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Plot was derailed in early stages

This story was reported by staff writers TOM BRUNE in Washington and MOHAMAD BAZZI in Beirut, assisted by GLENN THRUSH and J. JIONI PALMER in Washington, JAMES T. MADORE on Long Island and HERBERT LOW

July 8, 2006

WASHINGTON - For at least a year, eight followers of al-Qaida scattered across six foreign countries discussed how to send suicide bombers to blow up PATH tunnels under the Hudson River, but their plans never came close to realization, U.S. officials said Friday.

The planning for the ambitious terrorist attack, one that would kill thousands of commuters and undercut the American economy, came to an abrupt end in April with the arrest of a 31-year-old Lebanese native who confessed he was the mastermind, the officials said.

The existence of the plot, and the year-long investigation by the FBI and six other countries that led to the arrests of the leader and at least two other suspects, was confirmed by authorities Friday.

In briefings and interviews, U.S. and Lebanese officials painted a picture of a group with outsized ambitions but little resources or ability to carry them through.

The methods of its alleged mastermind, Assem Hammoud, were hardly sophisticated - he was discovered in Internet chat rooms, and Lebanese security agents simply tracked him down through his Internet address.

And the group had not even gained entry into the United States to conduct surveillance of targets, nor had they acquired the necessary resources and materials to carry out an attack, the FBI said.

"We believe we intercepted this group early in their plotting," said Mark Mershon, chief of the FBI's New York City field office, in a Manhattan briefing. "In fact, the plan has largely been disrupted."

Mershon and White House homeland security adviser Fran Townsend called the plot "the real deal."

"This is a plot that involved martyrdom and explosives and certain of the tubes that connect Jersey and lower Manhattan," Mershon said, saying the PATH tunnels were specifically targeted.

Mershon and other officials complained about the disclosure of the plot and investigation, reported first in Friday's editions of the New York Daily News. They said it will complicate the continuing investigation and relations with other governments involved.

He also said the paper reported erroneously that the target was the Holland Tunnel instead of the PATH tubes.

The disclosure came on the first anniversary of the suicide bombings on the London subways, which killed 52 people.

Officials and terrorism experts offered different views on whether the plot sought to disrupt the economy by flooding the city, as reported by the Daily News, or simply sought to create a dramatic attack.

Engineers and officials who have worked at the World Trade Center site say that an explosion in the PATH tunnels running into the pit could, in theory, flood the site because it is several stories below the level of the Hudson River. But such a scenario is unlikely, they argue, because of floodgates installed in the tunnels after Sept. 11, 2001, and the difficulty of smuggling sufficient explosives onto a commuter train.

There was disagreement on how close the suspected terrorists were to al-Qaida or if they had had contacts, as one report said, with the late Iraqi terror leader Abu Musab al-Zarqawi.

A Washington source with knowledge of the situation said, "The use of the term 'real deal' isn't consistent with what people have been saying in private. It's not considered a huge threat."

A year ago, the FBI discovered Hammoud, who used the nom de guerre of Emir Andalusi, and tipped off Lebanese Internal Security, said the FBI and a senior Lebanese security official.

During the next several months, as his phone and Internet communications were closely monitored, Hammoud sent the others "detailed maps and instructions" about the potential targets, the Lebanese official said.

On April 27, Lebanese authorities arrested Hammoud, a Lebanese official said. Two other suspects were arrested in two other countries, Mershon said, and the others remain at large, but outside the United States.

Only Hammoud has been charged.