Posted on 06/23/2003 5:26:33 AM PDT by TomGuy
Authorities in California were notified to be on the lookout for a suspicious truck possibly carrying explosives. Truck may have been stopped in Los Angeles area.
Developing.....
from San Bernadino Sun.com
Crime and Public Safety
By Staff Reports
SAN BERNARDINO: Call triggers CHP search for big rig
The California Highway Patrol continued searching Sunday for a dark green tractor-trailer supposedly filled with explosives and on its way to the Burbank Airport.
The lookout was based on an anonymous call made to the CHP's Barstow office Saturday afternoon, said Officer Brian Joy of the CHP's Los Angeles communications center.
Based on the call, Joy said, the green trailer is about 50 feet long and is being pulled by a tractor-truck of unknown color. According to the caller, the tractor-trailer is traveling from Texas and is expected to be in Burbank this morning, Joy said.
Other than that, information was scarce, Joy said.
"We have no idea of the validity of this,' he said.
Joy could not verify or dispute reports that there is a faded logo beneath the trailer's paint reading "picture perfect, pictures are fine.''
Why anonymous? This seems like a great way create a public diversion while privately, the real destruction unfolds. I wonder if our government even considers the possibility of a decoy or diversion.
Since the media immediately divulges every possible threat and follows in real-time, we could easily be "probed" with anonymous false threats while the planners of the next attack watch our response and commitment of resources on CNN.
Missing Cargo Jet Prompts Africa Search
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa - In a brazen act, two men climbed aboard an idle Boeing 727 cargo jet in Angola last month and flew off into the African sky without a trace.
The disappearance touched off searches across the continent and, in the post-Sept. 11 era, prompted worries about why the plane was taken.
U.S. investigators and civil aviation officials in Africa said the plane most likely was taken for a criminal endeavor such as drug or weapons smuggling, but they have not ruled out the possibility it was stolen for use in a terrorist attack.
"There is no particular information suggesting that the disappearance of the aircraft is linked to terrorists or terrorism, but it's still something that obviously we would like to get to the bottom of," said a State Department spokesman, Philip T. Reeker.
U.S. officials speaking on condition of anonymity said a variety of investigative and intelligence-gathering methods were being used to search for the plane across Africa. They declined to provide details.
But experts said that even in the age of satellites and other high-tech search methods, just a new coat of paint and a stolen registration number would make tracking the plane nearly impossible.
"Let's assume (the pilot) did arrive in some place like Nigeria ... a couple of thousand dollars changed hands and the aircraft is put in a hanger. The chances it is seen before satellites get a chance are zip," Chris Yates, editor of Jane's Aviation and Security, said in a phone interview from London.
"It's happened before in African aviation," he said.
The plane, with tail number N844AA, left Luanda airport May 25. The transponder was turned off, so the plane's position could not be monitored by air traffic control, U.S. officials said.
Keeping track of aircraft over Africa's vast and often desolate terrain is problematic at best anyway.
Richard Cornwell, a senior researcher at the Institute for Security Studies in Pretoria, said radar coverage of African skies is virtually nonexistent.
"Pilots talk about flying the gauntlet between South Africa and North Africa. There is no (air) control, even on commercial levels," he said.
After the Sept. 11 assault on the United States, fears of airborne attacks remain high.
Last month U.S. authorities said they had uncovered an al-Qaida plot to crash an explosives-laden small aircraft into the American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan. The U.S. Homeland Security Department issued an advisory saying al-Qaida had a "fixation" on using aircraft in attacks.
The fact that the missing 727 had been converted into a fuel tanker has added to the worries.
"If you fill that up with however many gallons of jet air fuel and stick a couple of suicide pilots on, it doesn't take Einstein to figure out you could fly into an American or British embassy or another target they want to strike against — it could be a huge bomb," said Yates, the Jane's editor.
U.S. analysts, however, believe the plane was stolen for a criminal gang or perhaps taken in a business or insurance dispute.
There also is the possibility of a crash. According to media reports, the plane's last radio contact was to ask for landing permission in the Seychelle islands in the Indian Ocean east of Africa, but it never arrived.
U.S. Federal Aviation Association records show the aircraft was most recently owned by Aerospace Sales and Leasing Company Inc. of Miami.
The company's listed phone number in Miami has been disconnected.
Helder Preza, director of Angola's civil aviation authority, told The Associated Press that the 727 was leased by Air Angola and had been grounded for about a year because it lacked proper documentation for its conversion to a tanker.
Preza said an American named Ben Padilla approached authorities a month before the plane disappeared, saying the owner wanted to take the plane out of Angola.
"We said no problem," Preza said — as long as Padilla first paid $50,000 in fees for the year the aircraft sat in Angola and provided proof Air Angola approved.
Padilla asked airport authorities to do maintenance on the plane in the meantime, Preza said, and it was during maintenance work that Padilla and another man were seen boarding the plane just before it took off.
According to Padilla's family in Florida, he was hired to repossess the jet after Air Angola failed to make lease payments. His sister, Benita Padilla-Kirkland, told the South Florida Sun-Sentinel she feared the plane had crashed or Padilla, 51, was being held against his will.
Air Angola, an airline reportedly owned by army officers, has been in financial distress since a peace accord last year ended 25 years of civil war and brought an end to lucrative military transportation contracts.
Phone calls to the Air Angola office in Luanda were not answered.
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