Sources: Al Qaeda Again Targeting New York. (Hat tip: Ethel.)

NEW YORK, July 31, 2004 — ABC News has learned that federal and New York City officials have received credible intelligence that al Qaeda has been plotting to carry out suicide attacks on corporations based in the city.

Sources at several law enforcement agencies tell ABC News that an “overseas source” has provided the information about the threat to New York and that it is more significant than the usual “chatter” intercepted from likely terrorists that has prompted warnings in the past.

Officials from dozens of local and federal agencies met into the night Friday and again this morning.

“Intelligence reporting indicates that al Qaeda continues to target for attack commercial and financial institutions, as well as international organizations, inside the United States,” the New York City Police Department said in a statement released today on the “ongoing al Qaeda threat.”

“The NYPD recommends that corporate and institutional security directors review their protection of HVAC systems, parking installations, and security in general,” the statement added. “The alert level for New York City remains unchanged at ‘orange’ or ‘high.’”

Intelligence sources say al Qaeda plans to move non-Arab terrorists across the border with Mexico.

Authorities already have in custody a woman of Pakistani-origin arrested after crossing into Texas. She carried a South African passport with several of the pages torn out, $7,000 in cash and an airplane ticket to New York.