If you can’t access the Drudge-linked report of the dirty bomb threat in Boston, go to The Counterterrorism Blog–one of my new daily reads.

The southern border figures prominently in the story, a threat we’ve documented copiously here, here, here, here, and…you get the idea.

The story also brings to my mind suspected al Qaeda operative and microbiologist Aafia Siddiqui, who went to MIT and had Boston ties. Jihad Watch has more on the FBI’s investigation in April 2004 of a possible Mission Hill-based cell here.

Other al Qaeda suspects with Boston ties:

* Mohamad Kamal Elzahabi, illegal alien from Lebanon who re-entered the country numerous times despite receiving deportation orders in 1988.

* Raed Hijazi, formerly an East Boston-based cab driver believed to be a leading connection between the hijackers of four airplanes and bin Laden, implicated in the U.S.S. Cole bombing, and charged in a terrorist attack on a Jordan hotel in 2000.

* Nabil al-Marabh, Hijazi’s former roommate who reportedly trained at a jihadist camp in Afghanistan and obtained a license permitting him to drive semi-trucks containing hazardous materials, including explosives and caustic materials. (More details on Marabh’s activities and his civil liberties advocates at The Weekly Standard.)

* Bassam Kanj, another Boston cab driver with ties to Hijazi who was killed in northern Lebanon in January 2000 during an attack against the Lebanese Army.

Other bloggers tracking the story:

Backcountry Conservative

The Command Post

Take Back the News (Hat tip: executive editor John Little)

Update:

Relevant sections of the 9/11 Commission report on al Qaeda in Boston…

Tracking Raed Hijazi

The 9/11 hijackers in Boston

Update II: The unidentified source for the info seems pretty sketchy. Strange that they released photos and names of the Chinese smugglees, but not the reported two Iraqis.

Update III: Winds of Change provides links to their dirty bomb primer and says “there are a couple things about this story that don’t quite add, and our advice in these cases is always to treat such reports with extreme caution and skepticism… having said that, something is clearly up.”

Update IV: New post here.

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