Feds: Somerset man lied about impending terror attack
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Posted 8:20PM on Tuesday, July 9, 2002
NEWARK, NEW JERSEY - Prosecutors are saying Tuesday that warnings from a man that led authorities to raid ships in Georgia and New Jersey looking for terrorists were lies. <br>
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John Habenstein, a 31-year-old man from Somerset, New Jersey, contacted the F.B.I. and told agents that terrorists were sending weapons of mass destruction to the U.S. and Canada aboard two Liberian ships. <br>
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Authorities say Habersham was trying to curry favor with the F.B.I. He was charged with making false statements to law enforcement. <br>
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Habenstein's lies led the F.B.I., U.S. Customs and other authorities to mobilize and raid ships Those claims resulted in a substantial mobilization of who raided ships in Savannah, Georgia and Newark, New Jersey. They found nothing. <br>
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Habenstein was released on $25,000 bail and placed under home confinement with an electronic monitoring device. He also must undergo psychiatric evaluation.