‘Terrorism’ At Disneyland Called A Hoax

Administration and law enforcement officials Saturday played down a suggestion by President Clinton on Friday that the government had thwarted a terrorist attack involving the release of deadly nerve gas at Disneyland during the crowded Easter weekend.

The officials said the incident had actually been a hoax involving a crank telephone call, the sort of routine false alarm that Disneyland and police departments around the nation handle all the time. They said that although Clinton had not misstated the facts of the affair, he had mischaracterized it and had inflated its significance.

At a news conference Friday after the arrest of the first suspect in the Oklahoma City bombing, Clinton referred to the rapid deployment of government health and safety experts to avert a “possible terrorist incident.”

Officials said Saturday that the president was referring to a telephone call received at Disneyland reporting that Japanese terrorists were planning to release nerve gas at the California tourist attraction over the Easter weekend.

White House officials said Saturday that Clin ton’s comments were not meant to alarm the nation but were intended to reassure citizens that the government had constantly monitored potential threats.

Compounding the problem, the White House Friday night declined to deny a report in the Baltimore Sun saying Clinton had been referring to a decision by federal authorities to detain two Japanese men in Los Angeles who were carrying instructions on how to make sarin, the highly toxic gas used in the terrorist incident in the Tokyo subway system last month.

The Sun reported that officials said the men were members of the Japanese cult suspected of being involved in the Tokyo subway gas incident.

But a Justice Department spokesman, Carl Stern, said Saturday that the report was “completely inaccurate,” that no men were ever held and that the authorities had simply responded to a crank call to Disneyland.