Investigators suspect terrorist moles worked at the Citigroup and Prudential buildings to case the skyscrapers as potential targets of car or truck bombs, The Post has learned.
And now federal agents want to comb through employee records of the businesses that operate in the buildings to try to identify the moles, law-enforcement sources said yesterday.
The feds suspect that the extraordinarily detailed information about the skyscrapers — which was discovered on an al Qaeda computer in Pakistan — was compiled by accomplices who had time to study Citigroup's 59-story building at Lexington Avenue and 53rd Street and Prudential's building in Newark from the inside, the sources said.
Officials who examined the information concluded that the most recent surveillance of the buildings was done in January. There was additional surveillance last year, a law-enforcement source said.
[Surely even Dr. Howard Dean must realize that this is pretty recent.--Jen]
But most of it was done even before the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks — and goes back to 2000.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said yesterday that the terrorists' information was "vulnerability analysis" — which details how well or poorly guarded the targets are — and that there is no indication that it was "tied to any operational plan."
A 30-page terror document indicates plotters spent hours observing the Prudential building — even spending long stretches in a Starbucks across the street — yielding an intimate knowledge of the building's elevators and other details.
The data includes details about security cameras, escape routes and parking.
"In essence, what we were allowed to view was generated by operatives," said Rocco M. Malanga, director of Newark's Office of Homeland Security.
Investigators intend to focus on former employees, including vendors and security guards, because whoever collected the information is believed to have since left his or her job, one source said.
Investigators are not absolutely certain there were moles, but they hope that names of ex-employees will turn up on watch lists or other rosters of suspected terrorists.
The disclosures came amid several other developments in the terrorist alert announced by the federal government on Monday:
* Mayor Bloomberg signaled that the city remained open for business by ringing the opening bell at the New York Stock Exchange, another of the possible terrorist targets.
"New York is not going to be cowed," he said at a Bryant Park press conference. He called yesterday "a normal day in New York City."
* First Lady Laura Bush and her twin daughters showed solidarity with employees at the Citigroup Center by stopping to chat with diners in the building's atrium.
[That should have perked the workers up...particularly the lovely Bush Twins!
Of course, Lady Laura's a vision, too.
While Tha-RAY-Za is making us all feel bad about eating at Wendy's and telling members of the press to "Shove it!," Laura and her girls show the world what real ladies do, which is to be brave and beautiful in the face of the enemy!]
* Increased security at bridges, tunnels and other checkpoints created major traffic jams — and there are indications the headaches aren't going away soon.
* Severe restrictions on truck traffic created problems for restaurants and markets that depend on fresh produce.
* Heightened concern about terrorism led to a jump in the number of suspicious packages reported to police. More than 40 were reported by evening rush hour, compared with the 25 that are typically reported for a full day.
My heart really goes out to New Yorkers, especially--y'all hang in there and continue to go about your lives so bravely, but alertly!
It would not surprise me at all if there were AQ terrorist moles in these buildings, as both an electronic bug and a likely human mole(Yes. He was a Muslim.) were discovered and eliminated at the Pentagon itself not many months after the 9/11 attacks:
Marvelous news...THUD.
If the Pentagon's toughest security can be breached like this (and let's hope this was yet another security lapse left over from the Clintoon Administration!), then that of Prudential or Citigroup would be a piece of cake, sad to say!
These people have proved time and again that they are serious about killing us and have applied themselves for years to planning our destruction so I think it should be a "no-brainer" that we likewise apply ourselves to eliminate or incarcerate them before they can do it to more of us and I'm glad to see that our security agencies seem to be working pretty hard to do just that.
We already lost 3,000 American civilians in peacetime on 9/11 and that's 3,000 too many!
Let's vow that not another innocent soul loses their life through jihadi terrorist murder on American soil--that's
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