Smart Cameras, Guards to Protect WTC Site (AP)

[Starfury]

Welcome to the future....

NEW YORK - Visitors to the complex that eventually will fill the World Trade Center site might have to submit to iris scans or thumb print analysis to get into buildings, while smart cameras try to match their faces to a photo database of known terrorists. Well-paid armed guards would be on patrol and sensors would test the air for lethal gases.

Preliminary details of a plan to make the redeveloped 16-acre site as terrorism-proof as possible were provided to The Associated Press this past week by former FBI agent James Kallstrom, Gov. George Pataki's senior counterterrorism adviser.

Kallstrom and city and federal officials are aiming for a higher standard of security than is currently in use for public spaces around the nation.

"This'll be reflective of the times we live in," Kallstrom said. "The consequences of attacking here could have more significance to the terrorists. It has a lot of symbolism. It's going to be extremely well protected."

(...)

"These will not be minimum-wage people," Kallstrom said.

(...)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/ground_zero_security

[niyad]

1. WHO owns that site now? used to belong to port authority, didn't it? I

recall reading somewhere that it is now private.

won't be going there anytime soon. what a load of BS.

[sandnsea]

4. Still the Port Authority

Private company operates the buildings, pays the Port Authority a fee. Much like the Port contract. Would we let a UAE company rebuild and operate the WTC?? What a slap in the face that would be.

[DemInDistress]

2. how pathetic..smart camera's...ITS TOO FUCKING LATE

THAT BARN HAS BURNT DOWN..bush and the crime family bent over back-wards to make sure 911 came off as planned
PNAC needed 911. any future development on that site is meaningless,who'd want to hit it again? Its funny,2 commercial jets pass over Indian Point Nuclear Plant but chose 2 buildings. h'm what would be more damaging?
Nuclear or commercial enterprises?

[PassingThrough]

6. The towers were a better target.

It was about publicity. The Towers were a symbol of capitalism and America to the attackers. Its not like it was their first attack on the Towers.

Also, Nuclear Plants are hardened against aircraft strikes specificly. They have always feared an aircraft would accidentally strike the reactors so they have always been hardened against such an event.

[DemInDistress]

7. maybe one jet would not have breached the plant

but 2 commercial jets would have. in addition shutting down Indian point would have created more havoc in the surrounding area. Radioactivity would have contaminated miles,a much worse scenario. so I disagree but I respect your opinion...btw, where you from. I'm in NYC

[PassingThrough]

8. What is left of SW Mississippi.

[sandnsea]

3. Freedom Tower??

They're sticking with that name?

[Mithras61]

5. I guess the AIRPLANES they flew into the old WTC...

would have been stopped by iris scans and thumb print analysis, as would the old-fashioned "truck loaded with explosives." :sarcasm:


I really don't think these people get that terrorists can't be stopped with simple-minded measures like this. This isn't the Palestine/Israel border that terrorists just walk through. It's far more likely that these efforts will enable future attacks because they give the guards a false sense of security.

[Rex]

9. So the WTC site is going to become the Terrorist Memorial Complex?

With well-paid armed guards, attack dogs, military hardware and star trek security. A true memorial to fear and war. Will the cops wear jackboots? How many people will be accidentally shot from mistaken ID match ups from the 'smart' camera? Ya know, just because you label something 'smart', doesn't MAKE it smart. I can just smell the future lawsuits from here.