New York subway alert ends, plot appears unfounded

New York called off a high alert for the city's subways on Monday after detainees in Iraq thought to be plotting to bomb the nation's biggest transit system indicated the threat lacked credibility.

The scaling back of security came as the attack date cited in a federal warning -- Sunday, October 9 -- passed without incident.

"Since the period of the threat now seems to be passing, I think over the immediate future we'll slowly be winding down the enhanced security," Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a news conference.

The enhanced security had included more bag searches plus an increase in uniformed and undercover officers patrolling the largest mass transit system in the United States.

Bloomberg, expected to win re-election to a second term on November 8, ordered the special police deployment on Thursday after federal authorities warned that "terrorist operatives" may be planning to attack the subway with remote-controlled bombs hidden in briefcases or baby strollers.

That same bulletin from the FBI and the Department of Homeland Security also said experts "have doubts on the credibility of the threat."

NO CORROBORATION

Federal and local law enforcement officials said the alert was based on information from a normally reliable source whose warning led to the arrests of three suspects in Iraq.

"In the course of the debriefing they (the individuals captured) did not corroborate the threat information," said a law enforcement official who declined to be identified because the information was classified.

"At least two of the three were found to be truthful in saying they were unaware of the New York City subway plot," the source added.

Bloomberg, facing questions from reporters about whether he had overreacted, defended his decision. "We're going to take seriously every single threat that has any chance of being credible," he said.

Bloomberg's Democratic challenger for City Hall, former Bronx Borough president Fernando Ferrer, called upon the mayor to disclose why he opted to warn the public.

"I believe that we need to take every threat seriously. And now that we are no longer on high alert, it is appropriate for the mayor to tell us what he knew about the threat, when, and why he chose to act in the way he did," Ferrer's campaign said in a statement.

The mayor said the city remained on orange alert -- the second highest such level, just below red. The city has been on orange alert since the September 11, 2001, attacks that destroyed the World Trade Center.

Source: Reuters