New York police alert in face of bomb threat

NEW YORK’S police department amassed a display of force yesterday, including checkpoints that snarled traffic, in response to intelligence about a car or truck bomb plot linked to the 10th anniversary of the September 11 attacks.

Officers armed with automatic weapons were stationed at city landmarks including Wall Street, Times Square and the September 11 memorial site where the Twin Towers once stood.

US officials called the threat “credible but unconfirmed” and timed to the anniversary of the plane attacks that killed 2,995 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania.

New Yorkers who have grown accustomed to bag searches at subway stations and random displays of police presence encountered increased vigilance after the threat, which prompted President Barack Obama to order a redoubling of US counter-terrorism efforts.

A manhunt was under way for two or three suspects, US officials said. One said there could be a link to Ayman al-Zawahri, who took the reins of al-Qaida after Osama bin Laden’s death.

Near Ground Zero, where a new World Trade Center is under reconstruction and where Obama will attend Sunday’s commemoration, police established a checkpoint behind Trinity Church, stopping vehicles, opening the cargo bays of trucks and checking drivers’ licenses.

Similar checkpoints went up at Times Square, Columbus Circle on the southern edge of Central Park and outside Macy’s in Midtown, creating traffic jams all over Manhattan.

“I think, for our safety, it is good,” Eva Kurzawska, 57, said.

“The commute on the train this morning was horrible but it was worth it because we are being protected,” said Mario Vigorigo, 42, a wireless manager from Brooklyn.

Sam Ginzburg, a senior trader at First New York Securities, said warnings of a potential attack was one factor unnerving traders. “There is an extreme amount of negativity,” he said as US stocks fell.

“We have to be concerned, said New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly. “Terrorism is theatre and this is a stage, right now probably the world’s biggest stage.

“We have the opening of the 9/11 memorial, the president and two former presidents here, obviously a lot of high-profile public officials will be here, so we have to be concerned,” Kelly said.

A counter-terrorism official said the threat information came from Pakistan’s tribal areas.

Documents found in bin Laden’s compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, after he was killed in a raid in May by US Special Forces, highlighted his interest in attacking the US around the anniversary of the attacks. But it is unclear if the plans ever evolved beyond aspiration.