NY City al Qaeda dirty bomb plot?

NY Post:

In a show of force, the NYPD mobilized hundreds of anti-terrorism cops last night after an Internet report of a "dirty bomb" threat targeting the city surfaced, authorities said.

An Israeli-based Web site claimed al Qaeda communications accuse the United States of failing to take seriously the videotaped message last Sunday of an American member of the terror group, who vowed to attack the "spy dens" of U.S. and allied embassies throughout the Islamic world, police said.

DEBKA file - which attempts to report on the actions and chatter among al Qaeda cells - posted the story yesterday on its Web site, claiming that New York would be attacked in the coming days "by means of trucks loaded with radioactive material against America's biggest city and financial nerve center."

The threats were allegedly found in an exchange of messages over the terror group's internal Internet sites.

Taking precautions against the threats, officers were mobilized and checkpoints set up throughout the city - at the Lincoln and Holland tunnels and various locations in lower Manhattan, including the Financial District - to conduct searches and monitor suspicious activity.

"While the threat remains unverified, our counter-terrorism posture has been modified to include increased deployment of radiological sensors," said NYPD spokesman Paul Browne.

...

I guess there are a couple of dots here that cannot be ignored in the current climate. As I understand the scheme it would be to drive some truck bombs that also have nuclear waste on board into the financial district and make them unusable creating a financial crisis that would cause the US to have to withdraw its forces from around the world. Of course this was Osama's stated objective for the attacks on the World Trade Center. The fact that we have been in the middle of an economic boom in recent years would have to be considered as a strategic defeat for al Qaeda.

Even if their tactical operation were successfully implemented, it is doubtful it would achieve their strategic objective. Most of the finance companies have redundant operations across the river in New Jersey and elsewhere. The markets would continue to function and the attacks against al Qaeda would increase.

Gateway Pundit has more on the alleged plot. Ynet interviews the DEBKAfile editor about the dirty bomb plot story.