Plan to attack New York tunnels: Yet another dubious “terror plot”

The alleged mastermind, a 31-year-old resident of Beirut, Lebanon named Assem Hammoud, was being held in Beirut and had, according to the FBI, confessed to participating in the plot and acting on the orders of Osama bin Laden. There were a total of eight suspects, two of whom were in custody at unnamed locations. None were Americans and none had set foot on US soil.

Mershon said six foreign governments, which he did not name, were cooperating in the investigation. “We believe,” he declared, “we intercepted the group early in their plotting and, in fact, the plan has largely been disrupted.”

Just how early could be gleaned from his assertion that the “plotting for this attack had matured to a point where it appeared that the individuals were about to move forward. They were about to go to a phase where they would attempt to surveil the targets, establish a regimen of attack and acquire the resources necessary to effectuate the attacks.”

Mershon refused to answer questions on any other details of the purported plot, other than to say the conspirators hoped to carry out the attack in October or November of this year. Perhaps sensing skepticism even among the press, he added that this was “the real deal.”

How real a plot could be, in which the conspirators had not scouted the supposed targets, had not attempted to raise funds or acquire explosives, and had not formulated a plan of action, Mershon failed to explain.

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http://wsws.org/articles/2006/jul2006/plot-j08.shtml