Terrorists Plot Foiled NY Times Deeply Saddened

Plotters sought to bomb NY tunnel:

Jul 7, 2006 — WASHINGTON (Reuters) – A plot to bomb New York’s Holland Tunnel in an effort to flood the Wall Street financial district has been uncovered by the FBI, with a suspect arrested in Lebanon, New York’s Daily News reported on Friday.
The newspaper, quoting unidentified counterterrorism sources, said the investigation involved what officials considered a “serious plot” to detonate enough explosives inside the landmark tunnel to destroy it and send devastating floodwaters through lower Manhattan.
The 79-year-old tunnel runs under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan and carried almost 34 million vehicles in 2005.

This is a photo released by Lebanese police of Lebanese suspect Assem Hammoud, seen in this picture taken in Beirut, Lebanon, a day after his arrest, April 28, 2006. The detained al-Qaida operative has confessed to plotting to attack New York City tunnels later this year and says he was acting on Osama bin Laden’s orders, Lebanese officials say. The operative is a Lebanese man from Beirut whom police arrested on April 27 acting on information from the FBI, a senior security official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing. The suspect uses the alias Amir Andalousli, but his real name is Assem Hammoud. (AP Photo / Lebanese Police , HO)

And there is this ….paper trail:
Plotters sought to bomb NY tunnel: paper
The Daily News quoted a counterterrorism source as saying officials were alarmed because the plotters allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq before he was killed last month in a U.S. air strike.”
The Daily News said authorities in Beirut, at the request of U.S. officials, arrested one of the suspected conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months and that agents were seeking other suspects around the world.
The newspaper said the FBI and New York police officials declined comment on the investigation, which it quoted a source as describing as “ongoing.”
The Daily News quoted a counterterrorism source as saying officials were alarmed because the plotters allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq before he was killed last month in a U.S. air strike. The paper said it was not clear if any cash or assistance was delivered.
Lebanon’s government had been asked by the United States to hold off on announcing the arrest while operations to disrupt the plot were continuing, the Daily News quoted sources as saying.
It said New York officials, according to sources, believed the plan could conceivably work with enough explosives placed in the middle of the tunnel.
But it added that some experts did not consider the plan feasible because the tunnel was protected by concrete and cast-iron steel and that even if the tunnel cracked, the Wall Street district would not flood because it was above the level of the river.
FBI disrupts New York transportation plot
By PAT MILTON
Associated Press Writer
33 minutes ago

For most of the year, we have been focusing on a group of al-Qaida followers who have targeted the Hudson River tubes,” FBI Assistant Director Mark J. Mershon said Friday. “We believe we intercepted this group early in their plotting and, in fact, the plan has largely been disrupted.”

Mershon confirmed that one suspect, Assem Hammoud, was in custody in Lebanon and facing criminal charges.
Lebanese authorities, working with U.S. law enforcement agencies, last month arrested Hammoud, a Beirut native and al-Qaida operative who admitted to plotting a terror attack in New York City, a senior Lebanese security official said Friday. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.
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 U.S.,” Richard Kolko, Washington-based FBI special agent, said in a statement to Associated Press Radio.

One U.S. 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.

Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff, speaking Friday at U.S. Coast Guard Change of Command Ceremonies, said authorities focused 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.

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. Charles Schumer (news, bio, voting record), D-N.Y.

A U.S. 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 U.S. soil.”