Western Resistance

« Afghanistan: Islamist Women Form Suicide Bomb Brigade | | Thailand: Muslim Women Charged For Battering Buddhist Teachers »

July 7, 2006

US: Islamist Plot To Bomb NY Tunnel Foiled

The news was broken this morning in an exclusive by the New York Daily News that Islamists had plotted to bomb the Holland Tunnel in New York, in an attempt to flood New York's financial district in lower Manhattan.

Also carried by ITV.com, Bloomberg and Associated Press via Hindustan Times, the story of the plot was released on the anniversary of London's 7/7 bombings, in which 52 people died.

The plot was hatched last year, at the same time as Hurricane Katrina had deluged New Orleans. One of the plotters, at the request of the FBI, has been arrested in Lebanon by the authorities there. The man has been named as Amir Andalousi. US agents were allowed to be present while Andalousi was being interrogated.

The Holland Tunnel runs beneath the Hudson river bed, but though possible, counterterror experts have said that considerable explosive power and knowhow would be required to cause a breach in the tunnel, which passes through bedrock and is lined with concrete and steel. The bedrock upon which New York city sits is a particularly hard form of igneous granite.

The financial district is above the river level, so would not become flooded. The Holland tunnel is the southernmost link between Manhattan and New Jersey, and is used by cars and buses.

The plot came to light as FBI agents were monitoring chatrooms, where wannabe jihadists were discussing the possibility of financially damaging the US rather than going for a high body-count.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) cut New York's high-threat grants by nearly half in June, but instead increased the grants for rail security to $47 million, an increase of 25% on the previous year's budget of $38 million.

31-year-old Andalousi has confessed that he planned to travel to Pakistan for four months to take part in training, and has said that the date for the attack would take place later this year.

The FBI and DHS have released a joint statement, in which they claim: "We have disrupted a terrorist network that was in the planning stages of an attack against the transportation system in the New York-New Jersey area."

Senator Charles Schumer of New York (Democrat) said: "This is one instance where intelligence was on top of its game and discovered the plot when it was just in the talking phase. But it once again illustrates how misguided Homeland Security's allocation of funds is. How many warnings does the department need about threats to New York until it changes its formula?"

Mark Mershon, assistant director of the FBI's New York operations, states that eight people, none of them US nationals, have been identified as participants in the plot. Two other people have also been taken into custody, and the investigation involves seven governments.

Mershon said: "The planning or the plotting for this attack had matured to the point where it appeared the individuals were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks. At that point, I think it's entirely appropriate to take it down."

Amir Andalousi is actually a pseudonym. His real name is Assem Hammoud, a security official from Lebanon said, on condition of anonymity. He is still in Lebanese custody. There are currently suggestions that the Holland Tunnel was not the only tunnel targetted by the plotters.

Posted by Giraldus Cambrensis at July 7, 2006 9:31 PM

Comments

Post a comment