Mass. officials say they were NOT TOLD of terrorist threat

[matcom]

<snip>

State and city officials said yesterday that they were never told that terrorist suspects had entered Boston on liquid natural gas tankers coming into the harbor, which a former White House counterrorism chief has said led to high-level concerns about an attack on Boston following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, US Representative Edward J. Markey, and Governor Mitt Romney's public safety secretary, Edward A. Flynn, all said they have contacted federal authorities to get a full accounting of what US officials know about threats to boats that enter Boston Harbor carrying liquefied natural gas. Each said he had heard nothing definitive from the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Department, or the Coast Guard by yesterday afternoon.

Menino, who has long argued that liquefied natural gas shipments represent a serious threat to Boston-area residents, said the federal government erred in not passing on the information to local authorities.

"I just think somebody dropped the ball," the mayor said at a terrorism preparedness forum held at Fenway Park yesterday. "On the LNG tankers, nobody ever informed us."

http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2004/03/24/mass_officials_say_they_were_not_told_of_terrorist_threat/

[DoYouEverWonder]

1. So where are these terrorist suspects now?

Nice of the Homeland Security folks to never bother to tell anyone else.


edit: I guess this was pre-HS Dept. so they'll just blame in on Clinton.

[booksenkatz]

2. So many balls dropped

How many balls have to be dropped, how many coinkydinks/accidents/oversights have to occur, before I'm allowed to even consider that something more sinister may have been afoot on 9/11?

/removing tinfoil hat now, sorry, it somehow fell onto my head by complete accident, how did that happen!?!?!? The man in charge of tinfoil hats must have dropped the ball!

[xchrom]

6. bush will let you know

in a speech critisizing clinton's penis.

[UpInArms]

3. and they didn't have the FAA on alert

for additional security regardless of the threat level on 9/11.

These people are criminals.

Markey, whose district includes the LNG facility in Everett, said that if Clarke's information is valid, the Bush administration misled the public about the risks posed by LNG tankers. He pointed out that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he was assured by President Bush's transportation secretary that there was "no known threat by Al Qaeda to LNG facilities."

[SaintLouisBlues]

4. Terror suspects entering the country aboard gigantic floating bombs?

No wonder the DHS didn't want to publicize this screw up.

We need to make these LNG tankers more secure and the opposite happens. Good job Bushco.

[salin]

5. But that doesn't matter... we are safer b/c we "got" Saddam

didn't you hear? Iraq was the threat to our domestic safety... not actual terrorists. Get with the program!

{/sarcasm}