Free Republic

FREEPORT — Port officials are looking into reports that al-Qaeda scouts may have sojourned into Freeport before the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. A story in the May 26 issue of Newsweek reported that in March 2001, the scouts came to Texas to “case a major port in Freeport, Texas,” as well as look at President Bush’s ranch in Crawford. The information came from the FBI, according to the story. “We’re seeing what that might mean,” said Pete Reixach, executive director of Port Freeport. “We’re trying to qualify the language in this article with the FBI and Homeland Security offices.”...

FREEPORT -- A security guard at a BASF Corp. chemical plant was shot in the shoulder after he approached a suspicious truck and talked to a man who said he had been taking pictures, authorities said. The guard's name was not released, but Freeport police said he was doing well at a Brazosport hospital following the Friday night shooting. The guard told police the gunman had bushy hair and a mustache and was was driving a white pickup with tinted windows and a black stripe. BASF spokeswoman Sharon Rogers said there was no indication the shooting was linked to terrorism....

A BASF security guard shot in the shoulder Friday night called a televised news conference Monday to deny the wound was self-inflicted. Robbie House, 43, of Angleton, appeared on television Monday saying FBI agents accused him of shooting himself. House, who was released from Brazosport Memorial Hospital on Monday, could not be reached for comment. Charles Johnson, the Houston attorney representing House, did not return calls seeking comment Monday night. FBI spokesman Bob Dogium said the agency has to explore every avenue. “God bless him, he can say whatever he wants to say,” Dogium said. “Is that what’s going on...

WASHINGTON – While FBI officials were dismissing terrorism in the shooting of a security guard at a chemical plant in Texas just hours after they were summoned to investigate, they weren't nearly so skeptical about the possibility last year. Robbie House, an unarmed security guard at the BASF plant in Freeport says he was shot by a Middle Eastern gunman after confronting him near an ammonia storage facility last week. Now House says the FBI doesn't believe his story and suggests he shot himself. Off the record, some law enforcement officials say they believe House's story and think he may...

Law enforcement source suspicious about BASF shooting WASHINGTON – While FBI, Department of Homeland Security, U.S. Customs, the U.S. Coast Guard, state police and local law enforcement sources are publicly downplaying terrorism fears in the shooting of a guard at a BASF Corp. ammonia terminal in Freeport, Texas, some of those same sources are telling Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin, off the record, they strongly suspect the guard stumbled into a terrorism reconnaissance operation. The FBI, state and local law enforcement are all involved in investigating the incident Friday night on the coast of the Gulf of Mexico. The gunman, described...

FREEPORT — Police were looking for a man Friday night who they said shot a BASF security guard at the perimeter of the plant near FM 1495 and Highway 36. Freeport Police Chief Henrietta Gonzalez said the guard approached a suspicious truck about 9:20 p.m. and the man inside said he had been taking pictures. He then shot the guard in the shoulder area, Gonzalez said. “He was shot at point-blank range,” said Detective Sgt. Sue Dietrich. “You could see the powder burns.” Police did not release the guard’s name, but said he was doing well at Brazosport Memorial...