NYC’s Penn Station under armed guard after FBI warns of Al Qaeda Thanksgiving attack

Penn Station was crowded with NYPD Counter Terrorism Squad and Amtrak cops armed with M16s after the FBI received a “plausible but unsubstantiated” report that in late September, al Qaeda discussed attacking the subway systems in an around New York City in the holiday season. “Suicide bombers or explosives,” were mentioned in the document dated Tuesday, Nov. 25. “We have no specific details to confirm that this plot has developed beyond aspirational planning,” it said. But the location of the attack and its method make it plausible.
On Nov. 16, debkafile‘s counter-terror sources reported that president-elect Barack Obama and his transition team had received an intelligence briefing warning them that al Qaeda may be plotting a major attack against a US target in America, Europe, North Africa or the Middle East in the early days of his presidency. On Nov. 14, DEBKA-Net-Weekly 372 disclosed a Directive to All Fighters in Arabia issued by al Qaeda’s Yemen headquarters on Nov. 9 presaging a major operation in the United States that will “change the political and economic world” and be “far bigger than 9/11.”
The notice said “the operation is very near” and “precise instructions” were in the hands of “the fighters, who are already on their way to America.”
The warning comes as hundreds of thousands of tourists arrive in New York for the long holiday weekend, marked by the huge Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade Thursday, Nov. 27. If the explosion went off in Penn Station, it would affect transportation of Amtrak’s northeast corridor between Boston and Washington, LIRR service and New York City subway service.
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