Grand Central Terror Plot May Have New York Ties

March 2, 2005 — -- The FBI is trying to determine whether sketches of Grand Central Terminal found at the home of a suspect in last year's Madrid train bombings were supplied by associates in New York City.

Members of the FBI-NYPD Joint Terrorism Task Force are investigating who sent the crude sketches of the city's busiest subway and rail hub to the suspected member of a Madrid terror cell. ABC News has learned that investigators are combing the streets for a possible link who may still be in the city.

Officials stressed that there is no evidence, however, of an active plot or even any indication that the drawing could be used in such a plot.

In other words, officials say, there is no cause for alarm.

"Nothing in this new material has caused us to make changes in our security plans or procedures," NYC Police Commissioner Ray Kelly said at a news conference today.

Intelligence officials say the investigation is an attempt to learn whatever they can about possible associates of the Madrid cell who may be in the United States now or have been in the country in the past. The investigation is focused on whether the sketches are the work of a student who may have been sent to the United States to conduct surveillance, sources told ABC News.

The drawings, disclosed in the Spanish newspaper El Mundo, were crude, Kelly said. Other law enforcement officials added that the drawings appear to have little to no operational significance for a terrorist.

ABC News has learned that the drawings are of a room located off the main terminal floor but near a major entrance to the subway station below the terminal. The room is not a public gathering place, and is not considered a sensitive location.

Officials say the drawings are not "schematic," in that they do not include any dimensions or other such engineering information.

Spanish authorities say they found the pictures on a computer disk when they raided the Madrid apartment of Mouhannad Almallah.

Almallah, a Syrian, was arrested after Spanish police connected him to two jailed suspects in the Madrid bombings who were seen on the trains before the explosions. His family claims he's innocent.

Kelly described the drawings as "crude" but perhaps done by someone who visited the massive set of commuter rail and subway links that go several stories below street level underneath the ornate, early 20th century rail terminal.

Sources at the FBI-NYPD task force told ABC News they received the drawings as part of a package of files on a computer diskette and hard drive sent by the Spanish authorities some time late in the fall of 2004. But it wasn't until late November or early December that the task force investigators isolated the drawings from the other materials in the files. There was no other material on the disks that appeared to be linked to the Grand Central drawing -- no calendars, no dates, no evidence of planning, no discussion, officials said.

It would be alarmist to say there is any imminent danger but it would be foolish to not take the material seriously, law enforcement officials in the city and the federal government said. Today, uniformed officers were out in force in New York -- canine units, Emergency Service Units and even the National Guard -- all to lend security to the millions of daily riders of the subway, police officials for the city and state said.

Recent Subway Threats

New York's subway has in recent years been the target in three terror-related arrests.

In one case, a U.S. citizen and a Pakistani national were arrested in August 2004 after allegedly surveilling busy subway lines in Queens and in Manhattan, including a stop next to Macy's flagship store.

In the third arrest, authorities arrested a man who allegedly intended to bomb the subway and seized bomb-making materials, but sources say that while the man had the intent to bomb, his bombs would likely never have gone off as they were poorly wired.

Unlike terrorist surveillance materials that led to a high alert when they were discovered last July, these crude drawings had no maps or other material of operational use. The earlier material had detailed pre-attack plans for financial targets in New York, New Jersey and Washington, D.C.

Intelligence continues to show that locations in New York remain the most frequently mentioned targets for terrorists around the world.