Cut in antiterror funds enrages NYC

NEW YORK -- From Times Square and the Empire State Building to the Brooklyn Bridge and the Statue of Liberty, New York is a city of spectacular landmarks. Ask any of the 41 million tourists who visited last year.

But according to the Homeland Security Department, New York has no national monuments or icons -- a determination that led to a 40 percent cut in antiterrorism funding.

New Yorkers are seething over the news, and some are demanding the firing of Homeland Security chief Michael Chertoff.

Representative Pete King, Republican of New York, charged that the Bush administration had ``declared war on New York" with its decision to reduce antiterrorism funding by $83 million while increases went to cities like Jacksonville, Fla., Louisville, Ky., and Omaha.

``I'm not begrudging any other city, but why would you cut the number one target in the country by 40 percent?" said King, who demanded an investigation. ``How can you possibly justify that?"

Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat, yesterday advised President Bush to avoid the city until the administration comes up with some more money to keep New York safe.

``This is wrong and unfair, but also outrageous," Schumer said. ``The bottom line is this is abandoning New York."

The cutback comes nearly five years after the terrorist attack that killed 2,749 people at the World Trade Center, and a week after a Pakistani immigrant was convicted of conspiring to blow up the subway station at Herald Square, the site of Macy's flagship store, one of the world's most popular shopping destinations.

In Washington, Homeland Security Undersecretary George Foresman said his agency would review its finding that New York City has no national monuments or icons that would be at risk of terrorist attack.

Chertoff defended the cut yesterday, while acknowledging that New York City was still at the top of the US threat list. He said the nearly $125 million in grants for New York were in line with the average amounts the city has gotten in the years since Sept. 11. He added that New York has gotten more than $500 million in all, more than twice the total received by the next-highest-risk city, Los Angeles.