Why Al Qaeda Loves New York City

Al Qaeda is sentimental, which is to say its planners and strategists follow their hearts. It keeps them consistent. This is what Kelly means when he notes that for the past fifteen years, they have been announcing that they will attack—and then attacking—New York.

The density and wattage of the human-target grid here—Shea on a summer night, JFK at Thanksgiving, Macy’s on a Saturday, Times Square just about any time—make the city itself a meta-target and raise the value of each individual target in it. According to Osama’s medieval worldview, more dead Crusaders and Jews means more dead Crusaders and Jews, so that any place attacked in New York has intrinsic value, but it doesn’t get at the likelihood of what might be next.

“What turns a thing into a target?” says Brian Michael Jenkins, Rand Corporation terror expert. “First, high symbolic value. Then, what do they want to accomplish with their home audience? Operations are as much for display—to attract recruits, financial support, and to establish credentials—as they are intended to hurt us. They’re corporate communications.”

Targets are developed in two ways. The first is a top-down sort of structure, as when bin Laden and Khalid Shaikh Mohammed selected, trained, and defined the missions of the several cells who ultimately flew on September 11. The second process, running concurrently, is that allied cells around the world reconnoiter targets on their own, throwing proposals to the central organization.

“Think of it like every taxi driver in Los Angeles is also writing a film script,” Jenkins continues. “So, they’re going to pitch these to an agent or a studio. If you’re bin Laden and the boys, you sort of have this constant incoming flow of target folders and project proposals: ‘Gee, wouldn’t it be great if we could take down the stock exchange?’ You might look at one of those and say, ‘Gee, that’s an interesting idea—let’s take it up from a pitch to a story treatment.’

First, figure out what kinds of things would be targets. Figure out what would be attractive targets (ranking them). Then look at the feasibility of attacking the targets with the items at the disposal of terrorists.

One can deny a target with police and military-style presence, active and passive security measures, and one can also engage in counter terrorism to go after terrorists before they strike. NYPD has to do all that and more in order to keep folks safe.

This particular article also sheds light on Khalid Sheik Mohammad, who the article claims is being detained on Diego Garcia and continues to give up intel. There is also more information on Dhiren Barot, a.k.a. Esa al-Hindi, who targeted US financial buildings.

An interesting read from a magazine that fancies itself to be a fashion and current events guide - and not a hard news/analysis reader. The NYT wishes it could get stories like this.