FBI Warns New York About Possible Threat
Tue May 21, 6:39 PM ET

By Patrick Rizzo

NEW YORK (Reuters) - The FBI (news - web sites) has warned New York about "general threats" against city landmarks including the Statue of Liberty amid heightened tensions over possible new assaults on the United States after the Sept. 11 attacks, authorities said on Tuesday.

"The New York City Police Department has received information from the FBI about general threats to New York City," New York Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said in a statement.

"We are taking all necessary precautions and are communicating with the appropriate law enforcement agencies on both the state and federal level," Kelly added.

Earlier on Tuesday, a law enforcement official told Reuters that the New York alert, based on uncorroborated information from people detained after the Sept. 11 attacks, focused on landmarks like the Statue of Liberty and the Brooklyn Bridge.

The official, who asked not to be identified, said the warning was passed on to the FBI's joint terrorism task force in New York.

"The police commissioner out of an abundance of caution has ramped up security measures. ... Threats are against various landmarks including the Statue of Liberty," the official said.

"Better to be safe than sorry," the official added.

Security has been ratcheted up around city landmarks, and police have been checking vehicles crossing the Brooklyn Bridge.

New York already was on heightened alert as it prepared to host on Wednesday the annual "Fleet Week" ahead of the Memorial Day holiday weekend. More than 6,000 sailors, Marines and Coast Guard personnel and about 22 ships, including six warships that were deployed in the U.S. war against terrorism, Operation Enduring Freedom, were expected in the city.

"It is our policy not to comment on any details relating to threats or our response, as it could undermine our counterterrorism and intelligence operations," Kelly said.

In trading on Wall Street, stock prices dropped to session lows after news of the warning. Major indices all suffered losses on the day.

A FRESH BATCH OF WARNINGS

The comments came after it was disclosed last week that the Bush administration received an Aug. 6 briefing that followers of Osama bin Laden (news - web sites) -- blamed by the United States for the Sept. 11 attacks that killed about 3,000 people in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania -- might try to hijack U.S. aircraft.

Senior Bush administration officials have stepped up their warnings in recent days that extremists could launch new attacks.

New York Gov. George Pataki urged people to go about their business.

"We've been in touch with federal officials through our Office of Public Security and I want to strongly urge New Yorkers today, tomorrow, this weekend, next week and thereafter to go around and go about their ordinary lives," Pataki said in a statement.

Even prior to the Sept. 11 attacks that brought down the World Trade Center's famed twin towers, New York City's landmarks had been targets of attacks.

Six people died in 1993 when a bomb exploded in the basement of the World Trade Center, a harbinger of the Sept. 11 attacks.

In 1995, a Manhattan federal jury convicted radical Muslim cleric Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman and a group of his followers of plotting to bomb the World Trade Center, the U.N. building and bridges and tunnels leading into Manhattan.

Bin Laden was named as an unindicted co-conspirator in the 1993 bombing.

Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld said on Tuesday it was certain that terrorist groups would get weapons of mass destruction, a day after FBI Director Robert Mueller said it was "inevitable" that suicide bombers would strike in America despite U.S. efforts to reorganize its national security.

The United States remained on an "elevated" level of risk, or yellow ranking, on a color-coded national alert system introduced in March.

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