Thanks For Doing Nothing At All To Make Us Feel Any Less Vulnerable This Christmas

After early reports of a terror plot to blow up the PATH tunnels leading into Lower Manhattan seemed to downplay the extent of destruction that could be inflicted, officials now admit that the tunnels are actually pretty vulnerable:

An analysis done for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey says that the PATH train tunnels under the Hudson River are more vulnerable to a bomb attack than previously thought, and that a relatively small amount of high explosives could cause significant flooding of the rail system within hours.

The analysis, based on work by Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory and the Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, revises some critical aspects of an assessment of the system’s vulnerability that was presented to the agency last spring. It makes clear that the tunnels — four tubes of varying design and sturdiness that stretch across the Hudson riverbed — are structurally more fragile than first thought.

A draft summary of the most recent analysis was given to The New York Times by a government official who was troubled by what the official felt was a lack of action in response to the analysis, which the official said the Port Authority got about three weeks ago. The official said the latest analysis indicates that it would take only six minutes for one of the PATH tubes to flood if a significant but not necessarily very large bomb were detonated.

. . .

The analysis appears to be the most detailed and sophisticated government review of the train tubes’ vulnerability. Initial findings were shared last May with some members of the agency, but were not made public, and further tests were ordered. More tests are being done in an effort to come up with the best way to strengthen the tunnels.

The Hudson River tubes of the PATH system, which suffered serious damage in the 2001 terror attack, are more vulnerable than most other tunnels that pass under the city’s waterways because they lie in the soft riverbed, unlike other tunnels that are bored through the underlying bedrock. Silt over years has built up atop the tubes, which were laid roughly 90 years ago, but they are not in bedrock.

Several city subway tunnels beneath the East River are in many ways similar to the four PATH tunnels — essentially cast-iron tubes that run along the riverbed. An official at the Metropolitan Transportation Authority said that agency is working on an analysis of its tubes.

The PATH analysis, which is characterized as preliminary and continuing, examines the three different types of PATH tubes under the Hudson. Roughly three-quarters of the tubes’ total length is made of unlined cast iron, with the balance made from concrete-lined cast iron or brick. Many of the details of the analysis — including the size of the bombs under discussion, their placement and the exact nature of the vulnerability — are being withheld by The Times.

The worst case included in the analysis suggests that a bomb that could be easily carried aboard a train could punch a 50-square-foot hole in one side of a tube, possibly breaching both sides of the tunnel. Under that situation, 1.2 million gallons of water a minute could pour into the tunnel, flooding parts of the system in a matter of hours.

First They Come For Your Tallboy, Then They Reveal The Massive Security Holes That Will Lead To Your Untimely Demise

And why get all up in our grill about drinking on the train when there are such massive security holes in the system? The NYPD, conducting more far-flung undercover operations, determines that if some douchetit suicider wanted to, he could smuggle a bomb aboard any Metro-North train:

Police commissioner Raymond Kelly warned yesterday that homegrown terrorists could easily build bombs upstate and smuggle them onto commuter trains headed to the city.

“It’s reasonable to assume that any attack on New York City may very well be put together — the logistics, the planning aspects of the plot — outside the city,” Kelly said.

Kelly said the NYPD dispatched six intelligence cops to Albany to test weaknesses in the metro area’s counterterrorism safeguards last summer. The cops drove from Albany to Poughkeepsie then got aboard a Metro-North train to Grand Central Terminal, much the way terrorists in Britain schlepped their homemade explosives about 180 miles to the subways and buses of London in July 2005.

“It was done to see if there are holes in our system,” Kelly said at a briefing for about 50 police chiefs and prosecutors from New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, Pennsylvania and other northeast states.

“It is fair to say there were things that needed adjustment,” Kelly said, refusing to detail the problems that the cops had uncovered.

Child, The Way You Shake That Thing, Gonna Make You Burn, Gonna Make You Sting

Apparently someone in the NYPD’s vaunted counter-terrorism unit saw Borat over the weekend:

“The threat posed by women is real, and it can’t be overlooked,” Rachel Weiner, an NYPD intelligence specialist, said at a security conference yesterday.

The warning was not in response to a threat against any specific targets in the city, but a general caveat for private security in light of the radicalization of women in other parts of the world.

“What this means is that we don’t have the luxury of ignoring 50% of our population in assessing whether someone is a threat,” Weiner said.

See also: “How I was duped by Ali G”.

NYPD Terror Drill: “More Information Is The Key”

The NYPD runs a terror-attack drill focused on schools:

During the early part of the exercise, the information from the Staten Island school is sketchy.

The narrator tells them the terrorists have grabbed an NYPD radio, allowing them to listen in on what cops are planning. And this forces police to think of alternate ways of communicating.

Then, the narrator tells them, the terrorists release a teacher, who reports that four of the attackers are wearing bulky black vests with wires protruding — and are growing increasingly agitated.

Some of the students manage to call their parents by cellphone, and panicking moms and dads gather at the school, he said.

Suddenly, a large explosion goes off on the roof. More shots are heard inside.

What should the cops do?

Members of the Technical Assistance Response Unit — known as the “Mission: Impossible” squad — wanted to place eavesdropping devices in the school so they could find out more about what was going on.

Finally, the attackers release their demands — they want terrorists jailed overseas to be freed or they’ll kill at least five of the hostages.

“Do we go in?” Browne asked.

Different ideas are suggested. Bomb Squad and hostage negotiators weigh in. More information, many agree, is the key.

One big concern was to not over-commit police resources — to one or both of the schools — as doing so might leave cops vulnerable should a third crisis erupt.

I’m hoping they’re a little more prepared than “we need more information” . . .

Yeesh

If you’re flying an airplane, isn’t it fairly difficult to miss Manhattan? Not good:

An aircraft crashed into a residential high-rise building on New York City’s Upper East Side this afternoon, igniting several apartments before pieces of the aircraft crashed to the ground, the police and witnesses said.

Police officials said two bodies were found on the ground, possibly passengers or crewmembers from the aircraft, but the authorities are just beginning their investigations. There are no reports of any injuries yet.

A Fire Department spokeswoman, Emily Rahimi, told The Associated Press that the aircraft struck the 20th floor of the building, 524 E. 72nd St., near York Avenue. However, television reports and witnessed said the aircraft hit closer to the 40th floor. That building and one next door were evacuated, police said.

The authorities have not said whether the aircraft was a small airplane or a helicopter.

Television views of the fire showed flames shooting out of four windows and smoke that streamed up into the sky, visible for miles. The building is a 50-story condominium that was built in 1986, The A.P. said, and has 183 apartments. Many of the lower floors held offices for doctors and other professionals.

The crash interrupted the routine of an urban afternoon that consisted of construction work inside the building, doctor’s appointments and came at the end of the school day for nearby students.

Kim Quarterman, 50, a doorman at 411 E. 70th St., said he head a noise about 2:45 p.m. “It sounded like a truck gearing down,” he said. “You know how a truck sounds when it’s trying not to hit something? Then I saw a cloud of smoke.”

Belaire building (524 East 72nd Street) is the tallest building in the center of the photo:

Orient yourself: Manhattan Waterfront From Roosevelt Island.