[Free_at_last_-2001]

"We've neutralized a suspected terrorist cell within our borders," - "Do it again in November John and I'll be happy!"

[piasa]

fyi

[piasa]

The investigation began on Sept. 29, 2001, when a sheriff's deputy in Washington state, responding to a noise complaint, discovered some people in "Middle Eastern attire" firing weapons at a gravel pit.

The deputy made no arrests, since they were breaking no laws.

But the clothing and foreign accent of one man, a Lebanese citizen named Ali Khaled Steitiye, stuck in his mind. After Steitiye was arrested in Portland last October for having an illegal weapons cache, the deputy contacted the FBI.

Steitiye, a Hamas sympathizer who circled the date Sept. 11 in red on his calendar, was sentenced to 21/2 years in prison last month.

[blam]

I thought they had arrested one of the guys in Baharain?