Readers of a terrorism magazine have been encouraged to target the upcoming U.S. Open tennis tournament at Flushing Meadows in Queens, N.Y., as a potential site to detonate a car bomb, a NYPD analyst said Wednesday. This year's tournament is scheduled to run between August 25 and September 8.
Speaking at a counterterror briefing for both civilian and law enforcement officials on Wednesday, NYPD Director of Intelligence Analysis Rebecca Weiner said the hugely popular sporting venue had been suggested as a target in the most recent edition of Inspire, the English-language online publication of Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
In an article titled "Car Bombs Inside America," readers have been provided details on how to build such devices, in addition to a reminder that claims, "America is our first target, followed by United Kingdom, France and other crusader countries."
Readers are also told to attack tennis stadiums, which are "visited by thousands of people, and high-profile people, especially the U.S. Open," New York Daily News reported. "The important thing is that you target people and not buildings," the disturbing article states.
However, Weiner said, "I want to be very clear - we've had no threat reporting related to the U.S. Open. We will ensure that the suggestions in this magazine remain hypothetical." The NYPD is known to typically flood the tournament with scores of officers in uniform and in plainclothes.
According to UK MailOnline, Weiner made her comments during a NYPD Shield conference, where police officials at One Police Plaza briefed private sector security officials about terrorism issues. Boston Police Commissioner Edward Davis said using social media, especially Twitter, was a key to correcting misinformation distributed by the media. "Trying to get the proper message out among the people who are coming from all over the world to report on this incident cannot be done unless you have your own ability with social media to correct bad information and get valid information out there," he said.
Inspire is considered a key tool in Al Qaeda's arsenal, particularly as it reaches out to those looking to commit jihad on their own without necessarily travelling to overseas terror camps.
