Police in show of force on New York subway system

A new terror threat against the New York subway raised the spectre of an attack with explosives concealed in a baby stroller and prompted a show of force by the largest police department in the US.

Officials in New York revealed the threat yesterday, saying an FBI source warned terrorists had plotted to bomb the subway in coming days. But Homeland Security officials in Washington downplayed the threat, saying it was of “doubtful credibility”.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg called it the most specific terrorist threat New York officials had received to date, and promised to flood the subway system with uniformed and undercover officers.

“We have done and will continue to do everything we can to protect this city,” Bloomberg said at a nationally televised news conference. “We will spare no resource, we will spare no expense.”

The New York Police Department boosted existing measures to search for bombs in commuters’ bags, brief cases and luggage. The threat also involved the possibility terrorists would pack a baby stroller with a bomb, a law enforcement official said.

The official said the threat was “specific to place,” and that the window for the attack was anywhere from today and over the weekend.

In Washington, Homeland Security Department spokesman Russ Knocke said “the intelligence community has concluded this information to be of doubtful credibility. We shared this information early on with state and local authorities in New York”. Knocke did not elaborate.

A counter-terror official, who was briefed about the threat by Homeland Security authorities, said the intelligence did not reflect ”on-the-ground, detailed, pre-surveillance” methods consistent with credible information. Rather, the official said, the intelligence was similar to “what can be found on the internet and a map of New York City”.

Some commuters took the threat in stride.

“I’ll think about it, but I’m not scared, really,” commuter Leila Fullerton said as she was about to board a subway train for Brooklyn after work.

But she added that since the London train bombings in July, she has found herself scanning the carriage at times looking for suspicious characters.

“It’s a terrible feeling going down there sometimes,” she said, gesturing at the subway stairwell.

The law enforcement official in New York said city officials had known about the threat at least since Monday, but held the information until two or three al Qaida operatives were arrested in Iraq within the past 24 hours. Once the arrests were made, officials felt they could go public, the official said.

Authorities are concerned, the official said, that there might be al Qaida operatives in New York City connected to the plot. They have no hard evidence of that, but are investigating.

The US military spokesman’s office in Baghdad had no information on the arrests. Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he had seen no indication of a US military operation to round up al-Qaida operatives.

New York’s security level remained at orange, the same level it has stayed at since the September 11, 2001, terror attacks. Bloomberg said there was no indication that the threat was linked to this month’s Jewish holidays.