Law enforcement officers have car stopped, arrested three men, blew up a suspicious package. Dogs went nuts, apparently. Add to that waitress somewhere overheard three men indicating they were going to bring something down in Miami on the 13th. Live on Fox, probably other stations, right now. Have to leave around nine so keep up with it? If nothing was found then maybe they dropped the thing off already, who knows?

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Answers

Waitress was in Georgia.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Car actually headed to Ft. Lauderdale and they believe then to Miami. Was stopped around one a.m. Must be something to it if they're still at it 7 hours later.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Okay, waitress described three men of Middle Eastern descent, gave description of two cars they were travelling in. Cars were spotted when passing through a toll both. Waitress overheard this on Wednesday night.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Found this at Lucianne--someone please check occasionally for updates here to get news to those at work who don't want to hav something obvious on the screen when the boss walks by :)

Cross-state highway Alligator Alley closed; 3 detained in Florida security check

Friday, September 13, 2002

(09-13) 04:40 PDT NAPLES, Fla. (AP) --

Officials shut down Alligator Alley, the main east-west highway across the Everglades, and people in two vehicles were detained after a possible terrorist threat, police said.

Bomb-sniffing dogs alerted authorities to material in both vehicles, said E.J. Picolo of the Florida Department of Law Enforcement. Explosive charges were used to blast open what appeared to be a backpack taken from one of the vehicles.

"The information we have is very specific," Picolo said.

He said the three people in the vehicles had not been arrested, but were being detained.

The Florida Highway Patrol shut down a 20-mile stretch of Interstate 75 shortly after 1 a.m., when the vehicles were stopped. It was still closed more than six hours later.

The Georgia Bureau of Investigation had issued an advisory for the cars Thursday after a waitress in Calhoun, Ga., in the northwestern part of that state, told police she overheard three men of Middle Eastern descent discussing terrorist plans Wednesday night.

The Georgia woman said the men were talking about amounts of explosives and warned that Americans would "cry on 9/13," said Miami Police Lt. Bill Schwartz, quoting from the Georgia advisory.

Alligator Alley is the main road from Naples to Fort Lauderdale across the Everglades in South Florida.

The highway patrol said the road was blocked off from a toll booth east of Naples to State Road 29.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

ALERT

09/12/2002

Possible Terrorist Plot Against South Florida

MAIMI -- An advisory has been sent out to police departments across the state. It's a warning about three men who may be putting together a dangerous plan involving Miami.

A woman at a Georgia restaurant says she overheard three men talking about coming to Miami and she didn't like what she heard. So tonight police are on the lookout for those men.

One day after America remembers September 11th, an alert is issued to police departments across the state about three men.

A woman overheard them talking Thursday morning at a Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, Georgia. The woman claims the men said, "They (Americans) mourned on 9/11 and they are going to mourn again on 9/13." The men also discussed "running 5 hours behind schedule." One of the men reportedly said, "We do not have enough to bring it down." The men then left the restaurant, and headed south on I-75.

Miami-Dade County officials say they are not taking any chances.

Steve Shiver, Miami-Dade County Manager says, "At this point in time we have no reason... ...to be aware of our surroundings."

We have comprised some information about these men and police are asking for your help.

The description of the first car:

A Nissan Maxima: cream color with gold trim and a Carmax tag on the front of the vehicle.

Now the second car:

A new Honda, black with Illinois plates.

Now for the suspects' descriptions;

First: A man of possible Middle Eastern descent, 5'10'', 200 pounds, 20-30 years old, black hair, brown eyes, set wide apart, thick beard that extends past his collar.

Second man: again, possible Mideastern descent, 5'7'', 130 pounds, black hair that comes down to his collar.

The third and final man, also of possible Mideastern descent, 5'7'' 130 pounds, shiny black hair.

Now we want to stress tonight, as we speak, the nation is still at an orange alert. (the second highest) This may be nothing, but they just want to talk to these men to make sure.

If you have any information you are urged to call Miami-dade CrimeStoppers at (305) 471-TIPS or in Broward call (954) 493-TIPS.

Stay tuned to WSVN Channel 7 for the latest on this developing story.

www.wsvn.com/news/articles/local/S4873/

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

all local tv channels are showing live from helicopters over the scene.

a robot has just been delivered.

they have a tent structure set up on the side of the road, with red carpet under it.

[just woke up and am now trying to get caught up.]

coffee coffee

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

tv says one is from Jordan, one from Iran, one from Pakistan.

robot is still going thru the black car. The plates on the black car are registered to a 'fernando' in chicago. he is at work according to the brother who cosigned for the car, which the brother says is not a black honda, but he admits heisnot good with cars.

he also doesn't know? where the brother works but is trying to reach him. hmmm..........

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Barefoot,

You be extra careful today. Okay?

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

thanks apoc! I will!

They are sending in one man, all suited up in a bomb suit or something. apparently the robot found something it can't handle.

Jeb Bush is going to go live in a little bit from Miami with an update. I suspect you will be able to catch it on MSNBC, I have the local NBC and CBS stations on right now. Both show the same baisc thing, but NBC 6 has a camera on the ground. the other is only in the helicopter.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

does anyone else have this scene on tv? just wondering if you want a play by play thing.

The guy opened the other door on the car, and I think is trying to open various compartments inside the car, but from a distance. the robot can't reach certain areas, apparently.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

they're still removing stuff from the car. haven't touched the other one yet. some idiots in georgia are being interviewed, but they have no meaningful things to say and I wish they would just shut up.

Yeah, homeland security worked this time. states communicated with each other as they should. move on.

I see a computer monitor from the car, at least it looks like one.

Lots of stuff in there. It will no doubt take a while to examine a computer if there is one.

our county mayor came on the ease citizen concerns. no known target or threat, but various sites such as our nuclear plant have been alerted and there is more activity in security there and at various other sites as a precaution against some idiot deciding to do something just because. sort of like copy-cat killers, ya know?

meanwhile, they continue to remove things from the car, and the other one is next, I guess. I imagine that they will have the car stripped down to the frame by the end of the day.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

sorry, they did say that the men are not being very cooperative. they are on site in a mobile home type vehicle, a mobile command center, like the drunk mobile.

the bomb squadis from Lee county. The robot is from Miami. the site is in Collier county, and the FBI and INS are on site.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

this is going to take a long time. a real long time, they say. they haven't finished the first car and they still have to go thru all this on the second next.

early on there was a backpack found and detonated. it has been reported that the backpack contained medical stuff. apparently the men are medical students. the video of the backpack was from CBS's WFOR 4 in Miami, and the 'medical student' bit came from CNN.

CNN also interviewed Eunice Stone, the woman who was listening to the men in the restaraunt. NBC 6 says the waitress is being flown down here. I guess they stiffed her on the tip? LOL

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

eunice and the waitress are not one and the same.

the men have not been charged with anything yet. currently they can be charged with running the toll and possibly speeding. they are not suspects, they are 'people of interest' one legal dude described them on 6.

Feel free to copy my posts for pasting elsewhere. I will make notes here as I hear stuff, but I'll have to get ready for work in three hours. It's 11:50 am here right now.

I wonder if the weather is going to cooperate in that area. We have this nasty habit of having it rain in the everglades everyday. That's where they are, ya know.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

the robotis starting on the second car now.

some guy on the tv, he is on site, said it looks like it's gonna rain.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

I don't see anything on the radar indicating rain, but it could be developing...

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

concourse H at Miami Int'l Airport, INS has arrested a suspect with a one way ticket on US Air. destination unknown at this time.

He is on the FBI ten most wanted list.

no connection mentioned with the cars scenario going on now.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Scary stuff! Glad they nailed them now. I was (and am) still afraid that there will be an incident today, yet. Our skies are still full of planes and ground security remains tight.

Take care, BF!

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

keep in mind that one car had plates that do not belong on the car.

that is keeping things tense all over. Nothing else yet about the airport arrest.

The area of the car search is designated a no fly zone, helicopters of the tv stations are 40? miles away and 3500 ft high and giving very clear and close up shots. amazing!

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

12:18 pm--Just got back. They're medical students??? And some med equip would show up radioactive.

Fox--authorities continuing investigation, questioning of 3 men. Rehash of initiating info. Fox says Eunice was eating at Shoney's with her son, they have her on. Says men were talking of celebrating 9/11, and "they're mourning 9/11, what will they do on the thirteenth?" Evident they had a party night before to celebrate. Eunice got ticked off, became curious, not in habit of eavesdropping, but. . . Men said they had contacts, if they didn't have enough they could get enough. She took tag number, saw also a black Honda (this was a cream Nissan) but couldn't get tag number, called police.

Oh SHIT, that horrible, disgusting Hussein Ibish is on now. He thinks she did the right thing--"at least on its face." Well, what else could he say? He thnks the mainstream, overwhelming majority of clerics, have all been very clear, that murder is unacceptable and that 9/11 was mass murder. Oh yeah? When? Not often enough, not NEARLY often enough. Says of COURSE he hasn't heard of anyone celebrating 9/11. Asshole.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

delta flight 537 from atlanta was diverted from the runway. no info as to why. it was headed to miami. apparently still at atlanta. two men taken off for questioning.

sounds like we are hearing of a prevented attempt to commandeer planes for another sept 11 scenario. doesn't it?

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

the dogs that reacted to the cars were specifically trained for sniffing bomb type materials. not sure if that includes radioactivity.

overall, the dogs are very well trained.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

tollbooth operators said that the black car ran the toll, and the second car stopped and said they would pay for that other car, don't call the police.

too late! police saw the car blow the tollbooth, and stopped the black car 8 miles down the road, and then the second car pulled up behind the trooper. the trooper was concerned and called for emergency back up since he was surrounded, at night, in the dark, with unknown people with unknown intentions.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

they are now concentrating on the quarter panels of the cars. they believe that those contain explosives.

this was the last thing the news people said on NBC 6 before they resumed regular programming.

Now I am monitoring CBS 4 in Miami.

"These men are coming to Larken Hospital to begin training, working there." The names and statements are to be released shortly.

this from CBS 4.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

CBS 4 has gone to the weather. Hannah is out in the gulf starting the northerly track. and another strong tropical wave is developing to the east by the outer islands way out there.

I think NBC 6 was very irresponsible to comment on a supposed belief of explosives in the quarter panels of the cars and then to cut back to regular programming. Talk about unnecessarily scaring the public!

CBS 4 www.wfor4.com has not mentioned it at all.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

the guy detained at the airport is at Krome detention camp, a place on the edge of the everglades where we put people who come here illegally.

He was detained last night at the airport while trying to buy a ticket. No destination was mentioned.

meanwhile, back at the collier county site where the cars are police are preparing to xray the items taken from the second car. then they will begin taking that car apart if nothing is found in the items taken out.

the dogs alerted to something, but it could have been medicinal nitro-glycerin, which it was mentioned as a possible item in the contents of the back pack that was detonated earlier.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

the plane from atlanta is expected to arrive at 2:05 pm in maimi. the two men were taken off the plane in atlanta.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

the guy at the airport who was detained was on an INS 'do not leave the country' list, not on the FBI top ten as reported earlier.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

((((Barefoot))))

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

nothing much new, I have to go now. Talk at ya after work, 'kay?

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Fox says Miami Herald reporting men WERE PLAYING A JOKE on the woman! If so, I hope they get fined for SOMETHING.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

LOL

I hope they enjoyed the joke! From the looks of it, the jokes on them. the next step at the site would be to dismantle the cars.

They better start cooperating. it may be too late for that by now.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

If they were joking, which I doubt, it would be as bad as the Mexican who was installing blinds in the Rhodes Tower in Cols the other day who said, "I'm here to plant a bomb" when asked what he was doing. The tower was evac'd right after.

Idiots, all them . . .

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Posted on Fri, Sep. 13, 2002 Federal sources say terrorism threat by 3 students was a hoax

By DAVID GREEN AND DAVID KIDWELL dgreen@herald.com

TIM CHAPMAN/MIAMI HERALD 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.

Investigators declared any terrorist threat made by three medical students of Middle Eastern descent ''a hoax'' Friday afternoon and called to end an investigation that shut down one of the Florida's busiest interstate highways all day.

The three students, investigators say, will soon be released, one day after they were overheard in a Georgia restaurant vowing to make America ``cry on 9/13.''

''Thank God it all turned out to be positive,'' Collier County Sheriff Don Hunter said. ``There were no explosives in the vehicles. We believe at this point it was all a hoax.''

Federal sources involved in the investigation said 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 South Miami.

The federal sources said the men could be released Friday evening with a ticket for blowing the I-75 toll booth near Naples.

''This is the most expensive traffic violation in Florida law enforcement history,'' said one federal source involved in the investigation.

The family of Ayman A. Gheith, 27, condemned the stop as racial profiling during a televised news conference from suburban Chicago.

Hana Gheith said her brother would not have joked about being a terrorist.

''I know for a fact that he would not do anything like that,'' she said from Palos Hills, Ill. ``He's a good man.''

Hana Gheith said she's enrolled in the same medical program as her brother and was scheduled to start the 9-week rotation at Larkin with him on Monday.

One of the cars is registered, police records show, to Ashfaq A. Butt, 41, of Chicago; authorities say the other students were Mohammed Kambiz Butt and Omer Chaudry.

All three students pulled over at a interstate rest stop to speak briefly with a caravan of reporters.

They denied making a derogatory statement in the Georgia restaurant, understood why police had to stop them, but did not say why one of them drove through the toll booth.

E.J. Picolo, a spokesman for the Florida Department of Law Enforcement, said the case would be referred back to Georgia, where the tip originated for possible prosecution.

He could not determine how much the investigation cost, one that made national headlines and sent hundreds of agents from local, state, adn federal law enforcement into the western edges of The Everglades.

Alligator Alley was closed to traffic all day Friday as explosives investigators searched for any kinds of devices in the two cars.

''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.

It turns out the tag on one of the car was a temporary Illinois tag, but since agents did not know this, they believed it was a permanent tag and went chasing after the wrong suspects -- two brothers who were still living in Illinois and had no clue what was happening until swarms of federal agents and news reporters showed up.

As of late Friday, agents 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.

-- Anonymous, September 13, 2002

Of course they're gonna deny saying anything like that in the restaraunt. But Eunice is right to have called it in. If she hadn't, and they really were, she'ed feel like, well, you can imagine.

The guys should be slapped with a bill for services rendered since they were so uncooperative with police. If they were so innocent they should have been willing to answer the questions, and there should have been some surprise about the reasons that they were stopped.

Also, I would think they would have heard something on the radio while they were driving down the state. Even with a CD player the radio comes on when you are changing CD's. They also had to stop for gas at least once on the way down after Shoney's. Then again, I suppose that means no one at the gas station was aware or observant. I've always had my doubts about people on the west coast of Florida. LOL

I say, nail em good with the toll running, and also nail em for the costs of the incident since they wanted to play with the cops. If memory serves, the fine for the toll running is one hundred dollars.

idiots.

And the guy's sister, too.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2002

Man in terror scare says woman is lying September 13, 2002 Posted: 10:55 PM EDT (0255 GMT)

NAPLES, Florida (CNN) -- The Georgia woman who prompted Friday's terror scare was "flat-out lying" when she told authorities she overheard three Muslim men at a restaurant laughing about September 11 and making suspicious comments, one of the men said late Friday.

"How many other people witnessed this event that supposedly took place, first of all? Did they ask the server who served us? Did they ask anybody else that was in the restaurant? How is it that one person can pick up a phone and make any statement that they will and we end up [in custody]?" said Ayman Gheith at a rest area shortly after they were released. Eunice Stone says she heard three men discussing apparent terror plans at a Shoney's on Calhoun, Georgia. CNN's Wolf Blitzer reports (September 13) Gheith has a bushy black beard and was wearing traditional Muslim headgear. "She saw obviously the way I was dressed, and maybe she put a little salt and pepper in her story," he said.

Asked about his "suggestion" that the woman might have lied, he said, "I'm not suggesting, I'm telling you she's flat-out lying."

Gheith said he and his two friends -- Kambiz Butt and Omer Choudhary - - were all medical students heading to a nine-week course in Miami, and that's what they were talking about at the Shoney's restaurant in Calhoun, Georgia.

Asked if they made any comments about September 11, joking or otherwise, he said, "Of course not."

"Would you lose control of the conversation and joke about September 11th?" Gheith asked members of the news media. "Is that even an option?"

Gheith, a Palestinian born in Jordan, is a naturalized U.S. citizen who now lives in Chicago, Illinois. Butt was also born in Jordan and is a naturalized U.S. citizen living in Chicago. Choudhary was born in Detroit, Michigan, and now lives in the Kansas City, Missouri, area.

Gheith added: "I have one message, I think it's time for us as Americans to put down our big sticks and pick up our books and read about other people and read about what they believe before we jump to conclusions."

He said he didn't blame authorities because they were simply working off the information given to them, although he did note it was unusual to get "pulled over by 700 cops."

"The police officers were very gracious. They were very nice people. They did their job, obviously," he said.

Authorities had referred to the three men as being uncooperative, even as they were being released. Asked if they were indeed uncooperative, Gheith acknowledged authorities could have interpreted that way:

"I made it clear to them that I would prefer them not to search my car. Maybe that's what they assumed as not cooperative, and I take that as my prerogative because I know there is nothing in my car," he said.

In a later interview with CNN, the other two men, Butt and Choudhary, also categorically denied the woman's account, saying they never made any reference to September 11 in their conversations. All three said they were handcuffed and held in the back of separate police cars all night, until about 9 a.m. when they were transferred to separate vans.

With a police robot beside him, a bomb squad officer in a protective suit searches one of two cars stopped east of Naples, Florida. They said they never saw each other while they were being held.

Authorities took the woman's account extremely seriously. They shut down a 20-mile stretch of Alligator Alley -- the major east-west connector in south Florida -- for most of the day, bomb squad units searched the men's two cars and federal authorities interrogated all three men extensively.

In the end, authorities said there was no threat, the cars were cleared, Interstate 75 reopened and the men were released. The three men climbed in their vehicles around 6 p.m. and drove away, 17 hours after they were pulled over.

At the time of their release, authorities called the incident a prank by the men, but officials were backing off that theory a few hours later.

"I think it's premature at this point in time to call it a prank or a hoax," said Carlos Alvarez, the director of the Miami-Dade Police Department.

Eunice Stone, whose tip led to the questioning of three men in Florida, leaves her home in Cartersville, Georgia, Friday. The scare began when Eunice Stone said she overheard the three Muslim men at a Shoney's restaurant Thursday morning making suspicious comments. At one point, Stone said the bearded man said if Americans "were sad on 9/11, wait until 9/13."

Stone said she heard one of the men ask "Do you think we have enough to bring it down?" Another one of the men replied, "If we don't have enough to bring it down, I have contacts and we can get enough to bring it down."

"To me, that meant they were planning to blow up something," she said.

She called authorities, who in turn issued the bulletin for authorities to be on the lookout for the vehicles. The men were pulled over at 1 a.m. Friday on Alligator Alley, after one of the cars allegedly went through a toll booth without paying.

Asked if she thought the men were playing a joke on her, Stone said it crossed her mind.

"They were just kind of jovial about it," she said in an interview with Fox News. "My son said, 'Oh Momma, they're just messing with you.' Then I thought about it, and I said, 'Well, you know, they shouldn't be messing around like that. That's a cruel thing to celebrate September the 11th, and to think that that was something to be happy about."

CNN Correspondents Kelli Arena

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2002

The men were pulled over at 1 a.m. Friday on Alligator Alley, after one of the cars allegedly went through a toll booth without paying.

allegedly? this is a misstatement, to be sure. The second car said they would pay for the first one, didn't they? To me that means they did run the toll.

No mention as to whether they got the ticket.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2002

I think we should hook them to polygraphs. for a week, if necessary.

Eunice, too.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2002

If these guys honestly aren't involved in anything untoward (and a med seminar sounds a little untoward), I would believe that perhaps both parties were at fault: perhaps the guys were leading her on, and perhaps she heard what she didn't want to hear. Hard to say. We're bound to see a lot more of this stuff if TIPS becomes widespread.

I'm just thankful that no one was injured or killed.

-- Anonymous, September 14, 2002

So, what was in the suspicious package that was blown up? More Italian ceramic tile??

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2002

suspicious package? when the cars were being searched? it has been confirmed by the Collier County Sheriff that nothing was detonated, despite what channel 4 said.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2002

I saw them detonating a backpack! Okay, maybe their robot tossed it a short distance, but it looked as if they were blowing it up or something. It contained medical books.

I wonder if they got their med degrees at that university on the island of Grenada? That's where Sweetie went "to help rescue third- rate medical students," he says. Or maybe there are other medical schools in the Caribbean.

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2002

the shot you are referring to looked like something was detonated, but in fact the robot just dropped a bag. If they had detonated anything, it would have been inside that big drum thingy they had on a trailer. They would never have detonated anything outside on purpose. Too many LEO's around to get hurt by debris.

Also, they wouldn't put the robot [$$$] in such a position unless they had no other choice.

Meanwhile, the three are apparently going back home to wherever they came from. I wonder if anyone alerted Georgia? LOL

Oh yeah, the guys said they did not run the toll booth, and their lawyer says that too. And yet, and yet, the second car offered to pay for the first one. But if the first one didn't run the toll, why did the second one offer to pay?

-- Anonymous, September 16, 2002

Med student involved in terror scare says it was all a mistake

By Nicole T. Lesson, Staff Writer, Posted September 16 2002

http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/southflorida/sfl-cstudents16xse p16.story?coll=sfla%2Dnews%2Dfront

Davie -- One of the three medical students who was arrested last week in a suspected terrorist plot spoke in the students' defense at a Sunday news conference called by the Council in American-Islamic Relations.

"We are medical students. We are not terrorists," said Kambiz Butt, 25, of suburban Chicago. "We're in a state of shock, and we are scared. We are not a threat."

Butt; Ayman Gheith, 27, also of suburban Chicago; and Omer Choudhary, 23 of Independence, Mo., were detained midnight Friday on Alligator Alley for 18 hours while en route to South Florida for a nine-week rotation at a South Miami hospital.

Police received a tip from a Georgia woman that the men were plotting a terrorist attack on Miami.

Butt said he harbored no anger toward anyone and said that he and his friends want to focus on their goal of becoming doctors. Following Friday's incident, however, the three will not be allowed to enroll in the residency program at Larkin Community Hospital.

Dr. Jack Michel, the president and chief executive officer of the hospital, cited safety concerns for the hospital's decision.

Attorney Brett W. Newkirk, one of the four members of the men's pro-bono team, said Sunday that this was "an incident of misunderstanding."

"I can tell you 100 percent there is nothing for anyone in the country to be afraid of," said Newkirk of Kubiliun & Newkirk, P.A., which has offices in Hollywood and Miami. [Barefoot is guessing that Hollywood is the one in Florida and not in California.]

Newkirk would not allow the men to answer questions, saying they were tired and hungry. The nation would be able to hear the men's story firsthand in a couple days, he added.

Law enforcement put out a BOLO -- be on the lookout bulletin -- for the cars driven by the men Thursday afternoon after Eunice Stone told authorities that she overheard the men at a Calhoun, Ga., Shoney's restaurant making "alarming" comments.

Following their arrest, [They were never arrested!] bomb-sniffing dogs and a robot searched their cars for explosives or other evidence of a plot but found nothing, and the men were released about 6 p.m. Friday. They were not charged.

The men, who recently completed medical training at Ross University in Dominica, an island in the eastern Caribbean, denied making any threatening comments at the restaurant.

On Sunday, Butt said that their conversation at Shoney's -- contrary to Stone's account -- made no mention of Sept. 11 or Sept. 13, but that they talked about their trip to South Florida and the experiences they were about to face in Miami.

"Not once did we mention or joke about 9/11," Butt said.

He noted that keywords of the conversation were misconstrued and that Stone was trying to be a "patriot for America."

Newkirk said that when the men asked, "Are you sure we have enough to bring it down?" they were talking about bringing a car down to Miami.

The men are not pursuing legal action against anyone, Newkirk said, but he said his legal team would represent them if Georgia authorities decided to file charges.

Newkirk also said that the men didn't run the toll booth on Alligator Alley.

"These are intelligent, well spoken and sensitive men," he said. "They were not making light of terrorism. You will find it's all inaccurate."

Altaf Ali, executive director for CAIR, a nonprofit organization composed of Muslim activists, expressed support.

"We are very concerned that mere suspicions, possibly based on prejudice and stereotyping could so damage the lives and livelihood of hard-working young people whose only wish is to be productive citizens and to contribute to the medical profession," he said.

Nicole T. Lesson can be reached at nlesson@sun-sentinel.com or 954-385-7920.

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