Posted on 05/21/2006 4:31:37 PM PDT by Flavius
AMPA - A judge revoked bail for two Saudi men arrested Friday for boarding a school bus and riding to Wharton High.
Initially, Mana Saleh Almanajam, 23, and Shaker Mohsen Alsidran, 20, were held in Orient Road Jail on bails of $250 each on misdemeanor trespassing charges. Circuit Judge Monica Sierra decided to hold them at a court appearance Saturday so investigators could dig deeper into their pasts.
A friend of the two University of South Florida students tried to post their bail Friday night, said Ahmed Bedier, Tampa director of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, but a jail clerk told the friend that they couldn't be released because they were under an immigration hold until a hearing Saturday morning.
At the hearing, Sierra agreed with a prosecutor that she needed to know more about them before she could feel comfortable releasing them.
The prosecutor said neither man carried identification when they were arrested at Wharton High School, and authorities haven't had an opportunity to gather background information beyond a check of state records.
Almanajam and Alsidran appeared confused by the proceedings and smiled nervously as they stood behind a public defender's table.
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.
The bus was met at Wharton High School by a swarm of officers from the sheriff's Homeland Security Division, the Florida Department of Law Enforcement's Regional Domestic Security Task Force, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the FBI.
Bedier called the court's decision to revoke bond an overreaction and tied to the men being Arabic and Muslim.
"The only reason [this happened] is because of who they are, and that's wrong," he said. "How is it that they can say they can't find out who these kids are when they've searched their homes and found nothing? ... Thus far, it doesn't seem like they've been afforded their full rights for something as simple as getting on the wrong bus."
He questioned why the driver didn't tell them not to board if their appearance was suspicious.
Officials who questioned the men Friday said they at first said they were from Morocco but later admitted being from Saudi Arabia. Both arrived in the country six months ago and are enrolled at the English Language Institute at USF. Their reasons for getting on the bus ranged from wanting to enroll in easier English classes to having some fun.
Bedier said the men got on the bus out of a cultural misunderstanding.
"They don't have yellow school buses just for children in their home country," he said.
The judge scheduled a bond review hearing for Tuesday and asked that an Arabic interpreter be present. There was no interpreter Saturday.
Locate the terrorist cells in your neighborhood:
I'll bet that they studied English in Saudi for many years before coming to this country for a polishing and other reasons. They were probably just testing how far they could get with such a ruse. Almost no one in the USA knows about Beslan, but they should.
A highjacked aircraft has a code to squawk
Millions of cadillacs and other gm cars have "ON Star" for emergencies.
Why, haven't we fitted our school busses with a switch that alerts law enforcement and the administration of the school system. One button, like a bank teller.
The driver could move on but instead of school she heads to a designated area.
We have to become more proactive, we can no longer afford to wait and see if it happens here.
Amen. But remember that the SCOFLA is undoubtedly chomping at the bit to overturn any appropriate ruling by a sane judge in that state.
They don't have English classes in Saudi Arabia?
Loved the one where Krueger balanced the schoobus see-saw on a mountain peak in Hell (cant remember if that was number 4 or 5!)
I signed on to Free Republic after being a 3 year lurker when the name Operation Infinite Justice was dropped for PC reasons.
And the point is.....?
Or giving them Social Security benefits. /sarcasm
LOL
At minimum, have a button that activates an emergency flasher signal on the bus to indicate to any passing police car that there's trouble on the bus
Wonder why the MSM hasn´t interviewed the driver, I would like to know what went on and why the driver did not stop the bus, order them off the bus or call the authorties without moving the bus.
ping
They just happen to do this on the day there's a substitute bus driver, who doesn't know who the usual passengers are. Coincidence?
Good points. I agree--it looks like a Beslan test run.
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