By Rocco Parascandola
New York Daily News
NEW YORK — A “massive security operation” will be in place Friday as the city commemorates the 25th anniversary of the Sept. 11 terror attack, Police Commissioner Jessica Tisch said Wednesday.
“That operation reflects the significance of the 25th anniversary and the attendance of dignitaries, former presidents and other senior officials,” Tisch said at a press conference in lower Manhattan Wednesday. “The NYPD will have a significant presence throughout lower Manhattan, working alongside the United States Secret Service and our federal, state, and local partners to secure the memorial site, protect those attending the ceremony, and maintain public safety throughout the surrounding area.”
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President Donald Trump will not attend Friday’s commemoration at the 9/11 Memorial in lower Manhattan, but Vice President JD Vance is expected to attend, along with former presidents Joe Biden, Barack Obama, George W. Bush, and Bill Clinton, as well as former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
Tisch said cops from the Counterterrorism Bureau, many heavily armed, will be visible, with counter-drone teams prepared to electronically take over and land any rogue drones.
The ceremony is only accessible to those with tickets, Tisch said, noting that the Secret Service will install security fencing around the perimeter of the memorial site and on the east side of the West Side Highway, from Liberty to Fulton streets. The area south of Canal Street, from Broadway to West St., will be closed to vehicular traffic beginning Friday morning. Pedestrian access in the area will also be restricted.
Mayor Zohran Mamdani said there are no known credible threats against the ceremony but that every precaution is being taken.
NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Intelligence and Counterterrorism Rebecca Weiner said terrorism today “is quite different from where it was 25 years ago.”
“It’s decentralized geographically (and) it’s diversified tremendously ideologically,” Weiner said. “Now, we’re not primarily dealing with Al Qaeda, or Al Qaeda ISIS, but a proliferation of threats coming from conspiracy theories, grievances, nihilistic violence, far left, far right, anti-government, all of those things.”
“It’s a much more individualized and idiosyncratic threat, which means we have to be on our toes,” she said.
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