Newsweek Journalist Reveals NYCPD’s Counterterror Force, The First Line Of Defense Against Another 9/11, Feb. 26

Event: Newsweek journalist Christopher Dickey will discuss how the New York City Police Department has transformed itself since 9/11 into one of the leading counterterrorism organizations in the world, and the extraordinary measures it is taking to prevent New York City from once again becoming Ground Zero.

This event is sponsored by the Knight Chair in Journalism and Strauss Center for International Security and Law at The University of Texas at Austin.

When: 3-4:30 p.m., Feb. 26, 2009

Where: 3.128 Sinclair Suite, Texas Union, on The University of Texas at Austin campus.

Background: In his book, “Securing the City: Inside America's Best Counterterror Force – The NYPD” (Simon & Schuster; February 2009), Dickey discloses for the first time finely grained details of the NYPD's counterterrorism operations – including techno helicopters with enormous telephoto lenses, high-tech snipers watching over the New Year's Eve celebration in Times Square, and the stationing of NYPD personnel in cities around the globe – that are startling, impressive and sometimes worrisome. In the seven years since Al Qaeda's attacks on New York and Washington, Americans have grown increasingly complacent about the threat of terrorism on our own soil. Yet with the recent attacks in Mumbai, and U.S. government reports predicting the high likelihood of another major terrorist strike on an American city in the next five years, Dickey's authoritative reporting is more important and timely than ever. As the gold standard for all domestic counterterrorism operations, the NYPD's intelligence division is the most ambitious, the most capable, the most controversial – and one that is bound to be emulated by other police forces around the country, as well as branches of the federal government.

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Contact:
Jennifer Potter-Andreau, event coordinator
512-471-1391