FBI agent addresses managers at June 7 seminar. (Transcripts).

In response to the recent FBI warning of possible subversive activity in the targeting of residential buildings by terrorist organizations, AKAM Associates, Inc., one of New York's leading residential management companies, arranged for a special agent from the FBI to address nearly 100 of their resident managers and superintendents at a terrorism awareness and preparedness seminar on June 7 at one of their upper East side client properties, announces Leslie Kaminoff, CEO.

According to the FBI agent, the advisory was issued because al Qaeda terrorists in custody admitted under interrogation that the organization was discussing bombing residential buildings, a technique similar to that used in Chechneya, here in the United States.

The agent told the AKAM staff members that in case of a building evacuation their on-site presence and knowledge of the building and its inhabitants was "critical." In the event of such a situation the teams of emergency personnel, including the Office of Emergency Management, police and FBI, will need to know the status of the occupants, which residents need assistance n leaving their apartments (elderly, handicapped, etc.) and which apartments are empty. He advised them to collect this information and have it available for possible future use.

In addition, the agent profiled the type of suspicious behavior exhibited by people possibly engaged in subversive activities. This profile included people who do not have a job and keep irregular hours, people who pay in advance and only with cash, tenants receiving unusual amounts of packages and insist on handling the parcels themselves, and people who insist on first floor apartments. The agent further recommended staff and residents stay alert to what's going on in the building and to question and report any suspicious activity when common sense fails to. provide a reasonable explanation.

"In accordance with FBI recommendations, AKAM is carefully screening new tenants by verifying identity, running complete credit checks, and confirming former residency. Security in our buildings has always been a top priority, but in light of the current situation we are instructing our staff and client properties to be even more diligent in order to maintain a safe and secure environment," says Kamioff.

"By upgrading the physical security of our buildings, keeping doors locked, maintaining proper lighting in common areas, limiting access to sensitive areas to essential personnel only, keeping security cameras functioning properly and advising residents and staff to practice a heightened sense of awareness, our buildings will be less vulnerable and therefore, according to the FBI, undesirable targets," he concluded.