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]
tip of the iceberg. Here in Sacramento, a gang was running a "license factory" in plain view in the parking lot of a strip mall. They even had regular business hours and used minors to hold the parking spots for their custormers only which was ruining the businesses in the mall. The police allowed them to operate for over a year while they "investigated". Thousands of fake licenses (driver's and SS) were generated during this "investigation".
We see profiling in nature all the time. Does a lion charge after a gazelle? No, he leaves that prey for the cheetahs. Why? Because it's a waste of energy trying to catch one; the lion profiles. Example after example tells us that to profile is to survive.
Profile muslims. Law abiding muslims will simply have to understand that a sizeable percentage of their ilk are western civilization-hating mongrels, and that they will be "sized up" during their everyday routine.
The 9-11 attack (NOT a tragedy) and the subsequent "round-up" of muslims will hopefully teach some lessons that the PC crowd is ill advised to ignore about life, human nature and sociology.
Meanwhile, I hope the muslims with the tow truck and the fake ID's go free. Yes, let them... and have the NSA/CIA/FBI tail their every move to find the bigger fish so that they can all be shot in a raid at the "safe-house".
I believer Ryder is the terrorist's truck of choice. They've certainly been good performers for them. Seriously though I can't imagine what advantage an aromored van or truck would have for bomb delivery. The things don't have all that much load carrying capacity, since they are pretty weighed down with the armor and such. I don't know, maybe an armored truck would shield radiation from the contents better, although I doubt the differance if any would be enough to bother with. OTOH, the tow truck itself could have use in towing something heavy, as a low tech device might be. I guess you could build a daisy cutter (nothing high tech about them, they're just heavy) what appeared to be something a tow truck might be hauling, and then drop it off somewhere you don't like, and hope the timer works better than the one McViegh was involved with.
Who would pick our lettuce?
How do you tell on sight who the illegals are? Sounds like a receipt for "Your papers please".
I think a lot of people would be a bit taken aback by having no fruits or vegetables in their supermarkets in the winter. And every hotel in the country shutting down.
Our society as we know it wouldn't function without illegals.
Exactamundo. It's called "cover for action".
Trooper: "What the hell you boys doing down here? Didn't you see that restricted sign up there?"
Arab: "We get call on cell phone, man with Cadiallac has broken down, needs tow. He say come here, now he is gone."
Very plausible ready made cover story to be anywhere snooping around, and testing security and access for the possible truck bomb route.
Get the right vehicle with the right pass and then go to work.
The "we're just crooks" is also a ready made "fall back cover" if the primary does not stand up to scrutiny.
Why were they driving a tow truck?? Very handy for carting off ATM machines, breaking into gun stores, pulling open burglar bars, store doors, heisting vehicles, etc. Think the cops made the right call in raising the flag on this one.
Democrat voter?
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