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NYPD names new anti-terror chief

The Associated Press

NEW YORK- A former deputy homeland security adviser to President Bush has been named counterterrorism chief for the New York Police Department, officials said Monday.

Richard Falkenrath, who served at the White House until May 2004 before becoming a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, “brings outstanding and impressive academic credentials to this important post,” Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said in a statement.

Falkenrath will spearhead the NYPD’s aggressive strategy for protecting the city, which Kelly says remains atop terrorists’ list of potential targets.

After the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, the department redeployed about 1,000 officers to counterterrorism duty, including some posted in major cities overseas such as London.

Falkenrath replaces Michael Sheehan, a former National Security Council member who resigned in May.