Posted on 07/07/2006 8:50:17 PM PDT by mdittmar
A Canadian man accused of plotting a terrorist attack on New York is being held in custody overseas, an FBI source knowledgeable about the investigation said Friday.
This suspect is one of eight people — three of them in custody — who, investigators say, were planning to bomb heavily used commuter tunnels leading to Manhattan with the aim of flooding the financial district at the south end of the island.
A version of the alleged plot was revealed Friday morning in a New York daily newspaper, prompting the Federal Bureau of Investigation and the Department of Homeland Security to hold a joint press conference. Information, at times contradictory, continued to emerge throughout the day.
None of the suspects who are still at large are believed to be in the United States, but U.S. officials told ABC News that some may be in Canada.
Sources told CTV that a Montreal man, who police suspected of being involved in the plan, was detained by Lebanese police on April 6 and interrogated by the FBI. It was not clear Friday if that was the same Canadian suspect who is currently being held in an undisclosed foreign country.
FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by Islamic extremists uncovered the alleged plot. Similarly, 17 terror suspects were arrested in and around Toronto last month after police monitoring of extremist material on-line. The two alleged plots do not appear to be linked.
Individuals at mosques that some of the 17 Toronto-area suspects frequented said authorities had not approached them regarding the Canadian believed to be part of the New York plot.
New York's transportation system has emerged as a potential terrorist threat several times over the years. A recent book by journalist Ron Suskind reported that al-Qaeda terrorists planned 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 bustling subway station.
In 1993, the FBI rounded up more than a dozen men who allegedly conspired to blow up five New York City landmarks, including the Lincoln and Holland tunnels. The prosecution resulted in more than a dozen convictions.
There was no sign that the most recent allegations had moved past the planning stage. But investigators who have been working on this case since last autumn said Friday they were concerned that an attack could have come as soon as this October.
“Plotting for this attack had matured to a point where it appeared that the individuals were about to move forward,” FBI assistant director Mark Mershon told the news conference.
“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. At that point, it's entirely appropriate to take it down.”
Officials in Beirut told The Associated Press that the scheme was masterminded by a Lebanese man who was arrested in the spring and confessed his role in the plot. The man, identified as Assem Hammoud, reportedly said that he was acting on Osama bin Laden's orders.
“This is a plot that would have involved martyrdom, explosives and certain of the tubes that connect New Jersey with Lower Manhattan,” Mr. Mershon said. “We believe we intercepted this group early in the plotting and that in fact the plan has largely been disrupted.”
U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Michael Chertoff said there was “never a concern” that the plot would have been pulled off.
The RCMP refused to comment on the alleged plot and directed reporters to the FBI, which was reluctant to release any information about the Canadian suspect.
Federal Public Safety Minister Stockwell Day would also not comment on the specifics of the case Friday but did make statements similar to those that Prime Minister Stephen Harper made after the arrest of 17 terror suspects in Toronto.
“One thing that we know is that people who plan these despicable deeds they know no boundaries,” he said.
“These are terrorists without borders and they also do not respond to the borders of human dignity or the sanctity of human life and they can come from any part of the globe.”
The alleged plot was broken up by police work in the United States and six other countries, which officials were not prepared to name.
Mr. Mershon criticized the person who initially leaked information about the plot to the media. “We had a number of uncomfortable questions and some upsetting calls with the foreign intelligence services that have been working with us on a daily basis,” he said.
These must be Methodists that "they" caught....I don't see where the article names the Religion behind the plot...I am assuming...forgive me.
Looks like we have to hang some ragheads and FBI people also.
Before getting the noose and a flimsy chair out, let's confirm that this was not a Canadian man, but rather a "Canadian" man, i.e. some start@ss that came to Canada on a falsified passport, gaining a refugee status based on a fraudulent story of oppression and persecution. There are 100's of them.
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