The Federal Emergency Management Agency and the United States Secret Service responded quickly Saturday morning to an Associated Press report that stated terrorists might clone police and emergecy vehicles to conduct attacks against the Republican Convention in St. Paul, Minn., and the Democratic Convention in Denver.
“Unfortunately the article suggests a connection to the Democratic and Republican National Conventions that does not exist,” the government said in a statement. “These bulletins are periodic refresher notices designed to inform and educate emergency responders about potential threats and emergency management issues. Similar advisories were issued prior to the 2004 political conventions.”
“To be clear, there is no evidence at any level of the federal government that this type of activity is a current and viable threat to either convention.”
The government agencies went on to encourage organizers to be dilligent as always with a major national-level evnet to “maintain a heightened awareness for any contingency.”
“But again, there is no current credible threat from cloned or fake emergency vehicles,” they said.
“The Secret Service and all other federal agencies remain hyper-vigilant and focused on all credible threats,” they said. This was a quick, pointed response to a story that quickly spread across the national newswire and airwaves.
The news story came across the Associated Press newswire this morning, stating “a Federal Emergency Management Agency memo says terrorists could use such ‘cloned’ emergency or commercial vehicles to conduct surveillance or carry out an attack. The National Insurance Crime Bureau says faking such vehicles can be cheap and easy.”
The report cited examples of cloned trucks including a fake Wal-Mart truck that was busted carrying a ton and a half of marijuana and 450 pounds of cocaine.
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