From
Reuter's.
Today's
super scary terrorist plot. The first paragaph of today's Reuter's story.
New York tunnel bomb plot uncovered
A plot to bomb the 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.
Sounds pretty scary. Flooding the financial district is really scary. I'm scared. Are you?
That is, until you skip way down to the end of the story.
More on the flip...
Buried at the end of story, you'll find the little gem.
But it said some experts did not consider the plan feasible because the tunnel was protected by concrete and cast-iron steel and even if the tunnel cracked, the Wall Street district would not flood because it was above the level of the river.
"These don't seem to be the brightest bulbs in the terrorist lot. Their plan made no sense," Schumer said.
The plan was not feasible? The terrorist weren't the brightest? Seems like this should be in the lead paragraph, not the end of the story. Not so scary now, is it?
Interesting how the elevation of the financial district is presented as the opinion of
some experts. Seems like a fact that could be verified pretty easily since I don't remember ever hearing about any dikes in NYC.
Update 1: CNN adds this nugget this morning:
Sources told CNN that the Holland Tunnel -- the southernmost link between New Jersey and Manhattan -- was not mentioned specifically as a target.
"At this time, we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system or anywhere else in the U.S.," FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said Friday.
Update 2:
The sourcing for the stories is interesting. Last night's Reuter's story:
Rep. Peter King (news, bio, voting record), a New York Republican and chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Homeland Security Committee, said he had been aware of the investigation and the plot for almost nine months.
This morning's cnn story:
"At this time, we have no indication of any imminent threat to the New York transportation system or anywhere else in the U.S.," FBI Special Agent Richard Kolko said Friday.
Interesting how Reuter's named source is a political figure and CNN's named source is from the FBI.
