Anyone following what is going on in Florida right now?

Happened to turn on CNN and saw they have closed down 20 miles of road on Alligator Alley with two cars believed to possibly be part of a terrorist attack? They said these individuals were seen laughing at coverage of 9/11 being shown at a diner they were at, and overheard saying- "If America cried on 9/11, wait till 9/13!" I hope this is a sick, sick joke............

Hissy I really hope it is. It drove me mad on the 11th this month, we have ALOT of immegrants in this country particularly around my area, they were cheering and celebrating.... took all I could to not go out and smack 'em...

I simply cannot understand the minds that wish to cause anguish on so many people and want to celebrate in the deaths of innocents. And I am not speaking about just 9/11 but world-wide. It just makes me ill and helps me understand why I prefer the company of animals over some people.

I'm watching CNN too now, it just said they didn't find any explosive devices.

Right, but there is a second vehicle they have to search now as well. Apparently when the police finally pulled the one vehicle over, a second one stopped as well.

FOX News said they found a detonating device and possibly something that could be used a a blasting cap. I cannot believe that 2 of these people are naturalized American citizens. That just makes me so angry that we let these people into our country and this is how they repay us. I still believe we should close our borders indefinitely to anyone except maybe our neighbors, the Canadians and the countries that are standing with us. I see no reason to allow our enemies into our country to do us harm. People are actually complaining about not giving middle eastern men visas to visit or become students here. Duh!! Enough already!

I must respectfully disagree. I have students from several "dangerous" countries, (including Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, and Yemen). These are bright, personable, and respectable young people. I also have students from South and Central America, Europe, India, Asia, etc.... The international students enrich our campus life and provide a global experience for our US American students who may otherwise have no chance to meet people different from themselves. I don't want to see us become so isolated and insular that we stop being what the USA has always been....a refuge from governmental tyranny, a place to build a new life, and a place to experience just how successful a democracy can be.

You wouldn't throw away an entire basket of apples because one is bad.....we don't want to throw away our international students because there is a chance that a few might be rotten. (Heck...many more US Americans and murdered each year by US Americans than by people from other countries!)

You bring up a good point Lotsocats. The ones to watch out for are the small minority, and we need to watch for the ones from our own country, too. Tim McVeigh was an American through and through, so was Ted Kozinski (sp) (the Unibomber). There is a man from Denver, born in America, who has been charged with setting up an Al Qaida training camp in Oregon. And we can't forget about the man (I forget his name right now) who was fighting with the Taliban who is from California.

I do think we need to be more careful about who we are letting into the States, and Canada too. I think the days of admitting anyone has long since past.

CNN is now saying that the entire incident could have been a joke that got out of hand. However, the road is still closed and the 3 men have not been released. If this is a joke it is extremely disrespectful and tasteless!!!!

Three Men Held, Package Detonated in Possible Terror Threat

FNC
Friday, September 13, 2002

NAPLES, Fla. — Officials blew up a suspicious package and detained three men along Florida's Alligator Alley Friday after an all-night search for two vehicles thought to be involved in possible terrorist activity.


Police in Florida and Georgia had been searching for the vehicles after an alert restaurant customer in Calhoun, Ga., notified them that she had overheard three men of possibly Middle Eastern descent joking about the Sept. 11 attacks and discussing what could be a terrorist plot.

The two cars with Illinois plates were pulled over at about 1 a.m. ET after running a toll booth on Alligator Alley, the portion of Interstate 75 that connects Florida's east and west coasts.

"[The men are] being detained, and the investigation continues, but they're not suspects," Florida Gov. Jeb Bush said in an afternoon press briefing.

A law enforcement official in Washington, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, told the Associated Press that authorities had not found a terrorist connection and that the three men appeared to be medical students going to a medical conference in Miami.

The official said the men's nationalities are Jordanian, Iranian and Pakistani, and at least two are naturalized citizens.

A Florida law enforcement source said the men had received medical training from a school on the Caribbean island of Dominica, and that they were headed to a Miami hospital for training.

Law enforcement officials told Fox News that the detained men had no known terrorist connection and that medical equipment in the cars may have caused bomb-sniffing dogs to detect suspicious materials.

And the Miami Herald reported that federal sources believe the three men were playing a stupid joke on a restaurant patron who gave them a suspicious look, and were likely to be released later in the day.

Eunice Stone told Fox News she was at a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun with her son, Joshua, on Thursday morning when three men at another table "started talking and laughing about 9/11."

She said they joked about how they had celebrated the terror attacks at a party the night before, and that they spoke ominously about a terror attack planned for Friday.



FNC
"It really scared me, I was really scared," Stone said. "Why were they sitting there laughing about 9/11?"

She said at least one of the men had a beard that came to his chest and was wearing a Muslim skull cap, or kufi. The other two men were clean-shaven, she said.

All three were in their mid-20s and spoke English. "They were all well groomed," she said.

"The one with the beard on his face, he held up two thumbs and said, 'Yeah, did you see him smiling at how sad they were? They think they were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13.' That's exactly what he said.

"The guy in the beard said, 'Do you think we have enough to bring it down?' Then the other guy said, 'If we don't have enough to bring it down, I have contacts that can bring it down.'

"Then they started talking about Miami, they said they had to get on to Miami."

She said she listened closely, and one of the men started talking about "bringing it down" in Miami.

"They were determine to bring 'it' down, whatever 'it' is," she said. She said the three men got up to pay their bill, and she and her son got up to follow them.

As one of the men paid the bill with a credit card, she took a crayon and wrote down the make and model of the car, as well as its Illinois license plate number.

"I just thought something is not right," she said, so she called the Georgia State Patrol on her cell phone.

She said later that her her son told her at the time, "Mama, they're just messing with you."



FNC
But Stone told Fox News that whether or not it was a joke, she still believed she did the right thing.

"What she reported would lead a reasonable person to believe a criminal act was pending," said Vernon Keenan, acting director of the Georgia Bureau of Investigation.

The Georgia agency issued an advisory for the men's cars, and the cars were pulled over in Florida early Friday after one ran a toll booth on Interstate 75, said Lt. John Bagnardi of the Florida Highway Patrol.

He said the three people were initially uncooperative and refused to allow a search, so authorities brought in the bomb-sniffing dogs.

The dogs alerted authorities to material in both cars, but no explosives were immediately found, said E.J. Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement.

"We've been out here ever since in an attempt to clear those vehicles and fully identify the occupants to determine if any threat exists," Picolo said.

"Later in the day, Sarah Eltantawi of the Muslim Public Affairs Council read statements from the aunt and the father of one of the detained men, insisting the man was a native of Detroit with no ties to terrorism.

"He is very nice, warm person, a good Muslim who tries very hard to help others," the aunt said in her statement. "He is a very caring and loving individual and never been rowdy.

The father said:

"This lady in the restaurant didn't like them or something . . . fabricated the whole thing and called the FBI. It is unbelievable to me the FBI would chase, stop them, and harass them because an untrained woman that has probably never interacted with a Muslim or anyone that is not like her, said so."

Police traced one of the license plate numbers to two brothers who live in Hanover Park, a Chicago suburb. One of the brothers was briefly taken into custody, but he was later released, and police said he had no connection to the incident in Florida.

More than 14 hours later, the cars remained on Alligator Alley, about 50 yards apart, and a 20-mile stretch of the highway remained closed.

Police continued to detain the three men at the site.

Fox News' Orlando Salinas, Carl Cameron and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

I think the lady did the right thing. That could have been any one of us sitting at that next table. What would you have done? It was a sick and disgusting thing to do, and I am not convinced that these people were not up to no good. If these were educated people, such as med students, didn't they know that something could come of their stupid behavior? No, they were probably as arrogant as many of the ones I have personally encountered, and thought the people in the small Georgia town were just ignorant Americans. Call me a bigot if you want, I think we should get rid of all of the ones that are here, and not allow any more in.

Why not just get rid of ALL immigrants?

Then the Native Americans can have their land back!

This board is supposed to have no flaming ( and obviously being a moderator I know this ), but I have to very respectfully disagree here with you KrazyKat.

Immigrants are not the problem. The problem is people who think terrorism is a suitable way to make their point. If we were to discriminate agains anyone who "wasn't an American" well then the majority of this board would be gone, as would the majority of this country. America is a melting pot, that is why this great country is as powerful and successful as it is. All of us ( unless you are 100% American Indian ) have come here from someplace else, or our ancestors have.

And you cannot say that all middle easterners are terrorists, that is a disgrace. There are many middle easterners who are wonderful American Citizens and only a handfew are problematic. Saying that all Muslims or Arabs should be kicked out or not allowed to immigrate is prejudiced, not to mention a few other choice words that I cannot say here.

I am so disgusted to think that we have citizens here who are so uneducated and blinded by the disease of prejudice that they would make comments like this. I just find peace knowing that the people I surround myself and my children with are good people, who don't judge others on their color or ethnicity.

I agree, krazy kat, that the incident had to be reported. We have been told to do so. If the young men actually said what she heard, I believe they deserve to be punished. However, I can't agree with the rest of your statement. My mother, father, brother, and sister came here from the United Kingdom. My mother told me the most beautiful sight she had ever seen was the lady who sheltered this poem:

The New Colossus

Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame, With conquering limbs astride from land to land;

Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.

"Keep ancient lands, your storied pomp!" cries she With silent lips.

"Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free, The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.

Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me, I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"


Emma Lazarus

I have to agree with Daniela and Jeannie. Many of us would not be here if the US had not allowed immigrants in. What we need to do is make sure our immigration policy is fair, but a little stricter.

Several of the terrorists who hijacked the planes last year were here with expired visas. Correct me if I'm wrong, please. We can't allow that to continue. We can't expel a whole group of people just because of a few rotten ones. Where do we draw the line? People who just arrived, or those who have been here for less than 5 years? Do we round up families and inter them in camps like we did with Japanese-Americans during WWII?

We need to be more vigilant about who we let in, yes, but we still should let people in. It is what helps make our country great.

If we closed our borders to all future immigrants we would eventually do our country a lot of harm. We should continue with our current immigration policies, but we may need to be more careful about who we let into our country, like Brenda mentioned. I also feel the way others here do, that it would be wrong to exclude a whole group of people from immigration to the U.S. based on the actions of only a few.