FBI storms Boston hotel searching for suspects

Associated Press Writer

BOSTON (AP) -- Investigators tried to retrace the steps of the hijackers of two planes used in attacks on New York and Washington as heavily armed FBI agents stormed a hotel looking for suspects and Boston’s airport defended its security.

Agents wearing bulletproof vests and carrying shields stormed Boston’s 36-story Westin Hotel, and one person was brought out and put in a van as a crowd of evacuated guests watched.

“SWAT teams were all around holding machine guns,” said R.J. Ryan, who was among hundreds of onlookers. “They put somebody in the van. Then they started moving everybody.”

Maine Gov. Angus King said Wednesday that two suspects in the hijacking flew to Boston from the Portland, Maine, airport. He said they left behind a rental car that has been impounded, and police said cigarette butts found near the car will be tested for DNA.

Law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity also said they were investigating whether the hijackers crossed the Canadian border to enter the United States. They confirmed that a car believed to belong to the hijackers was confiscated in Boston and contained an Arabic language flight manual.

In Washington, FBI head Robert Mueller said no arrests had been made in the case. Five people were detained because of their immigration status, but Justice Department officials would not say where they were taken into custody.

A law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity told The Associated Press that while no one was arrested in the hijackings, a Boston search turned up a link to a name on the manifest of one of the hijacked flights.

Officers also converged Wednesday on the Park Inn in Newton, a Boston suburb. Newton police officer Russ Adam said the FBI was conducting an investigation at the hotel, but is was unclear if the search was related to the attacks.

The Boston Herald, quoting an anonymous source, reported that five Arab men had been identified as suspects, including one who was a trained pilot. The Herald said two of the men, including the pilot, were brothers with passports traced to the United Arab Emirates.

WCVB-TV, quoting an anonymous source, reported that the suspects purchased one-way tickets with cash, arrived late and were Middle Eastern -- red flags for security personnel.

The Boston Globe reported that one suspect’s luggage contained a copy of the Quran, an instructional video on flying commercial airliners and a fuel consumption calculator.

Boston’s Logan Airport remained closed Wednesday as the Federal Aviation Administration continued its nationwide ban on flying.

Massachusetts Port Authority Aviation Director Thomas Kinton said he believed the airport may have been targeted because of its proximity to New York and because its planes would be fully loaded with fuel for cross-country flights.

Terrorist mastermind Osama bin Laden has strong family ties and a group of supporters in Boston, where the two hijacked airliners that demolished the World Trade Center took off.

One of bin Laden’s brothers set up scholarship funds at Harvard, while another relative owns six condominiums in an expensive complex in Boston. Two bin Laden associates once worked as Boston cab drivers, including one who was jailed in Jordan on charges of plotting to blow up a hotel full of Americans and Israelis.

In nearby Providence, R.I., authorities stopped an Amtrak train that had come from Boston, ordered off passengers, and went on board. One man wearing a green turban was led away in handcuffs.

Col. Richard Sullivan, the Providence police chief, said later that the man did not appear to have any connection with the terrorist acts. But he was charged with a weapons violation for carrying a knife, Sullivan said. He remained in custody at late afternoon.