible right now, reassured Weiner, she did point out that terrorists are exploiting the chaos that has resulted in both from the difficulties that arose from both the lockdowns due to Covid-19 and the aftermath of the killing of George Floyd, Weiner said.

 “Terrorists across the ideological spectrum view the current unrest as evidence that U.S. society must collapse through a race war,” said Weiner, who pointed out that “radicalizing” propaganda is spread primarily through the Internet either openly through social media or through encrypted and coded chat rooms.

  “Many of these terrorists now seem to be coming from out from their dark, evil corners of the Internet, unfortunately, and out into the streets,” related Weiner, who explained that the perpetrators of terrorist threats are “inspired” by a diverse assortment of nefarious ideologies ranging from: Al Qaeda, ISIS, Hezbollah, Hamas, and Antifa. Dangers also stem from a variety of white supremacist groups and militia groups that attack everyone from police officers to proponents of Covid-19 lockdowns, to other protestors.

Despite all their different sources and geographical differences, Weiner pointed out the unfortunate fact that one common preoccupation of all these groups is a focus on anti-Semitism and hatred of Israel.

  One the bright side, Weiner pointed out two recent victories in the American war on terrorism were the American-led assassinations last year of both Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, who was responsible for an ISIS-led murderous reign of terror across Iraq and Syria, and the equally evil and dangerous Qasem Soleimani, an Iranian major general in the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), which is a terrorist organization that according to Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, had American blood on its hands.

To address the terrorism wrought by white supremacist Americans, Weiner’s department in the NYPD created a task force just under a year ago to prevent racially and ethnically motivated violent extremist activity.

 Weiner, unfortunately, expects more extremist volatility, especially up until the presidential election in November, however, she feels confident that the NYPD and the U.S. are well-positioned to identify and address any, G-d forbid, terrorist threats.