Tom Ridge has raised the terrorism threat level to "high" for Washington, DC, Northern New Jersey, and New York City. The targeted "Orange Alert" has led to the closing of the Holland Tunnel's inbound lanes for trucks.

The last few weeks have witnessed numerous key arrests in the war on terror. Last week, Pakistan announced that it had arrested Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, a African who has been linked to the 1998 American embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania. Around the same time on the U.S.-Mexican border, U.S. border patrol agents apprehended Farida Goolam Mahomed Ahmed, a 48-year-old South African with plans to travel to New York and four pages ripped from her passport. Perhaps the biggest prize intelligence wise has been Muhammad Naeem Noor Khan, a computer expert who has revealed a plethora of new information. Khan revealed that al Qaeda had been paying him $260 a month, the group communicates primarily through the Internet, and that he doesn't know Osama bin-Laden's whereabouts.

The new information lists among possible al Qaeda targets the World Bank and IMF buildings in the Capital, the New York Stock Exchange, and the Prudential building in New Jersey. "The preferred means of attack would be car or truck bombs," Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge said on Sunday. "That would be a primary means of attack."

The choice of the CitiBank building suggests that the terrorists are still in a 9/11 mindset of toppling buildings. The famous Manhattan structure was poorly built, and at least until it was reinforced it was thought to be susceptible to being knocked down by hurricane-force winds.

According to intelligence, Al Qaeda has cased the buildings, knowing what time of day the body count would be highest and how many people pass the buildings per hour. They have been planning these potential attacks, apparently, since before 9/11.