Posted on: Tuesday, May 21, 2002

Terrorism alert for apartments widely ignored

Advertiser Staff and News Services

In Maitland, Fla., residents of an upscale apartment building found a terrorism warning fastened to their doors. Tenants in Renton, Wash., received a similar warning in a letter from their landlord.

Yet most apartment dwellers in the United States received no direct notification of a recent FBI warning — sent to the agency's field offices — that Osama bin Laden's al-Qaida terrorist network had discussed the possibility of renting apartments with the intention of blowing them up.

In Honolulu, police officials received the advisory, but took no action to warn apartment owners because it wasn't specific, said police spokeswoman Jean Motoyama.

Jane Sugimura, president of the Hawai'i Council of Associations of Apartment Owners, said she saw the warning on CNN over the weekend, but has not been notified by officials.

She said the Council has 114 members, mostly on O'ahu. She said the warning was a good idea.

"I think it's good to make people aware," Sugimura said. "What they're trying to do is to make people more cognizant. I know from living in a high-rise that I don't know all the people in the building."

The warning, issued by the FBI last month, cautioned that the threat was unconfirmed and relayed more recently to some state and local law enforcement agencies.

A U.S. government official, speaking on condition of anonymity, said the information came from interviews with prisoners in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

FBI Agent Wendy Evans in Orlando, Fla., said the warning was based on "uncorroborated chatter about explosives being left in an apartment."

"In an abundance of caution, we decided it was better (apartment managers) know than not know, so they would be aware of who they were renting to or in case of any suspicions they may have with a tenant," Evans said.