The Department of Homeland Security warned yesterday that financial institutions in Manhattan, northern New Jersey and Washington D.C. face a high risk of a terrorist attack carried out by Al Qaeda.

Officials specifically cited five targets: the New York Stock Exchange and Citigroup building in New York, the Prudential Financial center in Newark an the International Monetary Fund and World Bank buildings in Washington. In all three areas the terror threat level was elevated to orange or “high risk.”

The New York Times reports the source of the new intelligence is a 25-year-old Al Qaeda operative who was arrested in Pakistan on July 13. Officials said they uncovered documents that shows Al Qaeda had begun plotting to target these sites with car or truck bombs before the Sept. 11 attacks.