Are Terrorists Testing The Lincoln Tunnel? Or Is This Part Of An "October Surprise"?

Last Friday one of the worst traffic jams in NYC history was created after the Lincoln Tunnel was closed due to suspicious bottles found glued to the traffic median. It was the third such incident in a month.

During last Friday evening's rush hour, the discovery of two suspicious bottles filled with an unknown liquid and glued to the median forced Port Authority police to close down the Lincoln Tunnel for hours. Police records we've obtained show it was the third such incident in a month. The first one occurring four weeks ago, when someone placed "3 plastic heart shaped bottles" of an unknown liquid on the New Jersey side of the Lincoln Tunnel. One bottle had a ''gray wire inside" and a message, "don't look at me." And then again last Wednesday, two "red sealed bottles were glued" near a lamp post. "I would say they're studying what's going on at the tunnel," said Paul Nunziato of the Port Authority P.B.A. "Because they've been able to do it, 7 bottles placed on one of the busiest roadways in the world and no one sees them no one caught an eye on them, including the cameras."

Port Authority brass are publicly theorizing that terrorists may be testing the security of the tunnel and others complain that the tunnel has been completely unguarded by police during several recent overnight shifts. But while these bottle incidents are worrying, we've all been turned into terrorism cynics - even here in NYC - and many suspect that the Lincoln Tunnel story may be part of a coming flurry of false terror warnings, the much predicted "October Surprise" from the Bush administration.