Posted on 07/22/2004 12:04:05 AM PDT by hedgetrimmer
Standing on the sun-splashed deck of a police boat off Manhattan's Pier 88, the two divers pulled on wet suits, strapped knives to their legs and slid into the Hudson River through swirls of garbage and jellyfish.
For the next half-hour, they groped through the blackness beneath the pier, running their hands over piling after piling, in search of something they hope to never find: explosives planted by terrorists.
"You only have about a foot of visibility down there, so you have to use your hands," said the divers' superior, Sgt. Paul Reynolds, as he waited on deck. "The unfortunate reality is that if something is down there, we are going to bump into it, and bumping into it could set it off."
With the Republican National Convention approaching and the threat of terrorism hanging over the city, the workday has become a hectic and sometimes perilous business for the New York Police Department's Scuba Team.
Once known mainly for retrieving submerged corpses and fishing out guns and other evidence from river bottoms, the scuba team is taking the war against terrorism into the netherworld beneath New York Harbor.
Since 9/11, that has meant looking for explosives under the hulls of ships, beneath piers and on the foundations of bridges. But the team is now going even further. Police divers are increasingly being trained for combat operations once reserved for military units like the Navy SEALS.
(Excerpt) Read more at nj.com ...
"Police divers are increasingly being trained for combat operations once reserved for military units like the Navy SEALS.
Last month, the team joined the U.S. Park Police in a training exercise on Liberty Island in which divers practiced hauling bags of machine guns underwater, in case they have to take back the Statue of Liberty from terrorists. The team also has practiced taking back the Staten Island Ferry, pulling alongside a ferry steaming across Upper New York Bay and leaping aboard in a surprise attack on mock terrorists.
Harkins said the scuba team will be busier than ever during the Republican convention, which runs from Aug. 30 to Sept. 2; the exact nature of the unit's assignments is being kept under wraps, he added.
"We are planning to go to 12-hour tours and no days off toward the end of the month," he said. "We are going to be busy."
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Good find!
This surely sounds as if we do have some information about such potential threats. If they can't come at us via air, they may do it from the sea.
I am glad we are focusing on this area as well.
Good article. Thanks
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