Washington ? Homeland Security Chief Tom Ridge placed the major financial services districts in Washington, New York and Newark, N.J., on heightened terrorism alert Sunday, citing “new and unusually specific information” about possible al-Qaida plans to attack banks and other financial institutions with car or truck bombs.

Ridge offered no firm time or date for the possible attacks, but he said the information on which the warning was based came from a variety of sources.

“The quality of this intelligence, based on multiple reporting streams in multiple locations, is rarely seen and is alarming in both the amount and specificity,” he said.

Law enforcement authorities in the cities said they would increase security at the buildings, but said it was up to the individual buildings to decide what steps workers should take. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg told a press conference that workers should go to their offices Monday as they always did.

The buildings covered by Ridge’s warning include the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington; Prudential Financial in Newark, N.J., and the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup buildings in New York City’s bustling financial district.

Ridge warned, however, that additional financial institutions in all three areas could be targeted and urged nearby residents and employees to be vigilant.

“Terrorists should know, in this country, this kind of information, while startling, is not stifling. It will not weaken the American spirit or dampen our resolve,” Ridge said.

Bush OKs warning

The information that led to the warning was developed in the past 72 hours, officials said, and was presented Sunday morning to President Bush, who signed off on the warning. The White House had no further comment.

A heavily armed police officer patrols the perimeter of the Citicorp Building in New York. The federal government warned Sunday of possible terrorist attacks against iconic financial institutions in New York City, Washington and Newark, N.J., saying a confluence of chilling intelligence in recent days pointed to a car or truck bomb.

The Bush administration also informed the campaign of Democratic presidential challenger John Kerry, the Kerry campaign said.

Employees in the affected areas can expect enhanced security, such as limited automobile access, underground parking restrictions, pedestrian-free buffer zones around buildings and personal security checks upon their arrival to work today. In addition, security personnel might use digital photos to keep track of people entering or leaving the buildings, Ridge said.

Sunday’s alert marked the first time the threat level had been raised for specific geographic locations and business sectors rather than the entire United States. The rest of the nation remains at an elevated or Code Yellow level.

According to a background briefing given reporters, the new information indicates that al-Qaida operatives have done extensive surveillance of the buildings, including noting the location and times that security personnel would be in place, whether they were armed and the types of uniforms they wear.

The group also has noted the amount of pedestrian traffic near the sites, possible entry and exit routes for bombing attacks, places where they could safely conduct surveillance and the structure of underground parking facilities.

The group also has studied where to place bombs for maximum damage and what explosives would be most suitable.

Source not disclosed

Ridge declined to identify the source of the information, though the nature of it suggested officials had recently come across a document or other written record.

U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge warns of possible terrorist attacks against financial institutions in the East.

Ridge also said the information did not stem from the arrest July 19 of a woman who was apprehended at an airport in McAllen, Texas, after immigration agents determined she was carrying a doctored South African passport. The woman, who officials believed crossed illegally into Texas from Mexico, also had a plane ticket to New York and several thousand dollars in cash, according to news reports.

The heightened alert was not without its skeptics.

Former Vermont governor and Democratic presidential candidate Howard Dean said in an interview on CNN’s “Late Edition with Wolf Blitzer” that the announcement might be a political ploy.

Members of the New York Police Department Highway Patrol stop vehicles at a checkpoint in New York's financial district. The federal government warned Sunday of possible al-Qaida terrorist attacks against financial institutions in three East Coast cities: Washington, New York and Newark, N.J.

“I am concerned that every time something happens that’s not good for President Bush, he plays this trump card, which is terrorism,” he said. “It’s just impossible to know how much of this is real and how much of this is politics. I suspect there’s some of both in it.”

But the Kerry campaign indicated it took the announcement seriously and said it should remind Americans that they are not safe.

“This is a very serious development and underscores the need to move aggressively to implement the 9-11 Commission’s crucial recommendations,” Kerry’s senior national security adviser, Susan Rice, said in a statement.