A Britsh al-Qaida operative conducting surveillance on US soil in 2000 favored using a limousine packed with explosives or a hijacked oil tanker truck to attack financial institutions in Manhattan and New Jersey, police officials said Thursday. "The most obvious technique to utilize, that comes to mind ... would be a limousine in the VIP underground car park," the operative, Dhiren Barot, wrote in a memo about the Prudential Building in Newark, New Jersey. Barot was sentenced to life in prison was sentenced to life in prison in Britain last week after pleading guilty to conspiring to commit mass murder. In his memo, Barot also suggested that "arson may be the best choice" and advised "ramming trucks (oil tankers, etc.) straight through the glass front entrance into the lobby area."
Hijacking a truck "will probably be much easier here in New Jersey than in New York since there is less security and no tunnels to pass through," added Barot, who spied on one location while sitting at a nearby Starbucks coffee shop.