Boston Hearld, Thursday, January 20, 2005 Find them! Feds hunt 'terror team' as pols appeal for calm By Tom Farmer and Michele McPhee
Authorities are scouring Boston for four Chinese nationals and two Iraqi men who may pose a nuclear threat to the city based on a report from an unidentified man calling from Mexico who claims to have smuggled them over the U.S. border.
``They got a call from across the border in Mexico to the California Highway Patrol several days ago, and he said he brought two Iraqis and four Chinese (individuals) across the border and according to him, they stated soon to follow behind them would be some sort of (nuclear) material,'' said a law enforcement source.
``He refers to some sort of nuclear material that will follow them through New York up into Boston.''
The threat was serious enough that Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole and Fire Commissioner Paul Christian and the city's Homeland Security chief into his office at City Hall, where they conducted a conference call with officials from the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency also activated its bunker in Framingham with a downscaled staff.
According to the source, the caller has not identified himself and did not show up for a meeting with federal investigators in California, but he did leave pictures and the names of two Chinese men and two Chinese women - reportedly chemists - at a ``drop'' site at the Mexico-California border. The information also makes reference to something happening ``within four days,'' said another law enforcement source.
Federal authorities in Boston identified the Chinese nationals being sought for questioning as Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen and Guozhi Lin.Sources said investigators have no information on the two Iraqis - including their gender.
In Somerville, an MBTA bus driver dropped off two passengers she thought looked like two of the suspects on flyers handed out by transit police. But after police converged on a Dunkin' Donuts near the Assembly Square Mall, the suspects were nowhere to be found. Somerville police said no arrests were made.
Menino downplayed the threat, urging residents to partake in their normal activities. ``Public safety is our first priority,'' Menino said, while stressing the report fielded by the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force came from a ``single anonymous source'' and has not been confirmed.
full: http://news.bostonherald.com/localRegional/view.bg?articleid=64402
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