BREAKING--FBI - Has people in custody, hotel in Boston also S Florida

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Not much info available, hotel in Boston is Westin, I believe. Don't know locale of action in S Florida. SWAT team, heavy police presence at the Westin.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001

Answers

Put em on a pole, make em talk. Have a tea party with them, make em talk.

Set the pole on fire and burn em to a crisp.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001


Sorry, maybe I shouldn't post things like that. I'm just still kinda in shock and well.... wanting a little revenge.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001

http://www.thebostonchannel.com/news/956258/index.html

People Taken Into Custody In Boston, Florida

Report: FBI Has Hijackers' Names

WASHINGTON, 1:47 p.m. EDT September 12, 2001 -- CNN is reporting that police have taken people into custody in Boston and south Florida. Police and FBI agents have been seen taking one person from a Boston hotel. But the FBI isn't confirming any arrests.

An FBI team that's been looking for suspects in Tuesday's terrorist attacks stormed the hotel today. A witness says agents were heavily armed. They wore bullet-proof vests and carried shields, as they brought fiber-optic equipment into the Westin Hotel in the city's Back Bay section.

A crowd of onlookers gathered outside.

Police officers have also converged on a hotel in the Boston suburb of Newton.

Two of the four hijacked flights involved in yesterday's terrorist attacks originated in Boston.

During the massive police operation, officers pulled up, got out of their van, put on SWAT gear and entered the hotel, WCVB-TV in Boston reported.

Sources have told WCVB-TV that Middle Eastern men who boarded the two planes bound for New York on Tuesday bought one-way tickets and paid in cash, and there may be a connection that could link the men to the USS Cole bombing. They also reported that the same Visa credit card which was used to purchase five United Airlines tickets was also used to purchase at least two tickets on American Airlines.

WCVB's David Boeri reported Wednesday morning that sources say at least four suspects, described as Middle Eastern men, arrived late to the airport, purchased one-way tickets and paid in cash for them. All three factors are security risk flags.

The station also reported that investigators found an airline crew tag in or around a car located Tuesday night that was connected to the suspects. The station has learned that the car was towed from Logan International Airport came from Springfield, Mass., and that it has been in and out of the central garage at the airport for the past week.

Sources also told WCVB that two of the five or six men arrived from Maine, taking the Yarmouth ferry, and that the white Mitsubishi Mirage the investigators have impounded had been traveling between Logan and Springfield, Mass., in recent days.

WCVB reported that investigators say there is a known connection between groups in Springfield and the plotting of the USS Cole bombing last year.

The Boston Herald has unconfirmed reports on five possible Arab suspects that Massachusetts authorities have identified as suspects in Tuesday's attacks launched from Logan. The FBI has refused to comment on suspects.

Authorities found flight training manuals written in Arabic in the white Mitsubishi, sources have told the paper. One airport authority told ABC News that the car was rented.

The car is being detained at an undisclosed FBI detaining center. Logan is closed for the day.

The Boston Globe reported that a bag belonging to one of the suspected hijackers did not make it to the plane. The bag reportedly contained a copy of the Koran, the sacred text of Islam, and a fuel- consumption calendar.

The Herald is reporting that among the suspects are two brothers, one of whom was a trained pilot, whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates. At least two other suspects are believed to have arrived at Logan from Portland, Maine. Authorities believe the suspects crossed over from Canada on Tuesday morning.

The paper also is reporting that the hijackers began killing flight attendants in order to lure a pilot from the cockpit and seize the plane. Sources say the suspects' weapons were razor blades embedded in plastic handles that were smuggled in on carry-on luggage. The FBI says that there were three to five terrorists aboard each hijacked plane, as reported by MSNBC.

Meanwhile, U.S. officials say it is too early to assign blame for Tuesday's terrorist attacks, but there are signs that the FBI is targeting Saudi exile Osama bin Laden. A manifest from one of the ill- fated jets included the name of a suspected bin Laden supporter.

The top Republican on the Senate Judiciary committee, Orrin Hatch, says intelligence authorities intercepted communications between bin Laden supporters discussing the attacks on New York's World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

Latest In Florida Law enforcement officials have taken a man into custody in Vero Beach, Fla. It is not known if he is under arrest, WPLG-TV in Miami reported.

FBI agents task force in North Miami Beach working on leads have searched an apartment in Coral Springs, and have now taken one man into custody. They have not said if he is connected to the apartment.

A man who agents describe as of Arab-descent is in route to FBI field office in North Miami Beach. It is not yet known what is his connection to terrorist attacks in the northeast.

FBI says that it has names of 12 hijackers, WPLG-TV reported. There were three on each flight and three who gave south Florida phone numbers.

FBI agents are telling a Venice, Fla., couple that two men who stayed with him while getting flight training last year were involved in Tuesday's attacks.

Charlie Voss is a former employee at Huffman Aviation in Venice. He says agents who interviewed him at his home have told him that authorities found a car at Boston's Logan Airport registered to the two men. He says one of men who stayed at the house in July 2000 was named Mohamed Atta. He says he knew the other man only by the name of Marwan.

The houseguests took flight training on small planes at Venice Municipal Airport. Voss says the men were asked to leave their home after a week when the couple grew uncomfortable with them.

WPLG reported that agents have searched an apartment in Coral Springs Fla. and served a search warrant in Davie, Fla.

It's believed that the Coral Springs apartment belonged to Mohammed Atta, 33. Agents discovered Atta's name along with others on the passenger manifests of planes involved in yesterday's terrorist attacks.

"I saw it yesterday, there were lots of people here, lots of cars outside and about five or six people inside with guns. They were looking for someone. They had this notepad with a picture on it and they were asking people if they knew this person," Mahnaz Fini, a neighbor, said.

Agents don't think that Atta was currently living at the residence. They believe that he moved on to Venice, Fla. Agents were also seen at Atta's residence there, showing pictures and asking questions.

WPLG also reports that sources say that agents are looking for two cars. The first car, a tan Oldsmobile Alero with the Florida license plate UEP-54N, was traced back to leasing company in Boca Raton.

The second car is a two-door, red, 1989 Pontiac Grand Prix with the Florida license plate D79-DDV. Agents have traced that car back to a Mohammed Atta in Venice, Fla., although Atta's driver's license shows an address in Coral Springs.

Police have put out an APB on both vehicles. If you see one of the cars described above, you are advised to call your local police agency or the FBI.

The investigation is also moving ahead in Daytona Beach, Fla. Investigators have impounded the car of a student at Embry Riddle University, one of the nation's top aeronautic and avionic institutions.

That student's apartment is being searched and a picture of Osama Bin Laden was reportedly found in the student's vehicle.

WPLG reports that the FBI is being very tight lipped about their investigation and that the Miami headquarters is under increased security

Bush: Terrorist Attacks Acts Of War President Bush says Tuesday's terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon were "acts of war." Bush said that the acts were carried out by an enemy that "won't be able to hide forever." He said the country will use all of its resources to "conquer this enemy."

Bush called the battle against the terrorists a "monumental struggle of good versus evil." And he vowed, "good will prevail." He said that he'll be asking Congress for money to recover from the tragedies, and to protect the nation's security.

Osama bin Laden Denies Involvement Bin Laden (pictured) says he's happy about the terrorist attacks on the United States, but the Saudi dissident is denying any involvement.

A Palestinian journalist got a call early today from one of bin Laden's aides who was at a hideout in Afghanistan.

The aide said that when bin Laden found out about the attacks, he "thanked almighty Allah and bowed before him."

Bin Laden is believed to be hiding in Afghanistan.

Bin Laden also is a key suspect in the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in East Africa where 224 people died.

Investigators in Boston are looking for members of the local arm of a terrorist group related to bin Laden.

Copyright 2001 by WCVB.com. The Associated Press contributed to this report. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001


Sheeps, don't you dare apologise! Gawd, I've gone all English! I mean, apologiZe.

Just saw an ABC interview with a guy who runs a flying school in Venice, Florida. He says the FBI was at his place 0230 this morning, asking about two of his pupils. After they left him last November, they went to a school that teaches how to fly turbo jets. One of them was from Afghanistan, he doesn't know where the other was from.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001


Fox has just shown a 5-person team of what looks very much like ID techs going into the Westin with their equipment. To give you an idea, in Durham only one ID tech is dispatched to a crime scene, unless it's a murder, then there are two. If it's a multiple murder, there might be three techs if they can get another one paged in. Hence, if five techs have gone in, there's probably more than one room to process.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001


feds work in larger numbers than locals. they want results faster in this case as well, which I wholeheartedly agree with.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001

Arrests as FBI storm Boston hotel (Filed: 12/09/2001)

POLICE have made the first arrests in the investigation into the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington.

Several people were held at gunpoint in a hotel in Boston, the city from which the two hijacked flights left before slamming into the World Trade Centre in New York.

More people were taken into custody in southern Florida, where FBI agents and local police were concentrating their efforts on flying schools with flight simulators and were said to be "very interested" in one student at Huffmann Aviation School in the state.

Police in the city of Providence, Rhode Island, also stopped a train bound from Boston to New York and detained three people.

The arrests came as the FBI revealed that it believed that four separate cells of terrorists had taken part in yesterday's attacks.

Between three and six terrorists were thought to have hijacked each plane by threatening aircrews with knives and by saying that they were carrying bombs. Two of the four hijacked planes were flown into the towers of the World Trade Centre, one into the Pentagon in Washington and one which crashed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvannia.

Attorney General John Ashcroft said that there was "credible evidence" that the terrorists had also aimed to destroy the White House and Air Force One.

Officials also revealed that investigators believe that the hijackers had been trained in the United States and that two suspects are thought to have been trained as pilots in Florida by November last year.

Reports from Boston said there was an hour-long drama as police with automatic weapons and riot shields moved in force into the Westin Copley Hotel. Several people were taken into custody as the raid proceeded. The number of arrests is not known.

American Justice Department sources told CNN that they were among "several" people taken into custody because they had "material information" about the case. It was unclear if they had been formally arrested or were being held as possible witesses.

The arrests came after it was reported that police had found a hired car with Arabic aircraft training manuals and a copy of the Koran in a car parking area in Boston Logan airport.

Forensic scientists were going over chairs in the airport looking for DNA evidence and it was unlikely it would re-open in the near future.

Investigators checking the passenger list of the four hijacked jets have found the name of a supporter of Osama bin Laden on one of them.

Five Arab men - one of them a pilot - had earlier been identified as suspects, the Boston Herald reported.

Two of the men were brothers whose passports were traced to the United Arab Emirates and one of the men was a trained pilot, the paper reported.

Sources told the newspaper that investigators suspect the two brothers were aboard hijacked United Airlines flight 175, which crashed into the World Trade Centre.

At least two other suspects flew to Logan on Tuesday from Maine, where authorities believe they had travelled after crossing over from Canada recently.

Police were told about the rented car by a civilian who got into a fight with several Arab men as they were parking their car, the paper reported.

-- Anonymous, September 12, 2001


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