Authorities found al Qaeda-related statements, a backpack containing ammonium nitrate, and spent 9mm shells Friday after stopping a suspicious vehicle close to the Pentagon and arresting a man, ABC’s “Good Morning America” reported.
Pentagon Police arrested one person Friday and closed several roads around the US Department of Defense headquarters after officers stopped a suspicious vehicle and discovered a backpack believed to contain ammonium nitrate, FOX News Channel reported.
The vehicle was stopped about 6:00am local time Friday. Police were searching for one, or possibly two, other people who fled the vehicle when it was stopped by police, local news channel WRC-TV reported.
A source told FOX News Channel that the backpack was found outside of the vehicle, and that the arrested man was a naturalized US citizen who came to the US from Ethiopia.
The car — which remained parked in bushes off Washington Boulevard — was cleared by authorities, however the backpack, believed to contain ammonium nitrate, was not.
A Pentagon Police spokesman said that an explosives team was called in to investigate the vehicle. The FBI was also involved in the investigation.
On Monday, a highway ramp near the Pentagon was closed while police investigated reports of a suspicious package in a car. No explosive device was found on that occasion.
(Source: Newscore)
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2 Responses
Islam is the religion of peace. You know – one piece here, one piece there…
I tried to go to the “Newscore” web site that is identified as YWN’s source for this story. That site is not open to the public. I wanted to get a sense of its political slant, if any.
I then went to the ABC News web site, which is the source of the story as reported by Newscore. It would appear that “Newscore” has edited the ABC story to make it more ominous. Among other things, the following sentence appeared in the ABC story but was omitted from the YWN story: “The FBI … determined that the material in [the suspects’s] backpack was harmless.” Someone at Newscore, or possibly YWN, omitted that sentence.
Also omitted from the YWN story was this statement in the ABC story: “The statements [about al Qaeda] were found in a notebook that contained mostly notes for a financial class. There was also was a page containing words ‘al qaeda,’ ‘Taliban rules,’ ‘mujahidin’ and ‘defeated coalition forces.’ ” When I read the YWN version of the story, I concluded that the “al Qaeda-related statements” were messages directly from al Qaeda, intended either for the suspect or persons – law enforcement or fire or bomb squad investigators – who found the vehicle following an explosion that was to be triggered by the suspect. From the description of the statements, and where they were written, as set forth in the ABC News story, I would conclude that the “al Qaeda related statements” were doodlings of a student bored in class, akin to “Tony loves Huma” or “Joanie loves Chachie” doodlings in any bored student’s notebook. They could also be similar to the doodlings of Sirhan Sirhan, who filled notebooks about the jets that the US sold to Israel shortly before he assassinated Senator Robert F. Kennedy.
Notwithstanding all the foregoing, it is good that the suspect has been detained and is being investigated. A careful and accurate investigation can determine whether the suspect as acting on (a) orders of al Qaeda or (b) his own thoughts. This matters because it is important for police and other security personnel to know whether the threats come from foreign agents or US residents inspired – but not directed – by foreign terrorist organization. Facts are important in the efforts to protect the US, and to understand how that protection is carried out.