Terror Threat Against NY Train System

US News | Wed, Nov 26, 2008 at 9:43:06 am PST

An alert has been put out for a possible terror plot targeting the Long Island Railroad.

Law enforcement officials tell ABCNews.com, the plot involved a “Madrid-like attack,” a reference to the synchronized bombing of the commuter rail system in Spain in March 2004 that killed 191 people. ...

“There is nothing concrete to suggest this plot ever went beyond the aspirational or talking stage,” said a U.S. official familiar with the intelligence that led to the warning.

Law enforcement officials told ABCNews.com the information was based on an FBI source who has proved “reliable and knowledgeable in the past.” ...

The FBI’s source reportedly told agents of an al Qaeda-connected group’s desire to place bombs or suicide bombers inside the first and last Long Island Rail Road commuter cars and detonate them as the train entered Pennsylvania Station in Manhattan, also used by the Washington-New York-Boston Amtrak system and the New York City subway.