A suspected al-Qaeda operative, detained in Lebanon, has confessed to plotting to attack New York City tunnels later this year and said he was acting on Osama bin Laden's orders, Lebanese officials said.
Lebanese police, acting on a tip from the FBI, arrested Assem Hammoud who is also known as Amir Andalousi in Beirut on April 27, authorities said Friday, according to AFP. "Hammoud is a member of al-Qaeda and he confessed to this (plot) information frankly and without coercion," an official said. The suspect told investigators he was acting "on a religious order from (Osama) bin Laden and said 'I am proud to carry out his orders'."
Mark Mershon, Assistant Director of the FBI's New York office, said a year-long investigation had identified eight "principal players" in the conspiracy to bomb train links under the Hudson River between Manhattan and New Jersey.
The suspect's family denied any al-Qaeda links and his mother, Nabila Qotob, said Hammoud taught economics at a local university, was an outdoor person who drank alcohol, had girlfriends and bore none of the hallmarks of an Islamic extremist.
Lebanese police issued a statement Friday saying that Andalousli belonged to "an extremist group that was in the process of preparing to carry a major terrorist act in the United States." The statement added he was tracked down through monitoring of a Web site used by Muslim extremists and "in cooperation and coordination with the FBI."
"It became clear from the analysis that (the Internet communications) related to the planning of a major terror act in the metro tunnels of New York under the Hudson River," the statement said.
The statement said Andalousli had been ordered to live a life of fun and indulgence in Lebanon to hide his Islamic militancy. He was instructed not to show any religious tendencies while in the country. He was in contact with other people in several foreign countries and most of these had been arrested by local security agencies, the statement added.
Under interrogation, Andalousli said he had dispatched detailed maps of the target via the Internet. He also said he planned to go to Pakistan in the near future for four months of training and "that the date of the operation would be late 2006," the police said.
The suspect told investigators he had already undergone training in light weapons in Ain el Hilweh, a Palestinian refugee camp in southern Lebanon.
