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Tunnel shut down non credible evidence { October 19 2005 } Original Source Link: (May no longer be active)
http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/10/19/baltimore.tunnel/http://edition.cnn.com/2005/US/10/19/baltimore.tunnel/
Officials: Tunnel threat tip came from Netherlands
FBI says there's no indication information was credible
Wednesday, October 19, 2005 Posted: 1755 GMT (0155 HKT)
BALTIMORE, Maryland (CNN) -- Information about a possible threat that shut down the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel on Tuesday came from a prisoner in the Netherlands, two federal sources said.
The prisoner was given a polygraph test last weekend, but the results were inconclusive, one source said.
Some of the answers given during the test were seen as deceptive, officials said.
Four men -- three Egyptians and a Jordanian -- are in the hands of immigration officials, a federal law enforcement source said.
Authorities said the investigation into the terror tip continues, but no plot has been confirmed.
Traffic was snarled for about two hours Tuesday after authorities closed the Baltimore Harbor Tunnel on Interstate 895 in both directions. Traffic on Interstate 95 through the Fort McHenry Tunnel was limited to one lane in each direction.
The interstates were reopened shortly after 1 p.m. ET Tuesday. (Watch: Officials explain restrictions -- 5:47)
The closures came about as a result of a "threat of undetermined credibility to an unspecified tunnel in the Baltimore area," said Kevin Perkins, head of the FBI's Baltimore office.
According to U.S. officials, the alert was triggered by a report that a shipment of explosives was heading into the city's harbor disguised as cocoa. The explosives then would have been used to build a truck bomb to be detonated inside the targeted tunnel, officials said.
"At this point in time we don't have any evidence that suggests this threat is credible," Perkins said. "However, we are continuing our investigation. We have to follow this to the end."
He said the FBI and other law enforcement agents interviewed about 30 people but said not necessarily all of those would have had any direct knowledge of a potential plot.
Perkins said that the intelligence indicated that the attack could happen in an approximate two-week period but said the information was not specific about dates or times.
Restrictions were put in place Tuesday out of what a state police official called "an abundance of caution."
A federal government official said the source of the intelligence has provided useful information in the past.
The latest threat came nearly two weeks after a similar warning prompted a security alert on New York's subway system -- and the warning later was determined to have been a hoax, government sources said.
Federal, state and local authorities began investigating reports of a tunnel plot two weeks ago, and police had tactical squads ready to respond to an attack, Maryland Gov. Robert Ehrlich said.
He said the state's alert level was not raised because "you don't want to give advance notice to the bad guys."
"It was a very long night last night, I have to tell you," Ehrlich said.
Police with search dogs stopped trucks headed for the tunnels and inspected their undercarriages with mirrors.
Gary McLhinney, chief of the Maryland Transit Authority Police Department, declined to disclose what officers were looking for during the closures.
But he said, "We have not found anything to cause us any great concern at this point in our tunnels."
U.S. intelligence officials said there were serious questions about the Baltimore tip from the outset, and those doubts have persisted.
One official said the information came from a "single uncorroborated source overseas" but added he was not criticizing Maryland authorities for the closures.
McLhinney made no apologies for the steps taken Tuesday.
"Our No. 1 priority is the safety of the citizens of Maryland and those who travel on our roadways, and we will always err on the side of public safety," he said.
CNN's Pam Benson, Kevin Bohn, Carol Cratty, David Ensor, Terry Frieden and Jeanne Meserve contributed to this report
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