It's a good thing Osama wasn't walking through SoHo yesterday morning. Two sets of confidential blueprints for the planned Freedom Tower, which is set to rise at Ground Zero, were carelessly dumped in a city garbage can on the corner of West Houston and Sullivan streets, The Post has learned.
Experts said the detailed, floor-by-floor schematics contain enough detail for terrorists to plot a devastating attack.
"Secure Document - Confidential," warns the title page on each of the two copies of the 150-page schematic that a homeless, recovering drug addict discovered in the public trash can.
"Any time a sensitive document is unintentionally left behind, it's a treasure trove for a potential adversary," aid Robert Strang, CEO of Investigative Management Group, a global security firm. "It enables them to look for vulnerabilities in design that they can target - an age-old military tactic."
Informed of what the homeless man, Mike Fleming, had found, shocked Port Authority officials called it an egregious security lapse.
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Although the documents, dated Oct. 5, 2007, are not a complete set of blueprints, they do contain details such as plans for each floor, the thickness of the concrete-core wall and the location of air ducts, elevators, electrical systems and support columns.
"Certainly, if you know the thickness of concrete, someone with an explosive background can develop and plot an attack," Strang said.
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But Steve Yang, an architect who reviewed the schematics for The Post, said that even though they do not contain every detail, it would be easy to fill in the blanks.
"An expert in explosives, demolition or biological weapons certainly could glean enough here to develop a game plan," he said. "You can see where all the concrete walls are, where the emergency stairwells are, and the electrical and HVAC systems."
