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Home Front: WoT
Threat raises suspicion: Caller's motives being scrutinized
2005-01-21
This smelled from the beginning.
A mysterious man who told authorities that four Chinese nationals and two Iraqis were planning a nuclear attack on Boston also named a man known to the DEA, supporting investigators' suspicions that the caller was using the terrorist threat for his own gain.
According to three law enforcement sources familiar with three cell phone calls the unidentified man made earlier this week to the California Highway Patrol, the caller named a ``white male'' who was under investigation by the Drug Enforcement Administration. ``It could be a drug deal gone bad and he's using this threat of a terrorist attack to bring a ton of heat down on someone,'' one source said. ``It could be someone getting dimed out because someone is (angry).''
Meanwhile, the FBI yesterday added the names of 10 Chinese to the list of those being sought for questioning in the possible terror plot. Two law enforcement officials, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the names were part of the same anonymous tip. The officials said the tip remains uncorroborated and there is no credible evidence that such a plot exists. U.S. Attorney Michael Sullivan said investigators have learned more about the original four Chinese nationals which has tainted the validity of the caller's claim they are terrorists bound for Boston through New York.
``It makes us no more alarmed . . . than we were (Wednesday),'' said Sullivan, who declined to say what investigators have uncovered. ``They don't appear on anybody's watch list. They're not people of interest until we got an unnamed, unknown caller with regard to identifying these people as somebody that were smuggled into the country. We can't even confirm at this point in time that those individuals are in the country.''
Sources said the Spanish-speaking caller made at least one 911 call from Mexico to California authorities followed by two other calls in which he said the four Chinese nationals - Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen and Guozhi Lin - were planning an attack on Boston with two Iraqis. The caller dropped a package over the border containing pictures and birth dates of the Chinese nationals - two men and two women - but provided no information about the Iraqis, including their gender.
Real convienient to have those names and pictures.
Sources said the photographs appear to be from Mexican visas or from passports. One source said one of the Chinese women was placed in Mexico on Jan. 11. Federal, state and local authorities have been following reports of numerous sightings of the Chinese men and women ranging from the Cape and Islands to Western Massachusetts but none have been substantiated, multiple sources said.
The four Chinese nationals, who were born a year apart between 1981 and 1984, were reported by the Mexican caller to be chemists and that the nuclear material was supposed to follow them across the U.S. border ``within four to five days'' to be used in a ``dirty bomb,'' sources said.
Investigators have not discounted the possibility that a terrorist attack is being mounted, but evidence is leading them to believe that the caller had his own motive. ``It could also be that the people he smuggled ripped him off or that he is trying to take out a rival coyote (smuggler),'' one source said.
That was what I thought.
The San Diego Union News reported the caller said the aliens were smuggled through a tunnel 120 miles from the city.
Posted by:tu3031

#6  and going that far down to avoid radar is something that all those neolithic guys who established the archaelogical sites simply never thought of doing :)
Posted by: Liberalhawk   2005-01-21 5:42:59 PM  

#5  lotta territory to cover, TW - the tunnels are usually from a building/warehouse on the developed side of Mex. to same here. and 20'-30' down to blur ground penetrating radar
Posted by: Frank G   2005-01-21 5:24:35 PM  

#4  Why are tunnels allowed under our border? Surely something can be done about that -- if archaeologists can use imaging machines to find artifacts underground, mightn't something a little stronger find the emptiness that is a tunnel?
Posted by: trailing wife   2005-01-21 1:50:17 PM  

#3  Meanwhile, the FBI yesterday added the names of 10 Chinese to the list of those being sought for questioning in the possible terror plot.

Bet they all live in the same apartment...
Posted by: Raj   2005-01-21 12:43:25 PM  

#2  Nah. They've been using tunnels for a long time. Usually for drugs, though.
Posted by: growler   2005-01-21 12:04:49 PM  

#1  The San Diego Union News reported the caller said the aliens were smuggled through a tunnel 120 miles from the city.

Is it possible that the mexican smugglers have been carefully reviewing some Paleo terror manuals lately ?
This may not be so surprising in view of the booklets recently published by the Mexican gov'mint.
Posted by: EoZ   2005-01-21 11:51:03 AM  

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