Posted on 07/07/2006 4:08:09 AM PDT by SauronOfMordor
WASHINGTON, July 7 (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.
Bump
Has the suspect been read his rights and supplied with an lawyer who is a graduate of one of the top law schools?
The 79-year-old tunnel runs under the Hudson River between New Jersey and Manhattan and carried almost 34 million vehicles in 2005.
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.
Seven men were charged in the United States last month with conspiring to blow up the landmark Sears Tower in Chicago and FBI buildings in Miami and four other cities as part of a pledge to al Qaeda to wage war against America. U.S. officials said the plot never went beyond the earliest stages.
Methodists again?
Dumb for two reasons:
While the tunnel would fill up, there is no reason the water would rise above sea level and threaten Manhattan.
The terrorists would need the Holland Tunnel to get back to their apartments in Jersey City.
"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."
Memo to N.Y. Slimes: We need a leak right now disclosing how U.S. authorities knew financial support was offered. Also, why didn't you leak info on the arrest before the authorities wanted it disclosed?
The plot of John Updike's latest book, The Terrorist, involves a young American-born Muslim convert who gets involved in a plot to blow up the Lincoln Tunnel.
I think the bridges and tunnels have long been an objective of the terrorists.
Maybe New Yorkers want to retract their complaints about the administration's formerly secretive programs aimed at catching jihadists.
Now might be a good time for NYC residents to call in their mass cancellation of the Times.
Damn those Amish.
I'm starting to doubt that the Amish practice a 'Religion of Peace'.
They caught the guy because of a secret CIA program that monitors readers of the New York Times.
I guess Keller and Pinch are now kicking themselves for not leaking SWIFT monitoring information earlier.
In early 2002 four arabs in a Nissan ran a light on Queens Blvd. in Forest Hills, Queens. They ran when an NYPD Radio Car tried to pull them over. They didn't get far before being boxed in. NYPD found explosives, guns, multiple passports and detailed engineering for the four major East River bridges as well as the Mid-town tunnel. They were taken to the Pct and within an hour the FBI took them. Never arrested, never tried, never in the paper but I guarantee it happened.
" Never arrested, never tried, never in the paper but I guarantee it happened."
Maybe they are enjoying a long tax payer funded long vacation in Cuba?
Or are you saying they were released?
I do not know their fate but I do know that freedom is not one of the possibilities. They will never breathe free air again, if they are still breathing at all.
Gotta watch out for those buggy bombs!
They were going to sink Manhattan? LOL
The flooding of Manhattan must be one of those random, inconveniences of terrorism that Jean Francois Kerry mentioned during the 2004. presidential debates.
Another plot by Carl Rove.
Hey, no one ever accused the jihadis of being brain trusts.
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