Scripps Howard News Service August 2, 2004
Threats against banks cause tightened NY, DC security
By Lance Gay
U.S. intelligence agencies have known for years that al Qaeda had planned to attack American banks but rich, detailed information on such attacks recovered in Pakistan prompted the government to raise the alert status for financial institutions in New York, New Jersey and Washington.
Analysts say that any attack on Wall Street or U.S. banks couldn't cripple America's financial system because banking and stock transaction data is routinely backed up in remotely located computer centers. After 9/11, many businesses adopted plans for staying in operation after a disaster.
Still, any such attack could have devastating psychological effects on a nation still recovering from the aftermath of 9/11.
"That's the nature of terrorism. Terrorism is to terrorize," said John Pike of GlobalSecurity.org, a Washington terrorism think tank. "The data is backed up off-site, but the people are not."
Pike said the appeal of attacking Wall Street, large American banks or institutions like the World Bank is largely for Osama bin Laden's adherents in the Middle East, who would regard another attack on America's homeland as a "mighty blow against the American monster."
Bin Laden himself appears fascinated by the workings of the U.S. financial system, and bragged on a 2002 videotape recording about the damages the 9/11 attacks caused the U.S. economy.
Jim Bucknam, executive vice president of Kroll Associates, a New York firm that advises businesses on security issues, said many American financial institutions have tried to inoculate themselves from terrorism in the wake of the 9/11 attacks, which devastated traders with offices at the World Trade Center.
Many learned hard lessons from 9/11 and devised extensive backup plans for moving operations to other locations and ensuring computerized data is preserved in a disaster. Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan recently told Congress that banks also had upgraded their plans for dealing with the "fortunately low but still deeply disturbing possibility" that terrorists could strike America again.
"It would be naive to say we've done everything we could," Bucknam said. "It has been taken a lot more seriously than four years ago."
Bucknam credited the U.S. government for issuing the warning and was pleased intelligence agents seem to be disrupting the latest terrorist plans. "We've all suspected since 9/11 that this could happen," he said. "I'm looking at the positive in this."
Treasury Secretary John Snow warned last month that the U.S. economy would be shaken by another attack. "There is no more serious threat to our economy than the threat of terrorist attacks on our soil," Snow said.
Appearing on MSNBC Monday, Snow urged banks and the stock exchanges to stay open under added security. He said the intelligence reports amounted to "the most extraordinarily detailed documents I've seen" and shows financial institutions need to be vigilant.
This weekend's warning of a possible attack against American financial institutions is the second time the government has elevated the threat level for possible terrorist attacks on banks. In April 2002, the FBI cited unspecified intelligence, apparently based on interviews with al Qaeda detainees, warning East Coast banks they could be targets of an al Qaeda attack.
But this time, U.S. officials say the terrorists have compiled details including the amount of pedestrian traffic outside target buildings, types of surveillance systems used and schedules of guard shift changes.
There was no indication given of how long ago the terrorists collected the data or the methods they used. The federal 9/11 Commission reported last month that al Qaeda sleeper cells could still be operating in the United States and said operatives who assisted the 9/11 attackers inside the United States remain unidentified.
The latest terrorist threats show landmarks like the New York Stock Exchange and Washington's World Bank and International Monetary Fund are likely targets. Also on the target list are the Prudential building in Newark, N.J., the 59-story Citigroup Center in New York and the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington.
In Pakistan, Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said computer files and other materials identifying sites of possible al Qaeda attacks in the United States were seized during the arrest of Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a Tanzanian terrorist wanted in connection with the U.S. Embassy bombings in East Africa in 1998.
At Washington's World Bank building, long a target of anti-globalization protesters, security was tightened and cars entering an underground garage were searched. In a message to his employees, World Bank President James Wolfensohn said the institution will remain open with "enhanced security measures in place."
In spite of its title, the World Bank isn't really a bank but an international institution that coordinates loans, largely to Third World countries.
Pike noted there was no move to shut off traffic on the highways near the World Bank or IMF, which are major arteries for Washington's commuter traffic. A tunnel running under the Bureau of Engraving and Printing also remained open.
"I find it difficult to reconcile that with a well-founded fear of a plot," he said. "If they are serious about it, they should turn the entire core of the District (of Columbia) into a pedestrian mall."
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