New York, NY - U.S. Cities Were Target of August Airline Plot

New York, NY - A group of alleged terrorists arrested in London in August planned to blow up airliners over U.S. cities to maximize casualties, rather than over the Atlantic Ocean as many intelligence officials originally thought, according to recent remarks by a senior FBI official.

The comments by Mark Mershon, head of the FBI's New York field office, indicate U.S. and British intelligence officials now think the airliner plot was aimed at maximizing the potential loss of life and economic impact. "The plan was bring them down over U.S. cities, not over the ocean," Mershon said at the Infosecurity 2006 conference in New York, according to Government Security News (GSN).