NEW YORK — A federal bulletin warned that "a team of terrorist operatives" — possibly already in New York — was planning to bomb the subways tomorrow.

The bulletin, a copy of which was obtained yesterday, said the strike would be carried out by terrorists using "remote-controlled" bombs hidden in briefcases, suitcases or strollers.

"A team of terrorist operatives, some of whom may travel to or who may be in the New York City area, may attempt to execute an attack on the New York City subway on or about Oct. 9, 2005," stated the joint FBI-Homeland Security bulletin sent to law enforcement officials.

The memo — distributed Thursday, the same day Mayor Michael Bloomberg went public on the matter — contained four pages of advice on protecting the subway but also stated that Homeland Security and FBI officials "have doubts on the credibility of the threat."

Bloomberg and Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly had known about the threat for several days and had begun ramping up security.

The mayor defended his decision to publicize the threat, saying its specificity and the fact that the plot was linked to al-Qaida were reason enough to act.

A senior FBI official in Washington said the agency learned about the purported plot last month and wasn't especially alarmed.

The suspects "do not have the capability or ability to carry out such an attack and are not in a position or place to do it, or have the international connections to do it," the official said.

But President Bush said he did not think New York overreacted. "I think they took the information we gave and made the judgments they thought were necessary," he said.

The presidential vote of confidence came as a third alleged plotter was captured in Iraq and authorities hunted for a fourth person, who may be in the United States, sources said.

Subway commuters headed to work yesterday as thousands of extra police pulled random riders aside and rifled through their bags.

Parts of Penn Station were briefly shut down during the morning rush hour when a rider found a soda oozing a green Drano-like liquid.

Kelly said the soda-can incident "looks like a prank" and was just one of more than 80 reports of suspicious packages across the city.

The terrorism jitters were also felt in the nation's capital after the Washington Monument was evacuated because of a telephone bomb threat. Nothing dangerous was found and the monument was reopened.

The tip about the subway-bombing plot came from an Iraqi pharmacist who had spent time in Afghanistan and who had provided reliable information about al-Qaida activities in the past, sources said.

Before U.S. forces began rounding up the suspects in Iraq, the pharmacist passed two lie-detector tests.

The supposed plotters — all of whom learned how to make bombs in Afghanistan — were to travel to New York via Syria, sources said. Once in the city, they would meet with as many as a dozen others and launch coordinated attacks, sources said.

Thousands of police will patrol the subways at least through the weekend and safeguard other potential targets, including Yankee Stadium.

Security-funding bill favors border patrols

WASHINGTON — Congress yesterday sent President Bush a $32 billion homeland-security bill with big increases for patrolling borders, fewer grants for local first responders and a freeze in transit-security funding.

The bill, passed by the Senate on a voice vote, also would facilitate a Department of Homeland Security reorganization that strips disaster preparedness from the beleaguered Federal Emergency Management Agency's duties so it can focus on responding to events such as hurricanes and follow-up on recovery efforts.

The legislation would increase the department's overall budget by 5 percent.

Two border-security agencies would receive 10 percent increases to help pay for 1,500 new border-patrol agents.

The bill would move toward a more risk-based formula for distributing first-responder grants, a priority for states such as New York and New Jersey. The bill would freeze rail and transit security grants at $150 million.

The bill also would include budget increases of more than 10 percent to upgrade explosives-screening technology at airports. The measure also would limit the number of full-time airport screeners employed by the Transportation Security Agency to 45,000.