Terrorists target finances

The federal government increased the threat level to “high” for specific financial institutions in New York City, Washington and New Jersey yesterday, citing intelligence about a terrorist plot to strike with car or truck bombs.

New York Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said trucks would be banned starting today from the Williamsburg Bridge, which connects Brooklyn and Lower Manhattan, the Associated Press reported.

The Holland Tunnel, which runs from New Jersey into Lower Manhattan, would be closed to all inbound commercial traffic also beginning today, said Tony Ciavolella, spokesman for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.

Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge held a press conference in Washington to announce that officials had obtained “new and unusually specific information about where al Qaeda would like to attack.”

He named the following as the most likely targets:

• The Citicorp building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York City.

• The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank buildings in Washington.

• The Prudential Plaza in Newark, N.J.

“Based on what we’ve gleaned so far, the preferred method of attack or what’s being suggested in the reporting is car and truck bombs,” Mr. Ridge said.

Mr. Ridge said the targets were “significant institutions that relate to our leadership role in the international economy,” but said even attacks on key institutions cannot significantly disrupt world financial markets.

“The financial-services industry since 9/11 has built in systems of protection … that help regulate and help control the equity markets,” he said, adding that “even the destruction of a single building is not going to undermine the greatest and strongest economy in the world.”

He said the information that prompted the threat-alert level increase was “the result of offensive intelligence and military operations overseas, as well as strong partnerships with our allies around the world, such as Pakistan.”

However, he declined to elaborate on the origin of the intelligence, beyond saying it was drawn from “multiple sources” in multiple locations.

One U.S. official told the Reuters news agency that the information was collected in the past 24 to 36 hours. It was not clear whether the intelligence was linked to the recent arrest of a top al Qaeda operative in Pakistan.

Pakistani authorities on Friday announced the capture of Tanzanian-born Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is wanted by the United States in connection with the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in the East African countries of Kenya and Tanzania that killed 224 persons.

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