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U.S. Response II: Nuclear Strike May Have Threatened New York in October The Bush administration received information in October that terrorists were planning to detonate a 10-kiloton nuclear weapon in New York City, a senior administration official confirmed yesterday (Robert McFadden, New York Times, March 4). Time magazine reported the threat this week, adding that the detonation of such a weapon in lower Manhattan could kill up to 100,000 people, poison another 700,000 with radiation and destroy everything within a half-mile radius of the blast (Romesh Ratnesar, Time, March 3). The administration official confirmed the Time report but added that the information had come from a questionable intelligence source and eventually proved false (see GSN, Feb. 26). Even though the source’s reliability was doubtful, the information — which suggested that the bomb had originated in Russia — coincided with reports that a 10-kiloton nuclear bomb had been stolen from Russia in the mid-1990s, according to Time (see GSN, Feb. 22). “During the immediate post-Sept. 11 period and continuing on today there are large numbers of reports,” the official said. “This was one of them and it was dealt with appropriately.” The information was released to a limited number of intelligence agencies and senior officials in order not to generate panic in New York, according to Time. Former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik criticized the decision to keep the report secret from New York officials. “If they had information like that, that’s appalling,” Kerik said. “I was never told. I was concerned we weren’t being fed all the information” (McFadden, New York Times, March 4). Over the last few months, federal officials have increased measures to detect and prevent any terrorist attack using nuclear weapons or radioactive materials, according to the New York Daily News (see related GSN story, today). The Secret Service has dispatched a vehicle equipped with radiation-detecting equipment to New York, and during New Year’s Eve celebrations in Times Square the U.S. Customs Service equipped the New York Police Department with hand-held radiation sensors, the Daily News reported. New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly has said he wants to buy a bomb-detecting vehicle for New York (Derek Rose, New York Daily News. March 4).
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