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Polish Cops Detain 4 on Terror Suspicion
| Update from Fred's piece last evening. |
Polish authorities questioned three Pakistanis and a Ukrainian Monday about possible terrorist links after finding maps in one of the men's apartments with large circles around the capital's only synagogue and an area housing many embassies.
| That would tend to raise suspicions a tad. |
The men were taken into custody amid heightened security after the bombings in Madrid, and police were investigating whether they were involved in terrorism or other criminal activity, said police spokeswoman Grazyna Puchalska. "This detention is the effect of police and other services being especially alert due to a potential terrorist threat," Puchalska told The Associated Press. Police said the men ranged in age from 32 to 59, but would not release their names or further details. The men were taken into custody Sunday after Warsaw police spotted one of the Pakistanis behaving suspiciously near the capital's main train station and asked for his documents, police spokesman Marcin Szyndler said. The man said the documents were at his apartment. When police went there, they encountered two other Pakistanis and a Ukrainian man, Szyndler said.
A search of the premises turned up tourist maps of Poland with large parts of the city marked by wide circles, including around an area with the capital's only synagogue and an area housing many embassies, Szyndler said. He emphasized that no individual sites were marked. After a day of vigorous questioning with truncheons, Puchalska said there was still no concrete evidence they were planning an attack. "We cannot confirm at this point whether these people will be charged with terrorism or criminal activity or will not be charged at all," she said. Still, Polish authorities contacted police in several countries and the European police agency Europol and were checking all items found on the men to determine "who they are and what they are doing in Poland," said Pawel Chojecki, another police spokesman.
"Um, we're tourists!"
"We don't believe you."
"Um, we're businessmen!"
"We don't believe that either."
"Um, we're here to pray to the Blessed Virgin!"
"That's it! Marcin, hand me the large truncheon!" |
Posted by: Steve White 2004-03-23 |
