Saudi Men Who Rode School Bus Arrested (Tampa, FL)

Tampa Bay Online ^ | May 20, 2006 | Keith Morelli

[STARWISE]

Two Saudi men were arrested Friday after they boarded a school bus and rode to Wharton High School in New Tampa.

Students on the bus became alarmed, as did the bus driver, who called ahead. Hillsborough County sheriff's deputies met the bus at the school and detained the men. No one was injured and nothing out of line occurred on the bus, deputies said.

Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, who lives in Apt. 302 in The Point apartments, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20 Monticello Gardens, Apt. 304-A, each were charged with trespassing on school property. Both remained in Orient Road Jail on Friday evening. Bail for each was set at $250.

"Both defendants gave several versions of the reason they took a school bus to a high school," said Hillsborough County sheriff's spokesman J.D. Callaway.

"They said they wanted to go to Wharton to look around, and then they said they wanted to go there to have some fun, and then they said they wanted to enroll in the English classes there," Callaway said.

"We're not sure if this was a situation of them just being new to this country, or if they were confused or what it was," Callaway said. "We were unsure as to exactly what the final reason was, but it did cause great concern for the students on the bus and for us. One of the guys was wearing shorts with a black trench coat."

While on the bus, the men laughed and spoke in Arabic, Callaway said.

[john drake]

Regardless of their public shame, isn't it perfectly acceptable, per the tenets of Islam, to lie to infidels? In this case, or any other?

[muawiyah]

You can figure it out without a great deal of trouble. BTW, I attended a University where Saudi Arabia funds a chair or two.

[muawiyah]

In religious matters, sure. I doubt these guys were debating the Koran however.

One does suppose you'd feel much more at ease if these guys had undertook to hold an impromptu "smoker" at 11:30 PM though.

[hershey]

Low bail will facilitate discovery of their controllers. FBI trailing them, listening in on phone calls, etc.. It well could've been a dry run, in which case it was a success. (IED's coming our way any minute, and when that happens, Bush and republicans will take the heat. Dems and the MSM will say the only thing he managed to get right was the fact that there'd been no more terrorist attacks on US soil, so now there's no reason to vote republican.)

[Calpernia]

Related?

September 5, 2003 (CBS News)
FBI Hunts 4 Terror Suspects

(CBS/AP) The FBI issued a bulletin Friday announcing a worldwide search for four men in connection with possible terrorist threats against the United States.

One of the four is a Saudi with family ties in South Florida, who has previously been described as a possible al Qaeda operative in the mold of Mohammed Atta, ringleader of the 9-11 attackers.

The FBI posted the bulletin on its Web site and circulated it among law enforcement agencies after recent intelligence indicated the four could be involved in an unspecified plot against U.S. interests, said a law enforcement official who spoke on condition of anonymity.

The FBI had been seeking information about all four — two Saudis, a Moroccan and a Tunisian — for months, but the new information led officials to intensify the search, said a second official, also on condition of anonymity.

"These individuals should be considered armed and dangerous," the FBI bulletin reads. None of the four are believed to be in the United States.

[steveyp]

Beslan. I agree. Dry run.

Granted, I trust none of these "people".

[Calpernia]

>>>>The two apparently both lived in South Florida in the 1990s.<<<<

August 15, 2004 (Guardian Unlimited)
Countries Run Drills for Panama Attack

...

In April 2001, a suspected al-Qaida figure identified as Adnan Gulshair El Shukrijumah arrived in Panama legally from the United States and stayed for 10 days, said Panama's security council chief, Ramiro Jarvis.

Immigration records show that El Shukrijumah then apparently returned to the United States, Panama Interior Department spokesman David Salayandia said. Authorities have been looking for him since.

Last year, the FBI said it wanted to question El Shukrijumah on suspicion of involvement in plotting al-Qaida attacks on the United States or its interests abroad. But he faces no formal charges, officials said.

U.S. authorities said they are investigating whether there are any links between El Shukrijumah and other terror suspects, including Jose Padilla, an American arrested in 2002 for allegedly plotting to detonate a radioactive bomb. The two apparently both lived in South Florida in the 1990s.

Panama has taken steps to ensure that the canal is protected. In May, it signed an agreement allowing U.S. officials to board Panamanian flagships and search them for weapons of mass destruction.

[DoctorMichael]

1) Pedohiles
2) Casing the situation for a future Terrorist-hostage attack ala Russia
3) Both

[Calpernia]

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1420911/posts?page=29#29

EXCERPT, more at link

Al Qaeda seeks tie to local gangs

This Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles flier shows Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a Saudi national who may be plotting terrorist attacks as part of al-Qaida. By Jerry Seper THE WASHINGTON TIMES

A top al Qaeda lieutenant has met with leaders of a violent Salvadoran criminal gang with roots in Mexico and the United States — including a stronghold in the Washington area — in an effort by the terrorist network to seek help infiltrating the U.S.-Mexico border, law enforcement authorities said.

Adnan G. El Shukrijumah, a key al Qaeda cell leader for whom the U.S. government has offered a $5 million reward, was spotted in July in Honduras meeting with leaders of El Salvador's notorious Mara Salvatrucha gang, which immigration officials said has smuggled hundreds of Central and South Americans — mostly gang members — into the United States. Although they are actively involved in alien, drug and weapons smuggling, Mara Salvatrucha members in America also have been tied to numerous killings, robberies, burglaries, carjackings, extortions, rapes and aggravated assaults — including at least seven killings in Virginia and a machete attack on a 16-year-old in Alexandria that severely mutilated his hands. The Salvadoran gang, known to law enforcement authorities as MS-13 because many members identify themselves with tattoos of the number 13, is thought to have established a major smuggling center in Matamoros, Mexico, just south of Brownsville, Texas, from where it has arranged to bring illegal aliens from countries other than Mexico into the United States. Authorities said al Qaeda terrorists hope to take advantage of a lack of detention space within the Department of Homeland Security that has forced immigration officials to release non-Mexican illegal aliens back into the United States, rather than return them to their home countries. Less than 15 percent of those released appear for immigration hearings. Nearly 60,000 illegal aliens designated as other-than-Mexican, or OTMs, were detained last year along the U.S.-Mexico border.

El Shukrijumah, born in Saudi Arabia but thought to be a Yemen national, was spotted in Tegucigalpa, Honduras, in July, having crossed the border illegally from Nicaragua after a stay in Panama. U.S. authorities said al Qaeda operatives have been in Tegucigalpa planning attacks against British, Spanish and U.S. embassies. Known to carry passports from Saudi Arabia, Trinidad, Guyana and Canada, El Shukrijumah had sought meetings with the Mara Salvatrucha gang leaders who control alien-smuggling routes through Mexico and into the United States. El Shukrijumah, 29, who authorities said was in Canada last year looking for nuclear material for a so-called "dirty bomb" and reportedly has family members in Guyana, was named in a March 2003 material-witness arrest warrant by federal prosecutors in Northern Virginia, where U.S. Attorney Paul J. McNulty said he is sought in connection with potential terrorist threats against the United States. A former southern Florida resident and pilot thought to have helped plan the September 11 attacks, El Shukrijumah was among seven suspected al Qaeda operatives identified in May by Attorney General John Ashcroft as being involved in plans to strike new targets in the United States. Citing "credible intelligence from multiple sources," Mr. Ashcroft said at the time that El Shukrijumah posed "a clear and present danger to America."

[browardchad]

Investigators say the men boarded a school bus at Fletcher Avenue and 42nd Street, sat down and began speaking in Arabic. Their behavior concerned the driver, a substitute, who alerted the school district.

It could just be rotten reporting, but this sounds as if grown men boarding a school bus is not an unusual thing in that area, since it was their "behavior," not their presence, that concerned the driver.

No one seems to be concentrating on the implications of letting grown men, with no association with the school, on a school bus. The fact that one of them was wearing a black trench coat with shorts, and the statement that they "wanted to have some fun" . .kind of tickles the mind to think in terms of "perverts," rather than terrorists.

At the very least, the driver should be fired, and a whale of a stink made by parents.

[STARWISE]

Not sure if I pinged you on this, rod .... pass the word on.

[Eastbound]

"We have been importing 100,000 legal Muslim immigrants a year since 9-11 . . ."

Yes, we have our work cut out for us, weeding out the terrorists already here. Let's hope it won't be necessary to plow the field and re-plant. I'm sure that all the peaceful and patriotic American Muslims have been working hand in hand with the government to prevent that necessity.

The incidents you mention were no doubt the result of mustangs and mal-contents who didn't read the memo or can't see the handwriting on the wall.

[F.J. Mitchell]

It could be blamed on cultural differences I suppose, but isn't cultural differences also what gives us those homicide bombers who have a habit of gleefully blowing themselves on buses filled with children?

They were probably testing out the possibility of Killing our kid on their way to school. It's time to put armed shotgun guards on school buses.

[george76]

Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations Allah’s Smoke, Mirrors & Snake Oil Sales, Inc.™, said the men likely meant no harm and that because “they were from Saudi Arabia, that escalated the situation.”

He blamed the incident on cultural differences.

“They didn’t differentiate between a school bus and public transportation,” he said.

Almanajam and Alsidran at first told deputies they were from Morocco, but later admitted being from Saudi Arabia, deputies said.

http://www.nicedoggie.net/2006/

[jeremiah]

Maybe then the people will demand a real response to the terrorist. God help this country, and the President, for not being ready for something like that.

[jeremiah]

As far as I can tell, the TV news shows are not talking about this to any extent. The first step in warning people is to notify them, second step is to inform them what they can do to protect THEMSELVES, the third step is to round up any visitors of the Muslim faith NOT citizens, and send them back to their country of origin. Tough luck fellas and little ladies, we are at war, go home and get in line to come back.

[B-Chan]

Subtext: "This time we hitched a ride with your kids. The next time we might disappear with them -- or blow them to hell."

Message: "We can get to your kids any time we want, America".

[GOPJ]

I hope they are now investigating their "friend" who tried to bail them out.

Hope so too...

[john drake]

I believe they will lie regarding any matter, not just over religious ones, especially since their "faith" is one that is a bastardization of Judaism, Christianity and tribal practices tossed to allow familiarity with the indigenous peoples. What in their faith is "truth" that isn't recognized in it's borrowed sources?

Regarding the smoker, no such luck; Westerners should never feel at ease nor be interested in dealing with members of a culture/society that historically is hell bent on subjugating any and all who aren't "one" with them. The Islamic conditions for tolerance is to feign cooperation until they're in a position of strength, and then to proceed with enforcing second class citizenship to those that don't convert, or death. So much for a religion of peace, or whatever nonsensical, misleading title is applied as a deceptive practice to promote tolerance on their part. If the West, at this point in history, wasn't so dependent on Mideast oil, well, the Mideast would remain in the 7th century and no one would give a damn, however current economics changes that situation for the time being, doesn't it?

[Politicalmom]

I believe her, too. :)

(How are you these days?)