From The Christian Science Monitor, 8/17/06:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0817/dailyUpdate.html
Terrorist plots everywhere ... and nowhere
After London arrests, false alarms ring loudly in US.
By Tom Regan | csmonitor.com
In the week since British police conducted a major counterterrorism
operation against an alleged plot to blow up airline flights between
Britain and the US, a series of false alarms has shown how tense
people have become about the threat of a terrorist attack in America.
While all of the events were originally described, or considered,
possible terrorist activities, none of them has been shown to have any
connection with terrorism.
The Washington Post reports that Seattle authorities evacuated dozens
of workers and set up a half-mile perimeter around part of the city's
port, after two sniffer dogs seemed to indicate that a container from
Pakistan might contain explosives.
Customs agents used a "gamma-ray" device at Terminal 18, south of
downtown, to peer through the containers' steel walls, and detected
items inside that did not match the containers' manifest, agency
spokesman Mike Milne said.
The containers were then subjected to the dogs' attention, which
raised concerns about explosives.
A bomb squad that searched the containers found nothing dangerous.
Officials said the containers were supposed to contain oily rags,
which are often shipped internationally for recycling or for use in
packaging.
Authorities continued to examine the cargo Wednesday afternoon.
Also on Wednesday, a woman's odd behavior on a transtlantic flight
from London to Dulles airport in Washington D.C. caused the pilot to
make an emergency landing in Boston, accompanied by US Air Force jets.
The woman was arrested, the passengers interrogated and their luggage
searched.
The Boston Globe reports that early media accounts on cable news
channels, based on information from law enforcement officials, said
the woman had a note mentioning Al Qaeda.
This turned out to be false.
There are also conflicting reports from transportation officials and
the FBI whether the woman, Catherine Mayo of Vermont, was carrying
hand lotion, a Phillips-head screwdriver, lighters and matches.
Some of those items are banned from flights.
About an hour into the flight, passengers said in interviews, Mayo
began nervously pacing up and down the aisle while wearing an
oversized sweatshirt and muttering to herself.
At different times, she told passengers that she suffered from
claustrophobia and that she was an undercover reporter testing flight
security ...
Then, Mayo began screaming at flight attendants who were trying to
calm her.
Two male passengers stepped in, subdued her, and restrained her with
handcuffs provided by a flight crew member.
The two passengers, a corrections officer and a federal air marshal in
training, took the woman to the back of the plane and sat beside her
until the plane landed, authorities said.
She continued mumbling to herself but seemed calm by the time the
plane touched down at Logan, passengers said.
"It was scary, especially after the terrorist thing last week," said
passenger Katie Bartko of Manassas, Va.
Mayo's former husband said she has "emotional issues," and that she
had been on her way home from visiting Pakistan when the incident
occurred.
Authorities say Mayo will probably be charged with interfering with a
flight crew.
Meanwhile, The Associated Press reports the local prosecutor in Caro,
Mich. reluctantly dropped terrorism charges against three
Palestinian-Americans from Texas.
Tuscola County Prosecutor Mark E. Reene had filed the charges against
the men after they had bought dozens of cell phones at a Wal-Mart in
Caro last Friday.
When the Texans were originally arrested, Mr. Reene said they had been
targeting the Mackinac Bridge because they had pictures of it on their
digital camera.
On Monday, the FBI and state officials said the men had no relation to
any terrorist group or terrorist activity, and that the photos on the
camera came from "apparently wide-eyed tourists rather than would-be
terrorists."
Instead, Maruan Muhareb, 18, Adham Othman, 21, and Louai Othman, 23,
all of Mesquite, Texas, now face federal charges of money laundering
and conspiracy to commit fraud by trafficking in counterfeit goods.
They were arraigned on the new charges Wednesday in US District Court
in Bay City, following a brief hearing in Caro at which a judge
dismissed the state charges.
The conspiracy charge is punishable by up to five years in prison.
Money laundering carries a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison.
Magistrate Judge Charles Binder ordered the men held at least until a
detention hearing Friday.
Nabih Ayad, an attorney for the accused trio, called the new charges
"outrageous."
"This is a clear indication of racial profiling: picking someone up
and holding them for days and trying to find something to charge them
with. It's supposed to be the other way around," he said.
Ayad accused state and federal officials of "scratching each other's
backs" by shifting jurisdictions.
But The Christian Science Monitor reports that cellphones clearly have
become a tool for anyone wanting to avoid detection by the government.
In that Associated Press story, Reene said he was "deeply troubled" by
the FBI's statements on Monday, which contradicted the charges he had
filed.
But the Los Angeles Times reports that supporters of the men claim the
arrests in Ohio and Michigan raise questions "about the role of state
and local authorities when it comes to prosecuting terrorists, a
function that has been the exclusive province of the federal
government since the Sept. 11 attacks."
Supporters of the men charged say they were only arrested because of
their ethnicity.
In an interview with the Chicago Tribune editorial board this week, US
Attorney General Alberto Gonzalez acknowledged the difficulty in
balancing civil rights with national security.
______________________________________________________
The terrorists have won and the Republican administration has lost.
Harry
.
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