DENVER (AP) – FBI officials last month issued a warning of Middle Eastern men approaching – and in some cases intimidating – families of military members in Colorado and Wyoming at their homes, Colorado officials said Wednesday.
“We are aware of it,” said Nathan Hunerwadel, spokesman for the Colorado Division of Homeland Security and Emergency Management.
Hunerwadel referred further inquiries to federal officials.
The alert, first reported by KCNC-TV on Tuesday night, specifically references instances in Greeley and Cheyenne, Wyoming, according to the television station. It warns of “numerous occasions” where military family members were confronted by Middle Eastern men outside their homes, the station reports.
The alert document, included in the KCNC report, cites one case in May where the wife of a military member said she was approached by Middle Eastern men who “stated she was the wife of a U.S. interrogator.”
The document says in some cases men have tried to intimidate families into releasing information about their military members.
The FBI’s Denver office declined to comment on the alert or provide a copy to The Denver Post.
“We are unable to provide any information on the authenticity or contents of the alert, and I cannot provide anything to you,” said Special Agent Amy Sanders, an FBI Denver spokeswoman. “Our standard practice is to neither confirm nor deny investigations or comment on alerts of this nature.”
A Greeley Police Department spokesman did not immediately return a message seeking comment.
U.S. Sen. Cory Gardner, R-Colo., issued a statement Wednesday in response to the KCNC report.
“I am alarmed by reports out of Denver that military members’ families have been harassed outside their homes and may be under surveillance,” Gardner said in a statement. “This news comes less than two weeks after FBI Director James Comey, speaking in Denver, warned of the heightened threat from the Islamic State that Colorado specifically faces”
Gardner said his office is “in contact with the appropriate officials.”
“I will continue to closely monitor the situation, and I encourage Coloradans to report suspicious behavior to the FBI,” he said.
