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FBI Issues Homeland Suicide Bomber Warning

(TIME) The FBI is warning law enforcement agencies to be on the alert for the possibility that suicide bombers may attempt to strike inside the U.S. An intelligence bulletin circulated Thursday to 18,000 U.S. law enforcement bodies warns to look for people wearing heavy, bulky jackets on warm days, smelling of chemicals, trailing wires from their jackets, or with tightly clenched fists. Someone who never shows his palms could be gripping a detonator rigged to go off when a button is released. "If you shoot him, you're still not safe because his hands relax and the bomb explodes," says a counter-terrorism official. The FBI bulletin also notes that suicide bombers may disguise themselves in stolen military, police, or firefighter's garb, or even as pregnant women. FBI sources say there's no hard intelligence warning of specific plans by terrorists to launch suicide attacks in the U.S. like those wreaking havoc in Israel and Iraq. One U.S. analyst said that while there seems to be an endless supply of fanatical youths willing to die for the cause in the Middle East, most of them simply can't get visas to the U.S.
2004-05-21 00:00:00
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