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.
Darn, does this mean I've got to give up my Elmer Fudd I.D.?
There is a possibility that these guys really didn't understand that tow trucks aren't allowed on Route 110. The big orange warning signs don't make that perfectly clear, explictly prohibiting only "trucks and buses." A reasonable person might think that means "big trucks," not a pickup truck or a tow truck or a plumber's van (what's the difference between a Chevy Astro family van and a Chevy Astro work van?).
Also, the first State Police checkpoint might confuse anyone, especially at 10:00PM. I was a bit mystified when I went through it for the first time.
Of course, they were carrying the phony IDs.
*Fwiw, their names don't really mean a whole hell of a lot since most of these sobs have numerous aliases.
~ Snip ~
One of the men, Imad Hamed, was to appear in U.S. District Court in Alexandria, Va., Wednesday on a charge of document identification fraud, a spokeswoman for the U.S. Attorney's Office said.
The other man detained after the incident Monday night is in the custody of the Immigration and Naturalization Service.
The men also had been charged with state traffic violations, said Virginia State Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell.
Men in truck arrested near Pentagon By LAURIE KELLMAN
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — Federal prosecutors mindful of new terrorism warnings sought the identity Wednesday of a man charged with carrying fake identification on a road near the Pentagon. A judge ordered the man held.
"There is a substantial risk of the defendant's flight," U.S. Magistrate Judge Theresa Buchanan said of the man, identified in court papers as "Imad Abdel-Fattah Hamed, aka Imad Nimer."
A criminal complaint filed by the FBI revealed that Hamed was interviewed previously by the agency, on Oct. 22. An FBI supervisor, Steve Berry, would not elaborate on the initial interview.
I wonder what that was about?
Just hours after the FBI issued a terrorist alert Monday night, Hamed and another man were detained by state and federal law enforcement officials as Hamed drove a tow truck on Route 110, which passes close by the Pentagon. The route was closed to commercial and other big vehicles after the Sept. 11 terror attacks, one of which tore a hole in the side of the Pentagon and killed 189 people.
According to the FBI complaint, state police found a variety of driver's licenses and other false government-issued documents. The men offered several explanations for why they were there and where they were going, the complaint said.
"Their motivations are still unclear," Virginia State Police spokeswoman Lucy Caldwell said.
The mystery rattled law enforcement and other government officials who have been on high alert since the Pentagon and the World Trade Center attacks. Monday night, the FBI issued its latest terror alert, warning of an unspecified attack possibly as early as Tuesday.
"The timing of this apparent attempt to breach security, after the latest FBI warning of a specific and credible terrorist threat, certainly gives me pause," Virginia Gov. Mark Warner said in a statement.
There was no indication of a connection between the men and 18 named Monday by the FBI as possible conspirators in a terror attack thought planned for this week. A Justice Department official said a check of immigration records showed no indication any the 18 ever have been in the United States.
After questioning by the FBI, the passenger in the truck Hamed was driving was turned over to the Immigration and Naturalization Service. He was detained and was not identified publicly.
Meanwhile, federal law enforcement authorities took custody of Hamed, who appeared Wednesday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Alexandria, Va.
He is charged with committing identification document fraud and making false statements, which carry on conviction a sentence as high as 15 years in jail, according to prosecutor John Morton.
"We are busily engaged in determining what Mr. Hamed's true identification and true nationality is," Morton said.
Hamed, clad in a white short-sleeved shirt and black jeans and wearing a mustache and beard, asked Buchanan what to do about his job and said he could afford a lawyer before being led away. Buchanan set a preliminary hearing for Friday.
Traveling south on Route 110 about 10:30 p.m. Monday, the tow truck drove past signs erected in November that prohibit commercial vehicles on the road, according to the complaint.
Officers in a police cruiser who watched the truck go by alerted a second team stationed farther along the road.
The second team questioned the driver and passenger, "both of whom appeared to be Middle Eastern males," according to the complaint, and found several false driver's licenses and other government documents inside. Several of the documents bore pictures matching those of the driver and passenger but had conflicting addresses, dates of birth and Social Security numbers.
The truck bore a Virginia inspection sticker and temporary Maryland tags, the complaint said.
FBI dogs searched the truck for weapons and explosives but turned up none, Caldwell said.
ON THE WEB: FBI: http://www.fbi.gov/
Feb 15, 2002
Truck Driver Released on Bond
ALEXANDRIA - The driver of a tow truck that was stopped when it went past a police checkpoint and into a Pentagon security zone was released on $5,000 bond today.
Imad Abdel-Fattah Hamed, 28, had told police he had not noticed a sign prohibiting trucks from state Route 110 when he was driving Monday night.
When the judge asked Assistant U.S. Attorney John Morton about an arraignment date, Morton replied the case may not make it as far as arraignment.
Hamed, who lives in Manassas, told authorities he was a naturalized U.S. citizen originally from Jordan.