www.southcoasttoday.com/daily/01-05/01-21-05/a14sr586.htm
BOSTON -- The FBI continued to investigate a tip yesterday that six potential terror suspects may be planning an attack against Boston, and there were visible signs of increased security across the city. But officials sought to assure the public that there is no confirmed threat , and residents appeared to take it all in stride.
Authorities were searching across the Northeast for four Chines e nationals and two Iraqis described by the FBI as possible terror suspe cts who may be heading for Boston.
The day before, federal law enforcement officials released the names and photographs of four Chinese nationals -- two men and two women -- they said they are seeking for questioning, but did not provide any details about the two Iraqis.
Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymi ty because of the ongoing investigation, said the names were part of the same anonymous tip that led authorities on Wednesday to announce that t hey are seeking to question the four other Chinese and two Iraqis.
A third federal law enforcement official in Washington, also sp eaking on condition of anonymity, said the tip was received Wednesday by the California Highway Patrol. The tipster said the four Chinese entere d the United States from Mexico and were awaiting a shipment of "nuclear oxide" that would follow them to Boston.
US Attorney Michael Sullivan said authorities had been able t o learn more background on the four Chinese nationals, but "it makes us no more alarmed this morning, this afternoon, than we were yesterday."
"They're not wanted at this point in time for any crimes becaus e there's no evidence at this point in time that they've committed any c rimes," Sullivan said. We can 't even say for certain that they're in the country."
White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card said he discussed the ma nhunt with President Bush during an Oval Office meeting a few hours befo re Bush's inauguration for a second term.
Across the city, there were visible signs of stepped-up securit y, including some underground parking garages searching vehicles as they entered and pictures of the Chinese nationals posted inside the booths where subway tokens are sold by transit employees.
"My first reaction, because I lived in Greenwich Village on Sep t 11, was annoyance if I happened to be in the two cities that got stru ck," he said, while he was standing inside a downtown shopping mall.
Romney, who skipped President Bush's inauguration to return to the state Wednesday night after learning of the threat, sought to reassu re residents that there was nothing to be alarmed about.
"These kinds of threats are going to be received from time to t ime. Generally we're going to be able to deal with them in a prompt mann er and dismiss them with time and evidence," Romney said. "It's our hope that this turns out to be an invalid hoax of some kind.
A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of an onymity because of the ongoing investigation, said the uncorroborated ti p was received recently by the California Highway Patrol. In addition to the smuggling of individuals, the tipster claimed the men were awaiting a shipment of "nuclear oxide" that would follow them from Mexico to Bos ton.
The implication, according to the law enforcement official, was that this alleged material would be used in some form of nuclear device , such as a "dirty bomb" that can spew radioactive material over a broad area. But the official said there is no such material as "nuclear oxide ," giving officials yet another reason to question the veracity of the t ip.
Charles Ferguson, science and technology fellow at the Council on Foreign Relations in Washington and an expert on dirty bombs, said th ere are a number of radioactive compounds that take the form of oxides a nd could be used in a dirty bomb. Plutonium and americium oxides, in the right amounts, would be dangerous to human health, while uranium oxide would be less so, he said.
The FBI identified the Chinese nationals as Zengrong Lin, Wen Q uin Zheng, Xiujin Chen and Guozhi Lin. Authorities said none of the name s had appeared on previous watch lists of terror suspects.
Hermenegildo Castro, spokesman for Mexico's National Migration Institute, said his office has received unsubstantiated reports that the six might have entered the United States through Tijuana or Mexicali, b oth Mexican cities on the California border.
"It's a dangerous world," said Al Lizana, a lawyer for the fede ral Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, who was at South Station on his way home to Boston from Albany, NY "It was that way before Sept.
"What's happening in Indonesia now is putting everything in per spective," Lizana said. "People die every day from things that have noth ing to do with terrorism."
Associated Press writers Curt Anderson in Washington and Sylvia Lee Wingfield in Boston contributed to this report. This story appeared on Page A14 of The Standard-Times on January 21, 2005 .
|
http://csua.com/feed/