U.S. Warns of High Risk of Qaeda Attack

ASHINGTON, Aug. 1 - The Bush administration on Sunday declared a high risk of terrorist attacks against financial institutions in the New York City and Washington areas after receiving what it described as alarming information that operatives of Al Qaeda had conducted detailed reconnaissance missions at certain sites.
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Intelligence information gathered and analyzed since Friday, intelligence officials said, indicates that Al Qaeda has moved ahead with plans to use car bombs or other modes of attack against prominent financial institutions, including the New York Stock Exchange and the Citigroup buildings in Manhattan; Prudential Financial in Newark; and the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington. There was no indication of when an attack might occur, although federal officials said it would probably be in the "near term.''
Intelligence officials said they believed people associated with Al Qaeda had studied these institutions repeatedly both before and since the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, collecting detailed information on things like building security measures, architecture, pedestrian traffic, access ways and nearby shops that provided cover. Officials involved with the investigation in New Jersey said suspects were found with blueprints of the Prudential site and may have conducted a "test run" for an attack in recent days.
In response, the Department of Homeland Security raised the threat level to code orange, or "high risk," for the financial sector in New York City, northern New Jersey and Washington. It was the first time that the color-coded public threat system, often maligned for being too vague, has targeted a specific sector or region.
While the administration has issued terrorist warnings from time to time, officials said Sunday's announcement was more dire than in the past because the threat information was highly unusual in its specificity and, in the words of one senior intelligence official, "chilling in its scope.''
After past terror warnings, critics have at times accused the Bush administration of exaggerating the threat for political purposes. But on Sunday, few prominent Democrats were making that charge, and many Democrats appeared to take the threat seriously. The code-orange announcement, by Tom Ridge, secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, sent immediate tremors through financial, political and law enforcement worlds, with reverberations from Wall Street to the presidential campaign trail.
In New York and New Jersey, stepped-up security was expected to complicate the start of the workweek on Monday. Tens of thousands of employees, customers and visitors to Wall Street, Midtown Manhattan and downtown Newark were warned to expect tighter personal screening, closer scrutiny of backpacks and packages, more parking and traffic restrictions and other disruptive precautionary measures. [Page A11.]
Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said teams of officers would be posted at "sensitive and symbolic" sites throughout New York City, including landmarks, major subway stations and train and bus terminals, and on bridge and tunnel approaches, where trucks and other large vehicles are to be halted at random and searched for explosives.
In New Jersey, Gov. James E. McGreevey said the state would immediately deploy antiterrorist officers on highways, commuter trains and ferries and begin intense inspections of trucks within 20 miles of the targeted buildings. A thousand state investigators were assigned to work on the case.
Mr. Ridge said the federal government was working with private financial institutions in New York and Washington and taking steps of its own to intensify security. He also asked for increased public vigilance.
"The quality of this intelligence, based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen and it is alarming in both the amount and specificity of the information," Mr. Ridge said.