Bruce Golding, NY Post
Al Regenhard holds a photo of his son Christian Michael Regenhard, who died on 9/11, during a House committee meeting about the 9/11 Commission’s recommendations.Photo from UPI.
Relatives of 9/11 victims responded with fury to news that the city is in negotiations to suppress an NYPD report warning about the dangers of homegrown terrorism.
The Post exclusively reported Sunday that plaintiffs in a pending civil-rights suit have demanded the city take down the online report as a condition for settling their case, which accuses cops of illegally targeting them.
Retired NYPD Sgt. Al Regenhard, whose firefighter son, Christian, was killed at the World Trade Center, said removing the report from the city’s Web site would amount to the same sort of “political correctness and pandering” that he says led to his son’s death.
Regenhard also noted the recent three-day terror spree in Paris, “With the rest of the Western world in crisis mode, this is the time to protect the people of New York City,” he said. “It is time for the de Blasio administration to stop the war against NYPD and step up the war on terrorism before it is too late.”
The 2007 analysis, titled “Radicalization in the West: The Homegrown Threat,” details the process whereby Muslims living in the United States, Europe and elsewhere have been indoctrinated into launching deadly attacks on innocent civilians.
It examined five terrorism cases in the United States, including a 2004 plot to bomb the Herald Square subway station and efforts by two New Yorkers to funnel cash and supplies to al Qaeda overseas.
Since the report’s publication, the NYPD has documented at least eight cases in which homegrown terrorists plotted or actually tried to kill New Yorkers — including the failed 2010 car bombing in Times Square by a Connecticut man, Faisal Shahzad, who got training and funding from the Pakistani Taliban.
FDNY Lt. Jim McCaffrey, whose brother-in-law, FDNY Lt. Orio Palmer, died on 9/11, insists the fight isn’t close to finished.
“The war on terror is not over, despite what the president and others seem to say,” he said.
Rosaleen Tallon, sister of slain 9/11 firefighter Sean Tallon, called the demand to suppress the report “absolutely ridiculous.”
“Taking that report down would be like putting the city’s head in the sand,” she said.
And ex-NYPD Deputy Inspector Glen Morisano, who worked on counterterrorism cases before retiring, said that “now is not the time to lower our resolve.”
A spokesman for the city Law Department repeated an earlier statement about the case, saying only: “Discussions are ongoing. Nothing is final.”
Additional reporting by Michael Gartlandand Shawn Cohen.
