3 held overseas in plan to bomb New York target
(The following article by Al Baker and William K. Rashbaum was posted on the New York Times website on July 8.)
NEW YORK – Authorities overseas have arrested one man and have taken two others into custody on suspicion of planning suicide bombings in train tunnels beneath the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey, officials said yesterday.
Five other men are being sought in connection with the plan, which law enforcement authorities said presented a genuine threat even though it was in its earliest stages and no attack was imminent.
The F.B.I. and New York City police officials have been aware of the group and its discussions for about a year, said Mark J. Mershon, the special agent in charge of the agency’s New York office. Police presence at the tunnels in Manhattan that could have been targets has been increased in recent weeks in response to the investigation.
“The planning or the plotting for this attack had matured to the point where it appeared the individuals were about to move forward,” Mr. Mershon said.
“They were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil targets, establish a regimen of attack and acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks, and at that point I think it’s entirely appropriate to take it down.”
Federal and local law enforcement authorities identified the main subject of the investigation as Assem Hammoud, 31, a Lebanese man who was arrested on April 27 in Beirut and was still being held there. The locations of the other two men in custody were not revealed. The eight “principal players” planning the attack, the authorities said, had secured no financing, had gathered no explosives and had not visited New York — or even the United States — to conduct surveillance. At least one of the planners has been in Canada, the authorities said.
Officials said Mr. Hammoud would likely be tried in Lebanon and that no ch