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From within a weekend of floods, tornadoes, water main breaks, a national recall of children’s medicine, an oil spill larger than Puerto Rico, and a car bomb in Times Square, a friend sent me this brief message from a New York City police officer.
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Last night I responded to the IED in Times Square. During that time [a colleague 3,000 miles away] fed me [via Twitter] tidbits that were genuinely helpful.
Upon reflecting on the night’s happenings I can say that 99% of our homeland security practitioners i.e. the american people were cooperative and helpful.
NYPD has suspected that Times Square would be targeted. Much of our counterterrorism efforts were focused on it.
I was detailed to Times Square the previous two nights (Thurdsay and Friday). Both nights were warm late spring nights with thousands of tourists enjoying Broadway and the attractions. (By the way the eye candy was awesome!) I couldn’t help imagine what chaos would ensue in the event of an attack.
I was not detailed to Times Square on Saturday and first learned of the attack in a text from my teen aged son who was in Times Square at the time. That was followed by successive tweets.
Minutes later my unit was ordered to respond. During Saturday night’s events we – NYPD – were convinced that a secondary device would detonate.
I woke up late Sunday and my wife dragged me to church (I thought about blowing it off).
I found myself in the same pew I sat in on Wednesday, September 12th and just thought about what might have happened.
Thanks for the tweets. I wish I had had them on September 11 when my unit was in the dark about what was happening in the Pentagon and Pennsylvania
I don’t believe we have seen the last of al Qaeda.
