Alleged terrorist threat prompts another police search in S. Florida

Sun Sentinel Link http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cpbolo17sep17.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dsfla

By Ryan Pastrovich, Staff Writer, Posted September 17 2002

Royal Palm Beach · Police issued a bulletin Monday morning after receiving a report that six men were overheard discussing plans to travel to the Fort Lauderdale- Hollywood International Airport and "blowing things up."

No government agency reached Monday could confirm the veracity of the report.

No arrests or incidents at the airport in Broward County had been reported late Monday.

Royal Palm police said they were concerned enough to issue the bulletin, sent as "possible terrorist information" to all states along the eastern seaboard.

Police said the report, made by a resident of Middle Eastern descent, had been turned over to the FBI. Special Agent Mike Fabregas, FBI spokesman in Miami, said the agency was investigating.

The Royal Palm Beach resident claimed to have overheard a discussion between six "Arabic" men.

The resident said the men were talking at a shopping center at Southern Boulevard and Royal Palm Beach Boulevard about 10 a.m. and transferring black bags from one vehicle to another.

"They were speaking in Arabic about blowing things up, possibly at the airport," the bulletin states.

The men were described as 30 to 35 years old, all with short hair, clean shaven and of average height and weight.

The bulletin says the two vehicles were a green GMC crew cab pickup and a new purple Ford F-150 truck.

The report comes on the heels of the arrests of five Arab-American men accused of forming a terrorist cell in Buffalo, as well as a multi-state manhunt in which three medical students were accused -- and then cleared -- of plotting a terrorist attack on Miami.

Imad Mahgoub, president of the Assalam Center in Boca Raton, said similar reports can be expected in uneasy circumstances.

"We all want to be secure," he said. "I'm a citizen here, just like everybody else. But I think we should be careful not to cross the line and overdo it."

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