The FBI and the NYPD have once again teamed up to protect the city from terror — without so much as a by-your-leave from the Associated Press.
Imagine that.
Early yesterday, officials say, a self-professed al Qaeda associate from Bangladesh, Quazi Mohammad Rezwanul Ahsan Nafis, tried to explode what he thought was a 1,000-pound bomb at the Federal Reserve Bank in Lower Manhattan.
His goal: to “destroy America,” he wrote.
“We will not stop until we attain victory or martyrdom,” Nafis said on a video he planned to release along with his attack.
But law-enforcement officials were in on the plot from early on. Nafis had no idea the bomb he tried to detonate was fake.
After failing repeatedly to set off inert materials supplied by an undercover agent, he was nabbed and charged with attempting to use a weapon of mass destruction and lend “material support” to al Qaeda.
Just 21, Nafis — who officials say came to America specifically to wage jihad — faces life imprisonment if convicted.
The arrest wasn’t just a case of good luck.
The sting was an effort by the Joint Terrorism Task Force, involving FBI and NYPD agents working cooperatively. Indeed, it took careful planning, prolonged vigilance — and, notably, an abundance of surveillance — to take down this jihadist.
The system worked precisely as it should — even if it did involve undercover work of the sort that causes the AP no end of agita.
The press agency — and its soul-mates at The New York Times — work tirelessly to weaken terror-monitoring programs, particularly those run by New York’s Finest.
The AP even won a Pulitzer Prize for its exertions (which says much more about the state of modern American journalism than it does about the NYPD).
If nothing else, yesterday’s foiled plot was yet another reminder that it’s not enough for Americans to merely wish an end to the War on Terror, even 11 years post-9/11. Rather, the jihadists must be defeated.
And that takes resolve.
“Vigilance is our watchword now and into the foreseeable future,” said Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. “That’s why we have over 1,000 NYPD officers assigned to counterterrorism duties every day.”
Real New Yorkers appreciate that.