Archive through September 13, 2002
TV ClubHouse: Archive: Alligator Alley terrorist:
Archive through September 13, 2002
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:00 am     Grief! The media is terrible. |
Webkitty | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:01 am     Fluff, I'm confused why you think Eunice Stone calling in the threat was irresponsible? Isn't that what we are supposed to do?? |
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:04 am     NO NO NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I meant that giving her name seemed irresponsible, or the MEDIA rather!!!!!!!!!! |
Webkitty | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:05 am     The men were on their way to a medical conference in Miami? This is all confusing at this point........ Ok, some more people have come forward in Chicago with info.......this will take all day to sort out.... |
Webkitty | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:07 am     OK Got ya. |
Webkitty | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:08 am     Its taking me forever to post.....again  |
Resortgirl | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:10 am     They were driving the cars with the plates that Eunice Stone had given them. Fluff I agree that it was irresponsible of the news people, but she not only told them her name but that of her hubby and son. I guess she must be really shook up and not thinking very clearly. Or maybe I'm just the paranoid type... |
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:13 am     Sorry, Webkitty. Didn't mean to yell. Like Resortgirl said above, I don't know if I would have given my name. But now that I know that it was a customer, and not a waitress, I guess there is a sigh of relief, because a customer could work anywhere, but they would know that the waitress works there. |
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 09:15 am     No, Ms. Stone just doesn't appear to be thinking so clear after the incident. How are her son and husband relevant? I don't know. Just my opinion. |
Twiggyish | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 10:23 am     Two bomb sniffing dogs both detected something. I don't know but, it's pretty intense coverage here. Also, these men ran the toll both. Now, why would they do this IF they were only going to a conference? |
Rissa | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 10:41 am     CNN just posted an update. Apparently one of the cars has been cleared and moved away. Says the dog responded to both cars but there was nothing in the 1st one to indicate why. They are still searching the 2nd one. Had a terrible thought while reading the first article CNN had up this morning. Don't know whether to hope it's true or not. Is it possible that these three men were getting eyed because of their being arab in appearance and 'put on a show' for the nosy woman at the next table? Seems to me that if they had even a portion of an explosive needed to bring down an building that the police would have been able to find it immediately. Instead they found a medical bag and 3 American citizens who even according to Eunice Stone had obviously been in the USA enough years to not even have accents. Just a random thought. Twiggy, thanks for the updates.. CNN seems to be behind you on getting information out there. |
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 10:51 am     Yeah Rissa. I totally see what you're saying. But they should have known better not to play like that anyway. If it was a joke, they asked for it. I also thought it was kinda unusual that they would be saying that kind of stuff out loud in English (if it was loud. Must've been audible enough). I am not saying that it isn't true because there is still no explanation for the dogs sniffing out something. |
Twiggyish | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 10:57 am     Our local affiliates are keeping us updated. It just doesn't make sense as to why they would try to run the toll booth. Plus, why would the police shut off a major road without some evidence? |
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 11:01 am     Right. Here is a link. Don't know if it's credible or not. But Yahoo is generally okay. <http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story2&cid=519&ncid=519&e=1&u=/ap/threat_florida> |
Spygirl | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 11:03 am     This was a phone segment of Ms. Stone's report that CNN just replayed: "I heard them talking about being at a party the night before in Chicago and how they needed to quit stopping because they were already 5 hours late. That got my curiosity up and I kept listening and something else was said...they were huddle together in the booth and one guy said 'do you think that will bring it down?' I looked at my son and then the other one said 'well, if that don't bring it down, I've got contacts. I'll get enough to bring it down.' To me that meant they were planning to blow up something. " |
Rissa | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 11:39 am     It would be incredibly stupid. But something just isn't ringing right with me. If these 3 were driving together, not just meeting at the rest., then why would they talk about it at all in a public place? On the other hand, I can see 3 young guys being smart-a**es and ticked off about some woman staring at them/eavesdropping on their table. And now the police have cleared both cars? Did I read that right? I think the police had enough evidence to shut down the road just from what Ms. Stone told them she had overheard, especially these days. The equivalent of yelling BOMB in an airport. PS I have driven in Florida.. you have TOO many toll-booths. Again, stupid kid with no change is a possibility. Not saying it won't turn out to be *something*, it's just an impression I am getting from the way the articles are written. |
Laluna | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 12:18 pm     Looks like a hoax...here's the article... Federal investigators checking 3 men who reported ``America would cry on 9/13 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. link... http://www.miami.com/mld/miami/4068519.htm |
Fluff | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 12:51 pm     Hmmmm..... Rissa you were right. Kinda thought it was weird that they would be discussing it in a public place in English, audible enough for someone else to hear. Ms. Stone did the right thing anyway. But I bet she's wishing she had never given out her name in the first place. |
Cjr | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 12:53 pm     What a bunch of morons. I hope the men get charged for the costs of all this today. I don't care if they were being stared at or not in a restaurant. You don't joke about terrorism. There is no proof that Eunice Stone or her son were being nosy or staring rudely. When you are seated in a booth next to other people it is not "eavesdropping". You can't help but hear things. I don't know the situation obviously, but there is just no excuse. And then for the men to refuse to let the police search the cars and to be uncooperative? They better get more than just a ticket for going through a toll booth. |
Twiggyish | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 01:16 pm     Honestly! I'm peeved. This caused major problems for our state. Our news stations carried live coverage all morning. They were reporting constantly on it. On the one hand, I can see where she would be concerned, but, it did cause major inconveniences here. I do think Fox did the right thing, as at that point, they didn't know if it was real or not. |
Rissa | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 03:02 pm     I hope they get prosecuted too, malicious something or other. Should know better then to joke about such a serious matter. It just rang too many bells for me. My father HATES when people are obviously listening in on conversations and will start talking about his upcoming sex-change surgery or how his contagious rash is acting up again. LOL And I can also imagine that since Sept. 11th that anytime a group of Arab-looking men gather, that people give them 2nd and 3rd looks. Not defending these men, what they did was stupid and definately criminal IMO but I can understand how frustrated they must be. They were trying to shock the woman and the whole thing spun out of control. Stone definately did the right thing by reporting it though, wouldn't want to find out later that it was on the level and she could have prevented it. |
Faerygdds | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 04:57 pm     Exactly Rissa... a person can live with making a mistake and it not being anything. But it's harder to liove with the knowledge tat you had the pqwer to prevent a tragedy and you simply didn't... Stone did the right thing, and I hope there is some charge (criminal mischiefof something) for these 3 men. As many have stated, in today's day and age, jokes that this simply aren't funny. I feel really bad for Ms. Stone. She had a MAJOR decision to make in repoting it... I can't imagine how much she "fretted" about it before she made that call. Glad it was nothing, but also glad that the public DOES have their eyes and ears open. |
Twiggyish | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 05:01 pm     That's true. How was she to know it was a joke? |
Squaredsc | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 05:23 pm     sorry to be the voice of dissent, but was the lady looking at them in suspicion(sp) 'cause of their race? sounds like racial profiling. and i know that since 9/11 there has been a lot of racial profiling of people of arab descent(sp). now im not saying that they guys playing a joke were right or wrong. but to flip it, being african-american people have looked on me in suspicion, in stores, in resteraunts you get ignored, or as in certain stores you get followed and too much help if you know what i mean and sometimes you want to play with the person, such as possibly saying, "hmm this looks good enough to steal." or something like that. as i said not saying i agree or disagree. and if i was that person and i overheard, and i might have racially profiled them too. jmo fwiw. ducking to avoid all the smacks. |
Pamy | Friday, September 13, 2002 - 07:07 pm     I think that lady did the right thing, and I hope the press/public doesn't come down to hard on her for being wrong. IMO joking about 9-11 is not funny and I don't care what race ya are. If they had been any race and talking that way I still think she would have been right to call the police, all terrorists are'nt middle eastern, that guy that did the Oklahoma city bombing looked like the all american kid |
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