Mass. officials say they were not told of terrorist threat

State and city officials said yesterday that they were never told that terrorist suspects had entered Boston on liquid natural gas tankers coming into the harbor, which a former White House counterterrorism chief has said led to high-level concerns about an attack on Boston following the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

Mayor Thomas M. Menino, US Representative Edward J. Markey, and Governor Mitt Romney's public safety secretary, Edward A. Flynn, all said they have contacted federal authorities to get a full accounting of what US officials know about threats to boats that enter Boston Harbor carrying liquefied natural gas. Each said he had heard nothing definitive from the Department of Homeland Security, the Transportation Department, or the Coast Guard by yesterday afternoon.

Menino, who has long argued that liquefied natural gas shipments represent a serious threat to Boston-area residents, said the federal government erred in not passing on the information to local authorities.

"I just think somebody dropped the ball," the mayor said at a terrorism preparedness forum held at Fenway Park yesterday. "On the LNG tankers, nobody ever informed us."

The information about terrorist suspects using gas tankers to enter the country was disclosed by Richard A. Clarke, the federal government's terrorism czar until last March. In the book, published this week, Clarke wrote that Al Qaeda operatives had entered Boston on natural gas tankers by boarding them in Algeria and said top federal officials were concerned about Boston Harbor being a target on the morning of Sept. 11, shortly after the Pentagon and the World Trade Center were attacked with airliners.

Clarke's book set off a series of political recriminations, as well as renewed debate over the Boston area's vulnerability to attack via liquefied natural gas shipments.

Flynn said that as state and local officials fight the war on terrorism, it is important for them to know what federal officials were concerned about on Sept. 11. He added that if Al Qaeda operatives entered Boston, that increases the possibility of "current active Al Qaeda" cells in the area.

"Suffice it to say, so far I have been unable to verify that anybody in my world [at the state level] knew about that at that time," said Flynn, who became public safety secretary after Romney was inaugurated in 2003. "We don't have any information that that is a fact right now, and we're still continuing to reach out. And I suspect -- certainly hope -- that people in possession of that information will share it with us."

Still, Flynn said, pre-Sept. 11 information qualifies mostly as history at this point. He said he is sure that the LNG facility is far safer than it was three years ago.

Jane Swift, who was acting governor when the terrorist attacks took place, declined to comment, as did her public safety secretary, James Jajuga. But Swift has said in the past that she was not told of any specific threats against Massachusetts targets during her time in office.

Officials with the Department of Homeland Security, the Coast Guard, the Central Intelligence Agency, and the Department of Transportation declined to comment yesterday on Clarke's assertions. Suzanne Mencer -- director of the US Office for Domestic Preparedness, a division of the Department of Homeland Security -- told forum participants at Fenway Park that she had no knowledge of the activities Clarke cited.

Brian Salerno, the US Coast Guard's captain of the Boston port, also said he knew nothing of the allegations in Clarke's book.

"I don't know if it happened or not," Salerno said. "I just read the paper this morning and came straight here [to the forum]. I didn't have time to look into anything."

Lieutenant Commander Jeff Carter, the Coast Guard's chief of media relations, said he could not divulge information about threats for security reasons. He pointed out that the Coast Guard hasn't allowed ships from Algeria into Boston Harbor since Sept. 11; the last Algerian tanker entered Boston Harbor May 4, 2001, according to Distrigas of Massachusetts, which operates the LNG port.

"That just shows the extensive effort we put into all commodities coming into the US," Carter said. "LNG shipments get particularly robust security."

Romney called on Clarke to provide more details of threats to the port, saying he was dismayed that the former terrorism chief would disclose information about terrorist activities in a book before telling local officials about it. Clarke did not respond to requests for comment delivered through his publisher yesterday.

Markey, whose district includes the LNG facility in Everett, said that if Clarke's information is valid, the Bush administration misled the public about the risks posed by LNG tankers. He pointed out that after the Sept. 11 attacks, he was assured by President Bush's transportation secretary that there was "no known threat by Al Qaeda to LNG facilities."

"If Clarke's assertions are true, the Bush administration has ill-informed the Congress, state and local officials in Massachusetts, and the public," said Markey, a Malden Democrat who sits on the House Select Committee on Homeland Security. "If terrorists successfully infiltrating the US on LNG tankers do not constitute a threat to LNG tankers or facilities, I don't know what does constitute a legitimate terrorist threat."

Menino and Romney agreed that the port is safer now than it was in 2001, but they clashed on whether LNG shipments should be allowed to continue. Romney said that with multiple agencies checking the identification of those on board LNG tankers, with the tankers being thoroughly searched offshore, and the Coast Guard periodically checking security at ports those ships depart from, the public is well protected.

"My guess is that our level of protection for that tanker is -- regardless of what the overall level of protection is for our community -- almost the same as code red or code orange," the governor said. "We have, I think, as many as 10 surrounding boats that are there to protect it. We have aircraft in the air, and we have patrols along the bridges and so forth to make sure it's protected."

But Menino said the tankers still present risks from terrorists on land who could attack the tanker with guns, potentially igniting a fireball that would devastate the area. He is pushing to force the LNG tankers to unload via pipelines set up offshore.

"I'm not worried about a stowaway who gets on the tanker down in Trinidad," Menino said. "I'm worried about attacks when the ship comes into Boston Harbor."

A spokeswoman for Distrigas, Julie Vitek, issued a statement yesterday pointing out that Boston Harbor's security procedures for LNG tankers have been hailed by a model for ports across the country by Tom Ridge, the US secretary of homeland security.

Charlie Savage, Ralph Ranalli, and Scott Greenberger of the Globe staff and Globe correspondent Kevin Joy contributed to this report. Rick Klein can be reached at rklein@globe.com.