Posted on 07/08/2006 1:46:55 PM PDT by SleekMaid
Federal law enforcement officials tell ABC News a plot designed to use 15 to 20 suicide bombers on one commuter train as close to Sept. 11 as possible was well underway.
The specific target was the PATH commuter trains that run in a tunnel under the Hudson River into New York City.
"This is a plot that would have involved martyrdom, explosives and certain of the tubes that connect New Jersey with lower Manhattan," said Mark Mershon, Assistant Director-in-Charge of the FBI New York Field Office. "We're not discussing the modality behind, beyond that."
But law enforcement officials say the plotters had already accessed detailed blueprints and drawings of the PATH tunnels, available on the internet.
And like the London bombers, the plan was to load backpacks with explosives.
All 15 to 20 bombers were to board one car and detonate when the train was under the river, according to officials.
"There's no question that they are vulnerable. With the right amount of explosives, the tunnel could be compromised," said Gerry Hauer, former Director of New York City's Office of Emergency Management and now an ABC News consultant.
The FBI identified the ringleader as 32-year-old Assem Hammoud of Lebanon.
Lebanese officials arrested him in April at the request of the FBI, and he reportedly has now admitted he was about to go to Pakistan for training at an al Qaeda camp. "We know that he has acknowledged pledging a bayat or allegiance to Osama bin Laden, and he proclaims himself to be a member of al Qaeda," said Mershon.
Security was stepped up today at the PATH tunnels.
Officials said today two other alleged plotters had also been arrested, but at least five of them remain at large.
"This shows we are able to disrupt terror plots such as this," said New York City Police Commissioner Ray Kelly. "Secondly, it shows that New York remains in the terrorists' cross hairs."
Officials say the plot was uncovered more than a year ago by U.S. and Canadian intelligence agents watching a jihadist internet chat room.
Officials say the suspects communicated freely, thinking that no one could track them.
Similar chat rooms were used by the alleged terrorists arrested recently in Toronto and Miami.
"The chat rooms have literally exploded since 9/ll because we are now right in the midst of electronic jihad," said Jack Cloonan, former senior agent on the FBI's bin Laden squad in New York and now an ABC News consultant.
Officials say none of the plotters was in the United States but that several of them were nearby in Canada. Others had planned to travel to New York from Saudi Arabia.
Officials say even after their leader was arrested in April, the plotters continued to make plans, and officials say they can't be sure the plan is fully stopped, even now.
Hopefully Al Queda shall die the same death as the KKK, the American Nazis, and the Black Panthers, wherein their "secret" meetings have more FBI agents and informers than actual freaks. Glad to see the authorities were on this one for a year or more. One would hope that was plenty of time to follow a trail or two back to the Afghan/Pak border...
It's also interesting how all this stuff specifically comes up right after a public disagreement about funding cuts for HLS in New York. Irony or politics?
>>>It's beginning to look as if the only way to deal with this is going to be mass deportations and the rounding up of all Muslims as we did to the Japanese in WWII.<<<
Right! We should have started this operation on September 12, 2001.
Why give them another opportunity to kill Americans here at home and then brag about it?
I know dozens who were there on both days but only two who didn't make it out the second time. A lot of folks saw atrocities that they will never forget, like your team-mate.
"...and he reportedly has now admitted he was about to go to Pakistan for training at an al Qaeda camp."
uh huh
Paging Pervez Musharraf!!
Paging Pervez Musharraf!!
White Courtesy telephone, please!!
The liberal half-wits may have a point. Does it make me a bad man to arrange for muzzies to meet God before they want to? I mean that if I choose to let them arrange a meeting without hurting and killing innocents, it should not be a problem.
" This has given me chills. ....This news is very troubling."
Me too.
However, last night on MSNBC ( the New York Times of cable ) they were guffawing about this story on the UberOlberMoonbat show .
Olbermoonbat and the MSNBC expert on terrorism-some woman named Yahyah or YeeHah ridiculed the story and accused the FBI of lying about the facts.
It was all a big joke to them, nothing more than a phony PR ploy by the Bush WH.
I am not guilty, ask a LIB.
I dont have an argument with you. Your argument is with the liberal minded.
you need to work on your reading skills. Nowhere did I say we should COWER in fear.
you didn't suggest profiling, did you? (sarcasm)
Do not attempt to deride the statement. The statement is that another attack is NOT inevitable. Unless we all puss out and go t!ts up, believing that we are helpless. We are not.
This affirms my decision to live in the sticks.
I suggest you start breaking the prozacs in half.
Do not attempt to deride the statement. The statement is that another attack is NOT inevitable. Unless we all puss out and go t!ts up, believing that we are helpless. We are not.
Take your head out of the sand. Everyone from Rumsfeld to the FREAKING President of the United States has said that its only a matter of time before they attack us. Again, I suggest you brush up on your reading comprehension
thanks for the link. Truly chilling.
My mom's Godson is still in therapy and he escaped running over bodies. His mother also escaped and still cries to my mom on the phone her story is "it was the end of the world as they sat in boats in the harbor and F16's flew over" This has not passed for NYers.
Perhaps we can get a bunch of darkish looking fellows with mustaches to go in carrying backpacks.
I don't think these sort of police officers would do nothing. They are quite formidable-looking.
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Lifetime lifesaver RICK RESCORLA's terrorism far sightedness has been sorely missed and our appreciation of him continues to grow over time.
See 4th Picture down:
http://www.Freerepublic.com/~JLO
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PING
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