UNDER THE RADAR: OBAMA’S PLAN TO SHUT DOWN NYC ANTI-TERROR COAST GUARD UNIT

Sen. Schumer calls out Napolitano over elimination of anti-terrorist Coast Guard unit

BY Lore Croghan
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

Sunday, February 7th 2010, 2:48 PM

Sen. Chuck Schumer says Janet Napolitano needs to reverse the Obama administration's removal of an anti-terrorist Coast Guard unit.

Elisa, Sabo for News

Sen. Chuck Schumer says Janet Napolitano needs to reverse the Obama administration’s removal of an anti-terrorist Coast Guard unit.

Say it ain’t so, Janet!

Sen. Chuck Schumer called out Department of Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano on Sunday, protesting an Obama Administration plan to eliminate an anti-terrorist Coast Guard unit that keeps watch over the city’s harbor.

“They are our eyes and ears,” Schumer said of the elite, 90-member Coast Guard unit established after 9/11. The unit provides terror-related surveillance and security for waterfront events like the Fourth of July fireworks.

Obama’s federal budget, released last week, calls for transferring the unit to Boston, where it would be combined with Beantown’s Coast Guard Maritime Safety and Security Team.

“If there was ever a plan that was penny wise and pound foolish, this is it,” Schumer said.

He sent Napolitano a letter asking her to abandon the plan – and vowed to block it in Congress if she does not.

“The whole New York delegation will rally against this,” he said.

The Coast Guard consolidation plan included in the new budget also would eliminate or transfer Maritime Safety and Security teams in four other locales: San Francisco; New Orleans; Anchorage, Alaska; and Kings Bay, Georgia. Teams in San Diego and Seattle would be spared.

With New York City a top terror target, it would make more sense to move Boston’s Coast Guard team here – if there’s no way to avoid consolidation, Schumer said.

“We are very concerned that it would take too long to deploy an MSST team from Boston in cases of extreme threat, disaster or attack,” he wrote in his letter to Napolitano.

Comments are closed.