Official: Threat cites this weekend
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Two of the dates mentioned in intelligence about possible subway attacks in New York were Friday and Sunday, an official with knowledge of the investigation told CNN.
The official said the source of the threat information had trained at a terrorist camp in Afghanistan and has been an accurate purveyor of information to U.S. intelligence in the past.
The source passed a polygraph test having to do with knowledge of the possible attacks in New York, the official said.
The source had been questioned in Iraq and also provided information that led to the arrests of three al Qaeda suspects in Musayyib, about 45 miles south of Baghdad, the official told CNN.
Some of those detained were of Middle Eastern descent, the official said.
That highly classified military operation took place Wednesday, a well-placed U.S. military official has told CNN. (Full story)
Friday, October 7, is three months to the day that four bombers carried out attacks on three London subways and a double-decker bus, killing 52 people and wounding 700. The July 7 morning rush-hour attacks were the city's bloodiest since World War II.
New York has been on orange alert, or the second-highest level -- indicating a high risk of terror attack -- since the color-coded warning system was established after the September 11, 2001 attacks.
The announcement of a possible attack on New York's subway system prompted San Francisco's Bay Area Rapid Transit to raise its alert, from orange to "enhanced orange," Friday. The measure was not taken because of any specific terror threat to San Francisco, said BART spokesman Lynton Johnson.
About 300,000 people ride the BART system each weekday.
False alarms heighten tension
Jitters were evident among New York commuters Friday, a day after officials warned about a possible attack on the city's subway system.
Authorities in New York temporarily suspended service on the No. 1 and No. 3 subway lines between 34th and 96th streets during Friday afternoon rush hour after an unattended bag was found on the tracks, said Dierdre Parker, a spokeswoman at New York's Metropolitan Transit Authority.
The bag, found at the 50th Street Station on Manhattan's West Side, contained schoolbooks, police said.
During the morning rush hour, Penn Station at 34th Street was the target of what "appears to be a prank," said New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly.
Police closed the station's main entrance and about half of Amtrak's main platform after a suspicious substance was found in a soda bottle near Amtrak's ticket counter, authorities said.
While the station was not evacuated, police requested the closures during their investigation, said Amtrak Assistant Superintendent Mike Gallagher.
Police later found the liquid to be a substance resembling the common household drain cleaner Drano, Kelly said.
"There was no danger at any time to anyone, " Gallagher said.
An Amtrak spokeswoman said that all trains now are operating normally.
Meanwhile, the Washington Monument was evacuated for two hours Friday afternoon after authorities received a bomb threat, Park Police spokesman Scott Fear said. The park reopened after authorities found the threat wasn't credible, he said.
A bomb threat also interrupted a Rolling Stones concert in Charlottesville, Virginia, on Thursday night. The show resumed without incident.
Security-heavy rush hour
Bloomberg said on Friday that he stood by his decision to announce the threat publicly and increase security, despite questions by some federal officials about its credibility.
"It is very different being an analyst in Washington looking at data as opposed to being here in New York, where you have to take responsibility to protect people's lives," Bloomberg said. "We believe that there is some credibility to this, and if I'm going to make a mistake you can rest assured it is going to be on the side of being cautious."
An average of 4.5 million people use the New York subways every weekday. Some riders at Pennsylvania Station said they were a little nervous but still had to get to work. (Watch New Yorkers react to security threat -- 2:12)
"I don't feel 100 percent safe, to be honest," one woman said.
Bloomberg had encouraged people to ride the subway and rode it himself on Thursday and Friday morning.
"Everybody is going to still take the train whether there's a bomb threat or not," one man told CNN. "I mean, what am I going to do? I just hope it's not my train."
"You think twice, should I take the car or should I take the train?" another man said. "But either you take the car and you go broke or you take the train and you just pray.
http://www.cnn.com/2005/US/10/07/newyork.subways/index.html