plot to blow up NY-NJ tunnel foiled

[1549]

FBI: Three held in New York tunnel plot
Suspected ringleader posed as playboy, professor in Beirut

Friday, July 7, 2006; Posted: 6:25 p.m. EDT (22:25 GMT)

Manage Alerts | What Is This? NEW YORK (CNN) -- U.S. and international authorities disrupted a plot by eight terrorists to blow up a commuter train tunnel connecting New Jersey and Manhattan, the FBI announced Friday.

Three of the eight men are in some form of custody, and the rest have been at least partially identified, FBI Assistant Director Mark Mershon told reporters. The identity of one suspect, a 31-year-old Lebanese man, has been released.

Mershon said the plan was "what we believe was the real deal," a scheme involving al Qaeda members on three continents.

Mershon was reticent about specific details of the plot, but he said none of the suspects has been to the United States. The investigation remains classified, he said.
"They were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks," Mershon said. "At that point I think it's entirely appropriate to take it down."

Assem Hammoud is the only suspect who has been formally charged; he is in custody in Lebanon. Hammoud, who claims to be an al Qaeda member, has admitted to being the group's ringleader and has professed his loyalty to the terror network's leader, Osama bin Laden, Mershon said.

Hammoud, who also goes by the name Amir Andalousli, is a professor of computer studies at a private university in the Lebanese capital of Beirut, and he has been parading as a playboy with a party lifestyle as a cover for his extremism, Lebanese General Security spokesman Elie Baradei said.

"He was requested not to show any religious inclinations during his time in Lebanon and to give the impression of being of a playboy," Baradei said. "He has done that perfectly."

The FBI began investigating Hammoud and his alleged cohort about a year ago, when talk of a tunnel attack popped up in Internet chat rooms and in e-mail discussions, Baradei said. The FBI helped track the chatter to Hammoud, who admitted to sending detailed maps of the targeted Port Authority Trans-Hudson, or PATH, tunnel and plans for the attack to his co-conspirators, he said.

A Syrian national recruited Hammoud into the realm of terrorism in 2003, and Hammoud received weapons training at the Ain Helweh Refugee Camp, which was then located in Syria-controlled Lebanon, Baradei said.

Hammoud was arrested April 27 in his Beirut apartment in a sting coordinated with the FBI before a planned trip to Pakistan, where he was to undergo more training, according to a statement from the Lebanese Interior Security Service.

"He was living a life of fun and indulgence away from all suspicions," the statement said.

Hammoud, who faces no charges in the United States and thus cannot be extradited, will be tried in Lebanon on terrorism charges, said Achraf Rifi, general director of Lebanon's internal security forces.

"The real story here is the symphony of cooperation and coordination not just in the New York-New Jersey metropolitan area, but frankly, around the world with a number of intelligence and investigative services," Mershon said. "It's beyond textbook; it's, in fact, been storybook."

Although the plot was in its preliminary stages, Mershon said the attack was slated to take place in October or November. Investigators moved in because they believed the suspects were about to begin assessing the target and obtaining explosives and other materials for the attack, he said.

Mershon would not name the specific tunnel but said it was one of the PATH tubes running under the Hudson River.

According to the port authority's Web site, "PATH presently carries 215,115 passengers each weekday." More than 60 million passengers used the system in 2005, the Web site states. There are five tunnels running beneath the Hudson.

The New York Daily News broke the story Friday morning, and Mershon expressed disappointment at what he called the "unprofessional behavior" of whomever leaked it to the paper.

The leaker was "clearly someone who doesn't understand the fragility of international relations," he said, adding that there have been a "number of uncomfortable questions" from the foreign intelligence services that participated in the investigation.

The FBI has been "working to shore up those relationships," Mershon said.

Friday marked the first anniversary of the London Underground bombings, in which four suicide bombers killed 52 people on the London subway and on a bus.

CNN's Kelli Arena contributed to this report.

I take the PATH when I go into the city...I am certainly glad this plot was foiled. Nice job by the FBI.

 

[Annie]

But will their work have been enough? Links at site:

http://strata-sphere.com/blog/index.php/archives/2093

Another Terror Plot Foiled: How Many More?

Welcome Powerline readers. Updates at end - keep checking back

Reports are out this morning that the FBI has foiled a terrorist plot to bomb the Holland Tunnel in NY City and send a deluge of water into parts of Manhatten.

The FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned.

The terrorists sought to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina, sources said. They also wanted to attack subways and other tunnels.
​

Most disturbing is this terrorist action here in the US has all the characteristics of having been stopped using the very same programs the NY Times has crippled in its mindless attacks on the Bush administration. Monitoring communications includes monitoring the overseas access to internet chat rooms. One can see the now exposed monitoring of the terrorists’ finances and NSA monitoring of overseas terrorists in the information being provided - meaning they may have had to act now because the terrorists were adjusting their tactics:

Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the “lone wolf” terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The News.​

Emphasis mine. The tactical support is going to come through communications. The plot could have easily been initially detected when this “lone wolf” made contact with the Jordanian terrorists who could have been under NSA surveillance. Since the FBI is involved, the next logical sequence of events would be the NSA providing the lead to the FBI who then took it to the FISA court to make the person the target of surveillance here in the US once they decided it was a serious enough of a threat. It seems clear the authorities had to move before they wanted to for some reason or another:

The News has learned that at the request of U.S. officials, authorities in Beirut arrested one of the alleged conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months. Agents were scrambling yesterday to try to nab other suspects, sources said.

They didn’t indicate how many people were the target of the international dragnet but said they were scattered all over the world.

“This is an ongoing operation,” one source said.

U.S. agents were allowed to take part in the interrogation of Andalousli, a source said.
​

There were three ongoing investigations that were impacted by the NY Times’ despicable exposure of the SWIFT program which was used to track terrorists cells around the world (not here in the US). It is highly possible the terrorists were adapting and disappearing from the radar screens of the international law enforcement agencies, so action now was required. The word ’scrambling’ is not something we want to see when dealing with terrorist threats.

Is the NY Times a danger to Americans in its lust for money and partisan payback on Bush? I’ll let the good people of America decide whether they think so based on the plans of these terrorists:

The plotters wanted to detonate a massive amount of explosives inside the Holland Tunnel to blast a hole that would destroy the tunnel, everyone in it, and send a devastating flood shooting through the streets of lower Manhattan.

It is assumed by officials the thugs would try to use vehicles packed with explosives.

Sources said that New York City officials believed the plan could conceivably work with enough explosives placed in the middle of the tunnel, which runs underneath the river bed, a source said.

But others doubted the plot was feasible.

“You are talking major, major explosives and knowledge of blast effect to make this happen,” said another senior counterterrorism source.
​

The efforts to try and play this down by anyone, but especially by the left, is abhorent. Picture you and your family driving through a tunnel or under a bridge when terrorists try this kind of action. Even localized death and destruction is unacceptable losses. If NY City needed a reminder of the stakes the NY Times is playing with (their Pulitzers vs NYC lives) there is no better example. Just imaging if this had slipped by because we had been blinded to the terrorist’s actions.

Update: Well, now we know why NY Rep Peter King was so angry at the NY Times when the published the SWIFT story. And we have more proof that authorities may have had to move quicker than they wanted to (losing leads to other terrorist support chains) due to the NY Times:

Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), R-N.Y., said that federal law enforcement and New York police have been monitoring a plot to attack New York’s mass transit system for at least eight months.

“There was nothing imminent, but it was being monitored for long period time,” said King, who said he has received regular intelligence briefings on the alleged plot as chairman of the House
Homeland Security Committee.

King said he had been unable to publicly disclose the plot because to do so would risk the investigation.

“This is ongoing, that’s why I’ve said nothing about it until now,” King said. “It would have been better if this had not been disclosed.”
​

We can all thank the egomaniacs at the NY Times for this mess.

Update: CNN is reporting this group of international terrorists had been under investigation for a year or more, meaning this definitely predates the NY Times SWIFT and NSA stories.

CNN security analyst Pat D’Amuro characterized the plot as “a real threat” that “was in the early stages.”

A former high-ranking FBI official, D’Amuro said an FBI-Lebanese investigation “that goes back over a year” first revealed the plan.

The news comes on the first anniversary of the London bombings in which four suicide bombers targeted the city’s transportation system and killed 52 people.​

That means the NY Times stories exposing our anti-terrorism defences did threaten this ongoing investigation. We have the NSA monitoring the overseas communications (and probably the overseas chat room), and then we have the FBI following the leads to the jihadists here. And there was financial tracking from elements in Jordan. How is the NY Times going to dismiss the fact this investigation was definitely at risk of being lost through their carelessness and cavalier attitudes?

And the next time a liberal or Democrat tries to hammer the NSA Terrorist Surveillance Program, just bring back these words from Chuck Schumer:

U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer said no evidence existed that “in any way anything was done, either purchase of explosives or sending of money” and it “was caught” when investigators discovered “​

We will all remember these words Chuck.

Addendum: I would like to point something out regarding the probable NSA role in all this. If the nexus was an internet chat room, the tracing of the “chat” back to countries overseas would probably be done by the NSA. I won’t go any farther, but you have to connect some dots form the chat room back.

Posted by AJStrata on Friday, July 7th, 2006 at 8:33 am.