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.
""Carl W. Tobias, a law professor at University of Richmond in Virginia who tracks terrorism cases, said the modest evidence disclosed so far in some recent cases related to the ability of the suspects to deliver on their threats had caused him to wonder if politics might be a factor.
" 'There is some kind of public relations gained by making Americans on the one hand feel concerned that the Sears Tower in Chicago or some tunnel in Manhattan is targeted, yet on the other hand feel comforted that the government is on top of it,' he said."
That's what passes for thinking from the "cut and run" crowd. Thank you for the quote, it pretty well sums up the stupidity and arrogance of the RATs. It's this kind of thinking that will sink them in November.
If they want to go see allah. I'd be happy to send them on their way. Been there. Done that. Sleep like a baby.
Give the plotters their own subway car out in the boon docks. And say g'bye.
Brian Ross, all by himself, is troubling.
Stree levels are above the river, but there's a lot of underground spaces, including train stations, as this cutaway of the future station at WTC stop (Church Street Station looking west).
...and the Atrium:
http://www.hudsoncity.net/tubes/gatewaytubepage.html ....under construiction now.
More on the Hudson Tubes page.
yes. yes.. but were their rights protected? were they illegally wiretapped by evil Bush? /sarc
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1657461/posts
Please join us! I'll be taking the PATH, too, from Journal Square in Jersey City.
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In the mid-1980's World Trade Center Tower II tenant Morgan-Stanley's new VP for Security told the New York Port Authority that terrorists would be bombing the buildings' basements. This to have one Tower fall on the other and/or have a basemet wall cave in to let the Hudson River in to flood Lower Manhattan.
He later became known as the Man who predicted 9/11: RICK RESCORLA, R.I.P.
http://www.RickRescorla.com
http://www.ArmchairGeneral.com/forums/showthread.php?t=24361
Looks like we're all finally listening...?
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you mean none of this would be headliners for MSM.. everything would be dealt with in the interest of the american people... "what they don't know won't hurt them" would probably be Keller's statement...
20 guys with backpack bombs in one train car wouldnt have caused the River to come pouring in, it would have been a waste of 20 bombs in one car.
No, but it would have killed a lot of people and made it impossible to use the tunnels for some time. Plus the psychological blow to New Yorkers would have been enormous. I lived there and moved away just before 9/11, but I have friends who lived through it, are still there - and worry every time they go down into the subway. Imagine how New Yorkers would feel if these guys had pulled off their massacre.
"I take the Path train all the time from Hoboken into the city. This has given me chills. :-( I worked and left my job at the top of WTC2 before 9/11. I felt lucky then. This news is very troubling."
Next time I see 15 or 20 Middle Easterns boarding a PATH car (and the cars aren't that big) with backpacks, I'll take the next train.
This plot sounds a bit half-baked, to me.
The good guys stop the terrorist again. Thank You...all who were part of stopping this!!!
Mahmoud: "Akmed, would you like to be martyrs and kill the American infidels while they ride the train to work?"
Akmed: "Yes, praise Allah!"
Agreed. Bush was able to sell his Religion of Peace line in the aftermath of 911--and frankly, he was damn lucky that America is a forgiving nation. BUT if we get hit one more time, there will be no holding the people back...the payback will be biblical and swift. If the govt is unable or unwilling to protect us from the Momhommedans, its up to us to protect our families, "BY ANY MEANS NECESSARY."
if we get hit one more time, there will be no holding the people back..
right you are , be ready....
President Gore would decry the necessary military means to combat terrorism, and would form a a committee of ivy league pipe smokers to find out why they hate us so much. It wouldnt do anything, but he would feel good about himself. It is my firm belief that the Taliban would still be in power had Gore won..
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