Former New York Police Department Commissioner Ray Kelly, who was at Freedom Tower in Manhattan ahead of this morning's 9/11 commemoration, said the transformation that has taken place since the collapse of the Twin Towers 18 years ago has been "phenomenal."
"I live in this neighborhood so I have seen the transformation, the transition every day," Kelly told Fox News' "Fox and Friends." "Of course this is a credit to so many people. (Former Mayor) Rudy Giuliani did a terrific job in marshaling the country. (Ex-Mayor) Mike Bloomberg followed him. I think New York and the country really owes a debt of gratitude to Mayor Bloomberg, who shepherded so much of this transformation... all of the Port Authority personnel, so many things that happened here. This is a beautiful neighborhood once again."
Everything that has been done was in a "first-class manner," he added, making the once-devastated neighborhood a "great place to live."
Kelly said he walks through the 9/11 memorial often and thinks of the people who died in the towers and the first responders who have lost their lives, including the hundreds who have died since then after ingesting toxic materials.
There have continued to be threats and plots against New York City, said Kelly, including 16 direct plots that "thank God were thwarted."
"There have been hundreds of plots actually throughout the country, to attack us and kill Americans but the FBI has done a tremendous job in rolling them up," said Kelly.
Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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