Federal investigators checking 3 men who reported ``America would cry on 9/13.''

The Miami Herald ^ | Fri, Sep. 13, 2002 | DAVID GREEN AND DAVID KIDWELL

[ARCADIA]

A bomb squad member attaches a string to an item in one of the suspected cars on Alligator Alley where the two cars were stopped and three men were detained. A robot is at the back of the cars.

Three medical students of Middle Eastern descent who were stopped as suspected terrorists on Alligator Alley early Friday morning remained detained after they were overheard in a Georgia restaurant vowing to make America ``cry on 9/13.''

Federal sources involved in the investigation said they believe the three men - all U.S. citizens - were playing a stupid joke on another restaurant patron who gave them a suspicious look.

All three were on their way from Illinois to take medical training in Miami.

Federal sources said the men could be released as early as today with a ticket for blowing the I-75 toll booth near Naples.

Alligator Alley was closed to traffic all day Friday as explosives investigators searched for any kinds of devices in the two cars. Those searches had come up empty as of 1 p.m. Friday afternoon.

''It appears there isn't a terrorist threat as it relates to destrutive devices in the cars,'' Gov. Jeb Bush said at a Miami news conference Friday. ``If this was a hoax, my hope is these people would be prosecuted.''

One federal source said although there is a federal statute against making terrorist threats, it remained unclear on Friday exactly what transpired Thursday morning in a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, Ga.

Eunice Stone, a nurse, told authorities and Fox News Channel she was sitting in a booth next to the three men shortly about 10:30 a.m. when she overheard the men laughing about 9/11 and making comments like ''if we don't have enough to bring it down I have contacts'' and ``if they're mourning 9/11 what are they going to do about 9/13?''

In an interview on Fox News Channel on Friday, Stone said she thought they might be playing a hoax.

''We hesitated to call anyone because we thought, they're just playing us,'' Stone said. ``But then I thought what's the right thing to do? If it turns out it's nothing, then it's nothing.

''I hope I haven't done something wrong,'' she said. ``I hope I haven't caused someone problems that really didn't do anything because I wouldn't want to cause someone problems. But at the same time I thought what if they really are doing something and I caught them?''

Stone collected license tag numbers and called Georgia authorities, who issued an alert for the two cars.

The odyssey ended after midnight Friday morning when a Collier County sheriff's deputy pulled over both cars after they blew throught the Naples toll booth. However, several other things conspired to escalate the incident even further.

According to police sources, all three men at first were uncooperative - denying consent to search the car.

''It was probably not the right time for them to be copping an attitude with police,'' said one federal law enforcement source who was up all night monitoring the investigation. ``But that's exactly what happened.''

Then, two separate police dogs alerted to the presence of incendiary materials in both cars, and the license tag on one of the cars wasn't registered to the vehicle.

Authorities are still investigating the license tag issue, but said Friday they do not suspect the three in a terrorist plot.

The Miami-Dade Police Department's explosives robot has been called in to further examine the cars and their contents.

According to investigators, all three men -- a Lebanese, a Jordanian and an Iranian - are U.S. citizens - one U.S. born.

Investigators have not found any links between the men and al-Qaeda -- the international terrorist organization beleived to responsible for the World Trade Center attacks -- nor have their names turned up on any federal terrorist watch lists, the sources said.

The three men apparently were enroute to South Miami to attend a medical college.

[Thane_Banquo]

I guess the Mideast guys noticed the woman and her son looking at them suspiciously and decided to scare her.

My guess is they weren't carrying their explosives with them, and then made up a story about just joking around. Making jokes about 9/11 is suspicious no matter what. My guess is that if they weren't on the terror watch list before, they are now.

[codder too]

Dan Rather just announced that members of a Cell operating outside Buffalo NY have been arrested. Not much info yet except that two were US citizens (born here) and one Naturalized from the same Mosque.

Jayna Davis reporting on Oklahoma City connections noted that McVey was 'lily white" prior to OKC. No priors to draw attention. Seems to be the MO.

The medical students were all "legal". Makes one wonder.....

[Betty Jo]

The hospital is "Larkin Hospital" in Miami.

It is owned by a Doctor,Jack J. Michel.

His partner is Morris Esformes.

Check out all the wrongfull death suits against Esformes at his other hospitals.

See the "nonimmigrant alien nurses".

The sister of one of these guys is going for 9 weeks traing at Larkin too.

Now, if I can connect these dots to my "Bin Laden Medical Matrix",I'll have something!

Just think if our enemy has a medical matrix in place in our nations hospitals,and pharmacies, and phone companies, and computer providers........

[Fred Mertz]

Geez, Betty Jo, thanks for your sleuthing skills. And for pinging me.

[Betty Jo]

Fred, you tell Ethel NOT to go get that facelift at Larkin!

[Dave S]

Now, if I can connect these dots to my "Bin Laden Medical Matrix",I'll have something! Just think if our enemy has a medical matrix in place in our nations hospitals,and pharmacies, and phone companies, and computer providers........

And here I was thinking we should be pressuring the hospital to can these fools. I guess may be a waste of time.

[John,Staten Island]

I would like to invite these jokers to NY,maybe they can tour a firehouse and tell their jokes.Or possibly set up a table at Ground Zero and hawk bumper stickers about America crying again.In either case their life expectancy would be zero.It's really disturbing that these scum live amongst us,everything should be done to expose their backgrounds,family,friends,make examples out these lowlifes.Way to go Betty Jo,keep digging.

[Betty Jo]

You two have probably heard that Larkin Hospital has pulled out the "Welcome Mat"!

What kind of contractual mess will it be in?

Where will these three and the sister doc go now?

[Dave S]

You two have probably heard that Larkin Hospital has pulled out the "Welcome Mat"!

I hadnt heard that but I did expect it. I posted a news release from Larkin yesterday which wasnt even clear if they knew who the students were. Suspected they might be looking for way to get rid of bad publicity. I hope those brats go to Yeman or some other hell hole to get their education.

[montrose]

This whole incident is an extreme embarrassment to the United States, and an indictment of current efforts to turn the country into a bunch of brown-shirted snitches.

Particularly chilling is how even now the FL law enforcement clowns are unwilling to apologize, and press on with pitifully weak charges of hoax, etc.

They screwed up, period. The tipster formerly known as heroine was imagining things based on her own bias. We should learn a lesson here.

[Betty Jo]

"Imagining"?

Did they say the words "Sept 11,Sept13"?

She couldnt imagine that.

Either she or they are lying.

Now that I know about the creeps that own Larkin,Jack Michel,Morris Esformes and EMI of Chicago, now that I see that Larkin has contracts to treat INS patients,now that I know these students were going to a med school in the Caribean,now that I see who is on the "faculty" of Larkin, I say "wait a minute"

Lets see where the woman works.She is a nurse.Who owns her hospital?

Lets investigate the hell out of everyone in this mess.

[Betty Jo]

Thanks!

If you find a website for EMI in Chicago, please let me know.

[montrose]

Brownshirt Betty,

You might be interested in this post, made in 1998, from one of the three gentlemen falsely arrested. He, four years ago on a University of Missouri website, eloquently made a case for going after Saddam.

Read, learn, and work on your prejudices.

From:

http://www.students.missouri.edu/lists/muslim-l/0117.html

As-salam-alekum. I think it's a great idea to be peaceful about
this entire thing, but here's the problem in this case:
Unfortunately, it is extremely necessary to stop Saddam Hussein,
and there is a long history behind this attack which everyone on the list
may not be aware of. I think it is extremely important to have a good
knowlege of what's going on in order to look at and analyze this whole
thing farily and intelligently.
The UN decided to force Iraq to comply, not the United States.
The thing is, only America (and Brittain and a few other nations) have the
money, manpower, etc to do it. So, it is at the approval...will,
rather...of the UN that this is going on.
The United Nations does these inspections for weapons in ALL
countries to keep track of what's going on and what each country is
building, their plans, etc. (After all, can you imagine having a country
making tons of this nuclear machinery and keeping it a secret? I'd be
scared...as would most of the world.) I mean, these are no petty weapons.
This is enough machinery to cause mass destruction, not to mention many
many deaths.
But with these inspections, there is a common knowledge of what's
going on so in case there is trouble, it isn't too unexpected.
Saddam Hussein has used chemical warfare repeatedly in the past,
(Iran is a strong example). There are numerous gases that, when exposed
in the air, are colorless and even odorless. Anyone who takes a few
breaths of it will die a horribly painful and drawn out death..not
instant. Iraq has produced and used these types of gases along with other
powerful chemical warfare.
Lately, there has been evidence uncovered that huge amounts of
money and manpower in Iraq is being put into the development and
construction of such weapons.
The question the UN asked is, "Why? Why spend such time, effort,
and money on these weapons?" Iraq's economy is near rock bottom, people
are leading miserable lives, their aren't enough goods for the population,
etc...yet instead of putting money into improving people's lives, the
country is focusing only on the military and weaponry. And most
importantly, "Why all of a sudden?" Obviously, if a country, who is
already producing a large amount of weaponry, starts all of a sudden,
producing even greater amounts, it calls for attention from the entire
world.
Keep in mind, that this is all coming from a country that has
developed much of this type of equipment in the past, used it, and killed
thousands of innocent people in the process. And it is also a country
that has proven to be troublesome and harrassing to other countries as
well (Gulf War and Kuwait...where this equipment was also used by Iraq).
The UN simply said, at first, "Let us inspect what you've got and
see some plans as to why you're making it and where you intend to use
it...because if you were doing it simply for research...you wouldn't be
making such massive amounts of it."
Iraq refused. They were asked again repeatedly and very clearly
told that these are routine inspections and the UN has these rights for
the wellfare of the world. Again, and repeatedly, Iraq refused.
Recently, it was found out that plans, equipment, etc were
destroyed or removed in order to keep them from being inspected by the UN.
(This was all going on while the UN kept asking and Iraq kept
refusing...it bought them time.)
So, the UN decided to use force to get Saddam to comply. But each
time there is a gap and some time for Iraq to act, the machiner, weapons,
documents, plans, etc are being moved out or hidden.
So, this entire attack was plannd to not allow spare time to
Saddam.
Yes, it is EXTREMELY unfortunate that there will be casualties,
but it is also unfortunate that that is one of the gruesome realities of
war. In all wars throughout histroy, although it hasn't been the
intention...innocent people have been killed.
Of course, that is not the intention of the United Nations...their
targets are not innocent people...their targets are military bases and
other specific places of interest in terms of military equipment. This is
to beat down Iraq's supply of nuclear weapons and to get Saddam to comply
with the United Nations' demands.
The target is essentially not Iraq and it's people, it is Saddam
and his large supply of nuclear weapons.
Yes, some people will undoubtedly and unintentionally be killed.
But that can never be helped...in ANY war. And if Saddam is not
controlled now and:

1. forced to stop making large amounts of weapons
2. forced to let the UN do it's inspections of his warfare.
or 2. Both of the above,


there will definitely be more death and war in the future than
there will be at this point. It is because of this that this attack was
launched and because of this history and these reasons that it is
unfortunate, but necessary.



~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"Life Is Goooooood!"
-Omer J. Choudhary
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

[Dave S]

This whole incident is an extreme embarrassment to the United States, and an indictment of current efforts to turn the country into a bunch of brown-shirted snitches.

Doesnt embarrass anyone I know. Even CNN has web vote going and something like 75% were saying that the police did NOT over react. The case was a perfect example of if you see/hear something suspicious, notify the police and let them sort it out. The risk of in-action is too great.

Particularly chilling is how even now the FL law enforcement clowns are unwilling to apologize, and press on with pitifully weak charges of hoax, etc.

What do they have to appologize for? The guys admit they stopped at the restaurant, they admit they recognize the woman. Their only defense is she lied. The police did their duty. Even the three "students" admit the police treated them well while they were in custody. The jerks put themselves in the situation because of their own behavior.

They screwed up, period. The tipster formerly known as heroine was imagining things based on her own bias. We should learn a lesson here.

And how exactly do we know that. It could be faced with being told to pay for the whole episode (probably at least half million bucks)that they are now not admitting that they had any thing to do with this. They just quietly ate their breakfast and the woman made it all up because she was a racist. Bull. I saw the woman on TV and I believe her. Tell you what, if the woman is willing to take a lie detector test conducted by the FBI will your beloved little diaper heads be willing to submit to the same?? Stop the brownshirt business. Its beneath you.

BTW, I think its great that these guys lost their slots at Larkin Hospital. Will teach others not to joke about serious matters.

[montrose]

>Doesnt embarrass anyone I know.


I don't doubt that at all.

HH

[Dave S]

BTW, Montrose, did you know that a GPS device stolen from University of Missouri was found in cave at Tora Bora. Noted terrorist expert Steve Emerson says there is an Al Quaeda cell in Columbia, MO so if one of these guys went to school there, I wouldnt brag about it. You might get him in trouble.

[Betty Jo]

Hi ya!

I hate everyone,not just Islamc terrorists who want to kill me!

I say tell me where the nurse works.

If it's one of the meat shops owned by the Larkin-Esformes-Michel group,then I know she was part of a plot to make citizens afraid to give tips to the feds.

When you tell me that Choudry went to school in Missouri, I say, wow,the creeps at EMI own death palaces there.When and where Ashcroft was.

When I hear that they were from Chicago,I say geez, thats the hometown of EMI Enterprises, Inc.

When I hear they and one of their sisters goes to med school in the islands,and I read about nonimmigrant alien nurses at the the nursing homes etc, owned by Esformes and Michel,when I read the lawsuits about dead elders etc,I say hey,there is soo much 2 degrees of separation here,I'm gonna google till I drop!

I'm not in a brown shirt,I'm wearing my glasses and a frown!

[Ford Fairlane]

In illinois people have been using the same plates for more than one vehicle since our crook governor forced the rates for plates to be doubled a couple of years ago