Terror arrests part of global effort to foil attacks -Knight Ridder

[Rose Siding]

WASHINGTON - U.S. law enforcement and intelligence officials said Thursday they have launched a massive, worldwide effort to foil planned terrorist attacks in the United States and Britain this fall, and have apprehended an al-Qaida operative with knowledge of the plans.
...
Comey acknowledged that the operation was "not the case of the century" and suggested it was intended largely as psychological warfare against al-Qaida and its affiliates.

"Anyone engaging in terrorist planning would be very wise to consider whether their accomplice is not really one of our guys," he said.

President Bush, facing the voters in three months, and his aides are striving to demonstrate that they are prevailing in the war on terrorism, and the White House earlier this week launched an offensive to justify its heightened terror alert.

http://www.realcities.com/mld/krwashington/9329996.htm

also, within this article, a connection is reported between the NY arrests and Iraq

In the Albany case, which is unrelated to the others, Aref and Hossain were leaders of Masjid As-Salam mosque.

The law enforcement official said there is evidence, expected to come out in court papers, that the two men were connected with Ansar al Islam, a violent Islamist group that operated in semiautonomous regions of northern Iraq before the March 2003 U.S. invasion.