Building Plot an Inside Job
New Yok Post

August 3, 2004 -- Investigators suspect terrorist moles worked at the Citigroup and Prudential buildings to case the skyscrapers as potential targets of car or truck bombs, The Post has learned.

And now federal agents want to comb through employee records of the businesses that operate in the buildings to try to identify the moles, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.

The feds suspect that the extraordinarily detailed information about the skyscrapers - which was discovered on an al Qaeda computer in Pakistan - was compiled by accomplices who had time to study Citigroup's 59-story building at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street and Prudential's building in Newark from the inside, the sources said.

Officials who examined the information concluded that the most recent surveillance of the buildings was done in January. There was additional surveillance last year, a law-enforcement source said.

But most of it was done even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks - and goes back to 2000.

Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that the terrorists' information was "vulnerability analysis" - which details how well or poorly guarded the targets are - and that there is no indication that it was "tied to any operational plan."

Source: Terror attack to be in early September
Newsday

WASHINGTON -- More financial institutions than previously disclosed may be at risk of attack, and an al-Qaida operative has told British intelligence that the group's target date is early September, intelligence sources said yesterday.

The operative, described as "credible" by British intelligence, told his debriefers that the attack would take place "60 days before the presidential election" on Nov. 2, according to a former senior National Security Council official. On Sept. 2 President George W. Bush is expected to address the Republican National Convention at Madison Square Garden.

Counterterrorism officials are analyzing data from a computer seized in Pakistan last month to see if financial institutions in addition to the five disclosed Sunday are at risk of attack, U.S. officials said yesterday.

The former senior National Security Council official said he was told by British intelligence that they are interrogating an al-Qaida operative who confirmed that financial institutions are being targeted and that an attack was planned for September.

And a U.S. official familiar with the ongoing analysis of the computer said, "There are references to other things [buildings]" in the al-Qaida computer's data, including a picture of the Bank of America building in San Francisco. "There is mention of other places."

The laptop computer was seized on July 25 following the arrest after a 12-hour gun battle of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, who is wanted for his alleged role in the 1998 bombing of two U.S. embassies in Africa.

Terror Alert 'Essential,' Ridge Asserts
My Way News

WASHINGTON (AP) - Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said Tuesday the government concluded "it was essential" to publicize detailed surveillance documents and raise the terror alert, even though the intelligence information dated from as far back as 2000 and 2001.

Speaking at a news conference in New York, Ridge said that because of the heightened security steps, "We have made it much more difficult for the terrorists to achieve their broad objectives."

Yet investigators said they are still trying to determine whether the individuals who amassed the information, principally on financial institutions in New York, Newark and Washington, are still in the country or plotting, or whether the plot was old.

A White House spokesman said the intelligence was detailed and "chilling," even if some of the information appeared to be old.

"I think you have to keep in mind al-Qaida's history of planning attacks well in advance and then updating those plans just before attacking," said spokesman Scott McClellan, traveling with President Bush on Air Force One.

A senior Justice Department official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said federal government investigators are operating under the assumption that the plot was ongoing.

White House: Intelligence Behind Alert 'Chilling', Not Old
Local6.Com

DALLAS -- The White House says the intelligence behind the latest terror alert is "chilling" -- and not old, as critics have suggested.

Press Secretary Scott McClellan says it's "wrong and quite irresponsible" to call the information outdated. He says it was updated as recently as this year, and he says al-Qaida has a history of planning attacks well in advance, then updating plans just before striking.

McClellan spoke to reporters on Air Force One as President Bush flew to Texas.

A Look Back : Tape Shows al Qaeda Casing WTC (1997)
ABC News

March 3 — ABCNEWS has obtained video footage that Spanish and American authorities say was used as a "target tape" in preparation for the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks on the World Trade Center.

The 29-minute tape, shot in the summer of 1997, shows the exterior of both towers, along with the lobby and observation deck of the South Tower, which were open to tourists. It also shows other New York landmarks, including the Empire State Building, the Brooklyn Bridge and Times Square.

It was shot by Ghasoub al-Abrash Ghalyoun, a Syrian national who was arrested when Spanish authorities broke up a suspected al Qaeda logistics cell in 2002. The cell had direct ties to top deputies of Osama bin Laden, and helped finance hijack leader Mohamed Atta in Hamburg, Germany, according to Spanish and American authorities. They believe the tapes may have been delivered to al Qaeda's leadership in Afghanistan several months after Ghalyoun's trip.

"If you wanted to use one word, I would say they were target tapes," said Gustavo de Aristegui, a member of the Spanish parliament and former chief of staff of the National Police.

On the tape, Ghalyoun and another man are heard discussing the footage in Arabic. "We are at the twin towers of Manhattan. This is the inside of one of the twins, the entrance," one of them is heard saying.

Two Senior Al-Qaida Suspects Arrested in Pakistan
AP Via TBO

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) - Pakistani authorities have arrested two high-ranking al-Qaida terrorists - one with a multimillion-dollar U.S. bounty on his head - in a days-long sweep that has netted at least six suspected militants, officials said Tuesday.
The interior minister said the arrests in eastern Punjab province were a major break just days after intelligence agents arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian wanted for the 1998 bombings of U.S. embassies in East Africa.

"In addition to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, whose bounty was $25 million, we have captured another most wanted suspect with a bounty on him running into the millions of dollars," the minister, Faisal Saleh Hayyat, said.

He said both suspects were of African origin but refused to identify them or their nationalities.

Four Egyptians and a Libyan on the FBI's list of most-wanted terrorists are believed to be in Pakistan or Afghanistan. Each of them has a $5 million bounty on his head in connection with the embassy bombings.

Osama bin Laden's No. 2, Ayman al-Zawahri, is also from Egypt. He and the al-Qaida chief are believed hiding along the Pakistan-Afghan border, far from Punjab province.

Police Arrest 13 in Anti-Terror Operation
AP Via TBO

LONDON (AP) - Police conducted anti-terrorism raids in London and several towns Tuesday, arresting 13 people believed involved in preparing terrorist acts.

London's Metropolitan Police said the afternoon and evening arrests were "part of a pre-planned, on-going intelligence-led operation."

They said men were detained "on suspicion of being concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism," but did not elaborate.

The police said the arrests were in northwest London, suburban Hertfordshire and Bedfordshire and in Lancashire, northwestern England. Detectives were searching homes in all those locations, police said.

The suspects, who are all in their 20s and 30s, will be brought to a central London police station for questioning by anti-terrorism officers, police said.

"Today's operation is part of continuing and extensive inquiries by police and the Security Service into alleged international terrorism," the police statement said.

Unusual illegal border crossing draws attention of U.S. officials
KCAL 9 - Los Angeles

SAN DIEGO (AP) Authorities in California were on the lookout Tuesday for a man believed to be from the Middle East who paid a higher-than-usual smuggling fee to cross the U.S.-Mexico border, but officials said the case had no connection to terrorism.

"This is not a terrorist warning,'' said Homeland Security spokeswoman Lauren Mack.

The man, who was not identified, entered the United States Monday near Tecate, Mexico a small border crossing station about 70 miles east of San Diego.

It was unclear how he crossed the border. Once across, the man got into a Ford F150 pickup, according to a witness who alerted U.S. immigration officials. Agents said they believed the information to be credible, Mack said.

The Bureau of Immigration and Customs Enforcement learned the man had paid more than the typical $1,500 to $2,000 smuggling fee and notified the California Highway Patrol, which put out a ``soft lookout'' a lower-priorty alert for the Interstate 5 corridor.