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NY hikes security on dirty bomb Internet chatter

by Susan Jones | August 11, 2007 at 11:13 am | 827 views | add comment

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NY hikes security on dirty bomb Internet chatter

Sat Aug 11, 2007 1:42AM EDT

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By Mark Egan and Christine Kearney

NEW YORK (Reuters) - New York police stepped up security throughout Manhattan and at bridges and tunnels on Friday in response to an Internet report -- which authorities said they could not verify -- that al Qaeda might be plotting to detonate a dirty bomb in the city.

New York City police said in a statement the threat against the city was an "unverified radiological threat," stressed the increased security was precautionary and said the city's alert status for an attack was unchanged at "orange."

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg stressed there was no reason to believe this threat was any different from countless others since the September 11 attacks.

One law enforcement source told Reuters that authorities were responding to Internet chatter reported on Israeli Web site www.debka.com, but that the information reported there could not be verified.