SPRINGFIELD, Ohio (AP) — A small Ohio city has been inundated with hoax bomb threats since last week's presidential debate, when former President Donald Trump falsely accused members of Springfield's Haitian community of abducting and eating cats and dogs.
Trump's running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance, has amplified debunked internet rumors about Haitian migrants as the Republican ticket criticizes the immigration policies of President Joe Biden's administration that are supported by Trump's Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris. City officials acknowledge growing pains from the influx of some 15,000 Haitian immigrants, but say there's no evidence to support the claim they are consuming anyone's pets.
More than 30 bomb threats have been made against schools, government buildings and city officials' homes since last week, forcing evacuations and closures. Springfield also canceled its annual celebration of diversity, arts and culture in response to the threats, and on Tuesday, state police were deployed to city schools.
Here are some things to know about the situation in Springfield:
Foreign actors, primarily. That's according to Ohio's governor, Republican Mike DeWine, who revealed that most of the threats are coming from overseas. The governor's office says a criminal investigation by multiple law enforcement agencies determined the “vast majority” of the threats were international in origin. Officials did not provide more information on how investigators determined they came from a foreign country, nor would DeWine reveal the name of the country.
DeWine sent dozens of members of the Ohio State Highway Patrol to all 18 city schools, where sweeps will be conducted twice a day to prevent further disruption and help reassure parents and students the buildings are safe. Even with the increased police presence, though, many parents still kept their kids home from school on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, security cameras have been stationed at strategic spots in the city, and a bomb-sniffing dog was sent to Springfield and will be available round-the-clock.
And DeWine pledged $2.5 million over two years to increase support for primary health care. The state highway patrol is also helping local law enforcement with traffic enforcement. DeWine said many Haitians are inexperienced drivers and are unfamiliar with U.S. traffic laws.
Springfield never wanted the spotlight — not in this way.
On Tuesday, city officials said that misinformation and falsehoods about Haitian immigrants have sowed fear and division, disrupted learning and cost taxpayer dollars. In a statement, they begged public figures, community members and the media to “move beyond divisive rhetoric and instead work toward fostering unity, understanding and respect.” The statement did not mention Trump or Vance by name.
Springfield Mayor Rob Rue has said the immigrant influx is straining police, hospitals and schools. He has also criticized the federal government, saying the city asked for help months ago. But he called on national leaders Tuesday to “temper their words and speak truth.”
Jobs and word of mouth.
Springfield shed manufacturing jobs and its population decreased significantly as a result toward the end of the last century. But the city has made a concerted effort to lure employers and Haitians immigrants have helped meet rising demand for labor in factories and warehouses. Word spread, and Haitians began arriving in greater numbers over the last few years.
Haitians in Springfield and elsewhere came to the U.S. to flee violence in their home country. Many Haitians are here under a federal program called Temporary Protected Status, which allows them to temporarily live and work in the U.S. because conditions are considered too dangerous for them to return to Haiti.
Members of the Haitian community say they felt uneasy even before Trump and Vance picked up and amplified the lies about pet-eating, as longtime residents chafed at the new arrivals' impact on jobs, housing and traffic.
“Some of them are talking about living in fear. Some of them are scared for their life,” Rose-Thamar Joseph said last week at Springfield's Haitian Community Help and Support Center.
At a church service on Sunday, Mia Perez said her daughter was evacuated from school twice last week.
“Kids in school are being asked by other kids: ’How does the dog taste? How does the cat taste?'” Perez said. “She’s asking, ‘Are we the kind of Haitians who eat this kind of stuff? Is it true? What’s happening?’”
“This is a conversation that I was not ready to have with my daughter,” Perez said. “I felt disrespected of our culture.”
Rubinkam reported from northeastern Pennsylvania.
A mural depicting Hattie Moseley, a Springfield Civil Rights activist who was instrumental in battling the segregation of Fulton Elementary School, is painted on the WesBanco building on East Main Street in Springfield, Ohio, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
Springfield native Jaheim Almon, left, plays basketball with a group of neighbors in Springfield, Ohio, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
The sun rises over the city of Springfield, Ohio, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
Romane Pierre of Rose Goute Creole Restaurant in Springfield, Ohio, helps a line of customers, Monday, Sept. 16, 2024. (AP Photo/Jessie Wardarski)
LONDON (AP) — Britain is facing a “staggering rise” in attempts at assassination, sabotage and other crimes on U.K. soil by Russia and Iran, as the two states recruit criminals to “do their dirty work,” the head of Britain's domestic intelligence agency said Tuesday.
MI5 Director General Ken McCallum said his agents and police have tackled 20 “potentially lethal” plots backed by Iran since 2022 and warned that it could expand its targets in the United Kingdom if conflicts in the Middle East deepen.
So far, the threats have been aimed at Iranians abroad who oppose the country's authorities. But McCallum said there is the risk “of an increase in — or broadening of — Iranian state aggression in the U.K.” if the Middle East crisis escalates with Israel launching a major attack in response to Iran’s recent missile barrage.
In a rare public speech setting out the major threats to the U.K. from both states and militant groups, McCallum argued that hostile states, radicalized individuals and a revived Islamic State group have combined to create “the most complex and interconnected threat environment we’ve ever seen.”
McCallum said there also is a risk that Israel’s conflicts with Iran-backed groups — the militant Hamas in Gaza, Hezbollah in Lebanon as well as the Houthi rebels in Yemen — could trigger attacks in the U.K., though so far the crisis has not translated “at scale into terrorist violence” in Britain.
The number of state-threat investigations undertaken by MI5 has risen by 48% in the past year, with Iran, Russia and China the main perpetrators, McCallum told journalists at the U.K.’s counterterrorism command center in London.
McCallum said that since the death of Mahsa Amini, who died in Iranian police custody in September 2022 after being detained for allegedly violating the Islamic republic’s mandatory headscarf law, “we’ve seen plot after plot here in the U.K., at an unprecedented pace and scale.”
He said MI5 and the police have responded to 20 potentially lethal Iran-backed plots since January 2022, up by a third from the figure of 15 the government gave at the end of January.
McCallum said Russia’s military intelligence agency was trying to use “arson, sabotage and more” to create “mayhem” on the streets of Britain and other European countries.
Both Russia and Iran often turn to criminals, “from international drug traffickers to low-level crooks,” to carry out their illegal deeds, he said.
Several alleged state-backed plots have led to criminal charges. In December, a Chechen man was jailed for allegedly carrying out reconnaissance on the offices of a dissident Iranian broadcaster in London. Separately, several suspects are awaiting trial in London over an alleged Russia-linked plan to attack Ukrainian-owned businesses.
Britain is not alone in pointing a finger at Moscow and Tehran. Germany has arrested several people for allegedly spying or planning attacks on behalf of Russia. In May, Sweden’s domestic security agency accused Iran of using criminal networks to target Israeli or Jewish interests in the Scandinavian country.
Past speeches by McCallum and other U.K. intelligence chiefs have emphasized China's increasingly assertive behavior, which in 2022 McCallum called Britain’s greatest "strategic challenge.” On Tuesday, McCallum stressed the importance of the U.K.-China economic relationship but said there were “risks to be managed.”
The U.K.’s official terror threat level stands at “substantial,” the middle of a five-point scale, meaning an attack is likely, and McCallum said that since 2017, MI5 and the police have disrupted 43 late-stage plots, saving “numerous lives.”
While about three-quarters of the plots stem from Islamic extremist ideology and a quarter from the extreme right, he said those labels “don’t fully reflect the dizzying range of beliefs and ideologies we see,” drawn from a soup of “online hatred, conspiracy theories and disinformation." Young people are increasingly involved, he said, with 13% of the subjects of MI5 terror investigations under the age of 18.
He also said there were worrying signs that the Islamic State group is attempting a comeback, despite the collapse of its self-declared caliphate in Iraq and Syria several years ago.
McCallum said that “after a few years of being pinned well back, they’ve resumed efforts to export terrorism," and cited a March attack that killed more than 140 people at a Moscow concert hall and was claimed by IS, as “a brutal demonstration of its capability.”
MI5 has faced criticism for its failure to stop deadly attacks, including a 2017 suicide bombing that killed 22 people at an Ariana Grande concert in Manchester.
“The first 20 years of my career here were crammed full of terrorist threats,” McCallum said. “We now face those alongside state-backed assassination and sabotage plots, against the backdrop of a major European land war.”
MI5, he said, “has one hell of a job on its hands.”
Associated Press writer Jan M. Olsen in Copenhagen contributed to this story.
Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, delivers the annual Director General's speech at Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in west London, Tuesday Oct. 8, 2024. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, delivers the annual Director General's speech at Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in west London, Tuesday Oct. 8, 2024. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
Ken McCallum, Director General of MI5, delivers the annual Director General's speech at Counter Terrorism Operations Centre in west London, Tuesday Oct. 8, 2024. (Yui Mok/PA via AP)
