Video – NYPD Beefs Up Security at New York Shuls

NEW YORK, NY [CBS] — New York City synagogues are stepping up security in the aftermath of this week’s terror plot arrests. Even with the suspected mastermind and three others behind bars, police aren’t taking any chances.

In Jewish communities throughout the five boroughs there will be increased police protection this holiday weekend, the aftermath of the terror plot to blow up two Riverdale synagogues.

“Concern in these communities has been expressed,” NYPD Commissioner Ray Kelly said. “We want to allay those concerned and we’ll deploy our critical response vehicles for at least the next couple of days.”

The move came after the NYPD’s Joint Terrorism Task Force — as the chilling video shows — arrested four men and charged them with planting explosives outside two synagogues in Riverdale.

“They said anti-Semitic remarks; they said they wanted to hurt Americans; they were upset about Muslims being killed in Iraq and Afghanistan and they wanted to carry out revenge,” Kelly said.

The mayor and governor honored officers who participated in the arrest, which came about after one of the defendants told a confidential informant at a Newburgh mosque that he wanted to make Jihad and attack Jews.

“We actually saw them. We observed them putting bombs, what they believed to be bombs, 37-pound bombs, which is an awful lot of explosives, right in front of a synagogue,” Kelly said.

The police commissioner and the head of the FBI’s New York office said the four defendants were a serious threat, and that they were not entrapped by law enforcement officials.

“It was the subjects, the suspects who forced the operation, directed the operation. It was their plan,” said Joseph Demarest Jr., assistant director in charge at the FBI New York office.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg said that cases like this justify his decision to beef up counter terrorism efforts. Before 9/11 there were just 17 detectives in counter terrorism; now there are over 1,000.