WEEHAKWEN AND BEYOND — Congressman Albio Sires (D-NJ) took Congressman and Chairman of the House Committee on Homeland Security Peter King (R-NY) on a tour Friday morning of four of the nation’s most high-risk terrorist target sites along what the New York Times called “the two most dangerous miles in the United States” in Hudson County.
Washington Homeland Security funding has been cut by two-thirds over the past two years, and will be cut further over coming years, King said.
Sires and King were joined by Weehawken Mayor Richard Turner and Jersey City Mayor Jerramiah Healy as they surveyed anti-terrorist security measures at the Holland Tunnel, the PATH station at Exchange Place in Jersey City, the Port of Newark in Elizabeth, and ended at the Lincoln Tunnel where they held a press conference.
“We’re being penalized for our success,” King continued. “[Washington] think[s] the threat is gone,” since there hasn’t been a terrorist attack in the area for 10 years.
He believes the threat is even more serious now because, he said, terrorist groups may try and seek out residents in the area instead of non-citizens to attack from within.
Sires said that with the tremendous growth particular to both the New York City and New Jersey’s Hudson County communities, it would be unwise to cut the resources that keep them safe. –Gennarose Pope
Congressmen take tour of Hudson County’s terror risk sites; address Homeland Security fund cuts
