Authorities shut down a section of the Port of Charleston in South Carolina for about seven hours Wednesday night after a conspiracy theorist called in a false bomb threat.
The Coast Guard responded to the port’s Wando terminal after they received two calls around 8 p.m. on Wednesday notifying them of a possible dirty bomb — an explosive containing radioactive material — on the container ship Maesrk Memphis, according to the New York Times.
Authorities scanned four containers on the ship and cleared them, reopening the terminal around 3:30 a.m. on Thursday. The Coast Guard said the terminal was evacuated during the search.
The tip calls were prompted by a YouTube video, Coast Guard spokesman, Lt. James B. Zorn told the Times. An account of one call appeared in a YouTube video on Wednesday, according to the newspaper. In the video, George Webb, a frequent peddler of far-right conspiracy theories, described having a conversation with the Coast Guard…
Source: Port of Charleston: Conspiracy Theorist Shut Down Terminal | Time.com
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