NEWS 5A
NG
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2009
20140707081506
TERRORISM
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Government issues warnings after suspects arrested for possible attacks
Army National Guard soldiers keep watch inside Grand Central Station Tuesday in New York. Mass transit systems have seen greater police presence since the government issued terrorism warnings for high-profile places.
BY DEVLIN BARRETT AND TOM HAYS Associated Press
Associated Press
NEW YORK — The government expanded a terrorism warning from transit systems to U.S. stadiums, hotels and entertainment complexes as investigators searched for more suspects Tuesday in a possible al-Qaida plot to set off hydrogen-peroxide bombs hidden in backpacks.
Police bolstered their presence at high-profile locations. Extra officers with bulletproof vests, rifles and dogs were assigned to spots such as Grand Central Terminal in New York. Plainclothes officers handed out fliers at a nearby hotel with a warning in large block letters: "If you suspect terrorism, call the NYPD."
The warnings come amid an investigation centering on Najibullah Zazi, a 24-year-old Denver airport
shuttle driver who authorities say received al-Qaida explosives training in Pakistan and was found entering New York City two weeks ago with bomb-making instructions on his computer.
Zazi's arrest in Colorado last week touched off the most intense flurry of government terror warnings and advisories to come to light since President Barack Obama took office.
Though Zazi is charged only with lying to the government, law enforcement officials said he may have been plotting with others to detonate backpack bombs on New York trains in a scheme similar to the attacks on the London subway and Madrid's rail system. Backpacks and cell phones were seized in raids on apartments Zazi visited in New York.
"It's not totally clear to us at this point what it is they had in mind, though I think it is clear
that something very serious and something very organized was under way," Attorney General Eric Holder told CBS.
Two law enforcement officials speaking on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss details of the investigation told The Associated Press that more than a half-dozen people being scrutinized in the alleged plot. The FBI said "several individuals in the United States, Pakistan and elsewhere" are being investigated.
"There's a lot more work to be done," said Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, cautioning that the probe was still in its early stages.
In two bulletins sent to police departments Monday and obtained by the AP, federal counterterrorism officials urged law enforcement and private companies to be vigilant at stadiums, entertainment complexes and hotels.
CRIME
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Police warn townspeople after finding family dead
BY JOHN O'CONNOR
Associated Press
BEASON, III. — A couple and three of their children were found brutally slain inside their home in this tiny central Illinois farming community, and authorities warned residents Tuesday to lock their doors at night while investigators try to identify possible suspects.
Authorities discovered the bodies Monday afternoon after responding to a 911 call about possible shots fired at the address, Logan County Sheriff Steven Nichols said at a news conference.
Logan County sheriff's department deputies stand outside a beacon, ill., home on Tuesday. Five members of a family were found dead in the house Monday afternoon.
A three-year-old girl survived the attack and was taken to a hospital in Peoria, he said. The girl's grandmother identified her as the couple's daughter, Tabitha Gee.
Nichols declined to say why his office didn't release information about the slayings until Tuesday morning.
He said detectives were trying to identify possible suspects, and that those responsible for the killings should be considered "armed and dangerous."
Nichols warned area residents to lock their doors at night as a precaution.
The slayings, which Nichols described as a "brutal homicide against an entire family", occurred at the family's ranch-style home in Beason, a farming community of a few hundred residents about 140 miles southwest of Chicago.
Nichols identified the victims and gave their approximate ages: Raymond "Rick" Gee, 46; Ruth Gee, 39; Justina Constant, 16; Dillen Constant, 14; and Austin Gee, 11.
Nichols declined to provide details about the crime scene or the suspected cause of death, but he said investigators would begin doing autopsies on Tuesday.
He did not provide details about
the girl who survived.
The family was described as quiet and well-liked by townspeople and relatives.
"They were very quiet and very kind and never had a bad word to say about anybody," said Ruth Gee's mother, Francis Constant, who lives in nearby Lincoln.
Raymond Gee hustled for work in construction and as a handyman while his wife, a stay-at-home mom, helped out whenever she could, Constant said.
The couple faced their share of hardships, including having an
11-year-old daughter who suffered a brain injury so severe she must live at a special facility in Peoria. She said her son-in-law also had an adult daughter who did not live at the couple's home.
The couple's children attended church and waited each morning at the town's post office for the school bus.
In Beason, residents gathered on porches to talk about the killings, some obviously worried about the fact that, as of late in the day, authorities had not made any arrests.
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