Posted on 09/13/2002 6:21:17 AM PDT by Forgiven_Sinner
MIAMI (Reuters) - Police in Florida detained three men and detonated an item found in their car early on Friday after receiving information of a possible terrorist threat, police said.
The Florida Highway Patrol closed off Alligator Alley, the main east-west highway across the Everglades in south Florida, after stopping two vehicles. Live TV showed a bomb squad team detonate what appeared to be a bag taken from the car.
U.S. law enforcement authorities have been on a heightened state of alert since Tuesday, when they announced they had identified a high risk of terrorist attack on the anniversary of the Sept. 11 hijacked aircraft assaults on the United States, in which more than 3,000 people were killed.
Florida police sources said the vehicles were stopped after Georgia police had been tipped by a woman who said she had overheard three men in a Georgia restaurant talking about explosives. One, she told police, had said Americans had mourned on 9-11 (Sept 11) and would mourn again on 9-13 (Sept 13).
The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued an advisory asking other police agencies to watch out for two vehicles driven by the three. The woman gave a detailed description of the vehicles, including the license-plate number of one, according to a police source.
A sheriff's deputy in Florida's Collier County spotted the cars around midnight at the western toll plaza on Alligator Alley, a lonely stretch of highway running between Naples on the state's west coast and Fort Lauderdale on the east.
"The vehicles went through the toll plaza, not paying, and the deputy went after them," Florida Highway Patrol Lt. John Bagnardi told WTVJ television in Miami.
The three men, said to be of Middle Eastern descent, were being questioned in police custody.
"Dogs alerted to the vehicles, meaning there was some type of explosive or had been some type of explosive in the vehicle," Bagnardi said.
Federal authorities increased the nation's color-coded alert system this week to orange, the second highest level on a five-point scale, to indicate a high risk of terrorist attack. They closed 15 embassies on Tuesday and deployed anti-aircraft missiles around Washington as the United States prepared to mourn the Sept. 11 victims.
Florida authorities said the three men were stopped heading west toward Naples on the Gulf Coast. Bomb squad personnel were still searching the car.
A spokeswoman for the Federal Aviation Administration ( news - web sites)'s southern district said some flight restrictions had been imposed over the scene
"There's a temporary slight restriction in place at request of Collier County Sheriff Department and that is within a 3 nautical mile radius of the location in question at and below 3,000 feet."
The slight restriction meant only law enforcement aircraft under the direction of the Sheriff's Department could fly in the area, she said.
A news helicopter was also filming the scene.
Middle-Easterners making threats get taken more seriously these days. Don't worry, people are watching them.
These cretins are brilliant.
Or decoys meant to draw every LEO within 300 miles so the real operatives have a clear field of play.
If it is, their September 13th prediction will come true.
Let's hope it doesn't, but I am not so sure.
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