Oct. 9, 2013: "Twelve years after 9/11, the terrorist threat to the United States is as dangerous as ever," New York City Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly told a capacity audience at the October 2 Jacobson Global Lecture at Concordia College. Over 400 audience members filled the college's Sommer Center to hear Kelly's lecture, "Threats to New York City and the Modern World."

"Our enemies are smart," Kelly said. "They're patient and they are committed. They'll exploit any weakness they find." According to Kelly, in the 11 years leading up to 9/11, terrorists exploited the fact that federal investigators missed signs that a global threat was gathering.

Their investigation of the 1990 assassination in New York City of Rabbi Meir Kahane, founder of the Jewish Defense League, failed to gather evidence in the assassin's documents that indicated his affiliation with a far-reaching Islamist militant network that undertook the February 1993 World Trade Center bombing and reached to subsequent conspiracies to attack major New York City landmark buildings as well as bridges, tunnels, and subway stations.

"The warning signs were there," Kelly stated. "They should have been a wake-up call for the country. They were not."

In the aftermath of September 11, 2001, Kelly told the audience, members of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks Upon the United States (the 9/11 Commission) cited the nation's "collective failure to examine the character and extent of the new threat facing the United States."

A departmental reorganization, beginning in 2002, toward a strong international focus has enabled the New York Police Department to develop a top-notch counterterrorism program and intelligence division that has established a presence not only in the city, but around the world.

"We monitor events overseas to understand what the implications and ramifications are for New York City," Kelly said. "We have developed a program that is consistent with the threat we have continued to face since 9/11."

To bolster its efforts, the department has hired expert analysts who specialize in foreign affairs and military intelligence and has posted senior officers in eleven overseas cities to form relationships with local police departments.

Today, 120 New York Police Department detectives serve on the Joint Terrorism Task Force with the FBI, up from 17 on 9/11. Within its ranks, the department has officers who speak 60 different languages and who were born in 106 countries.

Kelly reported that, beyond Al Qaeda, its affiliates, allies, and recruits, the US faces an increasing threat from homegrown terrorists. He pointed to the "graying core" of Al Qaeda in Afghanistan and Pakistan whose continued leadership, ideology, and inspiration draw American recruits overseas for terrorism training that has as its goal the return of those recruits home to carry out attacks.

Kelly cited Inspire Magazine as an example of Al Qaeda's wide reach. The online propaganda magazine appeals to Al Qaeda sympathizers in the US with articles such as "Make a Bomb in the Kitchen of Your Mom," a how-to guide for using readily available household materials to build a bomb. The Tsarneav brothers used the article to build the pressure cooker devices they detonated at the Boston Marathon this year.

The goal of our enemies, Kelly stated, is to "bleed America financially and leave the country in a state of tension about where and when the next attack will come."

"Since 9/11, terrorists have shown an enduring obsession with New York City. We don't expect that to change," Kelly said. "This is a time for vigilance, not complacency."

Since 1990, the annual Jacobson Global Lecture, honoring the late David C. Jacobson, former provost and professor of philosophy at Concordia College, has presented leading speakers reflecting Dr. Jacobson's interests in world ideologies, religions, history, and politics.

Pictured here (rotating): (L to R) Westchester County District Attorney Janet DiFiore, New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, and Bronxville Chief of Police Christopher Satriale; (L to R) Concordia College President Viji George, Kelly, and artist Flladi Kulla ; Kelly addressing the audience.

Photos by Natasha Patel;  Portrait of Commissioner Raymond Kellly by Flladi Kulla.