RKMBs Forums .::Important::. Politics and Current Events NYC SUBWAY TERROR THREAT

The New York City Police Department is investigating what it deems a credible tip that 19 operatives have been deployed to New York to place bombs in the subway, and security in the subways will be increased, sources told ABC News.

While the police department is taking the threat seriously, it is also urging the public not to be alarmed because – while the source is credible – the information has not been verified.

According to sources in intelligence, emergency services and police headquarters, when three Iraqi insurgents were arrested several days ago during a raid by a joint FBI-CIA team, one of those caught disclosed the threat. Because it slipped out during the arrest, the plot was deemed credible.

After several days of work, sources said, the NYPD is increasingly concerned because it has been unable to discredit the initial source and additional information from the source.

The 19 operatives were to place improvised explosive devices in the subways using briefcases, according to two sources.

The police are deploying additional officers, dogs and heavy weapons teams in subways and commuter rail terminals, sources said.

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the G-man said:
Actually, the terror alert came out of NYC Mayor Bloomberg's office. Not only didnt the White House issue this one, but some administration officials said that NYC jumped the gun on issuing theirs.

Mayor Bloomberg is up in the polls, far ahead of his challenger

Therefore, this had nothing to do with poll numbers.

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Details emerged about an alleged plot to attack the city's subways with bombs hidden in bags and possibly baby strollers as local and federal officials jostled over the credibility of the threat.

A Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by The Associated Press said the attack was reportedly scheduled to take place on or around Sunday, with terrorists using timed or remote-controlled explosives hidden in briefcases, suitcases or in or under strollers.

The memo said that the department had received information indicating the attack might be carried out by "a team of terrorist operatives, some of whom may travel or who may be in the New York City area."

Three insurgents had been arrested in Iraq this week, the most recent arrest is confirmed to be on Friday, FOXNews has learned. Officials have told FOX that during the interrogation process the detainees made specific claims about a New York City subway plot. They indicated a specific time frame which was imminent — this Sunday — and method: briefcase bombs.

The memo, issued Wednesday to state and local officials, said that homeland security and FBI agents doubted the credibility of the information, but it provided four pages of advice about averting a possible attack.

One reason New York officials took the information seriously, FOXNews has learned is that one individual passed portions of a lie detector test; although federal law enforcement has continued to call the credibility "doubtful."

In Iraq, individuals also had identified others who they claimed were part of the plot and already inside the United States. A federal law enforcement source said they have been unable to corrobrate major elements of the plot and were not looking for anyone inside the U.S. as of late Friday afternoon because they are not convinced the individuals identified even exist.

When authorities detained a third suspect in the plot, they began to investigate whether a fourth had traveled to New York as part of the scheme, according to a law enforcement official familiar with the case.

The official said the man's trip to New York was described by an informant who had spent time in Afghanistan (search) and proved reliable in past investigations. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation, added that authorities had not confirmed whether the fourth man even exists either.

However one law enforcement source told FOXNews the "plot didn't add up" because the "travel times and routes to the U.S." didn't add up.

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

A federal official said one of the suspects arrested in Iraq apparently told interrogators that more than a dozen people were involved in the plot, and that they were of various nationalities, including Afghans, Syrians and Iraqis. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is ongoing.

Several of these details related to the suspects were first reported by ABC News.

In Baghdad, spokespeople for the U.S. military and the U.S. Embassy declined to comment about the arrests. Department of Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle also said the government has no information that the fourth person possibly connected to the plot "is either here or even exists."

Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said the military obtained intelligence information "during the normal course of our operations." The intelligence led to a military raid in Iraq this week that was conducted by Iraqi security forces, backed by U.S. troops, Whitman said, but added that there was no direct link between the raid and the New York subway threat.

Homeland security officials in Washington downplayed the threat and said it was of "doubtful credibility."

But Mayor Michael Bloomberg (search) and Police Commissioner Ray Kelly vigorously defended their decision to discuss the threat publicly Thursday.

"If I'm going to make a mistake you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious," Bloomberg said at a news conference Friday.

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the G-man said:
Now if only you'd roll your eyes and stop typing...

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Sen. John McCain yesterday said he backed Mayor Bloomberg's move to boost police presence in the subways amid suspected bomb threats from al Qaeda.

Speaking at a fund-raiser for Staten Island Borough President James Molinaro's re-election bid, the maverick Republican senator from Arizona said Bloomberg's reaction was right on the money.

"I do believe the mayor was right in saying it's far better to overreact than underreact," said McCain, adding that everyday New Yorkers' game resolve was a "marvelous testimony to this city."

McCain also told the audience of about 400 at a New Dorp banquet hall that America must continue to battle terrorists.

"The threat is still there and will be with us for many years," said the former prisoner of war. "We will never win this war on terror until we go to where it starts."

With that, he blamed the madrasa religious schools in Arab countries for preying on the atmosphere of hopelessness among many Muslim youths to radicalize them, and declared "democracy and freedom is the cure for terror and extremism."

The city's top cop yesterday revealed that probers are focusing on whether a suspected subway terror-plot fiend is in the country, while a debate raged over the credibility of the alleged bomb threat.

Even as the debate raged over the threat, officials acknowledged that an alleged conspirator may have slipped into the country past heavily guarded borders.

"I can tell you that's part of an ongoing investigation by both ourselves and federal authorities," Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said.

"Operations are going on overseas that we believe will give us a better sense of the credibility of this threat in the short term," Kelly said.

Calling the terrorism threat to public safety "substantial and real," a federal appeals court yesterday upheld the constitutionality of the NYPD's random bag searches on the nation's busiest subway system.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals rejected a New York Civil Liberties Union challenge, saying a lower-court judge was right in concluding that the program, put into place in July 2005, was "reasonably effective."

The searches began after that month's deadly bombings on London's public transit system, but the NYCLU suit called them an unprecedented intrusion on privacy and ineffective, since they could be easily evaded.

The three-judge panel, noting that terrorists seek predictable and vulnerable targets, said the search program "gen- erates uncertainty that frustrates that goal [and] deters an attack."

It also noted that New York's subway system includes 26 interconnected train lines and 468 far-flung stations and carries 4.7 million passengers on an average weekday and 1.4 billion a year.