Credibility issues over New York subway threat

By Daniel Trotta

NEW YORK (Reuters) – New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg on
Friday defended his decision to put the city on high alert over
a threat to the subway system based on intelligence that
Washington said was of doubtful credibility.

Police stepped up searches of passengers’ bags at the
city’s train stations, but there were no reports of arrests in
the rail system that carries more than 4.5 people daily.

Bloomberg warned the public on Thursday of the threat,
which was relayed by the FBI, urging commuters to leave
luggage, backpacks and baby strollers to avoid being searched.

There was a brief disruption at Pennsylvania Station when a
suspicious item forced the closure of a public concourse to
Amtrak trains. But overall, trains connecting America’s largest
city with its suburbs and beyond ran smoothly.

The subway service was suspended briefly on two lines on
Manhattan’s west side while police investigated a suspicious
package at the 50th Street station but it turned out to contain
schoolbooks, a police spokeswoman said.

ERRING ON SIDE OF CAUTION

Asked if he had acted too hastily in issuing his warning,
Bloomberg — a billionaire who commutes to City Hall by subway
– said he would make the same decision again, especially in
view of deadly railway bombings in London and Madrid.

“It was the right decision,” Bloomberg told a news
conference. “I have a responsibility to protect people’s lives
…. if I’m going to make a mistake you can rest assured it
will be on the side of being cautious.”

In Washington, White House spokesman Scott McClellan,
echoing a bulletin issued by the Homeland Security Department,
said the threat was “of doubtful credibility.”

But Bloomberg, who is running for re-election on November
8, countered: “It is very different being an analyst in
Washington looking at data as opposed to being here in New York
where you have to take responsibility to protect people’s
lives.”

President George W. Bush defended Bloomberg’s move, saying
he would not second-guess the mayor’s decision. “I think they
took the information we gave and made judgments they thought
were necessary,” Bush told reporters.

Information about the plot came from people recently
captured in Iraq by the U.S. military, a federal law
enforcement official said.

“Raids in Iraq in recent days or weeks did produce
intelligence that led to the New York City terror threat
alert,” an intelligence official, who spoke on condition of
anonymity, told Reuters.

Other U.S. officials said the alert was based on an
uncorroborated claim to authorities in Iraq that prompted raids
by American and Iraqi forces and resulted in two suspects being
taken into custody. A third was being sought.

The officials said the claim appeared to come from an
informant suggesting the men were part of an operation to
attack New York’s subway system.

But they said there was little or no hard evidence to back
the claim, which suggested a plot involving more than a dozen
operatives in Iraq and the United States.

‘LOOKS LIKE A PRANK’

At New York’s Penn Station the concourse closure was
triggered by discovery of a soda can of bubbling green liquid.
Officers donned protective suits to search the area while
harried commuters went to work.

The police commissioner said later the incident “looks like
a prank.”

Such scenes have become commonplace in a city that has been
on alert since the September 11 hijacked plane attacks in 2001.

New Yorkers seemed to take the latest threat in stride.

“I’m concerned, but you’ve got to go to work and come home.
There’s not a lot we can do to protect ourselves,” said Kirk
Goodrich, 37, of Brooklyn.

“What are our choices, really?” asked Lisa Greene, also 37,
of Brooklyn. “I could be the stupid one who happens to get on
the wrong train, but I have no choice.”

(Additional reporting by James Vicini and David Morgan in
Washington and Joan Gralla, Richard Satran, Christine Kearney
and Ilaina Jonas in New York)