Gov. Jeb Bush waiting in the background
as President GW Bush gives a speech on Jeb's behalf
at a fundraiser in DC.
Posted on 01/10/2002 6:35:06 PM PST by tonyinv
The Florida Department of Law Enforcement and the FBI are investigating a possible terrorist plot to kill Gov. Jeb Bush with a truck bomb in Tallahassee, law enforcement officials confirmed Thursday.
The governor, who had been out of state on a fundraising trip, was due to return to Tallahassee late Thursday.
Agents have been conducting 24-hour surveillance on at least four South Florida men with Arab names who may be suspects in the case, officials said. The information about the plot was based on a tip from a jailed confidential informant that the men were trying to contract someone to drive a truckload of explosives to Tallahassee and blow up the governor.
Another agent said the confidential informant, jailed on unrelated charges, may not be credible because he might be trying to cut a deal with prosecutors in a pending criminal case.
The informant was able to supply police with the names of three people who were on a law enforcement watch list, along with the description of a paneled truck that agents stopped and searched. The truck did not contain explosives but bomb-sniffing dogs alerted to the presence of possible traces of bomb-making materials. The truck was seized for further examination.
One of the men being sought for questioning was pulled over on Interstate 95 in Broward County Thursday evening for an illegal lane change. Florida Highway Patrol Lt. John Bagnardi said he had been alerted to watch for the car and pull it over for any traffic infractions.
FDLE agents were called in, and the man, whose identity was not released, was questioned. He was issued a traffic citation and allowed to leave the area, just south of the Oakland Park Boulevard exit, around 7:45 p.m.
The man's name was not released, at the urging of FDLE agents.
The governor's communications director, Katie Baur, declined to comment late Thursday, referring all inquiries to the FDLE.
The governor, who spent much of Wednesday alongside his brother, President George W. Bush, was in Philadelphia and Pittsburgh Thursday raising money for his reelection campaign.
Bush's office in October posted an armed guard, but the governor has tried to keep his security as low-key as possible.
``I'm not big on having people all around me,'' Bush said recently.
CAIR will claim profiling, no doubt.
"There we go again, outlawing nouns when we should only be outlawing verbs. Since when don't Arab terrorists have a 1st Amendment right to speak of nefarious and insidious plots in the privacy of their own compounds? And what's so wrong with building a trunk bomb? Doesn't the military have bombs? And what's so wrong with private individuals doing the same? Armaments are there for the violent overthrow of the government, so the firefight must be equal or greater on the part of the individual. Otherwise there is tyranny, and no one is free. We are at that awkward stage, between open revolt and crabby speech. Can't we just not be judgmental about other people's morality? Who's to say they are wrong and others are right? Aren't they just targeting jack-booted thugs? Let them do what they want to, so long as they don't hurt me." -Wally Wackjob
Hats off to Florida Law Enforcement,
God Bless and watch over the President and his Family
Don't tell Mineta!
Not correct.
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