Two Arrested in Alleged Subway Bomb Plot (NYC)

[Nambe]

NEW YORK (AP)

Two men have been arrested in connection with an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan, sources said early Saturday.

At least one of the men may have an affiliation with a terrorist organization, according to two law enforcement sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity. The sources said the group in question was not believed to be al-Qaida.

The men appeared to be acting independently, and there was no evidence that the alleged plot to bomb the subway station at 34th Street was an attempt to disrupt the Republican National Convention, which is taking place a block away, the sources said.

The two men tried get explosives to bomb the station but did not succeed in obtaining any, the sources said. There was no timeline for the plot, which was first reported by WNBC early Saturday. ..

Ride Don’t Drive * * It’s Global Cool

[Norquist Nemesis]

1. Great! The first in a stream

of 'left-wing extremist terrorist' stories. It's going to be a heavy news week. *sigh*

[LauraK]

2. I'm worried. I wish all of our protesters would go home.

They are far too important to this country to risk dying in an attack intended for the war mongers.

[nodehopper]

5. these are just FEAR tactics

designed to produce your kind of well-meaning response that does, however, make it easy on the Republicans.

no names...no specific plot...they didn't even get explosives...I think we will see a couple of vague stories like this over the next week.

And yes, I live in New York, and have to go through 34th street every day. And I intend on actively participating in anti-RNC activities every day next week.

[aquart]

7. No. We are not going to live that way.

[leesa]

11. Oh please. This is just more RW fearmongering.

[TahitiNut]

14. I think those concerns are reasonable. One thing's for sure ...

... if there is any kind of 'terrorism' in NYC in the next 6 days, it'll be the left-wing protesters whose blood will be in the street. The reichbots will have their "beautiful minds" protected - wash, rinse, repeat.

[0rganism]

3. Uh huh. Right. No explosives, no bomb, no affilliation, no timeline

Just some faceless arrests. I wonder if the charges will even stick.

Since we have such hot shit investigators, maybe they can catch the anthrax mailers? Naaah, that's Yesterday's Crime.

[Princess Turandot]

4. Based on the report I heard on the NBC local station..

these were 2 guys who couldn't plan 'a one car wedding', who apparently inquired about buying explosives from a mole for the FBI.
It sounded as if all they knew was the location of the Herald Square train station.

[0rganism]

6. COINTELPRO lesson #1: the guy with the plastique is from the FBI

The '70s are IN again! Wheeeeee!

[annabanana]

8. MAJOR bs..........

......send a few more wussie GOP delegates to the shrink.
:eyes:

[mrbill]

9. a flashback in time......

in the early 70's the guys with the cool $700 walkie-talkies were the agents provacators trying to incite the crowd to burn the rotc building.

[Rose Siding]

10. Feeling a tad manipulated?

Just a whisper, a reminder, no BIG fear in NYC today, though- we're on the job!

Here's LA Times:
NEW YORK — Two men — a U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national — were arrested in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station just blocks from Madison Square Garden, where Republicans open their national convention Monday, New York's police commissioner, Ray Kelly, said today.
...
And the arrests of the two men in the subway case appeared to have brought to light an alleged plot that was more mystery than threat: Kelly said the men had no apparent connection to an international terrorist organization, and that while "it was clear that they had the intention to cause damage, to kill people," he said, "they did not immediately have the means to do it."

He said the two men had been under surveillance and had talked about placing bombs at the Herald Square subway station, just a few hundred yards from Madison Square Garden, and stations at 42nd Street and 59th Street, both in Midtown Manhattan.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-082804newyork_lat,1,3083969.story?coll=la-home-headlines

[Halliburton]

12. I am suspicious about this...

There are too many similarities to the Albany Mosque Sting operation which was thrown out of court earlier this week. I am sick of Ashcroft arresting people for nebulous reasons.

[smirkymonkey]

13. Bullshit.

It was on the cover of the New York Post. That should tell you that it was nothing more than right-wing fear mongering.

[struggle4progress]

15. Two men acting independently. One alleged plot. Huh?

... Meantime, police say they may have headed off disaster as they arrested a U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in Manhattan. The men had been under police surveillance ...
http://www.tampabays10.com/news/news.aspx?storyid=9754


... He identified the men as Shahawar Matin Siraj, 21, a Pakistani living in Queens, and James Elshafay, 19, a U.S. citizen living on Staten Island. Kelly said the men visited the Herald Square 34th Street station - one block from Madison Square Garden, the site of the convention - on Aug. 21. After walking through the station, the pair drew diagrams of the station ``in order to facilitate the later planting of the explosive devices,'' then gave the drawings to a paid police informant, according to the complaint ...
http://www.guardian.co.uk/worldlatest/story/0,1280,-4458229,00.html


... Their concerns were bolstered Saturday when New York police officials announced the arrest of three men in an alleged plot to bomb a subway station in midtown Manhattan. Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said the men had no explosives and were not connected to any international terrorist organization ...
http://sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/c/a/2004/08/29/GOPSECURITY.TMP

<edit:>
... But Police Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly and other officials stressed yesterday that the men had obtained no explosives and had set no specific time for any attack, and that it was unclear how far their plans had actually progressed. A news release announcing the arrests said they were not connected to earlier intelligence that Al Qaeda was seeking to attack financial targets in New York before the election ... Last September, a paid police informant began having conversations with the two men, and about eight months later, Mr. Siraj began talking to the informant about setting off bombs in the New York City area and "doing harm to United States military personnel and law enforcement officers," according to a complaint filed yesterday by federal prosecutors. It provided no details about the informant or how he met the men. The complaint did say that the informant, at the instruction of law enforcement officials, told the two men he was a member of an Islamic "brotherhood" that had approved their mission. The brotherhood, according to the complaint, did not exist ...
http://www.nytimes.com/2004/08/29/nyregion/29bomb.html