Subj:	U.S.-Canada Border Closed in Vt, NY
Date:	10/10/01 1:23:13 PM Pacific Daylight Time
From:

U.S.-Canada Border Closed in Vt, NY

Associated Press
Oct. 10, 2001; 2:49 p.m. EDT

HIGHGATE, Vt. –– A bomb threat made to a business near the
U.S.-Canada border and a suspicious vehicle prompted federal
officials to close two major border crossings Wednesday.

Vehicles heading toward the ports of entry at Champlain,
N.Y., and Highgate, Vt., were stopped by police Wednesday
afternoon and directed to smaller border crossings, said
Craig Jehle, port director in Highgate.

The call was made shortly before 9 a.m. to an office of
Deringer, a customs broker and international freight
handler.

"The caller said: 'There's a bomb that's going to go boom,'"
said John Holzscheiter, Deringer marketing vice president
and co-owner.

The company's offices in Champlain, Highgate Springs and St.
Albans were evacuated.

Officials were investigating the threat Wednesday afternoon
and could provide few details. The only thing they said
about the suspicious vehicle is that it was near Highgate.

"We're waiting for things to get checked," said Temple
Black, a public affairs officer with the Immigration and
Naturalization Service in Burlington.

Both of the closed border crossings are busy ones involving
Interstate highways, 87 on the New York side, 89 on the
Vermont side.

Also in Vermont, the owner of 14 hydroelectric plants along
the Connecticut and Deerfield rivers posted armed guards
this week after three suspicious men were spotted on a
remote road near one plant over the weekend.

Officer Mike Chesanek of the Bellows Falls police
department, said the men spoke broken English and appeared
to be from the Middle East or India. He asked them for
identification, but did not detain them. He said they told
him they were looking for American Indian rock carvings that
can be found in the area.