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Saudi Men Who Rode School Bus Arrested (Tampa, FL)
Tampa Bay Online ^ | May 20, 2006 | Keith Morelli

Posted on 05/20/2006 3:52:09 PM PDT by 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.

(Excerpt) Read more at tbo.com ...


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; Government; News/Current Events; US: Florida; War on Terror
KEYWORDS: alarian; almanajam; alqaeda; alsidran; arabs; beslan; binladen; bus; children; confused; dryrun; highschool; hijacking; islam; muslims; practicerun; reconnaissance; saudimen; schoolbus; schoolchildren; studentvisas; tampa; terrorism; terrorists; trialrun; uofsouthflorida; wakeupcall; weirdos; wharton
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To: jimbo123
FBI: 9/11 hijackers cased airports, took test runs

BBC: London bombers staged 'dummy run'

Newly released CCTV footage shows the 7 July London bombers staged a practice run nine days before the attack

Detectives reconstructed the bombers' movements after studying thousands of hours of film as part of the probe into the blasts which killed 52 people.

CCTV images show three of the bombers entering Luton station, before travelling to King's Cross station where they are also pictured.

Officers are keen to find out if the men met anyone else on the day.

Intensive probe

The three, Mohammad Sidique Khan, Shehzad Tanweer and Germaine Lindsay, were conducting a carefully planned reconnaissance exercise, police said.

Deputy Assistant Commissioner Peter Clarke, head of Scotland Yard's Anti-Terrorist Branch, said: "What we want to know is where else they went and did they meet anybody else while they were in London?

"If any member of the public thinks that they know something about the movement of these men on that day, they should call us on the anti-terrorist hotline."

He added that it was "part of a terrorist's methodology" to check timings, lay-out and security precautions


301 posted on 05/21/2006 3:29:55 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: muawiyah
A night in jail probably got them squared away on the whys and hows of NOT riding the yellow school buses!

Each of them getting a bullet to the back of the head would have "squared them away" more to my satisfaction.

302 posted on 05/21/2006 3:40:26 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: STARWISE
Officials who questioned the men Friday said they at first said they were from Morocco but later admitted being from Saudi Arabia.

Lying to a police officer is an offense in most states

303 posted on 05/21/2006 3:46:02 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: NautiNurse
Black trench coat--someone wearing heavy clothing on a (sunny) summer day is a classic example of suspicious behavior.

Thanks for pointing that out, I'd missed that.

Wearing a black trench coat

In FLORIDA

In late May

304 posted on 05/21/2006 3:48:42 PM PDT by SauronOfMordor (A planned society is most appealing to those with the arrogance to think they will be the planners)
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To: JustPiper

I thought it was the guy on the left that looked psychotic.


305 posted on 05/21/2006 4:15:18 PM PDT by daybreakcoming (If destruction be our lot, we must ourselves be its author and finisher. A. Lincoln)
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To: All

Noting these related links for archival purposes:
---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1635966/posts

Saudis jump aboard Florida school bus
© 2006 WorldNetDaily.com ^ | Posted: May 21, 2006 | WND

Posted on 05/21/2006 12:43:06 PM PDT by keats5

"Saudi men arrested after jumping aboard public school bus in Tampa, Fla."(courtesy WTSP-TV)

TAMPA, Fla.

---

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/1636044/posts

"Judge Revokes Bail For Saudi Bus Riders-(update on Saudies raiding a School Bus)"
tbo ^ | May 21, 2006 | MIKE WELLS

Posted on 05/21/2006 4:31:37 PM PDT by Flavius

TAMPA


306 posted on 05/21/2006 4:43:47 PM PDT by Cindy
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To: john drake

The 7th Century was far more progressive than modern Iran.


307 posted on 05/21/2006 5:21:20 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: MHGinTN
"settled" really doesn't mean 6 months, and they were attending school.

I do hope you read the article.

Concerning Arabs in Florida, they like the place, particularly if they're from some of the warmer areas in Saudi. This sort of thing (Arabs liking Florida) has been going on for decades.

308 posted on 05/21/2006 5:23:25 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: JustPiper

These guys look like First Cousins.


309 posted on 05/21/2006 5:27:56 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: SauronOfMordor

As in previous threads you are all too easily persuaded to justify murder.


310 posted on 05/21/2006 5:30:21 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: muawiyah

I read the article and several others posted about this story. Perhaps these 'boys' are not doing terrorist reconnaissance, but we cannot afford to take that chance in the current world. Perhaps they had no idea what a school bus was as opposed to a transit bus, but it doesn't pass the smell test to make excuses for these two since they traveled around to the other side of the world, have apartments here, and pay utility bills here, have dined out in their 'new country of residence' on what must be numerous occasions, have been watching TV for six months, and are well aware of the heightened awareness of Arabs and Middle Easterners. No, you need to stop playing apologist for these people. This was not an innocent mistake ... and if you haven't figured it out yet, we cannot afford to assume this is an innocent mistake else we court a Beslan atrocity. Or do you have some brilliant explanation for the trench coat along the lines of 'they wear bathrobes out in public in SA'?... As if these two were so out of touch with cultural differences here! Not only do these two belong on a plane heading for SA immediately, this ought work as a wake up call to get prepared for terrorist activities that will slaughter our children ... this is Islamic terrorism we are at war with and SA is the paymaster and promoter of the hate campaign against the West.


311 posted on 05/21/2006 5:43:41 PM PDT by MHGinTN (If you can read this, you've had life support from someone. Promote life support for others.)
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To: Publius; Tammy8

Yeah, I remember that. Anybody remember what year that was? Something weird ... several years after that Chinchilla buried bus incident, I was sick at home with the flu and was watching an old rerun of Mod Squad. The plot of the program was about a guy who kidnapped a busload of school children and buried it with the kids on it, with plans to ransom the kids. I remember thinking at the time that that particular episode of Mod Squad was on TV before the real Chinchilla bus incident, and it was pretty obvious to me where the perp got the idea for such a horrible crime.


312 posted on 05/21/2006 5:49:01 PM PDT by Finny (God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
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To: Finny

The Chowchilla incident happened in 1978. "The Mod Squad" was off the air long before that.


313 posted on 05/21/2006 5:50:30 PM PDT by Publius
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To: STARWISE

Not good. Thanks for the ping.


314 posted on 05/21/2006 5:57:20 PM PDT by prairiebreeze (God bless our fine military and their families.)
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To: MHGinTN
All things considered these two Saudi hillbillies are not the danger Chuckie Schumer is.

Let's put first things first and work to remove Schumer from politics.

315 posted on 05/21/2006 6:00:18 PM PDT by muawiyah (-)
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To: Mariner
Talk about terror? How would middle America react to such an act...if, say, 30 busses were boarded and the worst possible scenario played out? How about 5 man teams hitting 30 shopping malls?

In about two tenths of one second, Middle America would cease being squeamish about the ethics of things like internment camps. The conventional hindsight version of how horribly unjust the American-Japanese Internment camps were in WWII would go RIGHT OUT THE WINDOW. You'd see foreign-born and probably even American-born Middle Easterners hustled off to internment camps so fast it would make your head spin. And it would be the right thing to do.

Some important things to remember about those Japanese camps:
1. The bigger injustice by far was that wonderfully productive and loyal Americans of Japanese ancestry had their private farms and homes confiscated and sold to the highest bidder. The practice was immoral then, and would be immoral today if we were to confiscate the internment camp inmates' businesses and property and sell them.
2. World War II generation folks have told me that Japanese-Americans were put into the camps as much for their own protection -- i.e., to keep from being hurt or killed by angry American citizens. You can bet your ass that it would most certainly be the case if ME terrorists in America killed kids on school busses and blew up shopping malls.

I am of the strong belief that Middle Easternern Islamic cultures very seriously underestimate how Americans would react to something like this. They think Americans would be soft, push-overs. They are DEAD WRONG and would find out fast.

316 posted on 05/21/2006 6:16:38 PM PDT by Finny (God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
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To: BlueStateDepression
I pose to everyone that who reads or hears about this to print it out and take it to your busdrivers or your school or some other party that can make sure every school district in the country is made aware of this incident.

School principals, district offices, local pd...do it folks.

317 posted on 05/21/2006 6:28:36 PM PDT by Brad’s Gramma (Please pray for Logan's Mommy!!!)
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To: Publius

That's right -- CHOWchilla, not CHINchilla, as I stupidly thought!! No wonder I couldn't find anything under "Chinchilla bus buried" when I googled! *sheesh* Anyway, that Mod Squad episode was so much like the real incident that it seemed beyond coincidence. I figured that the guys who pulled that off must have seen a rerun of that Mod Squad and gotten the idea from it.


318 posted on 05/21/2006 7:28:50 PM PDT by Finny (God continue to Bless President G.W. Bush with wisdom, popularity, safety and success.)
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To: STARWISE

What I want to know is why the busdriver let the men onto the bus in the first place.


319 posted on 05/21/2006 8:57:50 PM PDT by ViLaLuz (Stop the ACLU - Support the Public Expression of Religion Act 2005 - Call your congressmen.)
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To: ViLaLuz

Me 2.


320 posted on 05/21/2006 8:58:19 PM PDT by STARWISE (((They (Rats) think of this WOT as Bush's war, not America's war-RichardMiniter, respected OBL autho)
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