US to step up security at hotels and malls

12-27-2010 • www.breitbart.com

The United States is stepping up security at "soft targets" like hotels and shopping malls, as well as trains and ports, as it counters the evolving Al-Qaeda threat, a top official said Sunday.

A year after a foiled plot to bomb a US-bound passenger plane, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano told CNN's "State of the Union" program that other places and modes of transportation must now be scrutinized.

"We look at so-called soft targets -- the hotels, shopping malls, for example -- all of which we have reached out to in the past year and have done a fair amount of training for their own employees," Napolitano said.

Since an attempted bombing on a packed Saturday night in Times Square in May, New York, for example, has installed hundreds of security cameras as part of a plan to triple the number of cameras to 3,000.

In September, the city activated some 500 new surveillance cameras at its three busiest subway stations -- Times Square, Penn Station and Grand Central.

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1 Comments in Response to US to step up security at hotels and malls

Comment by Ross Wolf

Entered on: 12/27/2010 1:35:58 PM

Homeland Security Could Be an Economic Boon For Local Merchants while devastating Large Shopping Centers.

Homeland Security’s plan to establish radiation invasive X-ray Scans and or Pat Downs at large Shopping Malls will drive off shoppers to buy from (non-mall merchants, stand alone stores and small strip centers) in their community. Shopping centers in the U.S. are already dying economically with tenants defaulting, not renewing leases, because they can’t financially make it in this horrific recession. Non-shopping Mall commercial properties in trafficked locations could prove to be a good real estate investment. Most Americans don't want to be hassled by HLS as a condition to shopping.

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