“The video shows images of the Paris attack and footage of a terrorist preparing himself with a suicide bomb”.
Advertisement
ISIS released a video recently listing the cities and countries that they are likely to attack in the coming days; one of the cities they include is NY.
According to Travel Weekly, NY City is one of the top five most searched Thanksgiving travel destinations in the USA, with the 2015 holiday season expected to be the busiest compared to previous years.
The mayor still cautioned the people of NY City to be alert and inform the authorities right away should they notice anything suspicious.
“We will not submit to their wishes”, de Blasio vowed.
Police Commissioner Bill Bratton said the video offers nothing new.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation said through a spokeswoman it was aware of news reports about the video and “ongoing terrorist threats to NYC”, and would fully investigate.
Unsuspecting Christmas shoppers are seemingly the target in the sick yet professional footage, released in the wake of the Paris attacks which killed 129 people.
“There is no credible and specific threat against NY City”, de Blasio said, encouraging New Yorkers to “go about their business” as normal, while remaining watchful.
ISIS putting out a video featuring suicide bombers targeting specific NY landmarks seems like a specific and credible threat.
At a Wednesday evening press conference in Times Square, police Commissioner William Bratton said the video appeared to be “hastily produced”. “We work tirelessly to ensure that, continuously upgrading our capabilities and our systems”, Bratton said.
“In NY, we understand we are a terrorist target”. “This is ISIS doing what ISIS and al-Qaeda and terrorist groups do, which is propaganda”, he said, using a common acronym for IS.
Advertisement
Ray Corpuz from Wellington, New Zealand added, “You can’t help but to have fear, but we shouldn’t really be scared because if we are scared we are letting them win”. He stressed that the police force is continually monitoring all possible terrorist threats but have not received any new information that indicates an imminent threat. His midtown firm has already received calls from his corporate retail clients to boost private security for Black Friday as a result of the Paris attacks but it’s the request that he was asked to fulfill Thursday morning that is a first for his 8-year-old security firm.
