http://www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=31157
Terror fears in Utah
Oil field worker reportedly attacked
by Middle Eastern men
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Posted: February 20, 2003
9:40 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Police and FBI officials are patrolling a remote area of southeastern Utah after reports an oil company employee was attacked by armed men who asked questions about the oilfield's operations and appeared to be Middle Eastern.
The victim, whose name wasn't released, told authorities four armed men attacked him at 11:30 p.m. last night at the ExxonMobil oil and natural gas processing facility in Aneth, Utah.
''He did not get a good look at them,'' Leonard G. Butler, acting executive director of Navajo Nation public safety in Window Rock, Ariz., told KUTV. ''They were speaking a language he did not understand.''
Aneth is on the Navajo reservation about 380 miles southeast of Salt Lake City at the sparsely inhabited Four Corners juncture of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
Rick Bailey, who heads emergency planning in San Juan County, said the question of a possible terrorist threat has been raised because the man indicated his attackers were possibly of Middle Eastern descent.
''He's indicating by the way they talked, probably more than anything,'' Bailey told the television station.
Three schools -- an elementary and high school in nearby Montezuma Creek, Utah, and a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school in Aneth -- were on emergency lockdown today.
They were allowed to go home at the end of the school day ''under normal conditions,'' a sheriff's dispatcher said.
The victim said his assailants left in a large SUV, but he didn't know in which direction, Butler said.
The oilfield and processing facility are ''nothing special,'' Bailey said. The man wasn't robbed and there was nothing of value or cash to steal from the plant.
''It would be a sabotage if anything,'' he said. ''The likelihood of causing injury or death to many people would be unlikely at best.''
Butler said the victim had only minor injuries. FBI agents were questioning him Thursday as 10 Navajo police officers joined other police on a security sweep of the oilfield along with ExxonMobil personnel.
Terror fears in Utah
Oil field worker reportedly attacked
by Middle Eastern men
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 20, 2003
9:40 p.m. Eastern
© 2003 WorldNetDaily.com
Police and FBI officials are patrolling a remote area of southeastern Utah after reports an oil company employee was attacked by armed men who asked questions about the oilfield's operations and appeared to be Middle Eastern.
The victim, whose name wasn't released, told authorities four armed men attacked him at 11:30 p.m. last night at the ExxonMobil oil and natural gas processing facility in Aneth, Utah.
''He did not get a good look at them,'' Leonard G. Butler, acting executive director of Navajo Nation public safety in Window Rock, Ariz., told KUTV. ''They were speaking a language he did not understand.''
Aneth is on the Navajo reservation about 380 miles southeast of Salt Lake City at the sparsely inhabited Four Corners juncture of Utah, Arizona, Colorado and New Mexico.
Rick Bailey, who heads emergency planning in San Juan County, said the question of a possible terrorist threat has been raised because the man indicated his attackers were possibly of Middle Eastern descent.
''He's indicating by the way they talked, probably more than anything,'' Bailey told the television station.
Three schools -- an elementary and high school in nearby Montezuma Creek, Utah, and a Bureau of Indian Affairs boarding school in Aneth -- were on emergency lockdown today.
They were allowed to go home at the end of the school day ''under normal conditions,'' a sheriff's dispatcher said.
The victim said his assailants left in a large SUV, but he didn't know in which direction, Butler said.
The oilfield and processing facility are ''nothing special,'' Bailey said. The man wasn't robbed and there was nothing of value or cash to steal from the plant.
''It would be a sabotage if anything,'' he said. ''The likelihood of causing injury or death to many people would be unlikely at best.''
Butler said the victim had only minor injuries. FBI agents were questioning him Thursday as 10 Navajo police officers joined other police on a security sweep of the oilfield along with ExxonMobil personnel.
