N.Y. tunnel terror plot uncovered — maybe

July 7, 2006

It’s a shame when current events make one cynical, and it’s tempting to see stories like this one as nothing but a big win for the United States, but there’s that gnawing skepticism that comes from a series of similar announcements that weren’t what they appeared to be.

U.S. and Lebanese agents have foiled terrorist plans to attack New York’s transportation system, U.S. authorities said Friday.

Counterrorism sources confirmed that a plot to blow up tunnels in lower Manhattan was uncovered several months ago when intelligence about the plan emerged in chat rooms on the Internet.

A Lebanese official told CNN that a man suspected of planning to blow up the Holland Tunnel and a New York bridge is in detention in Beirut. But there is “no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system or anywhere else in the U.S.,” FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said in a statement.

The CNN report follows an article in the New York Daily News, which reported that the FBI had revealed a plot to bomb New York’s Holland Tunnel and flood the financial district in lower Manhattan.

How far along was the “plot”? It’s hard to say; Sen. Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) said no evidence existed that “in any way anything was done, either purchase of explosives or sending of money” and it “was caught” when investigators discovered “terrorists talking to one another.”

If this was a successful intervention against would-be terrorists who had crafted a serious terrorist plot, intelligence officials and law enforcement deserve major kudos.

But then there’s Abu Zubaydah, the Brooklyn Bridge “plot,” Jose Padilla, Hemant Lakhani, and the “Miami 7,” all of which were touted as key victories, and none of which were as serious a threat as administration officials claimed.

Is today’s announcement more legitimate than these recent examples? We’ll see, but given the administration’s track record, caveat emptor.

Given that Congressman Peter King was on the news today claiming to have known about the discovery of this plot for eight months, it’s only reasonable to question why this is coming out now? Somebody need another bounce in the polls, maybe?

  • this is the 1% solution: grab every guy with a tin foil hat and declare him a national security threat.

    my favorite part of all this stupidty is the fact that even downtown new york city is still 10′ above sea level whereas the holland tunnel goes beneath the bed of the hudson river. flooding the later would do nothing to the former except inconvenience commuters. when a terrorist don’t understand a simple law of nature such as gravity, i hardly think he’s a threat.

    i guess the next move by the fbi will be to arrest the makers of stallone’s movie “daylight,” in which a truck full of flammable material explodes in the holland tunnel, collapsing the ends, but not flooding it, for inspiring possible terrorist acts

  • This part makes me suspicious of propagandizing:

    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.

    How convenient that it ties in to Zarqawi.

    Peter, obviously it’s coming out now because the treasonous media are continuing to undermine the war on terror by alerting the terrorists to investigations at every opportunity. At least that would presumably be King’s answer.

  • Bombing tunnels to Manhattan would no doubt wreak havoc, and would obviously be a terrible thing. But flood the financial district? Either the people behind the ‘plot’ were oblivious to physics, or there was an deliberate effort to ratchet up the fear factor.

    The only flooding such an incident would cause would be isolated to the tunnel mouths and would quickly recede. Water just won’t run uphill.

    If the people were that oblivious to rudimentary science, I see nothing to fear from them attempting to build a bomb, aside from them blowing themselves to bits.

    At the same time, the need to so ridiculously exaggerate the threat, makes me dismiss it as propaganda.

  • Perhaps they were attempting to accomplish something like this:

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicago_Flood

    “The water flooded into the basements of several Loop office buildings and retail stores and an underground shopping district. The city quickly evacuated the Loop and financial district in fear that electrical wires could short out. Electrical power and natural gas went down or were shut off as a precaution in much of the area. Trading at both the Chicago Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile Exchange ended in mid-morning as water seeped into their basements. At its height, some buildings had 40 feet (12 m) of water in their lower levels. When fish were found in the water, it became more clear what the problem was. Where the subways built in the 1940s had passed through areas with the freight tunnels, the freight tunnels were sealed off with concrete. At least one of these walls contained a one foot-by-two foot crack, and water began to fill the subways as well.”

    “It took three days before the flood was cleaned up enough to allow business to begin to resume and cost the city an estimated $1.95 billion. Some buildings remained closed for a few weeks. Parking was banned downtown during the cleanup and some subway routes were temporarily closed or rerouted.”

  • First

    Tapping phones exposed.
    Financial record monitoring exposed.

    Followed by

    Discovery of “islamo – terrorists” in Toronto
    Discovery of “al-qaeda cell” in Miami
    Nukeeluar power N. Korea launching like crazy
    Discovery of “plot” to flood NYC tunnels

    Hmmmmmmm

  • Shouldn’t the MSM and politicians be referring to “alleged terrorists” when nobody has actually been convicted of anything yet? My apologies if this is a little off-topic.

    It just occured to me that we all used to be pretty careful about the presumption of innocence thing but now all somebody has to do is point a finger at somebody and it’s “Burn the witch!” time.

    Call me old-fashioned, but I still believe in the traditional values of the United States of America and presumption of innocence until proven guilty is a real good one to my way of thinking. I don’t think it will weaken our security if we can still catch the bad guys and delay the execution until after the trial. Just to make sure they deserve it, you know.

  • Isn’t this a good reason to restore the anti-terror funding to NYC that the Republican s cut?

  • Shouldn’t we be on Orange Alert or was that just for 2004.

    I suspect a Purple Alert is coming pretty soon as the administration launches in bi-annual initative to protect us from the gays.

    Apparently marriage only needs to be protected in even numbered years.

  • For a good laugh, see Jon Stewart’s take on the “Miami 7” press conference by Alberto Gonzales. C& L has it here.

  • I can’t remember the novel or the novelist, but I recall a science fiction story where the American government turned itself into a totalitarian dictatorship by creating a crew of “officially non-official” terrorists, who committed acts by plan, which allowed the government over the course of a few years to create the totalitarian dictatorship.

    Well, I guess it isn’t science fiction anymore, folks.

    If Phillip K. Dick didn’t write it, he should have.

  • Oh, I didn’t notice until now that that Hemant Lakhani link was to my post from last year. Thanks for the link. I just now updated it to add a link to the archived This American Life show, which I forgot to go back and do a year ago.

  • OH! Wait a minute. They’re actually catching terrists! Well, in that case, I don’t need these anymore.

    Hands Bush all his civil rights.

  • Add to the list Brandon Mayfield, the lawyer in Seattle who was arrested based on a false fingerprint match.

    In order to flood the financial district, you just tilt the map a little more to the right, and the water flows right into Wall Street.

    OTOH, it took three years to repair the Mont Blanc Tunnel after the truck caught fire in 1999. Three years with the Hollland Tunnel out of commission would have a bad effect on the NYC economy.

  • As I understand it, none of these ‘plotters’ was even in the United States. Maybe I heard that wrong, but you’d think that would be a big problem with their plans.

  • Can’t tell if this was credible or not, but it just goes to show that if “Wolf” is cried falsely too often, when the “wolf” actually appears, people doubt its credibility. As a New Yorker, I hope these accounts prove the local police and homeland security personnel are on the ball and doing the job they are supposed to be doing.

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