Posted on 11/03/2001 3:02:25 AM PST by be-baw
Edited on 04/13/2004 2:06:58 AM PDT by Jim Robinson. [history]
After days of preparing for vague threats, police departments across the state last night had a tangible menace to chase: A rented van with a cargo of possible bomb-making materials was stopped at a Cambridge mall and sped away before police arrived.
(Excerpt) Read more at boston.com ...
Are you kidding? I went to bed after 652.
Police seek van with Unsuspicious cargo ?
Dog bites man, news at eleven.
Right before it crashed and the guy was caught, they said on the scanner the truck was driving towards the Coast Guard station.
Well, at least one law enforcement official needs to be doing something else.
What a twit, if he's doing his job based solely on the statements made by the terrorists as to their intentions.
Where do we get these geniuses? And what are they doing "protecting" us?
The FBI is asking law enforcement to stop and detail the driver and van of the rental truck.
The incident occurred around 7 p.m. tonight.
©WHDH 7News
I don't think this is entirely accurate (I was one of the people listening to the Boston PD scanner last night in the other thread). As far as I know, there was no arrest. They did stop a Ryder truck at 156 Prince St. I think the driver fled on foot immediately (this is according to someone else listening to the scanner -- I didn't personally hear about the driver fleeing, and I don't know whether he might have fled right away, before the police even had a chance to ask him to open the back). I heard the police preparing to look in the back of the truck, briefly discussing who would open it, and that was all. Either they switched channels or stopped talking on the scanner entirely. (I'm fairly sure that all the later scanner conversation on that thread about K9 units, etc., referred to other unrelated police cases.)
We do not know for a fact that this was the suspicious Ryder truck seen in the Galeria Mall; there was no confirmation by license plate number, for instance. I think initial reports were of two people in that truck at the mall, but we only have one person reported fleeing at the scene. However, I heard no further scanner activity from police looking for the truck after they had stopped this one, so it likely was the right truck.
There's a high probability that shopping malls are the next target (consistent with the rumors that emerged prior to the WTC/DC 9/11 tragedy).
Maybe. But maybe they were simply looking for a place to park it overnight when they stopped at this mall garage in Cambridge. Or possibly they even needed to buy some last-minute item (I think the Globe article say there was a Sears in the mall). The place in Boston where the truck was eventually stopped by the police is close to much more strategic locations, like the tunnel to the airport.
I certainly agree with you on the need for wariness around shopping malls. But I don't think we know that that is what their plan was this time.
I'm not sure they want to kill a lot of people at this point. This would wake U.S. citizens up again and lose the popular support their buddies at CNN are trying to build.
I would also guess one more large, coordinated strike at multiple targets. After that there will be a real clamp down on ME types, and it will be harder for them to operate.
Just heard on tv that the warning about the Calif bridges being bombed, that warning came out of sources from Boston...hmmmm
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