The US federal government warned today of possible terrorist attacks against ‘‘iconic’’ financial institutions in New York City, Washington and Newark, New Jersey, saying a confluence of intelligence over the weekend pointed to a car or truck bomb.Specifically, the government named these buildings as potential targets:• The Citicorp building and the New York Stock Exchange in New York City.• The International Monetary Fund and the World Bank buildings in Washington.• The Prudential building in Newark.‘‘The preferred means of attack would be car or truck bombs,’’ Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said in a briefing with journalists. That would be a primary means of attack.’’The government said the new intelligence indicated the meticulous planning of Al Qaeda. Ridge said the government’s threat level for financial institutions would be raised to orange, or high alert, but would remain at yellow, or elevated, elsewhere.Ridge said it would be up to New York City officials to decide whether to move to the highest level, red. The city has remained on orange since the attacks of September 11, 2001. The secretary said the government took the unprecedented step of naming specific buildings because of the level of specificity of the intelligence. ‘‘This is not the usual chatter. This is multiple sources that involve extraordinary detail,’’ Ridge said.Ridge acknowledged that protecting these buildings, located in heavily populated areas, would require additional security measures, especially because thousands of cars and trucks travel through these cities daily.‘‘Car and truck bombs are one of the most difficult tasks we have in the war on terror,’’ Ridge said.A White House spokeswoman, Erin Healy, said the intelligence on the threat is ‘‘very new, coming in during the last 72 hours’’. She said President Bush was kept updated on the report and was briefed about the matter over the past three days.‘‘The President made the final decision today agreeing with the recommendation of Secretary Ridge to go ahead and raise the threat level in these select areas,’’ Healy said.The New York Police Department advised building managers and corporate security personnel to step up their procedures to guard against vehicles rigged with explosives and against chemical agents placed in ventilation systems. The new information was first reported on Saturday night by ABC News. The ABC report said intelligence sources had described a plan by Al Qaeda to move non-Arab terrorists across the Mexican border into the US.The warnings appeared to be linked to the arrest on July 19 in Texas of Farida Goolam Mohamed Ahmed after she entered the US from Mexico by crossing the Rio Grande and crawling through bushes. According to several news accounts, she had an altered passport, several thousand dollars in cash and an airline ticket to New York. She had admitted to no criminal intent.
