Two arrested with "Pipe Bombs" Near Naval Weapons Facility

They've arrested two young Egyptian students on the road to Goose Creek down here in the Charleston, SC area, which is where some "enemy combatants" are being held in the nearby Navy Brig, and is also near the Naval Weapons Station which is rumored to be a storage depot for nukes--which is, of course, "neither confirmed nor denied"...)

More below.

They supposedly had "pipe bombs" in their trunk (which they allowed the police officer to search when he stopped them for going 60 in a 45). Their lawyer says they were on their way to a family celebration of Mohammed's Birthday (Sunday) in North Carolina, and that the "pipe bombs" were fireworks. No telling, since they're not showing the alleged explosives on the TeeVee. The big question is why they were not on the interstate, but on a by-road in that sensitive area.

In any case, the FBI says they don't believe the boys to be part of a terrorist network or plot "at the present time." However, Fox news is running this, as darkly as possible, in rotation with the Minnesota Bridge and mining accident stories. Expect there to be more girlish screaming and swooning from the big strong men at stage right. Sigh.

Interesting to note, if these guys really were up to something, that they got caught on a routine traffic stop and not via "electronic intelligence gathering program activities."

•  My "baloney" meter always goes off when

  I hear these stories. Maybe, one day, there might be something to one of these "plots" but I'm not holding my breath.

  by Gary Norton on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:34:13 PM PDT

  •  What bothers me is that

    somewhere the really scary people are actually in the midst of their plans...and we'll all be "cry wolfed" out by the earlier not so really scary events that we'll fluff it off as nothing...

    Not to make this more than it is, but there really are some scary creepy folks out there.

    by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:54:00 PM PDT

    •  How Do You Know They're Out There?

      The borders have remained as porous as they were on 9/11, and during the years between 93 and 2001.

      15 years, 4 buildings and 4 vehicles hit in America, and one maybe two other serious attacks attempted, and several loner incompetent nutjob attacks a few of which were goaded on by entrapping government plants.

      We've had several times the number of Christianist attacks, including the big one at OK city.

      All the evidence I've seen for 15 years is that, at any given moment, there are not necessarily any of them out there at all.

      Haters are not == attackers.

      by Gooserock on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:03:58 PM PDT

      •  Because some guy...

        got 5 years for building a pipebomb that he was going to use on an abortion clinic. His father turned him in.

        by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:15:38 PM PDT

      •  Gooserock...

        I said people...I didn't say who those people were.

        And I did my diss research in Northern Ireland. Folks like Michael Stone scare the crap out of me...

        by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:18:35 PM PDT

        •  Yes, there are crazies, but they have been

          with us forever. They are no reason to live in fear. We didn't rewrite all our surveillance laws after the OK City bombing because there was no need. And the media did not hype every subsequent act of domestic terrorism because there was no Administration bent on putting the country in a constant state of fear.

          by Gary Norton on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:29:38 PM PDT

          •  agreed...

            but where did I say that I was okay with living in fear or trashing the constitution?

            That being said, there's got to be a way to get the scary folks without destroying the foundation of our country. We can't just hope that the criminals are always going to be dumb enough to get caught--though the stupid factor does help a lot.

            by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:33:51 PM PDT

            •  You live with it.

              If you are a man rather than a mouse, you live with a little fear, and hold on to your freedoms and everything else that makes life worth living.  Otherwise, you become nothing except the fear, and eventually surrender everything life is about in order to continue living.

              by cynndara on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 05:27:36 PM PDT

              •  I think you missed my point...

                and this whole man==strength thing is quite the parallel today.

                We arrested, tried, and convicted a guy for plotting to blow up an abortion clinic in MD. We didn't just let him go and "live with a little fear." And somehow we didn't trample on the constitution whilst doing it.

                How do we do that re: others who seek to do similar things including driving their cars into mosques, blowing up abortion clinics, flying airplanes into buildings?

                by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 06:29:18 PM PDT

      •  Christianists

          I love Andrew Sullivan too but, here is an answer to
        you, YouTube - On The Map with Avi Lewis: Ayaan Hirsi Ali & Islamophobia  
        http://youtube.com/...

        by mjuygv on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 04:23:38 PM PDT

    •  Frankly, I'm not worried. Extremists, foreign or

      domestic, do not have the power to destroy our country. But we do, by destroying our Constitution.

      Yes, it is possible for them to cause some death and destruction, but that risk is far below what we accept on a daily basis. For instance, more people have died in ATV accidents since 9/11 than died on 9/11. There is no, zero, risk from nuclear weapons, Jack Bauer notwithstanding, except from Russia or China. And both of them know that Mutually Assured Destruction isn't just a phrase.

      It is really easy for us to reduce, if not eliminate, the risk from "Islamist" terrorists - stop giving them reasons to attack us. The so-called moderate Middle East regimes don't need us to do their fighting for them. They have a much stronger interest, self preservation, than we do. If they feel threatened, let them fight for themselves, and I'm talking Saudi arabia and the gulf states here. Iraq, will sort itself out when we leave. It will probably end up divided, but so what. We can't control it. And until we stop meddling, we will always be creating factions that want to do us harm.

      by Gary Norton on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:25:06 PM PDT

      •  There're some folks out there...

        who wonder if the Constitution will survive another attack regardless of whether it's internally or externally driven.

        by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:28:26 PM PDT

        •  I worry also, but I also

          know that we always eventually come to our senses. People forget than while Lincoln suspended Habeas Corpus, he reinstated it in 1864. With fingers crossed, I think the next president will undue much of what Bush has done. A little rosy, I know, but not totally unreasonable.

          by Gary Norton on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:35:10 PM PDT

          •  and he regretted doing it...

            So I'm wondering why he didn't use an Executive Order on this recent gambit. Or did Congress pass it so he wouldn't do an EO?

            by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:37:19 PM PDT

        •  Given what we've seen so far

          that fear is entirely justified.

          by minorityusa on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:57:05 PM PDT

•  Sounds like the same terrorist hourdes who were

  about to blow up half of NYC a few weeks ago.

  by Jimdotz on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:38:29 PM PDT

•  Some details

  AP via LA Times
  

  by KateCrashes on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:39:45 PM PDT

•  Better story

  St. Pete Times

  by KateCrashes on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:42:19 PM PDT

  •  Thanks for these links, Kate NT

    by Julia Grey on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:02:47 PM PDT

  •  from the article

    Deputy Lamar Blakley wrote a citation, but he became suspicious when the men quickly put away a laptop computer, investigators said.

    The deputy asked to search the car, according to an incident report.

    Could they have declined the search?

    by minorityusa on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:35:40 PM PDT

    •  not sure...

      didn't SCOTUS rule a while ago about car searches?

      by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:53:00 PM PDT

•  We'll never see the "Pipe bombs"

  they blew them up. Maybe they took photos.

  RWers have been jerkin it to this story for days. How do the machoistic boys there explain their need to hide under daddy's codpiece? I'll never get it.

  by Little on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:43:14 PM PDT

  •  They explain it thus:

    "[A] boy's father has to do his part. He needs to mirror and affirm his son's maleness... He can even take his son with him into the shower, where the boy cannot help but notice that Dad has a penis, just like his, only bigger." -- James Dobson

    by Shaviv on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:50:37 PM PDT

•  I saw some reference to this

  yesterday on one of those text worms. Was wondering what the deal was.

  by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 02:49:44 PM PDT

  •  I was surprised

    that it hadn't been diaried already. It's a big deal down here.

    by Julia Grey on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:10:00 PM PDT

    •  I know someone who's husband

      is connected to a naval yard somewhere down there. He's got a specialty in nuclear something or other. Can't remember which state he's in...either SC or GA.

      by kredwyn on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:22:18 PM PDT

•  I would be very surprised

  if this turned out to be anything more than racial profiling.  Let's hope these guys don't end up waterboarded in Guantanamo Bay before we "officially" figure that out, though.

  by ChicagoDem on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 03:27:16 PM PDT

•  Tags

  I've added the more common tags of terrorism and war on terror to your diary. I don't think "pipe bombs" is a very common search term

  by Catte Nappe on Tue Aug 07, 2007 at 04:28:01 PM PDT