From Newsday:

Feds foil plot to blow up PATH tunnels

BY TOM BRUNE AND J. JIONI PALMER
Newsday Washington Bureau

July 8, 2006

WASHINGTON -- For at least a year, eight followers of al-Qaida, scattered across six foreign countries, discussed how to send suicide bombers to blow up PATH tunnels under the Hudson River, but their plans never came even close to realization, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The planning for the ambitious terrorist attack, one that would kill thousands of commuters and undercut the American economy, came to an abrupt end in April with the arrest of a 31-year-old Lebanese native who confessed he was the mastermind, the officials said.

The existence of the plot, and the year-long investigation by the FBI and six other countries that led to the arrests of the leader and at least two other suspects, was confirmed by authorities yesterday.

In briefings and interviews, U.S. and Lebanese officials painted a picture of a group with outsized ambitions but little resources or ability to carry them through.

The methods of its alleged mastermind, Assem Hammoud, were hardly sophisticated -- he was discovered in Internet chat rooms, and Lebanese security agents simply tracked him down through his Internet address.

And the group had not even gained entry into the United States to conduct surveillance of targets, nor had they acquired the necessary resources and materials to carry out an attack, the FBI said.

"We believe we intercepted this group early in their plotting," said Mark Mershon, chief of the FBI's New York City field office, in a Manhattan briefing. "In fact, the plan has largely been disrupted."

Mershon and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend called the plot "the real deal."

"This is a plot that involved martyrdom and explosives and certain of the tubes that connect Jersey and lower Manhattan," Mershon said, saying the PATH tunnels were specifically targeted.

Mershon and other officials complained about the disclosure of the plot and investigation, reported first in Friday's editions of the New York Daily News. They said it will complicate the continuing investigation and relations with other governments involved.

He also said the paper reported erroneously that the target was the Holland Tunnel instead of the PATH tubes.

The disclosure came on the first anniversary of the suicide bombings on the London subways, which killed 52 people.

Officials and terrorism experts offered different views on whether the plot sought to disrupt the economy by flooding the city, as reported by the Daily News, or simply sought to create a dramatic attack.

Engineers and officials who have worked at the World Trade Center site say that an explosion in the PATH tunnels running into the pit could, in theory, flood the site because it is several stories below the level of the Hudson River. But such a scenario is unlikely, they argue, because of floodgates installed in the tunnels after Sept. 11, 2001, and the difficulty of smuggling sufficient explosives onto a commuter train.

There was disagreement on how close the suspected terrorists were to al-Qaida or whether they had contacts, as one report said, with the late Iraqi terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A Washington source with knowledge of the situation said, "The use of the term 'real deal' isn't consistent with what people have been saying in private. It's not considered a huge threat."

A year ago, the FBI discovered Hammoud, who used the nom de guerre of Emir Adulusi, and tipped off Lebanese Internal Security, said the FBI and a senior Lebanese security official.

During the next several months, as his phone and Internet communications were closely monitoried, Hammoud sent the others "detailed maps and instructions" about the potential targets, the Lebanese official said.

On April 27, Lebanese authorities arrested Hammoud, a Lebanese official said. Two other suspects were arrested in two other countries, Mershon said, and the others remain at large, but outside the United States.

Only Hammoud has been charged.

"He confessed that he was planning a big terrorist act in the United States," the Lebanese official said. Mershon said Hammoud also said he had pledged obedience to Osama bin Laden and claimed to be a member of al-Qaida.

But the Lebanese official also said, "He had no criminal history, and no history of involvement with militant groups."

The official added that Hammoud said the arrest had disrupted his plan to go to Pakistan for four months of training at an al-Qaida-linked camp.

Townsend said that President George W. Bush had been kept abreast of the matter.

Rep. Peter King (R-Seaford) said he was first briefed shortly after becoming Homeland Security chairman in September. "I can confirm that for the last nine to 10 months I have been aware of a plot to attack the New York transit system and Lower Manhattan," said King.

King said this plot is considered more serious than the one broken up in Miami last month, in which seven people were arrested for discussing attacking the Sears Tower in Chicago.

New York Democratic Sens. Charles Schumer and Hillary Rodham Clinton also said they were briefed Thursday night by the FBI.

""Even unsophisticated terrorists can do a lot of damage," Schumer said. "And even though these terrorists were dumb enough to talk on the Internet, this shows how our intelligence has improved since 9/11."

Speaking after a bill-signing ceremony on Long Island, Gov. George Pataki criticized the recent reduction in Homeland Security funding for New York.

"This points out in the allocation of homeland security funds by Washington that it is just absurd that New York City, which is obviously a symbol of America, has not gotten more based on that risk assessment."

Glenn Thrush contributed to this article.

Copyright 2006 Newsday Inc.