Subway Bomb Plot—New York City

Just weeks after the “Seas of David” “terrorist” group in Florida was arrested for allegedly plotting to blow up the Sears Tower, United States officials are saying that they have disrupted a plot by foreigners to bomb the New York City subway.^[1] According to new reports, “FBI agents monitoring Internet chat rooms used by extremists learned in recent months of the plot to strike a blow at the city’s economy by destroying vital transportation networks.”^[2] Monitoring internet chat rooms was also the method used by Canadian authorities to break up an alleged terrorist cell in that country.

Senator Charles Schumer noted the alleged plot was discovered “when it was just in the talking phase,” which means that it is “unclear how far along the planning was.”^[3] As officials stated after the Seas of David arrests, there is no imminent threat to the United States.^[4] Representative Peter King, who has called for the prosecution of the New York Times for discussing classified information, commented on the arrests, saying that “there was nothing imminent, but it was being monitored for [a] long period [of] time,” and that “it would have been better if this had not been disclosed.”^[5]

The alleged plot was first detailed in the New York Daily News,^[6] and the plot apparently involved bombing the Holland Tunnel “in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan.”^[7] And according to the story’s sources, this plot “is more advanced than the Miami Seven.”^[8] Other sources, however, point out that bombing the Holland Tunnel would not flood the financial district, because the financial district is above the Hudson River, and that the plot did not actually target the Holland Tunnel.^[9]

One individual, Amir Andalousli, has apparently been arrested by Lebanese authorities, but extraditing him legally from that country will be difficult, as we discussed in February. Extradition and prosecution may not be the point, however, because he was arrested several months ago, and “US agents were allowed to take part in the interrogation of Andalousli.”^[10] Other individuals across the globe are currently being sought by the United States.^[11]

According to one source, the “’lone wolf’ conspiracy” allegedly received pledges of financial support and assistance from Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq last month.^[12]

The news of the plot comes one year to the day that London’s transportation system was attacked by suicide bombers, killing 52 people.^[13]

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[1] Mark Sherman, FBI Disrupts New York City Tunnel Plot, AP (via Yahoo!).
[2] Id.
[3] Id.
[4] Id.
[5] Id.
[6] Allison Gendar et al., Bomb Tunnel, Flood City, Daily News, Jul. 7, 2006.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Sherman, supra note 1.
[10] Id.
[11] Plotters Sought to Bomb New York Tunnel, Reuters, Jul. 7, 2006.
[12] FBI Foils Plot to Bomb New York’s Holland Tunnel: Report, AFP (via Yahoo!) (citing Gendar, supra, note 6), Jul. 7, 2006.
[13] Philippe Naughton et al., A Year On, Britain Remembers the 7/7 Victims, The Times (UK), Jul. 7, 2006.