N.Y. City officials advise extra security

NEW YORK -- The New York Police Department, responding to new information that terrorists may be planning to attack corporations or large public institu-

tions in the city, Saturday night advised building managers and corporate security personnel to step up their procedures to guard against vehicles rigged with explosives and against chemical agents placed in ventilation systems.

The warning followed meetings on Friday night and Saturday between Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly and Pasquale Damuro, the assistant director in charge of the New York field office of the Federal Bureau of Investigation, accord-

ing to Kelly's chief spokesman, Paul Browne.

Browne said the meetings were held to discuss the latest reports of a terrorist threat against the city, but declined to comment on the source of the new information.

"The information is considered credible," said a law enforcement official.

Tom Ridge, the secretary of the Department of Homeland Security, was scheduled to be in New York City today. Federal officials have been tight-lipped about the purpose of Ridge's trip and would not say whether it was connected to any heightened terror concerns.

The new information was first reported Saturday night by ABC News, which said it had learned from several law-enforcement agencies that an overseas source, which the network did not name, had provided information about suicide attacks being planned by al-Qaida in the city. The ABC report said intelligence sources had described a plan by al-Qaida to move non-Arab terrorists across the Mexican border into the United States.

A federal counterterrorism official, who also spoke on the condition of anonymity, said Saturday night that federal law enforcement agents briefed the Joint Terrorism Task Force on Friday after a woman of Pakistani origin arrived at the Mexican border carrying a suspicious passport. The official said the woman was also carrying a plane ticket from Texas to New York and several thousand dollars in cash. But she had admitted to no criminal intent.

But another federal law enforcement official said the woman was believed to have been on a terrorist watch list. He said she might have been sent as "a courier" to pass along either a message or documentation to someone in the United States.

A law enforcement official in New York said, "the concern was that she may be part of a team" planning attacks in the city.

The Police Department warnings, which were distributed in a news release to reporters Saturday evening, said, "Intelligence reporting indicates that al-Qaida continues to target for attack commercial and financial institutions, as well as international organizations, inside the United States."

Although the release did not say that new information indicated the city was more vulnerable than others across the United States, a law enforcement official, who insisted on anonymity, said last night that "it would be right to assume that there is particular concern" about large buildings and institutions in Manhattan. He said the United Nations was considered a potential target, as were large banks, financial institutions and company headquarters.

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