NY Tunnel Terror Plot Disrupted

Posted on July 7, 2006

Update: The plot was set for 9/11/06
Reports came out this morning that the FBI uncovered and stopped a terror plot bomb the Holland Tunnel in NY City and send a flood of water into Manhatten.

The FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan, the Daily News has learned.

The terrorists sought to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina, sources said. They also wanted to attack subways and other tunnels.

It is nice to know about the successes to stop these kinds of threats. It is comforting that we have programs set up that can lead to dismantling the evil plans and save countless lives.

Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the “lone wolf” terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The News.

Hmmm, I wonder how we knew about their finances? Oh, yeah through the program the NY Times revealed to the world. I find it quite disturbing that it is the successful programs the NY Times are crippling by their revealing such classified information. These terrorists were caught through methods like monitoring conversations in chat rooms, and tracking finances; the very kind of programs the NY Times describe in intimate detail.

AJ Strata notices the same thing.

The tactical support is going to come through communications. The plot could have easily been initially detected when this “lone wolf” made contact with the Jordanian terrorists who could have been under NSA surveillance. Since the FBI is involved, the next logical sequence of events would be the NSA providing the lead to the FBI who then took it to the FISA court to make the person the target of surveillance here in the US once they decided it was a serious enough of a threat. It seems clear the authorities had to move before they wanted to for some reason or another.

The News has learned that at the request of U.S. officials, authorities in Beirut arrested one of the alleged conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months. Agents were scrambling yesterday to try to nab other suspects, sources said.

They didn’t indicate how many people were the target of the international dragnet but said they were scattered all over the world.

“This is an ongoing operation,” one source said.

U.S. agents were allowed to take part in the interrogation of Andalousli, a source said.

Scrambling? It sounds like these guys had to move in before they were completely ready. It seems that a leak about the investigation to the media may have effected the plan.

Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., said that federal law enforcement and New York police have been monitoring a plot to attack New York’s mass transit system for at least eight months.

“There was nothing imminent, but it was being monitored for long period of time,” said King, who said he has received regular intelligence briefings on the alleged plot as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee.

King said he had been unable to publicly disclose the plot because to do so would risk the investigation.

“This is ongoing, that’s why I’ve said nothing about it until now,” King said. “It would have been better if this had not been disclosed.”

Regardless, it is good news we stopped this evil plot. Captain Ed says it well:

We have succeeded in keeping America safe by a comprehensive strategy against Islamofascist terrorism. In this case, we see how all of our efforts combine to present a tough national defense. We need to maintain that strategy and continue to thwart the efforts of our enemies, until they give up or are no more.

» Filed Under News, War On Terror

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Comments

4 Responses to “NY Tunnel Terror Plot Disrupted”

Glib Fortuna on July 7th, 2006 1:09 pm

From the Daily News article: “The FBI discovered the plot by monitoring Internet chat rooms”

Quick…someone call the ACLU! Civil liberties are at risk! We need the ACLU to secure or right to privacy! After all, I’m sure these were innocent men targeted by the anti-rule-of-law Bush administration. We should heed the advice of Nancy Pelosi and extend our constitutional protections to these unfairly monitored people.
kerwin_brown on July 8th, 2006 4:53 am

Does it make you at all suspicious that the Al-Qaeda member in Lebanon gave up the information so easilly.
The Thinking Man on July 8th, 2006 8:54 pm

Total hype.

http://www.rawstory.com/news/2006/No_Plot_for_NYC_Just_Hate_0707.html
ginaluvsga on July 16th, 2006 7:34 pm

Can I comment here?