www.csua.org/u/gcj -> news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060707/ap_on_re_us/new_york_tunnels_plot_14
AP FBI disrupts New York transportation plot By PAT MILTON, Associated Press Writer Fri Jul 7, 1:16 PM ET NEW YORK - Authorities have disrupted planning by foreign terrorists who wanted to attack the New York City-area transportation system, the federal government announced Friday.
Officials said the FBI had been monitoring Internet chat rooms and cited the arrest of a key suspect by Lebanese authorities as a significant break in the investigation. Lebanese authorities, working with US law enforcement agencies, arrested an al-Qaida operative who admitted to plotting a terror attack in New York City, a senior Lebanese security official said Friday. The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said the arrest was made a month ago. The suspect was identified as Amir Andalousli, but his real name is Assem Hammoud, a Beirut native, the official said. The official said he was an al-Qaida member and had confessed to the plot.
US Coast Guard Change of Command Ceremonies, said authorities were focusing efforts on "where the risk is the greatest, mass transit systems that have a significant amount of track mileage underground -- and under the water." "We cannot guarantee perfect security, but we are going to do everything in our power to minimize the risk and reduce the threat from terrorism to all those who ride our trains, travel our highways," Chertoff said. New York's transportation system has emerged as a potential terrorist threat in several recent cases. A June book by journalist Ron Suskind highlighted a reported plot by al-Qaida terrorists to kill thousands of New Yorkers by spreading cyanide gas in the subway. In May, a man was convicted of plotting to blow up a subway station. In the latest case, a federal official said FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned of the plot in recent months and determined that tunnels were possibly being targeted after investigators pieced together code words from their conversations. The official, who also spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing, said terrorists were looking at Lower Manhattan but there was no specific target mentioned. Federal officials indicated that there was a difference of opinion among investigators as to what the actual target was, the official said. The case has apparently been under investigation for about a year, and authorities believe there were multiple conspirators. "At this time we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system, or anywhere else in the US," Richard Kolko, Washington-based FBI special agent, said in a statement to Associated Press Radio. One US official called the plot "largely aspirational" and described the Internet conversations as mostly extremists discussing and conceptualizing the plot. The official said no money had been transferred, nor had other similar operational steps been taken. Details of the plot emerged on the one-year anniversary of the attacks on the London transportation system that killed 52 people. "This is one instance where intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was just in the talking phase," said Sen.
voting record), D-NY A US counterterrorism official said Friday that investigators had found no evidence that the Holland Tunnel was part of the plot. The New York Daily News had reported Friday that the plotters wanted to blow up the tunnel, the southernmost link between Manhattan and New Jersey, in the hopes of flooding New York's financial district. In its statement, Homeland Security and the FBI said, the investigation was ongoing. "We know al-Qaida continues to have an interest in attacking the United States," it added. "At this point in time, there is no specific or credible information that al-Qaida is planning an attack on US soil."
Traffic streams past the New York entrance of the Holland Tunnel Friday, July 7, 2006 in New York. Law enforcement officials say authorities have disrupted planning by foreign terrorists for an attack on New York City tunnels.
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