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Here it is Liz:

N.Y. SUITCASE SCARES SPUR TERROR 'DRY RUN' FEAR

By AL GUART

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May 2, 2004 -- EXCLUSIVE

Police fear five empty suitcases left at Penn Station, New York FBI headquarters and other security hot spots in early April were a test by terrorists bent on a Madrid-type attack on commuter rails, The Post has learned.

A confidential Metropolitan Transit Authority police bulletin, titled "Possible Surveillance Testing Tactics," reveals K-9 cops are on edge over a "suspicious packages pattern" they encountered between the last week of March and the first week of April.

"During the past week and a half, the K-9 Unit has responded to approximately five calls for unattended/suspicious packages which they cleared," the confidential bulletin stated.

"However, uniquely, all cases involved empty suitcases.

"These cases appear to be unusual because in most cases of an unattended bag/package there is something in the container, whether personal belongings, clothes or other items."

At Penn Station, a beat-up suitcase was found in the main waiting room at 9:40 a.m. on April 1, sources said.

The bulletin, sent to New York State Police and Westchester County cops on April 5, asked them to report "any similar cases" to the MTA's counterterrorism task force.

"We were called to an unattended bag at Penn Station, the area was cordoned off and a bomb-sniffing dog was brought to scene," MTA spokesman Tom Kelly said. "No explosives were detected. This was an unusual event because the bag was empty."

Another empty suitcase turned up at 26 Federal Plaza, sources said. Officials have not ruled out the chance the bags were left by pranksters or derelicts.

MTA cops and state troopers ride commuter trains in and out of the city and are expected to step up security aboard commuter trains headed into Penn Station during the Republican National Convention this summer, NYPD commissioner Ray Kelly said last week.

An army of up to 3,000 police with bomb-sniffing dogs from various agencies will sweep the nearly 3,000 subway and commuter trains that enter Penn Station each day, Kelly said.

Rather than stop trains at checkpoints, cops will seek unaccounted-for baggage on rolling Metro-North and LIRR trains and on platforms, while heavily armed NYPD Hercules units will turn up at stations unannounced.

http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/23505.htm

N.Y. SUITCASE SCARES SPUR TERROR 'DRY RUN' FEAR
http://www.nypost.com/news/regionalnews/23505.htm

"During the past week and a half, the K-9 Unit has responded to approximately five calls for unattended/suspicious packages which they cleared," the confidential bulletin stated.

"However, uniquely, all cases involved empty suitcases.

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SIMILAR INCIDENTS IN LOS ANGELES -- The Media is not making the connection, I hope the FBI does.

Police Detonate Suitcases Near High School (Los Angeles)

POSTED: 5:02 pm PDT April 29, 2004
UPDATED: 7:31 pm PDT April 29, 2004

LOS ANGELES -- Thursday, a day when a terrorist threat against Westside shopping malls had people on edge, authorities took no chances when they were alerted to a couple of abandoned suitcases on a Glendora street and blew them up.

Actually, Glendora police spent more than three hours trying to find the owner of the bags, a dispatcher said.

They also called the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department, which dispatched a bomb squad.

When the owner could not be found, the bomb squad blew up the suitcases, then determined they had been empty.

Police found the suitcases at Palopinto and Rodeo roads, south of the Glendora High School, about 1:30 p.m., a police dispatcher said.

http://www.nbc4.tv/news/3252298/detail.html