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Bloomberg defends subway alert

By wire services
Published October 8, 2005

NEW YORK - Mayor Michael Bloomberg and his police chief insisted Friday they did the right thing by going public with a terrorist threat to bomb the New York subway, brushing aside suggestions from Washington that they overreacted to information of dubious credibility.

"If I'm going to make a mistake, you can rest assured it is on the side of being cautious," Bloomberg said.

The dispute came as thousands of extra police officers poured into the city's subway system, pulling commuters out of rush-hour crowds and rifling through their bags or briefcases in a crackdown that was announced Thursday afternoon and continued on Friday.

The Associated Press reported tighter security was prompted by an informant's report of a plot to attack the subway system with bombs hidden in bags and possibly baby strollers.

The city's announcement of the alleged plot - and the warning to New Yorkers to keep their eyes open for anything suspicious - led to jostling between city officials and homeland security officials in Washington, who downplayed the threat.

Homeland Security Department spokesman Brian Doyle said: "The specified intelligence was checked out through the intelligence agencies. They looked at all the information and couldn't put a credible factor on it."

President Bush, asked if he thought New York officials had overreacted, said: "I think they took the information we gave and made the judgments they thought were necessary."

The dispute played out as new details emerged about the alleged plotters.

U.S. forces in Iraq arrested two suspected plotters who had been under close surveillance until Thursday morning, the law enforcement official in New York said. A third suspect escaped but was captured Friday.

The Homeland Security Department's Doyle said the government has no information that the fourth person possibly connected to the plot "is either here or even exists."

Information from the New York Times and the Associated Press was used in this report.

[Last modified October 8, 2005, 01:27:10]