If you are reading this, you survived a predicted nuclear attack on Texas City.
Recent
weeks have seen the city mentioned as the subject of rampant Internet
and e-mail claims suggesting that emergency management officials were
preparing for some form of attack.
Officials with several agencies said those reports are false.
Shauna Dunlap, a spokesman for the FBI, said that there are “no credible or corroborated threats to the area.”
That
attack was to have taken place Tuesday, based on those reports. A
report filed on the Arctic Beacon Web site as well as the site owner’s
Internet radio show had warned of a pending nuclear attack on the city
— not from terrorists, but the federal government.
Basing his
information on a report from a man claiming to be a former U.S. Army
intelligence officer, show host Greg Szymanski reported that the area
was likely the target for a government-led nuclear attack.
The
report quickly made the rounds via e-mail and blog sites. Attempts to
reach Szymanski to comment on his report were unsuccessful.
On
Wednesday, people driving along Galveston’s Seawall Boulevard could see
unmarked black trucks and sport utility vehicles bearing government
license plates near crews setting up what appeared to be satellite or
radar gear on the beach.
The crews were wearing shirts embossed
with the words, “Weapons of Mass Destruction Civil Support Team,” a
branch of the U.S. Defense Department.
It was enough to get even the most timid conspiracy theorist thinking something was up.
But
local homeland security officials as well as the FBI said the Internet
story and the arrival of the Weapons of Mass Destruction team are
little more the coincidental training exercises that may have been
blown out of proportion.
Bruce Clawson, director of homeland
security for Texas City, said he was alerted to the online report and
passed the information to the FBI. He said it was a routine measure.
“Based
on what we know, we are not aware that this (report) had any basis in
fact,” said Clawson. “Anyone indicating anything other than training is
seriously misinformed.”
Members of the Weapons of Mass Destruction team told The Daily News they were calibrating equipment for an upcoming drill.
Team
members said they were participating in a series of seminars at the San
Luis Hotel & Conference Center, not far from where they had set up
shop.
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Daily News reporter Scott E. Williams contributed to this report.
