Terror Warning Leads To New Truck Restricts In New York - Government Says Buildings In NY, DC And NJ May Be Targeted                                                     (August 4, 2004)

In response to the government’s terror warning announced on Sunday, commercial trucks have been banned from entering New York City via the Holland Tunnel and Brooklyn Battery Tunnel, news services reported. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly said that trucks need to use either the Lincoln Tunnel or George Washington Bridge to reach New York, the Fox News reported. In addition, police rerouted all New York-bound trucks from the Williamsburg Bridge to the Manhattan Bridge in an effort to streamline random vehicle searches.

Homeland Security Director Tom Ridge on Sunday raised the terror threat level for financial institutions in New York, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J., to orange, or high alert, the second highest level on the government's five-point system.

Ridge said terrorists could be targeting the Citigroup Center building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark.

Ridge said analysts had determined that whoever was behind the scouting operations planned to use a bomb-laden vehicle such as a truck, the New York Times reported.

He also said fresh intelligence did not give crucial details about when, where or how terrorists may strike, the Associated Press reported.

In Washington, police Chief Charles Ramsey said teams of bomb-sniffing dogs would sweep areas around the World Bank and IMF headquarters, and officers would conduct more traffic stops of large vehicles in the area.  By Transport Topics

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