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 Prime Minister Haider al-Abadi's comments were met with surprise
by security, intelligence and transit officials in both countries.
New York's leaders scrambled to ride the subway to reassure the
public that the nation's largest city was safe.
Abadi said he received the information Thursday morning from
militants captured in Iraq and concluded it was credible after
requesting further details. The attacks, he said, were plotted from
inside Iraq by "networks" of the Islamic State, also known as ISIS
or ISIL.
"They plan to have attacks in the metros of Paris and the U.S.,"
Abadi told a small group of U.S. reporters while in New York for the
annual meeting of the U.N. General Assembly. "I asked for more
credible information. I asked for names. I asked for details, for
cities, you know, dates. And from the details I have received, yes,
it looks credible."
Some Iraqi officials in Baghdad questioned Abadi's comments. One
high-level Iraqi government official told Reuters it appeared to be
based on "ancient intelligence." Another called it "an old story."
Both spoke on condition of anonymity.
Abadi did not provide further details. A senior Iraqi official
traveling with him later said Iraqi intelligence had uncovered
"serious threats" and had shared this information with its allies'
intelligence agencies.
"A full assessment of the veracity of the intelligence and how far
the plans have gone into implementation is ongoing," the official
said.
Ben Rhodes, a deputy national security adviser to U.S. President
Barack Obama, said the United States had "not confirmed any specific
threat."
"What we've consistently said to the Iraqis is if they have
information that is relevant to terrorist activity or terrorist
plotting, that they can and should share that through our
intelligence and law enforcement channels," Rhodes told reporters
traveling with Obama on Air Force One from New York.
"We would certainly take seriously any information they are
learning," he said.
French security services also said they had no information
confirming Abadi's statement, a French government official said,
speaking on condition of anonymity.
STRONGER TRANSIT SECURITY
New York Governor Andrew Cuomo, New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio
and other local officials suggested they were unfazed, updating
their public schedules on Thursday to add trips on the city's subway
system to reassure millions of daily commuters.
"We are convinced New Yorkers are safe," de Blasio said at a press
conference at a lower Manhattan subway station as he stood alongside
New York City Police Commissioner Bill Bratton and George Venizelos,
assistant director of the Federal Bureau of Investigation.
The New York Police Department's intelligence bureau found no
specific, credible threat, de Blasio said.
Bratton said in response to Abadi's comments that he sent more
police to patrol subways and streets in the city which was already
on high alert because of the U.N. meeting.
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Joseph Sheehan, 44, from the city's Queens borough, learned about
the threats from the web. "They were checking bags earlier at the
Port Authority. Seems like they do that at times of heightened
alerts," he said. In Los Angeles, America's second most populous
city, law enforcement officials said that while no specific threat
had been made to the transit system, they were working with federal
authorities to monitor the situation and urged residents to remain
vigilant.
Officials in Chicago and Washington also said they knew of no
threats to their transit systems.
The United States and France have both launched air strikes against
Islamic State targets in Iraq as part of a U.S.-led campaign to
"degrade and destroy" the radical Sunni militant group, which has
seized a third of both Iraq and Syria.
Abadi disclosed the intelligence while making a case for Western and
Arab countries to join that campaign. "We want to increase the
number of willing countries who would support this," he said. "This
is not military. This is intelligence. This is security. The
terrorists have a massive international campaign. Don’t
underestimate it."
In the past, the United States had received threats that various
militant groups were targeting transportation systems but there is
no recent information about an imminent plan by Islamic State, one
U.S. official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity.
Abadi also said that Iraq did not want to see foreign "boots on the
ground," but stressed the value of providing air cover, saying
Iraq's air force did not have sufficient capability.
He said Australia was "very interested" in participating, though he
did not provide details. He also voiced optimism about a planned
British parliament vote on Friday on the matter, saying "they reckon
it will be successful."
Earlier on Thursday, France said it would increase security on
transport and in public places after a French tourist was killed in
Algeria, and said it was ready to support all states that requested
its help to fight terror.
(Additional reporting by Mark Hosenball and Ian Simpson in
Washington,; Frank McGurty, Steve Holland and Rodrigo Campos in New
York, Dan Whitcomb in Los Angeles,; Nicolas Bertin in Paris and Ned
Parker in Baghdad; Editing by Jason Szep, Lisa Shumaker and Peter
Cooney)
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