Gang poses threat to harbor

A Boston politician believes that people in East Boston are vulnerable to attacks related to Islamic terrorism:

City Council President Michael Flaherty said he is taking the concerns East Boston residents have about a link between ruthless street gang MS-13 and al-Qaeda terrorists seriously, given the proximity the neighborhood has to passing LNG tankers.

Flaherty - who often dines with his family in East Boston and is quick to point out the neighborhood is on the rise - said anyone hellbent on destruction could perch on the waterfront and use a shoulder-fired missile to attack a tanker, he said.

"LNG tankers, given their slow speed and small area in which they have to navigate into Boston, are vulnerable to terrorist attack and therefore pose a serious public safety risk to many surrounding Boston neighborhoods," Flaherty said yesterday.

MS-13, a ruthless international criminal organization that has a large group of gang members who congregate in Maverick Square, is the subject of a Homeland Security Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation to determine if it controls smuggling from Mexico into the United States, an agency spokesman said. A top Osama bin Laden aide recently offered top dollar to infiltrate the country from Mexico, Attorney General John Ashcroft said.

"It's scary. It makes you afraid that anything can happen here," said Donna Tierno, 61, an East Boston resident since 1975. Tierno's apartment is close to Maverick Square, and gang members often scrawl MS-13 graffiti on buildings near her home. "I pretty much stay in now."

East Boston residents do not have to search far for reasons to worry about terrorists coming into the neighborhood. The commercial jets used to take down the World Trade Center towers were hijacked from Logan International Airport, and an accused terrorist suspected of training the suicide bombers who attacked the USS Cole lived in East Boston.