Heavy Security Remains for Terror Targets

NEW YORK - Under the steady gaze of police officers sporting body armor and automatic weapons, workers were confronted with ID checks and bag searches as they headed for work following the most specific domestic terrorism warnings since the 2001 attacks. Police said the measures would remain in effect Tuesday and would be reviewed daily.

Officials have acknowledged that information suggesting al-Qaida was targeting East Coast financial institutions came largely from a Pakistani computer engineer captured last month and that most of the information was amassed in 2000 and 2001. No timetable for potential attacks has ever been specified.

The government triggered the concerns Sunday when it announced that terrorists had recently observed the stock exchange and The Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J.

On Tuesday, Mayor Michael Bloomberg waved aside suggestions that the intelligence was outdated and that the city overreacted in enacting new security measures.

"The only thing you ever know about security measures is when you didn't take enough," he said on NBC's "Today" show. "You never know when you took too many of them. We do what we think is appropriate."

"Some of this information is old, but what is clear is it has been updated and more of it became available to the intelligence community on Friday," he added.

On "Good Morning America," Frances Townsend, who heads the office of counter-terrorism at the White House, said casings originally done in 2000 and 2001 appeared to have been updated as recently as January.

"From what we know of al-Qaida's method ... they do (casings) years in advance and then update them before they actually launch the attack," she said.

The government triggered the concerns Sunday when it announced that terrorists had recently observed the stock exchange and The Citigroup Center in Manhattan, the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington, and Prudential Financial Inc.'s headquarters in Newark, N.J.

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge along with Bloomberg, New York Gov. George Pataki and New Jersey Gov. James E. McGreevey were to meet Tuesday with financial executives from affected companies to discuss security concerns.

On Monday, officials sealed off some streets in New York, put financial employees in Washington through extra security checks, and added concrete barricades and a heavily armed presence in Newark, N.J., in response to a terrorism alert aimed at financial titans.

"You realize that's the world you live in, and you deal with it," said Kenneth Polcari, a trader at the New York Stock Exchange, one of many weary workers who filtered into the Wall Street building Monday.

Bloomberg and Pataki rang the opening bell at the stock exchange Monday to show solidarity with workers and visited the Citigroup building with first lady Laura Bush and her twin daughters in the afternoon.

Greater security was more visible in the nation's capital, where authorities announced plans to block portions of Independence and Constitution avenues - major traffic arteries that run on either side of the Capitol grounds.

Washington police checked ID cards as employees filed into the World Bank headquarters; inside, security guards checked them again. Across the street, guards at the International Monetary Fund swept the underside of cars with detecting devices as they entered the garage.

"I'm concerned, but we have to carry on as normal," said IMF employee Shirley Davies.

Police closed Manhattan streets around Grand Central Terminal and banned trucks from some bridges and tunnels. Trucks passing landmarks or traveling on major thoroughfares also were subject to random searches.

Officials set up concrete barriers and police teams around the 24-story Prudential building in New Jersey, where about 1,000 employees work. They showed identification to get into the building and its underground parking garage.

Prudential chairman and CEO Arthur F. Ryan reported that customers are not fleeing and the "overwhelming majority" of employees reported to work. "Everything we've heard so far has been reinforcing. 'We're with you.' That's basically what we've heard from most of them," Ryan said.

In response to the East Coast terror alert, security measures were heightened in downtown Los Angeles and in the Century City complex where high-rise buildings and financial institutions are located.

"We have received no credible information to indicate any of these threats are directed against Southern California. However, we are going to continue to remain on a heightened state of vigilance," Los Angeles Mayor James K. Hahn said at a news conference.

The fears reverberated to the nation's heartland. The Chicago Board of Trade closed its visitors center in response to the threats, and the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago also heightened security, said Federal Reserve spokesman Douglas Tillett.

Chicago Mercantile Exchange spokeswoman Anita Liskey also wouldn't comment on specific security measures at the futures market, one of the largest in the world, but employees in the building said they had noticed changes.

"There's more security guards," Mercantile clerk Jenna Fowler said, pointing to a guard standing outside a window. "It makes me scared that it's a financial institution, but there's a lot more security than there was last week."

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