NYC officials defend terror threat disclosure

NEW YORK -- Commuters cautiously rode subways and buses yesterday while city officials defended their decision to publicize information that terrorists might be plotting to strike the mass transit system.

As a federal investigation into the suspected plot continued, a third suspect was arrested yesterday and authorities were trying to determine whether a fourth person was part of the plot. Three suspected Al Qaeda operatives are being held while officials gather more information on the threat.

One day after officials disclosed that terrorists could be planning an imminent attack on the massive transportation network, authorities stepped up security, checking passengers' briefcases and bags and deploying thousands of extra police officers on buses and into subway stations.

''I took the express bus," said Victoria Evans, a 28-year-old lawyer. ''It's still a scary fact that we could be attacked, but I have to do what I need to do every day."

Frank Millbain, of Brooklyn, said he couldn't afford to allow the threats to scare him from taking the subway to his job in Manhattan, where he drives an express bus to Kennedy International Airport.

''I ride the subway whether there is a bomb scare or not," said Millbain, 29. ''I am exposed no matter what. . . . Especially since I help people unload their luggage. I do not know what I am handling."

Authorities closed part of Penn Station during rush hour yesterday morning after they found a soda bottle containing an unidentified green liquid. Authorities said the liquid, which resembled drain cleaner, did not pose a threat to public safety. Tests on the material were continuing yesterday.

The station was reopened before 11 a.m.

''My first thought this morning was, 'Should I take a cab?' " said Andrea Bevilacqua, a 29-year-old student at New York University. ''But I didn't want to be affected by the hype."

Extra officers were visible in subway stations in Times Square, the West Village, and Union Square, as well as in the Port Authority Bus Terminal.

Mayor Michael Bloomberg, along with Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and a New York-based FBI official, disclosed the threat during a Thursday night news conference while announcing security precautions.

Officials declined to release details on the threat, but Bloomberg said the information was the most specific terrorist threat that New York officials had received since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001.

Homeland Security spokesman Brian Doyle said yesterday that no credible basis for the transit system threat was found. But Ed Skyler, the mayor's chief spokesman, said the city was working closely with several federal agencies and received different assessments of whether the information was reliable.

Bloomberg defended his decision to make the threats public, saying, ''If I'm going to make a mistake, you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious."

Police officials also said the correct step was taken. ''We did exactly the right thing," Kelly told reporters.

When asked whether authorities in New York overreacted by publicizing the threat, President Bush said in Washington, ''I think they took the information we gave and made the judgments they thought were necessary."

A law enforcement official in New York, speaking on condition of anonymity, said authorities decided to step up security after an informant's report detailed a plot to strike the city's transit system with bombs secured in bags and baby strollers.

Meanwhile yesterday, authorities in Iraq arrested a third suspect in the plot. Officials there are investigating whether a fourth man had traveled to New York to help carry out the plot.

The source told the Associated Press that the man's trip to New York was detailed by an informant who had spent time in Afghanistan.

A federal official said one of the suspects arrested in Iraq apparently told interrogators that more than a dozen people were involved in the plot and that they were of various nationalities, including Afghans, Syrians, and Iraqis. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the investigation is continuing.

They had planned to travel through Syria to New York, then meet with operatives to carry out the bombings, according to the official. The official said that the threat was ''specific to place," and that the window for the attack ran from Friday through at least the weekend. In Baghdad, spokesmen for the US military and the US Embassy declined to comment.

An estimated 4.5 million passengers ride the New York subway every day. After the attacks in London last summer, the city began random subway searches.

''This has definitely scared me," said Jay Buchbinder, 55. ''There has been a lot of communication over this threat. Probably in the next few days I will end up walking to work."

Material from the Associated Press was included in this report.