Hear a/b that terrorist scare in Florida last Friday?

[Jatt13]

It turns out it was actually a hoax:

 

NAPLES, Fla., Sept. 13 — Authorities were reopening a major highway in southern Florida that was closed for nearly 16 hours Friday as they investigated three men allegedly overheard discussing a terrorist plot. With no indication that the trio was planning anything sinister, some federal officials concluded that the scare apparently resulted from an ill-advised hoax that the medical students concocted to frighten a woman they thought was casting suspicious glances their way.

 

THE THREE MEN, medical students from Illinois, remained in custody as authorities prepared to reopen Interstate 75 early Friday evening, but Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter indicated they would be released soon “after we ask them a couple more questions.”

But Hunter said that authorities in Georgia were researching whether the men could be charged with making terrorist threats if the scare that closed the highway is proven to be a hoax.

He said his officers weren’t ready to declare the incident a hoax, but he added that he was certain there were no explosives in either of the two vehicles the men were driving when they were pulled over shortly after midnight.

The Miami Herald, quoting federal sources it did not identify, reported Friday afternoon that federal officials believe the tense search of the men’s cars was the result of a “stupid joke” that the three men, all of whom are of Middle Eastern descent, played on a restaurant patron in Georgia who gave them a suspicious look.

The report could not immediately be confirmed, but Florida Gov. Jeb Bush alluded to the possibility at a midday news conference, saying, “If this was a hoax, my hope is these people would be prosecuted.”

So, too, did the woman who reported overhearing the “alarming” conversation Thursday at a Shoney’s restaurant in Calhoun, Ga., in which three men talked about going to Miami and “bringing it down” and triggering a new round of “mourning” on Sept. 13.

 

‘WE HESITATED TO CALL ANYONE’

“We hesitated to call anyone because we thought, they’re just playing us,” Eunice Stone told the Fox News Channel on Friday. “But then I thought, ‘What’s the right thing to do?’”

Stone made her decision quickly, jotting down the Illinois license plates on the black Honda and the beige Nissan Maxima the men were driving and calling authorities.

 

That prompted a law enforcement alert that led to the apprehension of the men shortly after midnight on Interstate 75, the closure of the major east-west highway less than an hour later and a tense vigil that lasted through the afternoon as authorities carefully checked the two cars for explosives. Fears that the purported plot was the real thing escalated after bomb-sniffing dogs reacted to the possible presence of explosives in both vehicles.

Authorities still hadn’t declared the vehicles free of explosives by late afternoon, though they were nearly done with a meticulous examination that included a bomb-detecting robot and removal of some of the cars’ side panels.

But Bush indicated hours earlier in Tallahassee that the tip didn’t appear to be proving out.

“It appears that there isn’t a terrorist threat as it relates to any kind of detonation devices or anything like that in the car,” he said.

But spying a silver lining, he added, “In this time of heightened vigilance, I think it is important to show this system works.”

 

CAR RAN THROUGH TOLL STOP

Earlier, E.J. Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement said the three men were detained after one of the vehicles drove past a toll booth without paying shortly after midnight on Interstate 75 near Naples.

Officers who responded realized that the eastbound vehicle was one of two vehicles identified in a law enforcement alert issued Thursday warning of a possible domestic terrorist plot, Picolo said. When officers pulled over that vehicle, the second vehicle pulled in behind it, he said.

The men initially were uncooperative and refused to allow a search of the vehicles, Picolo said. Bomb-sniffing dogs then reacted to the vehicles, indicating the possible presence of explosives or accelerant, he said.

Authorities shut down a 20-mile stretch of the highway, which crosses the Everglades and is known as “Alligator Alley,” shortly after 1 a.m. and called in bomb squads to check the vehicles.

 

FBI JOINS CASE

FBI agents from Miami also responded to the scene, and the FBI’s Joint Terrorism Task Force soon began coordinating the investigation from its emergency command center inside FBI headquarters in Washington, sources told NBC News.

 

Several hours after the highway was closed, explosive charges were used to blast open what appeared to be a backpack taken from one of the vehicles. Bomb squad technicians in protective blast suits also removed a suitcase and plastic bags from one car and searched the interior and trunk.

Picolo said at a midmorning briefing that no explosives were found in either vehicle in initial searches, but a bomb-detecting robot from the Miami-Dade Police Department was brought in for a more thorough examination of the vehicles.

Later, bomb-squad members used a device resembling a grappling hook to pull items out of the cars for closer examination.

Picolo said both vehicles were registered in Illinois but declined to provide any details on the occupants other than to say that all three were apparently legal immigrants. Sources in Washington told NBC News that at least two of the three are naturalized citizens.

Another U.S. law enforcement official, who spoke with NBC News on condition of anonymity, said the men had told police officers that they were medical students who had been trained on the Caribbean island of Dominica and were headed to Larkin Community Hospital for additional training.

 

STATEMENTS CHECK OUT

An FBI official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men were not on any FBI or other government watch list and that their statements about receiving medical training and why they were headed to Miami had so far checked out.

Officials at Larkin Hospital confirmed that FBI agents had called them to inquire about the three men and said the hospital is affiliated with a medical school in Dominica, called Ross University School of Medicine. But the officials did not say whether the trio was expected there for training.

Another official, also speaking on condition of anonymity, said the men were of Pakistani, Jordanian and Iranian descent. Two of the three were born overseas, but all three were legal residents, the official said.

 

The “BOLO” — or “be on the lookout” bulletin — asking officers to be on the lookout for the vehicles and occupants was issued Thursday by Florida authorities. It contained several snippets of conversation that the woman told police in Georgia she had overheard in the restaurant.

It said the customer heard the men say, “Well, if they’re mourning it 9/11, what are they going to do about 9/13?” and talk about what appeared to be amounts of explosives.

She also said the men also talked about “running five hours behind schedule” and trying to make it to Miami before Sept. 13.

The alert also said, “The men discussed celebrating in Chicago on 9/11 when everyone else was in mourning.”

Stone, the woman who alerted authorities to the conversation, indicated Friday she was having second thoughts.

“I hope I haven’t done something wrong,” she said in the Fox News Channel interview. “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?”

 

What complete, total idiots.

[Boba Rhett]

Stupidity should be punishable by death.

[Darth Homer]

ok, either they are terrorists and were able to cover-up for themselves very well, only to blow it all over something extremely stupid....or, they're just extremely stupid, which makes me nervous of any doctor trained in Dominica.