Posted on 12/02/2002 5:50:45 PM PST by Vigilantcitizen
Results of an investigation into the case of three Muslim men allegedly overheard plotting a terrorist attack last September will be sent to the Gordon County prosecutor within a week, say officials from the GBI.
Gordon County District Attorney Joe Campbell will decide whether state charges should be filed against the three medical students, who were driving from Illinois to Miami when they stopped at a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun on Sept. 12 and their conversation was overheard by a woman in the restaurant.
The woman's report to police -- about three men who appeared to be Middle Eastern talking about blowing up something in Miami -- set off an alarm among police and jarred a nation still jittery a day after the one-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks on New York City and Washington.
Before it ended, police in South Florida had closed a 20-mile stretch of I-75, searched the students' two cars and held them for 17 hours.
Officials at the GBI would not say what information their report contains and declined to release the report because the investigation remains open.
Campbell said he had not been notified he would be receiving the report and that he would reserve comment until he reviews it. "We'll see if we had a crime or not up here. All I know is what I have seen in the news," he said.
The students -- Kambiz Butt, 25; Ayman Gheith, 27; and Omar Choudhary, 23 -- said they had said nothing in the Shoney's that should have alarmed anyone, but diner Eunice Stone maintained she was certain she heard the men talking about wanting "to blow up something."
The men were stopped in Florida after going through the toll booth and there were questions about whether they had paid the toll.
A spokesman for the Florida Turnpike later said the driver of the second car paid both tolls.
"The individuals were not charged with anything that day and have not been charged, but we're keeping the case open if the GBI needs us to do a follow up," said Larry Long, spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.
Long said the Collier County Sheriff's Department and Southwest Florida Regional Domestic Security Task Force helped conduct the Florida investigation.
In Georgia, the investigation has been conducted by the GBI regional office in Calhoun.
GBI officials say they received the results of the Florida investigation in October but said the GBI was conducting its own investigation before handing the case over to the Gordon district attorney.
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