The OFFICAL News Thread

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FBI: Vague threat made against hospitals

FBI in Houston: A 'general, blanket threat'





SAN FRANCISCO, California (CNN) -- The FBI has alerted hospitals in four major U.S. cities -- Houston, Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington D.C. -- to be aware of a unsubstantiated and unverified threat that could come around the holidays.

A statement issued to all San Francisco-area medical providers on Nov. 12 detailed the threat: "On or about December 15, explode bombs/restart anthrax crisis/will do harm in one of the hospitals in Chicago, San Francisco, and Washington."

According to a statement from the FBI office in Chicago, the timing of the possible attacks "is mid-December and the holiday period." The attacks would be in reaction to "the continued arrest of a Pakistani national by Pakistani authorities," according to the statement.

Houston was also on the list, according to Bob Dogium of the FBI office in Houston. He called it a "general, blanket threat" that is neither corroborated nor specific. Nevertheless, Dogium said the FBI was releasing news of the threat to urge people to be alert and diligent in reporting any suspicious activity.

"We're not talking about specific measures, we're not talking about specifics in time, we're also not talking about a specific plan," Dogium told CNN affiliate KPRC-TV in Houston.

"Anthrax and bombings are included in that vague information that could quite possibly be the way the attack may be carried out," he said. "It's uncorroborated information."

Dogium pointed out there have been many similar vague threats made in the past year, none of which has panned out, including threats against oil refineries and general economic targets.

FBI headquarters in Washington received the information and passed it on to its divisions Wednesday. The four cities in question have notified local authorities and emergency management systems, Dogium said.

People in those cities, he said, "need to realize that as we are putting out this information, we also have the systems in place to gather this kind of information, to analyze this kind of information, to disseminate this kind of information."
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