Video: The attacks of September 11, 2001 forced Americans to reevaluate their views on the nation's security. A decade later, is the country stronger and better prepared to prevent a terror attack?
John Brennan, the president’s homeland security and counterterrorism adviser, has chaired senior-level meetings on security preparations over the past four months, according to the White House.
“These senior-level reviews of our security posture will continue through the 9/11 anniversary and beyond in order to ensure the federal government remains fully prepared to take whatever steps are necessary to mitigate any potential attacks,” said White House spokesman Clark W. Stevens.
Officials said that a major concern is a “lone wolf” attack such as the one in Norway in July, when a 32-year-old man shot and killed 77 people at a political youth camp outside Oslo.
“You know, when you’ve got one person who is deranged or driven by a hateful ideology, they can do a lot of damage, and it’s a lot harder to trace those lone-wolf operators,” Obama said in a interview with CNN last month, describing the potential for such an attack as “the biggest concern we have right now.”
Obama and first lady Michelle Obama will also attend ceremonies in Pennsylvania and at the Pentagon on Sept. 11.
Det. Crystal Nosal, a spokeswoman for the Arlington County Police Department, said that officials “are taking security measures that are heightened beyond a normal day.’’
She said that the measures will be across the county and extend to a run that will pass the Pentagon on Sept. 10.
In New York, police will create what they call a frozen zone around Ground Zero, which will extend for several blocks in all directions. Only people with credentials will be able to get into the traffic-free zone, and residents wanting to return to their apartments will have to be escorted by police officers. Police snipers will be on the rooftops near the World Trade Center site, Browne said.
Browne said the overall effort is an attempt to “intercept an attack if one is coming our way and to respond to any number of threats, including the active shooters you saw in Mumbai, anything coming in over the water, chemical, biological, radiological.’’
In November 2008 in Mumbai, India’s commercial capital, a group of gunmen with Lashkar-e-Taiba, a Pakistani militant group, killed 166 people and wounded hundreds in coordinated attacks on hotels, a railroad station and a Jewish center.
Staff writer Greg Miller contributed to this report.
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