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Aug 16, 2007 9:42 am US/Eastern
Feds Give NYC $52M For Port, Transit Security
by Andrew Kirtzman
NEW YORK (CBS) ―
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Are terror threats coming from abroad or at home? An NYPD report draws new conclusions. (File photo)
AP
As the city takes a closer look at the threats we face, the Department of Homeland Security is set to announce that millions of dollars in anti-terror funding are coming to our area.
Most of the money will go to bolster security underground.
The feds plan to grant $37 million for transit security in the New York metropolitan area. Another $15 million will pay to enhance port security. That's a total of $52 million.
The news comes as the NYPD is raising alarms about the rise of homegrown terrorism.
"There is a tendency among many Americans to still think al Qaeda as being 'over there,'" said NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly. "But the reality is that most of the successful attacks against western cities were carried about by citizens or residents who became involved in radical Islam."
A new report claims that average citizens who adopt radical ways now may pose a greater threat to U.S. security than al Qaeda.
Police cite the foiled Fort Dix terror plot and the 2004 Herald Square terrorism case as examples. These homegrown terrorists are notoriously hard to detect.
"In a phrase, they are unremarkable," he said.
But police say they have become very sophisticated, as in the case of the Herald Square plotters.
According to Senior NYPD Intelligence Analyst Mitchell Silber, "They did recognizance, they went down there and drew maps. They took backpacks and went to the subway station and placed them there, and tested the police response."
"They actually looked at a CD called, 'The Cookbook,' and the cookbook was for explosives," he added.
The findings are sparking complaints from the local Muslim community.
"We can't get scared of Muslims because Muslims are not the people who are bad. It's the people individually who have those problems," said New Jersey resident Waleed Gabr.
The head of the New York Civil Liberties Union agrees, saying that the NYPD report on homegrown terrorism "lays the foundation for blanket surveillance of the entire Muslim community."
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