FBI Seeks van, possible bomb in mall?

WBZ AM 1030 Radio News ^ | 11/02.01 | WBZ News reporter

[BansheeBill]

Just reported on the 10 PM WBZ radio news broadcast:

FBI is seeking a rental type Ryder Van that was stopped trying to enter the parking garage at the Cambridge Mass Galleria mall at about 7 PM. When the back doors of the van were opened by security personnel, there were 6, 55 gallon drums duct taped to the vans walls along with gas type cans also taped to the walls.

The van then sped off. The FBI is asking for anyone seeing the van with possible license plate of 4789H7 to contact Police or the FBI.

[Republic]

GOOD FOR THE CAMBRIDGE SECURITY PERSONNEL!! NEW HEROS! They did their job!!!! Good for them!!! GO AMERICA!!!!!!!!!!! We all need to be obervant. I would love to know if the apparent ethnic origin of the drivers was mentioned!!! They got the plates. And I would love to know-where the security personnel armed?

[SauronOfMordor]

Last month, I decided that the kids and I would pass on getting a picture with the mall Santa. Hundreds of kids concentrated in one spot in a mall would be too tempting a target for these bozos

My range is having a "Santa visit" in a couple of weekends. I think I'll like it better there. Somehow I think that terrorists have an aversion for places where lots of regular people are armed

[snorkeler]

btt for history

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

Everyone from Boston knows . . . NO ONE goes to the Cambridge Galleria Mall!

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

yes, but they'd meet a ton of friendly state troopers at Nuclear plant.

[Big Guy and Rusty 99]

I'd say if they're going to a hit a mall, the chestnut hill mall would be one. (if they know anything about the area.)

[El Gato]

Sadam Hussein is behind this as well , think about it President Bushes son is now in office besides I think he is holding a grudge!!

He does strike me as the type to hold a grudge until it dies of old age and then have it stuffed. (from "Ashes of Victory", by David Weber) But a whole lot of us are exactly the same, and we have better tools for resolving the problem.

[oc-flyfish]

O.K. The alt+f4 thingy....... not funny! Am I logged in?

Hehehe. It's the post that keeps on giving... laughs.

[Eowyn-of-Rohan]

Wow, I didn't hear that story. This whole law enforcement thing is a comedy of errors, but it worked better as humor in the Keystone Cops. This is discouraging and frustrating to witness the ineptitude, or whatever it is, of the systems that are supposed to protect us.

[Republic]

Seems to me the Boston citizens could help out a lot here. No doubt someone has seen this van, somewhere. With an adequate description, INCLUDING the physical characteristics of the driver (s), I'll bet some citizens would step up to the plate and report info to the FBI.

Boston City officials should think up a reward, motivate their community into vigilance and nail down the dirty lair of this truck.

[pcl]

The A10 "Warthog" was so good at killing tanks and troops on the ground that the Air Force has removed it from their inventory. While the Warthog pilots loved the beast, the AF Brass did not see it as sutiable image. They prefer to spend the money High Technology stealth and supersonic toys.

[Madame Dufarge]

Agreed, just pointing what was in their general direction.

And, having lived on the Cape for 26 years, I can tell you that there were periodic articles in the Cape Cod Times about the "evacuation plans" for the Cape in case of an accident at the Plymouth power plant.

Locals would break into howls of laughter about the latest "plan."

Cape Cod is a peninsula with 2 bridges for egress. On a typical summer weekend, they're nothing but a huge parking lot. 5-hour delays getting over the bridge are routine on holiday weekends, with traffic backed up 20 miles or so.

It was conventional wisdom on the Cape that if something cataclysmic did happen, your best bet was to head for the waterfront and a boat, NOT the bridges.

If you didn't own a boat or had a friend that did - Sayonara.

[cgbg]

cape cod without a boat

There is an island a few hours south and west of you that has the same problem with a lot more people.

I call it the second most dangerous place in America (the most dangerous place being the big city near it). And, as you say, if those folks don't have a boat they can forget about evacuation.

[cgbg]

deportation and better internal news coverage

My only problem with deportation is that I don't trust INS to keep them from getting in again. I am advocating taking a part of a western state (say Wyoming) and requiring those folks to live there under "supervision" for the duration.

At a minimum middle eastern men should not be allowed near any major city for the duration and obviously should not be allowed to pilot boats, drive trucks, fly planes, etc.

While we could quibble over definitions imho any government that values political correctness over internal security is a government that lacks courage and a sense of its proper mission.

In the current environment it would also be a government that is just stupid--since political leaders are an obvious target!

There is only one justification for this obvious inaction (and it is possible)--and that is that the government is being blackmailed and told that such measures will lead to the bad guys employing a "use or lose" strategy where they unleash everything they have before they are rounded up.

If the "blackmail scenario" is true I would declare a state of emergency and national holiday for a week, close all transportation down, and seal the country. Then I would isolate the bad guys with maximum security for the entire country. While we might take some one-time hits that would be the end of the domestic troubles for all practical purposes.

[Sueann]

"There's always Amazon"

Yes, that's true - and I just bought Barbara Olson's book from them; however, it doesn't pay the electricity down at the mall - that's the point I'm getting at.

[ClearasaBell]

PING! :-)

[Snow Bunny]

Thanks for the information.This is good to know too.

[poweqi]

kicks you off line

[RaceBannon]

DOES ANYONE HAVE ANY LINKS TO ARTICLES OF ARABS TAKING PICTURES OF DAMS, BLDS, CHEMICAL PLANTS, ETC?