Security Surges on Osama Bin Laden Death Anniversary
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iStockphoto/Thinkstock(NEW YORK) — Federal and local authorities have stepped up security Wednesday in New York City as a precaution on the anniversary of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden’s death one year ago today, law enforcement officials told ABC News.
Though officials say there are no known threats centered on New York City—the metropolis that suffered a majority of the casualties of the 9/11 attacks when the World Trade Center buildings fell in 2001—240 federal, state, city and transportation police have been deployed to major transportation hubs like Grand Central Terminal and Times Square with heavy weapons, radiation detectors, bomb sniffing dogs and other equipment, authorities said.
The officials said the surge will include National Guard forces and Transportation Security Administration agents.
Beyond New York City, security officials in the U.S. and abroad are watching U.S.-bound flights carefully amid fears terrorists could attempt to smuggle explosives onto planes by actually hiding them inside their bodies. As ABC News reported Monday, security at several airports in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe and the Middle East has been substantially stepped up, with a focus on U.S. carriers.
Additional federal air marshals have also been shifted overseas in advance of the anniversary. While President Obama announced bin Laden’s death to the world on the night of May 1, 2011 in the U.S., it was already May 2 in Pakistan when the terror leader was killed by an elite team of U.S. Navy SEALs.
Medical experts say there is plenty of room in the stomach area of the body for surgically implanted explosives. “The surgeon would open the abdominal cavity and literally implant the explosive device in amongst the internal organs,” explained Dr. Mark Melrose, a New York emergency medicine specialist.
For the last year, U.S. and European authorities have publicly warned that al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), al Qaeda’s Yemeni affiliate, and its master bomb-maker, Ibrahim al-Asiri, have been designing body bombs with no metal parts to get past airport security.
“We are treating the information seriously,” John Pistole, administrator of the Transportation Security Administration, told ABC News in 2011.
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