Holland Tunnel bomb plot uncovered

Holland Tunnel bomb plot uncovered

Friday, July 7, 2006; Posted: 7:08 a.m. EDT (11:08 GMT)

Plotters planned to bomb New York's Holland Tunnel and flood the city's financial district, a newspaper reports.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -- A plot to bomb New York's Holland Tunnel in an effort to flood the Wall Street financial district has been uncovered by the FBI, with a suspect arrested in Lebanon, New York's Daily News reported on Friday.

The newspaper, quoting unidentified counterterrorism sources, said the investigation involved what officials considered a "serious plot" to detonate enough explosives inside the landmark tunnel to destroy it and send devastating floodwaters through lower Manhattan.

http://www.cnn.com/2006/US/07/07/tunnel ... index.html

This is the most serious threat uncovered in quite awhile if Al-Zarqawi's guys were involved. Good news is this is another example of a plot that would not have succeeded. First, it would be nearly impossible to breach the tunnel with explosives as it is built well under the bedrock and is reinforced with concrete and steel. More importantly, even if they somehow did bust a hole in it, the tunnel would flood, but only up to the level of the river. Since all of Manhattan including the Financial District is above sea level, there would be no effect.

Bombing a subway river tunnel would do much more damage since much of the system is below sea level. However, since you can't drive a truck bomb into a subway tunnel, it would be nearly impossible to do.