I didn’t post anything about the closing of the Baltimore Tunnel yesterday because the press and authorities were, as usual, so tight-lipped about who actually issued the threat. But this AP story points toward jihadists — again:
BALTIMORE (AP) — Despite questions about the credibility of a threat to detonate vehicles full of explosives, officials said they had little choice but to close one of the busy tunnels underneath Baltimore’s harbor and partially shut down the other for nearly two hours.
One person who may have been connected to the threat was arrested on immigration charges, a law enforcement official said.
The FBI had found no evidence to corroborate the threat by Tuesday evening, said agent Kevin Perkins of the FBI’s Baltimore field office….
Shortly before the tunnels were reopened, authorities made about a half-dozen raids in the Baltimore area, said city Police Commissioner Leonard Hamm.
Four people were arrested on immigration charges at businesses with Middle Eastern connections, said a federal law enforcement official, who spoke on condition of anonymity.
One of them was arrested as a result of information supplied by the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force, which was heading the tunnel investigation, the source said. That arrest, made at a pizza shop, may be connected to the threat, the source said.
Middle Eastern connections. And they are unlikely to have been Christian Arabs, or Bahais, or Alawites, or Yazidis, or Mandaeans, or what have you. But AP cannot bring itself to name who they are, and why they might have issued such a threat.