EDITORIAL: Don't cut NYC terror funding

FBI agents, following the money trail from the failed Times Square bombing, raided locations on Long Island and elsewhere yesterday, one day after Washington announced plans to cut anti-terrorism funding to the region. The bungled bombing is a vivid reminder that this is neither the time, nor the place, for Washington to scale back efforts to meet the dangerously evolving threat.

New York City is the nation's No. 1 terrorist target and the heart of its financial system. So officials here are right to squawk. Washington must be made to see that this isn't the usual tussle over pork. But New York officials also have to make a strong, coherent case that more federal dollars are needed to help secure the area with additional police, dogs, cameras, and radiation and bio-weapon sensors.

No amount of spending would be enough to secure every potential terrorist target. But Washington actually reduced the amount available nationally for port and transportation security to $300 million this year, from $400 million last year. Grants to this region will dip by $54 million, to $144.4 million. If you count stimulus money from last year, the region fared better. But that was a one-shot infusion. Washington should do better by New York next month when it awards money from a third pot, the Urban Areas Security Initiative.

Limited resources available to protect the public should go to the places where the risk of terrorist attack is greatest. That list begins with New York. hN