Uneasiness invades New York on eve of 9/11

By Adrián Royo Caldiz
BuenosAiresHerald.com staff.

On the eve of the tenth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, and with a warning by the US government of “credible” intelligence pointing towards possible new attacks on Sunday, New York has become a police stronghold in which anyone is a suspect.

It’s less than 24 hours until the anniversary commemorations begin at the site where the World Trade Centre used to stand, and there’s a sense of uneasiness in the air.

The island of Manhattan has once again been put under extreme surveillance, reminding the locals of those days of paranoia and anxiety that immediately followed the worst terrorist attack this country has ever seen.

Even though an additional layer of security was expected on the 11 th – as it has been on every anniversary of the attacks – the decision to amp up security officially came after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton announced that the government had a “credible but unconfirmed report” that al Qaeda was again looking to harm Americans and “in particular to target New York and Washington” by the use of car bombs.

Rumours of a possible attack had begun back in May when, after killing Osama Bin Laden in Pakistan, US officials found that one of his notebooks vaguely mentioned a possible terror strike on the 10 th anniversary of the attacks, but these rumours grew closer to a reality after the US received intelligence that talked of a plot by al Qaeda to attack again on Sunday.

To be fair, security in New York has been tight ever since the attacks in 2001, but after the US government announced that they had gathered “credible” intelligence pointing to new possible attacks on Sunday, security has become exceedingly tight. And considering that on Sunday President Barack Obama will be joined by former president George W. Bush in the unveiling ceremony of a new memorial at the site where the World Trade Centre was destroyed, the stakes are too high to not be extra cautious.

Additional police and National Guard officers have been deployed all over the city, with round-the-clock patrols up and down the Grand Central and Pennsylvania stations, security checkpoints around bridges, tunnels and sensitive areas such as Ground Zero and Times Square, K-9 units looking for bombs in the subway, helicopters patrolling the skies and even radiation detectors put in place to check for nuclear material.

Also, vehicles driving towards downtown are having their license plates checked to figure out if they are stolen, while any cars parked in a “suspicious” will be immediately towed.

The police have also warned that random bag searches on the street, a practice that no one likes but, they say, “everyone understands.”

Curiously enough, despite the heightened sense of alert throughout the nation, many New Yorkers seem to be suffering of 9/11 fatigue, in a way that they are prepared to honour those who were killed in the attacks, but don’t really care about the “terrorist threat hoopla.”

“They can check my bags, for all I care,” says Linda, a resident from Brooklyn. “I have got nothing to hide. All I care about is getting to work,” she explains. It seems as if to them, terrorism angst has become one more aspect of their lives and calling the police after noticing a suspicious package on the street is just another part of your civic duty.

So their plans for Sunday? “Watch the Mets game,” says Mark, an NYU student living in Manhattan, in compliance with the authorities, who suggested that, even though “everyone should remain vigilant,” they should go on with their lives as usual.

As other important events take place on Sunday, such as the women’s tennis final at the US Open and the arrival of a Navy warship at Battery Park, many locals have adopted a different attitude in the face of fear, and will not let the endless sound of the police sirens interfere with their daily lives.