"Find Them! Feds Hunt Boston ‘Terror Team’ as Pols Appeal for Calm"

Tom Farmer and Michele McPhee, Boston Herald

Authorities are scouring Boston for four Chinese nationals and two Iraqi men who may pose a nuclear threat to the city based on a report from an unidentified man calling from Mexico who claims to have smuggled them over the U.S. border.

"They got a call from across the border in Mexico to the California Highway Patrol several days ago, and he said he brought two Iraqis and four Chinese (individuals) across the border and according to him, they stated soon to follow behind them would be some sort of (nuclear) material,'' said a law enforcement source."He refers to some sort of nuclear material that will follow them through New York up into Boston.''

The threat was serious enough that Mayor Thomas M. Menino ordered Police Commissioner Kathleen O'Toole and Fire Commissioner Paul Christian and the city's Homeland Security chief into his office at City Hall, where they conducted a conference call with officials from the CIA, FBI, and Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency. The Massachusetts Emergency Management Agency also activated its bunker in Framingham with a downscaled staff.

According to the source, the caller has not identified himself and did not show up for a meeting with federal investigators in California, but he did leave pictures and the names of two Chinese men and two Chinese women — reportedly chemists — at a "drop'' site at the Mexico-California border. The information also makes reference to something happening "within four days,'' said another law enforcement source.

Federal authorities in Boston identified the Chinese nationals being sought for questioning as Zengrong Lin, Wen Quin Zheng, Xiujin Chen and Guozhi Lin.Sources said investigators have no information on the two Iraqis — including their gender.

In Somerville, an MBTA bus driver dropped off two passengers she thought looked like two of the suspects on flyers handed out by transit police. But after police converged on a Dunkin' Donuts near the Assembly Square Mall, the suspects were nowhere to be found. Somerville police said no arrests were made.

Menino downplayed the threat, urging residents to partake in their normal activities. "Public safety is our first priority,'' Menino said, while stressing the report fielded by the Boston Joint Terrorism Task Force came from a "single anonymous source'' and has not been confirmed.

Gov. Mitt Romney, in Washington, D.C., for President Bush's inauguration, flew back to Massachusetts last night. "We have had threats in the past. We take them seriously, even when they're not corroborated,'' he said.

White House Chief of Staff Andrew Card told the Herald last night that President Bush [related, bio] was informed of the uncorroborated Boston threat at his daily intelligence briefing yesterday morning.

"I'm shocked it made it into the newspaper because I don't think it is something that has been fully vetted,'' Card said. "It was during the intelligence briefing . . . the president was given this sketchy intelligence. It was truly sketchy intelligence, but . . . anytime you hear the words that surround this kind of intelligence, it invites greater scrutiny.''

Attorney General Tom Reilly also downplayed the seriousness of the tip last night. "We don't even know if these individuals are in the country,'' Reilly said, adding "it's information that needs to be followed up.''

Sources said much of the man's information sounds far-fetched and investigators have some doubts about the caller's validity because he has not identified himself. "A lot of it doesn't make sense and some of it does,'' said one source. "It's totally uncorroborated. This all began several days ago as a series of phone calls and they don't know who the caller is. There are some parts of it that just don't make sense and other little pieces of it that fall into place.''

Another source said investigators have located an area along the U.S. border that matches the man's description of where he smuggled the six people across. "They have corroborated the spot where he claims to have taken them over,'' said the source.

Multiple sources said there is speculation the caller may have been ripped off by the illegal aliens and is now trying to exact revenge.

"It's very weird. Even if (the Iraqis and Chinese) were going to do something, why would they be blabbing to the yahoo smuggling them across the border?'' one source noted. "You have to wonder if they screwed him on a deal but you have to treat it seriously and the issue is how do you put it out to the public and not get everybody (in a panic)?''

[Andrew Miga, Ann E. Donlan, Laurel J. Sweet, Franci Richardson, Jessica Heslam, Kimberly Atkins and O'Ryan Johnson contributed to this report.]