Federal agents poised to search Cambridge site
by Tom Farmer and Maggie Mulvihill
Tuesday, September 25, 2001
Federal agents are poised to execute a search warrant in Cambridge today in connection with the Sept. 11 terror attacks on America, according to a law enforcement source.
The source said the FBI was preparing a search warrant yesterday for a home in Cambridge that may have some connection to the attacks on New York City and Washington, D.C.
The search warrant is expected to be executed today, the source said.
State public safety officials briefed acting Gov. Jane Swift yesterday on the latest local developments, including the Cambridge warrant, the source said.
Other sources confirmed that officials are also considering diverting a massive liquified natural gas tanker expected to arrive in Everett in several days, fearing it will be targeted for attack.
``There's concern that it is going to be in (Boston) harbor in the next few days and whether to allow it to continue here,'' said one informed source. ``It's not a question of turning it around, it would have to be diverted somewhere.''
The tanker is scheduled to dock at the Distrigas facility.
The largest tanker that docks at the facility can carry 33 million gallons of LNG, according to Everett fire officials.
One longtime firefighter downplayed the danger, however, saying the tankers are double-hulled and designed to sustain damage without exploding.
``The ignition factor (for LNG) is much lower than some other things out there that we have to deal with,'' said the firefighter.
U.S. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Malden) noted the Everett risk during a speech yesterday to the Greater Boston Chamber of Commerce.
In addition to protecting such local sites as the gas facility in Everett and the power-grid control center in Holyoke, he said, ``We have to ensure that the 103 nuclear power plants in our country are secure.''
Investigators searching for terrorists involved in the attack two weeks ago are probing more than 3,000 leads in Massachusetts alone, one source said.
WBZ-TV reported yesterday that American Airlines Flight 156 from Boston to London may also have been targeted for hijacking Sept 11.
The station said three Arab men showed up at 8:30 a.m. for the 9 a.m. flight and became enraged when they were told they would not be able to sit together. The station said an airline supervisor intervened and the men left without boarding.
The flight never took off because planes were grounded across the nation soon after the first of two hijacked jets out of Boston slammed into the World Trade Center in New York. A source at Logan International Airport said American Airlines officials denied the incident.
A spokeswoman for the Boston office of the FBI had no comment on the television report.
Federal authorities have charged the first person with aiding the terrorist hijackers, according to court documents released yesterday.
Herbert Villalobos was charged in federal court in Virginia with aiding one suspected hijacker to fraudulently obtain a Virginia identification card a month before the Sept. 11 attacks.
Villalobos was allegedly paid $80 for falsely certifying that Abdul Aziz al-Omari, one of the suspected hijackers of Flight 11 out of Boston, lived at a residence in Arlington, Va.
He reportedly did not know he was helping with a terrorist plot.
Eric Convey and Herald wire services contributed to this report.
Search and seize!