Norwegian Embassy bomb scare turns out to be backpack of tennis balls
A "suspicious package" found near the Norwegian embassy in Washington yesterday closed down a busy street during rush hour and brought teams of law enforcement out in droves — but it turned out to be nothing more than a discarded backpack full of tennis balls. A Cable reader relayed the scene near Massachusetts Ave. and ...
A "suspicious package" found near the Norwegian embassy in Washington yesterday closed down a busy street during rush hour and brought teams of law enforcement out in droves -- but it turned out to be nothing more than a discarded backpack full of tennis balls.
A "suspicious package" found near the Norwegian embassy in Washington yesterday closed down a busy street during rush hour and brought teams of law enforcement out in droves — but it turned out to be nothing more than a discarded backpack full of tennis balls.
A Cable reader relayed the scene near Massachusetts Ave. and 34th Street NW on Wednesday morning around 9:30 AM, when uniformed secret service, the explosives ordinance division of Washington’s metropolitan police, and five fire trucks shut down a large section of road after the suspicious package was found near Norway’s embassy. Following the terror attacks in Norway that resulted in 76 deaths on July 22, local and federal law enforcement weren’t taking any chances.
The Vatican embassy, which is located on the corner of 34th and Massachusetts Ave., was also evacuated, leaving several priests in full religious garb wandering around the scene.
"There was a suspicious backpack located at the Norwegian embassy on 34th Street," Max Milien, a Secret Service spokesman, told The Cable. The Secret Service took the lead, called in the other agencies, and cordoned off the street.
Eventually, after a thorough inspection, "The backpack was declared safe and 34th Street was reopened," Milien said.
The Cable also spoke with Norwegian embassy Minister-Counselor Berit Enge, who said that the Norwegian embassy was briefly evacuated but the Secret Service later said they were never in any danger.
So what was this suspicious package?
"Apparently it was a backpack with some tennis balls in it," she said, adding that it made sense since there was a tennis court nearby.
Josh Rogin covers national security and foreign policy and writes the daily Web column The Cable. His column appears bi-weekly in the print edition of The Washington Post. He can be reached for comments or tips at josh.rogin@foreignpolicy.com.
Previously, Josh covered defense and foreign policy as a staff writer for Congressional Quarterly, writing extensively on Iraq, Afghanistan, Guantánamo Bay, U.S.-Asia relations, defense budgeting and appropriations, and the defense lobbying and contracting industries. Prior to that, he covered military modernization, cyber warfare, space, and missile defense for Federal Computer Week Magazine. He has also served as Pentagon Staff Reporter for the Asahi Shimbun, Japan's leading daily newspaper, in its Washington, D.C., bureau, where he reported on U.S.-Japan relations, Chinese military modernization, the North Korean nuclear crisis, and more.
A graduate of George Washington University's Elliott School of International Affairs, Josh lived in Yokohama, Japan, and studied at Tokyo's Sophia University. He speaks conversational Japanese and has reported from the region. He has also worked at the House International Relations Committee, the Embassy of Japan, and the Brookings Institution.
Josh's reporting has been featured on CNN, MSNBC, C-Span, CBS, ABC, NPR, WTOP, and several other outlets. He was a 2008-2009 National Press Foundation's Paul Miller Washington Reporting Fellow, 2009 military reporting fellow with the Knight Center for Specialized Journalism and the 2011 recipient of the InterAction Award for Excellence in International Reporting. He hails from Philadelphia and lives in Washington, D.C. Twitter: @joshrogin
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