The New York Daily news reported Friday that the FBI has uncovered what officials consider a serious plot by jihadists to bomb the Holland Tunnel in hopes of causing a torrent of water to deluge lower Manhattan.
The terrorists sought to drown the Financial District as New Orleans was by Hurricane Katrina, sources told The Daily News. They also wanted to attack subways and other tunnels.
Counterterrorism officials are alarmed by the "lone wolf" terror plot because they allegedly got a pledge of financial and tactical support from Jordanian associates of top terrorist Abu Musab al-Zarqawi before he was killed in Iraq, a counterterrorism source told The Daily News.
It's not clear, however, if any cash or assistance was delivered, the report said.
The News has learned that at the request of US officials, authorities in Beirut arrested one of the alleged conspirators, identified as Amir Andalousli, in recent months. Agents were scrambling yesterday to try to nab other suspects, sources said.
They didn't indicate how many people were targeted by the international dragnet but said they were scattered all over the world.
"This is an ongoing operation," one source told The News.
US agents were allowed to take part in the interrogation of Andalousli, a source said.
FBI and New York City Police Department officials would not comment about the investigation, which has been kept under wraps for months.
According to the report, the plotters wanted to detonate a massive amount of explosives inside the Holland Tunnel to blast a hole that would destroy the tunnel, everyone in it, and send a devastating flood shooting through the streets of lower Manhattan.
It is assumed by officials the thugs would try to use vehicles packed with explosives, The News said.
Sources said that New York City officials believed the plan could conceivably work with enough explosives placed in the middle of the tunnel, which runs underneath the river bed, a source said.
But others doubted the plot was feasible.
"You are talking major, major explosives and knowledge of blast effect to make this happen," The News quoted another senior counterterrorism source as saying.
‘They're hell-bent on destroying US economy’
Besides bedrock, the tunnel is protected by concrete and cast-iron steel.
Experts also said that even if the tunnel cracked, the Financial District would not be flooded because it is above the level of the river.
The FBI discovered the plot by monitoring Internet chat rooms, where the aspiring terrorists discussed striking the US economy, rather than causing mass casualties, a source told The News.
"They're hell-bent on destroying the economy in the US," a counterterrorism source told the newspaper.
According to the report, Al Qaeda founder Bin Laden has
often urged his followers to "bleed" America financially.
The Lebanese government had been expected to release a statement about Andalousli's arrest but was asked by the US to hold off while operations to disrupt the plot continued, sources told The News.
Sources contrasted the chat room jihadists to the seven wanna-be Al Qaeda cell members arrested in a poor area of Miami by the FBI last week, who appeared to have no capability of carrying out plots they hatched to bomb FBI offices in several cities including New York.
"This is more advanced than the Miami Seven," said one of the sources, who spoke to The News on condition of anonymity.
The disclosure of the Holland Tunnel plot came at the same time Homeland Security Department officials announced a boost in funds to
protect rail and transit lines in the New York City area yesterday, the report said.
Last month, DHS cut New York's high-threat grants by almost half. But yesterday, DHS Undersecretary George Foresman said the USD 47 million rail security grants, which were 25 percent higher than last year's, were in response to increased risks after the 2004 Madrid and 2005 London rail bombings.
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