New York's subways were under increased security yesterday after receiving what local officials described as the most specific threat to date of a terrorist attack in the coming days.
"This is the first time that we have had a threat with this level of specificity," Mayor Michael Bloomberg said on Thursday. "It was more specific as to target, it was more specific as to timing."
Although the intelligence behind the alert had yet to be corroborated, Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said that it had been deemed of "sufficient concern" to enhance counter-terrorism operations on the subway network, as well as buses and ferries.
PHOTO: AP
Officials refused to provide details of the precise nature of the threat, although Kelly said an existing policy of random searches on the subway would be intensified, with a particular emphasis on baggage and baby strollers.
Despite the increased security, subways were running as normal and New York City remained on the second highest alert level, where it has been since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks.
US media quoted Department of Homeland Security officials as saying they doubted the credibility of the threat.
"The intelligence community has concluded that this information is of doubtful credibility," the department said in a statement.
CNN quoted a senior Pentagon official as saying US troops, acting on the same intelligence, had taken part in a raid south of Baghdad late Wednesday and rounded up several al-Qaeda operatives.
The head of the FBI's New York field office, Mark Mershon, said the new threat had been "partially disrupted" but declined to elaborate beyond confirming that no arrests had been made in the city itself.
Bloomberg said the warning of the attack had come several days ago, but a public announcement was delayed.
"There were operations taking place that we thought were in the interest of ending the threat, and to release the information earlier could have jeopardized the lives of those conducting those operations," he said.
The new warning came just hours after a major speech on terrorism by US President George W. Bush in which he sought to convince Americans that Iraq was a central front of the anti-terror campaign.
Bush said the US had foiled three al-Qaeda terror strikes on its soil since the Sept. 11 attacks, and stopped terror groups casing US targets and infiltrating operatives into the country.
"Evil men obsessed with ambition and unburdened by conscience must be taken very seriously and we must stop them before their crimes multiply," Bush said.
In the immediate wake of the July suicide bombings on the London transport system that claimed 52 lives, New York flooded its subway network with police patrols and introduced a policy of random bag searches.
The New York subway -- fourth largest in the world in passenger volume -- carries 4.5 million passengers on an average working day.
"We've never had before a specific threat to our subway system," Bloomberg said.
"There have been people all the time on the Internet and every place else, saying you know, `I'm going to go get those guys,'" he said. "But suffice it to say [this time] its importance was enhanced above the normal level, by the detail that was available to us," he said.
In a city that still bears the physical and psychological scars of the Sept. 11 attack four years ago, the presence of police, anti-terrorist units and National Guard troopers has become a common feature of subway travel.
Bloomberg's announcement came in the middle of the evening rush hour and many subway passengers said that they were unaware of the new threat.
Others said they had heard the news but felt few qualms about going home as usual.
"This isn't the first time and it won't be the last," said Marion Cox, 32, as she prepared to board a downtown train at Manhattan's Grand Central Station.
‘IN A DIFFERENT PLACE’: The envoy first visited Shanghai, where he attended a Chinese basketball playoff match, and is to meet top officials in Beijing tomorrow US Secretary of State Antony Blinken yesterday arrived in China on his second visit in a year as the US ramps up pressure on its rival over its support for Russia while also seeking to manage tensions with Beijing. The US diplomat tomorrow is to meet China’s top brass in Beijing, where he is also expected to plead for restraint as Taiwan inaugurates president-elect William Lai (賴清德), and to raise US concerns on Chinese trade practices. However, Blinken is also seeking to stabilize ties, with tensions between the world’s two largest economies easing since his previous visit in June last year. At the
Nearly half of China’s major cities are suffering “moderate to severe” levels of subsidence, putting millions of people at risk of flooding, especially as sea levels rise, according to a study of nationwide satellite data released yesterday. The authors of the paper, published by the journal Science, found that 45 percent of China’s urban land was sinking faster than 3mm per year, with 16 percent at more than 10mm per year, driven not only by declining water tables, but also the sheer weight of the built environment. With China’s urban population already in excess of 900 million people, “even a small portion
UNSETTLING IMAGES: The scene took place in front of TV crews covering the Trump trial, with a CNN anchor calling it an ‘emotional and unbelievably disturbing moment’ A man who doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire outside the courthouse where former US president Donald Trump is on trial has died, police said yesterday. The New York City Police Department (NYPD) said the man was declared dead by staff at an area hospital. The man was in Collect Pond Park at about 1:30pm on Friday when he took out pamphlets espousing conspiracy theories, tossed them around, then doused himself in an accelerant and set himself on fire, officials and witnesses said. A large number of police officers were nearby when it happened. Some officers and bystanders rushed
Beijing is continuing to commit genocide and crimes against humanity against Uyghurs and other Muslim minorities in its western Xinjiang province, U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken said in a report published on Monday, ahead of his planned visit to China this week. The State Department’s annual human rights report, which documents abuses recorded all over the world during the previous calendar year, repeated language from previous years on the treatment of Muslims in Xinjiang, but the publication raises the issue ahead of delicate talks, including on the war in Ukraine and global trade, between the top U.S. diplomat and Chinese