"Targeted Firms Open Under Heavy Security" but ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Financial institutions identified as targets of a terrorist plot in three cities opened for business Monday under stepped-up security and defiant words from people who said they won't be cowed by the extraordinary intelligence pointing to a potential attack.

Police sealed off some streets in New York, put international-finance employees in Washington through extra security checks, and added barricades and a heavy armed presence in Newark, N.J., in response to a heightened terrorism alert aimed specifically at titans of the financial sector.

Treasury Secretary John Snow, quick to try to reassure investors and Americans generally, said the nation's financial system operated normally in the first weekday hours of the code-orange alert.

"People around the world rightly have confidence in the U.S. financial markets," Snow said. "While we must always remain vigilant against terror, we will not be intimidated and prevented from enjoying our lives and exercising our freedoms."

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"Wall Street Workers Show Little Concern"


NEW YORK (AP) - Financial employees threaded through concrete barriers and around machine gun-toting police officers as they returned to work Monday following a government warning that terrorists may be planning to strike "iconic" financial institutions.

Police closed several streets in midtown Manhattan and banned trucks from bridges and tunnels leading to Wall Street after the government described possible threats to businesses and banks in New York City, Washington, D.C., and Newark, N.J.

Workers on Wall Street - just blocks from the World Trade Center site - showed little concern, saying terror alerts and heavy security have become a part of life.

"You gotta go to work; you can't stay home all day," said Daniel Brown, 26, as he arrived at the New York Stock Exchange.

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