kate
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Joined: 14 May 2004
Posts: 1891
Location: Upstate, New York
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 Posted: Fri May 19, 2006 1:16 am Post subject: Detective Has The Right Cuff |
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what an awesome story...
NY Post
| Quote: | Detective Has The Right Cuff
By Philip Messing
May 18, 2006 -- A Port Authority detective who carried his slain colleague's handcuffs all the way to Afghanistan so he could personally slap them on terrorists' wrists will get his department's highest honor today for taking the war on terror from Ground Zero to the doorstep of al Qaeda.
Detective Thomas McHale Jr. will get the PA's Medal of Honor for his heroic actions fighting to prevent another 9/11 during his two-month tour of duty in Central Asia with the Joint Terrorism Task Force in 2002.
In a dramatic tribute, McHale locked up would-be suicide bombers and al Qaeda bigs - including high-ranking al Qaeda fiends like Abu Zubaydah - with the handcuffs originally owned by fellow PA Police Officer Donald McIntyre, who died in the 9/11 attack.
Using the cuffs, which were pulled out of the rubble of the World Trade Center, was a way for the fallen officer to get justice, McHale said.
"To us, it would be a tie to Donnie to help make the arrests of the people who helped kill him . . . in a spiritual way Donnie was helping to arrest these guys," the detective said.
The cuffs - which were engraved with the name "Mac"-were eventually used in the arrests and prisoner transfers of some 70 al Qaeda and Taliban thugs. They were used by McHale, other American law officers and special agents and even Pakistani forces.
McHale felt they also promoted empathy between the Pakistani authorities and the Americans, by providing a tangible link to those who died on 9/11.
"This made our job a little bit more personal to them . . . They were working [hard]. This made it more personal to them, as if they knew Donnie."
One Pakistani, whom he could only identify as "Colonel T," was particularly moved by the handcuffs. He became even closer when McHale showed him a picture of McIntyre's widow, Jeannine, along with the slain officer's baby daughter Lauren.
"This really struck him," he said. "They really personally believed they knew him. They had a bond with the WTC they may not have had initially."
The cuffs' highest-profile prisoner was Abu Zubaydah, Osama bin Laden's operational chief, who was captured after a gun battle in Pakistan in 2002.
Jeannine said she was happy to have a little piece of her husband's life involved in the front lines of the war on terror.
"When Tommy came to me and told me what he was doing and asked for Donnie's cuffs, I couldn't do it fast enough," said Jeannine, a mom of three.
"I know my husband would have been pleased to know that they used his cuffs," she added. "He would have said it was a case of 'Jus tice has been served.' "
The award will be presented today at 10 a.m. at the Tribeca Performing Arts Center, 199 Chambers St. Among McHale's accomplishments for which he will be recognized:
* He helped uncover and close down a biological weapons laboratory in Kandahar, Afghanistan, while serving alongside federal agents and military forces in the Operation Anaconda mission.
* He responded to a deadly bomb attack on a Protestant church near the American Embassy in Islamabad, Pakistan, and helped secure the area as a crime scene, even though live bombs were still present.
* He arrested a would-be terrorist from Pakistan who was found with $25,000 and a recipe for explosives similar to those used in the 1993 truck-bomb attack on the World Trade Center.
philip.messing@nypost.com |
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