Three Down. One To Go. Will Eunice Stones Story Be The Next to be proven false?

The Naples News ^ | 09/19/2002 | By BRIGID O'MALLEY

[meia]

Collier Sheriff's Office voids ticket given to medical student

Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt ran the tollbooth without paying.

Thursday, September 19, 2002

By BRIGID O'MALLEY, bmomalley@naplesnews.com

 

The Collier County Sheriff's Office has voided the ticket given to the driver of one of the cars stopped on Alligator Alley last week during a terrorism scare, saying the tollkeeper Wednesday recalled taking the $1.50 from the man.

"She was very nervous at the time," said Collier Sheriff Don Hunter.

He said the tollbooth attendant, who had earlier given a sworn statement that the driver hadn't paid, had spotted the tag on the front of the car which had been given as part of a description to all tollkeepers in the state as a car that needed to be stopped by authorities.

"She became flustered and didn't recall," Hunter said. He said it was a Car Max tag on the front of the car that caught her attention.

Earlier reports from authorities said that Kambiz Butt, 25, the driver of one of the two cars stopped on the Alley on Friday to be checked out for a possible terrorism-related incident, ran the tollbooth without paying.

Alligator Alley was shut down in both directions for 17 hours, and the men, who were headed to Larkin Hospital in South Miami to start work as medical students, were detained between 11:45 p.m. Thursday and 6 p.m. Friday while they were questioned by local, state and federal authorities.

Eunice Stone reported to police that they'd been in a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, Ga., on Thursday morning and were laughing about the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks and saying that another, even worse, attack was set for Sept. 13, the day they were stopped at Mile Marker No. 92 on the interstate. The Georgia Bureau of Investigation issued the alert.

All three men, Ayman Gheith, 27, Omar Choudhary, 23, and Butt, who are of Middle Eastern descent, have denied talking about Sept. 11 or any attacks on Miami. They've appeared on news shows around the nation since the stop.

But a Collier deputy, Darrel Kehne, on special patrol, looking for the cars and their occupants, spotted the two cars and stopped them. A Collier sheriff's bomb detection dog alerted on the rear of both cars and that brought dozens of officers to the Alley.

Authorities after the daylong investigation, which included a search by a bomb-detecting robot, helicopters bearing special equipment and a thorough scouring of the cars, determined the incident was a hoax. The searches turned up no signs of explosives or bomb-making material.

Deputies, after interviewing the tollkeeper after the stop, wrote a ticket — the fine is $100 plus $26 in court costs — to Butt.

But the videotape at the tollbooth on Interstate 75 also shows a transaction between Butt and the tollbooth attendant, Hunter said. The ticket should be officially voided today, Hunter said.

Hunter said investigators showed the tollkeeper, who'd already given a sworn statement saying Butt's car had run the tollbooth, the video which logs the transaction Wednesday.

"He reached his hand out. She reached her hand out," Hunter said. "There appears to have been a transaction. Then she excitedly waves her hand toward the east. We believe she was trying to flag us down."

Butt contended that he paid the toll, Hunter said.

"It would not be fair not to check it out," he said.

He said the second car did stop and ask if Butt had paid the toll.

Hunter described the toll taker as "nervous" at the time.

"She said she wasn't scared," he said.

David Kubiliun, one of the attorneys representing the men, said they are pleased the ticket was voided.

"My understanding is that it was voided because videotape showed Mr. Butt did pay the toll," Kubiliun said. "He's very pleased. We're all gratified."

Hunter speculated the attorneys will try to take on other aspects of the stop.

"I'm sure their attorneys will say, 'If this was wrong, what else was wrong?' " Hunter said. "But I'm firm on the rest of it."

He said investigators are still running down other parts of the probe, which he didn't disclose.

"We haven't reached any dead ends," Hunter said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

[meia]

I've said this before but it bares repeating -- The call Eunice made must have been recorded. Where is the transcript? That would clear up all this.

And how would that clear up anything? It would merely be a repeat of what she has stated from the beginning.

[amused]

I still believe Eunice Stone's story is true. If it isn't my faith in a lot of things will slide further. Her story can still be true even though the original license plate story and toll booth story are not.

Good post. I also believe Stone but I think the 3 stooges made a moronic joke and are trying to lie their way out but they are not necessarily terrorists. With the plates and toll paying have checked out, now the dogs remain. I believe it has been repeatedly stated here that the nitrates in fertilizer would set a bomb sniffing dog on alert. How throughly were the cars checked for an explosive residue and the like or is this purely based upon the dogs alerting?

Again I do believe Stone. I think she simply did what she thought was right under the circumstances and she should not be faulted for it at all.

[Catphish]

I have no idea. I wasn't there. In fact I don't know how anyone can state that they know without a doubt what happened in that Shoney's. Except for Ms. Stone and the 3 students.

It comes to to credibility - Eunice Stone has no reason to lie and the three have every reason in the world to. If they admitted to what's alledged their medical careers would go down the drain. Meanwhile Ms. Stone sounds like this is the last thing in the world she needs in her life and wishes it would go away.

Were the men straightfoward and upfront with their account of things with the investigators? From reports, if to be believed, they were certainly not. It sounds like they needed some time to get their stories straight.

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

I do know that the license plate story is false...and I've heard that dogs can give alerts to fertilizers. However, from looking at the men, the types of cars they drive, their age and other common sense, it is unlikely they are big into horticulture or lawn maintenance. I doubt they carry much fertilizer in their cars.

[crazykatz]

Ahhhhhh, that painting one's self into a corner....teaches one patience, grasshopper!! <{ : ^ )

[D. Miles]

To say a dog "hits" on a smell is NOT saying they found explosives. Being bomb sniffing dogs, they "hit" on a smell associated with explosives. It could be any smell from gun powder to sulphur in matches. The smell could have been in the vehicle from a previous owner, or maybe leftover from summer fireworks, or on money in a suitcase! I'm going to trust the nose of the dogs over the human.

[dighton]

Three Down. One To Go. Will Eunice Stones Story Be The Next to be proven false?

Original headline: Collier Sheriff's Office voids ticket given to medical student

[borkrules]

They were interviewed by the police. Police say they told one thing. Are the police also lying?

Next they are interviewed by media. Now they say another.

Why does their story change?

Why do you pretend it has not?

What motive do you have for implying that a nurse from Georgia with a history of hosting exchange students from the middle east is lying about what she heard in a restaurant?

What is with these Islamics and their seemingly endless capacity for untruth and arrogance?

[D. Miles]

To say a dog "hits" on a smell is NOT saying they found explosives. Being bomb sniffing dogs, they "hit" on a smell associated with explosives. It could be any smell from gun powder to sulphur in matches. The smell could have been in the vehicle from a previous owner, or maybe leftover from summer fireworks, or on money in a suitcase! I'm going to trust the nose of the dogs over the human.

[Catphish]

And how would that clear up anything? It would merely be a repeat of what she has stated from the beginning.

It would probably show, from the beginning, there isn't even the slightest inconsistency in her story. Contrast that to the young men - even on Larry King I heard them stammering and in a very fragmented fashion trying to explain what they actually did discuss in the diner. At the same time, Ms. Stone explains her story cleary and fully.

[meia]

I do know that the license plate story is false...and I've heard that dogs can give alerts to fertilizers. However, from looking at the men, the types of cars they drive, their age and other common sense, it is unlikely they are big into horticulture or lawn maintenance. I doubt they carry much fertilizer in their cars.

Brent Batten: Don't place absolute faith in dogs

 

Thursday, September 19, 2002

By BRENT BATTEN, bebatten@naplesnews.com

 

NAPLES — God, spelled backward, is dog.

Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter may have been turned around Monday talking about last week's hullabaloo on Alligator Alley when three men of Middle Eastern descent were detained as possible terrorism suspects.

Hunter, speaking about the bomb-sniffing dog that alerted as if there were explosives in the men's cars, said, "The dog doesn't make mistakes."

Earlier, Sgt. Rick Bailey of the sheriff's canine unit made a similar assessment of the dog's infallibility.

 

Brent Batten is a columnist for the Naples Daily News.

With all due respect to man's best friend, that's just wrong.

Dogs, even well-trained ones, are capable of mistakes.

"Dogs are a biological product, just as we are. They have bad days," said Owen Williams, president of American K9 Interdiction, a company that trains and handles bomb-sniffing dogs in Portsmouth, Va.

"Dogs are not infallible," echoes Tony Lavelle, director of operations for Detection Support Services in Sacramento, another training ground for bomb-detecting dogs.

Both men agreed that dogs are highly effective in finding even small amounts of explosives.

In training, a good dog will respond appropriately in 95 percent of all situations.

But 95 percent isn't perfect.

There are a number of reasons for a faulty response.

In some instances, the handler may inadvertently make eye contact or a small gesture that causes the dog to stop and sit, the standard signal that it has found something of interest.

In other cases, the dog may detect a tiny amount of something it was trained to search for.

Some of the smells a dog can alert on include ammonium nitrate, an ingredient in bombs like the one used in the Oklahoma City attack but also a common and perfectly legal fertilizer. Even diesel fuel, a component of a fertilizer bomb, has been known to set a dog off, according to Williams.

Variables such as the weather or an unfamiliar environment can play a part in a dog's response.

Sometimes handlers never know for sure why a dog alerted but no bomb was found. It could be that whatever was there was too small for humans to find.

Sometimes they miss something they should have found.

And sometimes, they alert at nothing.

That's not to say the team on the scene Friday did anything wrong.

When the dog tells you there might be a bomb in a car, you have to do a thorough search.

"They did everything right," Lavelle said of the incident, which he followed via national news coverage. "Dogs are not perfect, but the tie goes to the dog."

If it can be shown the three men detained last week earned the traffic stop by joking about a terrorist plot, authorities ought to throw the book at them, including assessing them for the cost of the operation.

But in the meantime, the sheriff should be mindful of placing absolute faith in dogs.

That would be backward.

[js1138]

Three of the four main elements of this story have now been proven false. The story of a fake license plate was wrong. The story of explosives in the cars was wrong. And now the story of them "Blowing past the the toll booth" without paying has been proven wrong.

You are so eager.

There was no conspiracy in the initial reporting of the license plate. Clerical error. The explosives question is up in the air. The students themselves said that one of the cars went through without paying. Under the circumstances, it was reasonable for everyone to be nervous. The students confirmed a major element in Eunice's statement.

They are not going to take a polygraph about the other part.

[Mr. Bird]

Why the big hangup with finding out that some of the crap you heard on the news was false?

It is likely the three morons said something. It is also likely they weren't the most cooperative people in the world when they were stopped, or their lawyers would be counting the cash right now.

In my opinion, the lack of foam-mouthed attorneys is the most incriminating item in this whole affair.

[bonfire]

"3 stooges" is an understatement. The fact that these MEN thought this was actually FUNNY sickens me. I can't get past that. Obviously, given their behavior, 9-11 is a topic for HUMOR. What does that tell ya?

[ItisaReligionofPeace]

One dog could have been having a bad day or misinterpreted his handlers eye contact. However, two separate dogs hitting on both cars is still very suspicious to me.

I'm hoping the police put a bug in both of the cars to find out what the real deal is.

[meia]

They were interviewed by the police. Police say they told one thing. Are the police also lying?

The police have never said that the 3 students told them they were joking. If they had, they would have been charged with creating a panic. In fact, the police have said that they have denied joking or saying anything about 9/11 or 9/13. The police may not believe them, but that is another story.

[iconoclast]

they were getting even with her for starring at them

Hey if this smirking little punk doesn't doesn't want to be stared at he might want leave that little beanie of his in the closet until this war is over!

[meia]

The students themselves said that one of the cars went through without paying.

That is not true. The students always said they paid the toll. In fact, they paid it twice.

[js1138]

She was interviewed on FOX before anything was known about the students. Her statement was very clear, very clear, and NOTHING about it has refuted. She even said she suspected it was a prank, and that she hesitated to call.