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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

Posted on 09/19/2002 11:52:38 AM PDT by 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.


TOPICS: Culture/Society; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: alligatoralley; aymangheith; hoax; kambizbutt; meiashill; muslim; omarchoudhary; oogyboogy; plasticpie; police; scare; terroristhoax
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To: gridlock
Bump to all these things. A bit of inconvenience is not much in the scheme of things. No one has laid a hand of Eunice's credibility.
81 posted on 09/19/2002 1:15:56 PM PDT by js1138
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Comment #82 Removed by Moderator

To: drjimmy
So what were med students doing with fertilizer in their cars? Could it be that they were transporting Ammonium Nitrate*?

* Ammonium Nitrate, a common chemical fertilizer is the key ingredient in homemade bombs like used in the OKC bombing.

Why are you trying to divert legitimate critical analysis of what these perps were up to?
83 posted on 09/19/2002 1:17:15 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: Saundra Duffy
playing a joke

Playing a joke? PLAYING A JOKE? About 9/11? If I hear this phrase one more time I'm gonna puke all over my keyboard.

If we were half the country we once were these punks would have already been sent back to their homelands!

84 posted on 09/19/2002 1:20:36 PM PDT by iconoclast
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Comment #85 Removed by Moderator

To: iconoclast
If we were half the country we once were these punks would have already been sent back to their homelands!

You mean Chicago? They are American citizens after all.

86 posted on 09/19/2002 1:26:52 PM PDT by meia
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To: browardchad
even though the mismatch was not for sinister reasons.

If you know some detail on this please post it. I vaguely recall a report something along the lines that the plate was moved from an uncle's car. (?)

If so it strikes me as another example of the cocky disregard of our countries laws until it comes to their taking advantage of the protection of those laws.

87 posted on 09/19/2002 1:26:56 PM PDT by iconoclast
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To: iconoclast
If we were half the country we once were these punks would have already been sent back to their homelands!

I am an American Citizen but was not born in the United States. Should I be deported if I speed through a tollbooth, talk too loud in a Shoney's or buy fertilizer for my lawn?

88 posted on 09/19/2002 1:33:47 PM PDT by Station 51
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To: Clovis_Skeptic
Yeah, but will the two dogs take a lie detector test?
89 posted on 09/19/2002 1:34:27 PM PDT by Palladin
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To: Go Dub Go
Uh, all three of them are US citizens, so this is their homeland

In a pig's ass. The 6 Lackawanna Jihadists are too.

Wake up and smell the coffe you doofus!

90 posted on 09/19/2002 1:34:40 PM PDT by iconoclast
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To: meia
Now you are just lying. The perps initially didn't dispute that the first car didn't pay at the toll booth, but that the second one did. Now they are saying that both cars paid. And you are claiming that they paid twice what was due. Besides being demonstrably false, why would they pay twice the amount due? You are so full of camel dung, I'm amazed that you can type in coherrent sentences.
91 posted on 09/19/2002 1:34:52 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: iconoclast
I vaguely recall a report something along the lines that the plate was moved from an uncle's car.

I don't have a link, but as I recall, it was labeled a "bureaucratic error," late in the day, since the State of Illinois re-uses old plate numbers for new plates, but, in this case (and probably others) failed to update its records. As a result, the database reflected that the plate was registered to another car and owner.

92 posted on 09/19/2002 1:39:11 PM PDT by browardchad
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To: anymouse
Yeah, and she does all that with a burqua over her face and arms!
93 posted on 09/19/2002 1:39:34 PM PDT by Palladin
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To: Political Junkie Too
Yes, I meant USF in Tampa, as that is where the other Islamo-fascists pretended to be students and teachers.
94 posted on 09/19/2002 1:40:10 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: meia
You know, the wording the student used, about Eunice adding a little "Salt and pepper" to her story, struck me as a little unusual (but of course, I am a mere provincial American who has never travelled to the Middle East).

A google search shows that "salt and pepper does seem to be a phrase that Jordanians use to describe an aspect in a situation as well as ingredients in a recipe.

From the Jordan Times

AMMAN — Moderates won a landslide victory in the Islamic Action Front's Shura Council elections, sweeping 80 per cent of the seats. Islamist sources said on Saturday that this unprecedented win is certain to bring about a reversal of the IAF's boycott of legislative elections...

The IAF, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood, usually maintains a tight lid as to the number of eligible voters and those who cast their ballots. Independent sources, however, put the number of IAF members at roughly 3,000.... The party is regarded as the most influential political grouping in Jordan out of 27 registered parties.

“I believe the Islamists will participate. Although the next parliament is expected to be apolitical, the inclusion of Islamists will give it a pinch of salt and pepper,” said former Prime Minister Taher Masri.

[ Taher Masri, a former prime minister of Jordan and currently the country's representative to the Arab League,]

95 posted on 09/19/2002 1:42:16 PM PDT by syriacus
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To: meia
Regarding the three elements which have proved false, how many originated with Stone?
96 posted on 09/19/2002 1:44:46 PM PDT by paulklenk
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To: Station 51
I am an American Citizen but was not born in the United States. Should I be deported if I speed through a tollbooth, talk too loud in a Shoney's or buy fertilizer for my lawn

I have to presume that by "talking too loud" you mean "joking" about 9/11 and insinuating a worse 9/13 to come. With that given, instead of your disingenuous statement, then I would reply "Are you Muslim? If yes, incarceration will do until THE WAR IS OVER!

97 posted on 09/19/2002 1:46:08 PM PDT by iconoclast
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To: Grut
That the police in Florida didn't check out their information either? Just went public with it for as much publicity as they could get?
What an absolutely idiotic statement! CNN might be out for ratings but the police do not "go public" for publicity.
98 posted on 09/19/2002 1:49:04 PM PDT by RebelDawg
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To: meia
No one is claiming that their ethnicity is why they are suspected of lying. In fact it is racist of you to make that assertion.

What points to their lying is their suspicious behavior, their uncooperativeness and their inconsistency in recounting what they said and did. All three are classic indicators of someone lying.

If you have race issues, I suggest that you resolve them elsewhere.
99 posted on 09/19/2002 1:49:28 PM PDT by anymouse
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To: anymouse
If you have race issues, I suggest that you resolve them elsewhere

This has nothing to do with race. I have issues with evil, insane Jihadists and till the war is over all Muslims are suspect. And I aint going nowhere.

100 posted on 09/19/2002 1:54:34 PM PDT by iconoclast
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