Officials: NYC Terror Plot
Uncorroborated
ABC News/AP
By MICHAEL WEISSENSTEIN Associated Press Writer
The Associated Press
Oct 10, 2005
NEW YORK Oct 10, 2005 — A reported plot to bomb city subways with
remote-controlled explosives has not been corroborated after days of
investigation, law-enforcement officials said Sunday amid an easing sense of
concern.
Interrogations of suspects captured in Iraq last week after an informant's
tip about bomb-laden suitcases and baby carriages have yet to yield evidence
that the plot was real, officials said.
"The intelligence community has been able to determine that there are very
serious doubts about the credibility of this specific threat," Homeland
Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said. "This is after ongoing review
and analysis."
Homeland Security officials have been skeptical about the threat since it
was publicly announced Thursday, but officials who were more assertive about
the potential danger last week also appeared to be softening their
assessment.
"I believe in the short term we'll have a much better sense of whether or
not this has, you know, real substance to it," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly
said on CNN's Late Edition.
A Homeland Security memo said the attack might have been planned to take
place on or around Sunday.
The city has no immediate plans to pull extra officers out of the subway
system or reduce the number of bag searches, according to Kelly and Mayor
Michael Bloomberg. Police doubled the number of daily bag checks and sent
thousands of extra officers into the transit system, some in plainclothes and
many others in uniform.
Bloomberg said he had no regrets.
"We've got to take every threat seriously and that is what we are going to
do," he said.
The mayor said he planned to ride the subway to Yankee Stadium Sunday night
for Game 4 of the American League Divisional Series.
The informant who prompted the plot investigation has provided a mix of true
and false information in past investigations, Kelly said on CNN. Asked whether
the informant had passed a polygraph test, he replied, "That source was deemed
to be, yes, believing in the information that was put forward."
The commissioner said he remained confident that the city acted
properly.
"This threat was very, very specific. It had specific time, specific object
and modality. So, you know, we had to do what we did," Kelly said.
The informant, who had spent time in Afghanistan, told U.S. intelligence
that a group of men were plotting to attack New York subways with timed or
remotely detonated bombs in strollers and bags. U.S. forces in Iraq arrested
two plotters Thursday, prompting Bloomberg, Kelly and the FBI's New York office
to announce security was being increased in the subways. A third suspect was
arrested Friday.
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