Posted on 02/12/2002 9:06:27 PM PST by Shermy
NBC News has learned that the FBI has arrested two men of Middle Eastern background who were driving Monday night outside the Pentagon in a tow truck. The FBI is investigating the men to see if they have any terrorist connections.
LUCY CALDWELL, a spokeswoman for the Virginia State Police, told NBC News that state troopers pulled the men over Monday at 10:05 p.m. as they were driving on Route 110 by the Pentagon. Commercial vehicles, including tow trucks, have been prohibited from using that road since November, Caldwell said. She added that the men ignored a trooper who was trying to signal them to pull over their truck. A second trooper down the highway was able to get them to stop. He searched the truck and found numerous false identification cards, Caldwell said, including a half dozen drivers licenses from several states with different identities on them. Once the trooper saw the fake IDs, he called in the FBI.
Virginia state police have charged the men, whose names were not released, with traffic violations and possession of false identification. The FBI interviewed them at length Tuesday and, federal law enforcement sources say, still are trying to establish who they are. The sources say they expect the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of Virginia to file federal charges Wednesday against the men in the U.S. District Courthouse in Alexandria, Va.
The men were not armed. Bomb-sniffing dogs searched the truck, but found no explosives or explosive residue, Caldwell said.
The arrest took place just two hours after the FBI announced its latest terrorist warning Monday night. The FBI warned the public that an attack might be planned for as early as Tuesday and told the American public to be on the lookout for a Yemeni man and 16 alleged associates.
Attorney General John Ashcroft on Tuesday urged the nation to be on the highest state of alert.
[more on other suspects from other places at link]
Thanks for the input.Was scvratching my head on the reasoning.
On the other hand, if they just accidentally drove in to the Pentagon area with no overt hostile intentions, that's pretty stupid, too. With a bunch of fake licenses in the vehicle, you would think that these guys would be smart enough to stay away from a security area like the Pentagon. If I have 4 lbs of marijuana in my car, driving into the middle of the Salt Lake Olympics is probably a bad plan.
Either way, these guys are total morons. I'm glad they're busted.
Stunningly stupid for sure...hehehe.
Exactly what we thought. Or pull down the railing fence around the White House for the same purpose.
There is significant cultural overlap between Yemen and the poorer rural provinces of southwestern Saudia Arabia (Asir, Najran, Jizan), with no clearly defined border between the two countries. The tribes go back and forth with little regard for the border, in the same way that the Pashtuns ignore the border between Pakistan and Afghanistan.
This area of Saudi Arabia is where Bin Laden and many of his henchmen came from. The more urbanized inhabitants of the north consider people from that area to be ignorant, violent rubes of questionable loyalty, and it is difficult for them to advance in the Saudi military or other national institutions. I suppose this feeds their aggrievement with the Saudi government and contributes to the radicalism associated with that area.
With so many of them, including Bin Laden, having Yemeni ancestry, it is no wonder they can claim citizenship in either country.
-ccm
Anyone, but in particular profile fitting males, carrying any sort of fake ID are or should be held and interrogated ad infinitum. In any other place this would be thumbscrew, car battery, and dry rice & hot water down the old gullet time.
LOL!!
you don't really believe this do you?
As a cultural aside; when Saudis tell jokes, the Yemeni is usually the butt of them a la "Blonde" "Polish" and "Irish" jokes here.
AGREED, AGREED, AGREED!
Then a complete moratorium on all immigration, except perhaps tourists, who would have to be STRICTLY monitored to ensure their timely departure. After that a COMPLETE overhaul of our immigration law and enforcement of same. Thanks to Ted Kennedy our country decided in 1965 to become the world's haven for the miserable, this has done NOTHING to help our country.
I used to be very pro-immigration, anybody who doesn't like my new views can thank the Muslim fascists, they've really turned my mind around.
Sorry folks, it's way past time to pull up the ladder.
Remember the first WTC bombing? They were able to identify the perpetrators because they went back for their deposit on the rental truck.
Although Atta and his fellow ringleaders appear to be well-trained, they no doubt have to rely upon a network of support assets who are not trained to the same level and do not exhibit the same level of tradecraft or discipline.
Wasn't it Atta that stated he only wanted to learn how to fly a plane,not land?? I don't think they are all that smart.
Darn, does this mean I've got to give up my Elmer Fudd I.D.?
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