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FBI discounts terror threat in Naval Base bomb threat
By KATE WILTROUT, MATTHEW ROY AND TIM MCGLONE, The Virginian-Pilot © December 30, 2004
NORFOLK -– FBI agents and members of the Joint Terrorism Task Force responded to the scene of a reported bomb threat near Norfolk Naval Station shortly after noon today, but there’s no indication that the incident is a genuine terrorist threat, an FBI spokesman said.
“We’re evaluating and assessing the situation,” said Phil Mann, an FBI spokesman. “We have no indication that anybody’s been harmed.”
Two Hampton Roads Transit buses were stopped on Hampton Boulevard near the naval station after a bomb threat was phoned in this morning, officials said. Police have erected barricades on Hampton at Greenbrier Avenue blocking traffic to the base.
Jim Brantley, a public affairs officer for the Navy’s Fleet Forces Command, which is headquartered at the naval station, said at about 12:25 p.m. that Navy Explosive Ordnance Disposal teams and civilian police teams were getting ready to inspect the buses. Passengers have been taken off the buses, which were directed to Fleet Park, a Navy park located outside the gates of the largest naval station in the world.
The Associated Press reported that a base spokeswoman had said an anonymous caller told police "a lot of people are going to die."
Brantley said police were interviewing bus passengers. It was unclear whether a passenger made the call to police, but the caller specifically mentioned one bus by its number, Brantley said. That bus was pulled over, as was another, after the call was received between 9:30 and 10 a.m.
Everyone within 1,500 yards of the park was evacuated, Brantley said.
