NEW YORK (Oct. 7) - Authorities briefly closed part of Penn Station on Friday and commuters headed to work under the watchful eyes of police after a newly disclosed terror threat against the New York subway system.



AP
Police officers in protective gear investigate a suspicious package that closed part of the Amtrak waiting area at Penn Station for about two hours.

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A discarded soda bottle filled with an unidentified green liquid was found at the station during morning rush hour, Amtrak officials said. The substance did not pose a threat to passengers and was removed for testing.

A majority of the station was reopened by about 10:45 a.m., more than an hour after it was closed.

Officials in New York revealed the threat Thursday, saying an FBI source warned that terrorists had plotted to bomb the subway in coming days. But Homeland Security officials in Washington downplayed the threat, saying it's of "doubtful credibility."

A half mile away at the Port Authority Bus Terminal on Friday, more officers were visible on the streets, and one lane of traffic on Ninth Avenue was reserved for emergency vehicles.

"Hopefully, God's with me and I'll be OK," Vinnie Stella said earlier while clutching newspapers under his arm as he entered the subway at Penn Station.

Rob Johnson, 30, said he wasn't worried. "The cops have it under control."



Reuters
The subway is under its most specific threat of an attack ever, Mayor Michael Bloomberg said.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it the most specific terrorist threat that New York officials had received to date, and promised to flood the subway system with uniformed and undercover officers.

"We have done and will continue to do everything we can to protect this city," Bloomberg said at a nationally televised news conference. "We will spare no resource, we will spare no expense."

The New York Police Department boosted existing measures to search for bombs in commuters' bags, brief cases and luggage. The threat also involved the possibility that terrorists would pack a baby stroller with a bomb, a law enforcement official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

The official said the threat was "specific to place," and that the window for the attack was anywhere from Friday through at least the weekend.

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan on Friday repeated the Bush administration's characterization of the terror threat as "of doubtful credibility" even though the threat was specific.

A counterterror official, who was briefed about the threat by Homeland Security authorities and spoke on condition of anonymity, said the intelligence did not reflect "on-the-ground, detailed, pre-surveillance" methods consistent with credible information. Rather, the official said, the intelligence was similar to "what can be found on the Internet and a map of New York City."

The law enforcement official in New York said that city officials had known about the threat at least since Monday, but held the information until two or three al-Qaida operatives were arrested in Iraq within the past 24 hours. Once the arrests were made, officials felt they could go public, the official said.

Those arrested had received explosives training in Afghanistan, the same official said Friday. They had planned to travel through Syria to New York, and then meet with an unspecified number of operatives to carry out the bombings.

The U.S. military spokesman's office in Baghdad had no information on the arrests. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he had seen no indication of a U.S. military operation to round up al-Qaida operatives.

On Thursday, a television station said it held off on reporting about the subway threat for two days because officials in New York and Washington voiced concerns that public safety could be affected and ongoing operations jeopardized.

WNBC reporter Jonathan Dienst, who covers security and terrorism issues, said he started making calls about the threat on Tuesday. Local and federal officials then got in touch, expressing concern that airing the story would do damage.

The station decided to hold off, citing "the intensity of the level of the request," said Dan Forman, vice president of news.

An estimated 4.5 million passengers ride the New York subway on an average weekday. The system has more than 468 subway stations. In July, the city began random subway searches following the London train bombings.

Gov. George Pataki said Thursday the state would call up hundreds of National Guard troops and ask Connecticut and New Jersey to patrol commuter trains.

New York's security level remained at orange, the same level it has stayed at since the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks. Bloomberg said there was no indication that the threat was linked to this month's Jewish holidays.

Associated Press Writers Sam Dolnick, Jim Fitzgerald and Ula Ilnytzky in New York, and Devlin Barrett and Lara Jakes Jordan in Washington, contributed to this report.


10-07-05 11:46 EDT


Hmm looks to me like its doubtful credibility not credible.