Boston receives threat from Dirty Bomb: ABC radio news

[MOgirl]

Hello,

What if the dangerous material is not nuclear at all? Could they be planning a chemical attack? And if so, why would they need 4 trained chemists? (Assuming that CNN is correct?). Thanks for the update.

Glad to be here, MOgirl

[mewzilla]

So much for the moral-cowardice of the Democrats, thinking that if they will be nice to evil then evil will be nice to them.

That's what they get for channeling Neville Chamberlain.

[TexKat]

FBI Alerts Boston Law Enforcement About Four Suspects

BOSTON -- The FBI notified Boston area law enforcement Wednesday to be on the lookout for four Chinese nationals described as possible terror suspects who may be headed to the area.

Federal law enforcement officials in Boston said they had received a tip earlier in the day about an unspecified threat against Boston, and released photographs of the two men and two women they were seeking.

In a joint statement issued by Massachusetts U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan and Kenneth Kaiser, special agent in charge of the Boston FBI office, they were identified as: Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen, Guozhi Lin.

Authorities said none of the names had been on previous watch lists of terror suspects, and their whereabouts aren't immediately known.

The investigation stirred a frenzy of media reports and prompted Gov. Mitt Romney, who had gone to Washington to attend Thursday's presidential inauguration, to decide to return to Massachusetts later Wednesday.

Romney told reporters in Washington that he planned to be on a 9 p.m. flight back to Boston, and cautioned that the threats were unsubstantiated and uncorroborated.

"We have had threats in the past. We take them seriously, even when they're not corroborated," he said.

Romney said that the state's threat level would not be raised, but more people would be on duty in the state's emergency management bunker in Framingham, about 20 miles west of Boston.

"To assure the people of Boston and Massachusetts that it is safe to be at home, I am going to be sleeping in my bed in Massachusetts tonight and I feel perfectly safe doing so," Romney said. "In the very remote circumstance that my attention is needed, I will be able to respond on an immediate basis."

A federal law enforcement official, speaking on condition of anonymity because the matter remains under investigation, told The Associated Press that the FBI's joint terrorism task force has not yet corroborated a tip that the suspects entered the United States through Mexico in recent days, possibly bound for Boston.

The official stressed the tip is one of many from around the country that routinely are forwarded to local task forces for further investigation. No credible, specific terror threat has been identified in connection with the tip about suspects possibly entering the country from Mexico.

Brian Roehrkasse, spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, said the agency was working with the FBI and "our partners in the intelligence community to analyze and assess recently received and uncorroborated information concerning a potential threat to Boston. This information has not been corroborated and was received from an unknown source of unknown credibility."

Roehrkasse said he was not aware of any stepped-up federal security measures in Boston, such as extra patrols or measures taken at Logan International.

FBI spokeswoman Gail Marcinkiewicz said the terror alert had not been raised for Boston.

"Basically, what you have here is information that we often get," she said. "It's uncorroborated at this time."

"It's been passed on to our law enforcement partners and we're working it aggressively," she said.

Peter Judge, a spokesman for the Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency, said representatives from six or seven state agencies were on duty at the state emergency bunker in Framingham -- far fewer than the 30 or 40 that would be present during a full-blown emergency activation.

"We're just really at this point in a monitoring mode," Judge said. "We'll stay active through the night tonight, until this thing resolves itself." (AP)

[Las Vegas Dave]

Just heard on the radio, FBI announced they are taking threats seriously!

[mewzilla]

Anyone have any idea what that lettering behind the faces means/is for?

[Age of Reason]

There are a million ways they could smuggle WMDs, just as you pointed out. When people say 'can't', watch out. We should never forget how a cheap piece of wood made Japanese torpedoes able to sink ships at Pearl Harbor.

Or how Dolittle got thos B-25's to take off from the deck of a carrier.

[AmericanInTokyo]

It is wording that was attached, probably, to their passports or visa. One is in spanish and has the partial word for "immigration". One (the third photo) has a series of four Chinese characters. One of the characters says "last name". My take is that it is from a Chinese passport. (at least in the case of female number 1).

[Former Proud Canadian]

I repeat: Is it possible? Yes. Is it practical? I don't think so.

Age, sorry but I don't give these guys as much credit as you do. They got a bunch of hits against a somnabulent US, which didn't even know it was at war. The US is engaged now, at least the executive branch is, and I think the terrs have a lot more than they can handle. I also think the technical aspects of a dirty bomb make it an impractical weapon.

OBL's biggest problem is that same as Tojo's was. He completely underestimates and misunderstands the US. It will be the cause of his early demise and the death of his organization.

[Darksheare]

Yes, but missiles can be shot down, or detected and retaliated against.
China doesn't want to have a rain of D5 missiles raining MIRVs on them.
In that case, it'd make more sense to send a few people in with small 'weapons' to disrupt and cause panic.
Kinda hard to detect and find a small number of people who can't be detected from orbit or tracked by radar.
The level of detection is more difficult.

[mewzilla]

Thanks! The FBI takes all threats seriously, don't they usually say? Did that report mean they're taking this one more seriously than most?

[ladyjane]

They are checking all the ferries. They have been for almost a year.

[nicmarlo]

I don't know, but this is interesting: YAHOO no longer has it on their headline news; FOX and CNN does.

[Fitzcarraldo]

Just heard on the radio, FBI announced they are taking threats seriously!

Then the alert level rises? Cheney sent to a bunker?

[mewzilla]

Wow. Thanks a lot for the info! I love FR :)

[rbmillerjr]

"...just because there may be some chinese involved in the jihad, does not necessarily mean that the Chinese government and other chinese people are involved."

It's pretty tough to get out of China without Government approval and government objectives.

[TexKat]

[Darksheare]

I don't like the idea either.

China supplied Saddam with some equipment, and there'd been rumors of involvement in some things as well.
I never bothered to check into whether it was confirmed or not, in hindsight I should have.
But I do know that after 9/11 China had a state sponsored video out sneering about how the towers fell and we were 'running scared', brought 'to our knees' and a 'paper tiger'.
"No longer will we fear them!" it said as well.


It'd be nice to catch these 4, and get some info out of them.

[processing please hold]

Two women...two men....two couples.

[TexKat]

It's pretty tough to get out of China without Government approval and government objectives.

All things are possible. But anyway I used a few words in my statement such as may be and does not necessarily mean. I did not state anything definitely.

[Petronski]

When it is real, there won't be a telegraphed warning. Think Pearl Harbor

In Tora Tora Tora or in At Dawn We Slept, one can see/read all the telegraphed clues that were missed (completely or barely).