Possible Terror Attack Disrupted In SC

Michelle Malkin is reporting slightly differing accounts of the incident. One says the car with Florida tags was pulled over in a routine traffic stop. The other says that authorities pulled over a suspicious car.

In any event, two middle Eastern men were in the car that the police asked to search. They found what investigators are calling “possible explosives located in the trunk”.

Once federal agents were brought in and analyzed the situation, an FBI-controlled robot pulled a bag filled with the suspicious items from the vehicle. The two men inside the vehicle, which is reported to have Florida tags, have been detained at the scene.

Thus far, the FBI won’t confirm or deny a possible link between the vehicle and a terrorist plot.

Dan Riehl also reporting.

Sister Toldjah has the scoop on what Goose Creek, is the home of.

Blogs of war is all over it.

Also blogging:

and Ace, who of course, couldn’t resist a crack about eye witness, “Jack Knouff”.

UPDATE I:

From Michelle Malkin’s Blog:

My husband spent the last three years of his Navy career stationed at the Naval Weapons Station, located in Goose Creek, South Carolina. He was the Dockmaster on the floating drydock, USS Alamogordo. The Gordo’s main purpose was to dock our nuclear submarines for repairs. The weapons station was often closed to civilian traffic as they moved nukes and ordinance to and from ships with Marine guards on orders to shoot to kill.

Highway 176, on which the vehicle was stopped, leads right to this Navy base.

UPDATE II(Sunday morning):

Not seeing anything about this on the cable news channels yet, not even a mention on their running news line on the bottom of the screen.

Did see an interesting segment about “bridge phobia” on Fox, though.

UPDATE III:

Dan Riehl reports that the “devise” was detonated at 2:45 Sunday morning.

The item made a loud bang, similar to a firecracker, when it was demolished.

UPDATE IV:

WCBD-T.V. Charleston reports that the men have been arrested:

Berkeley County Sheriff’s department says it has arrested two men for unlawful possession of explosives.

They say the ‘suspicious material’ was detonated around 3:45.

SC’s Miss Scarlet Vittles found this intriguing tidbit on Hugh Hewitt’s website:

A group of 45 Muslim doctors threatened to use car bombs and rocket grenades in terrorist attacks in the United States during discussions on an extremist internet chat site.

Police found details of the discussions on a site run by one of a three-strong “cyber-terrorist” gang…..

“The first target which will be penetrated by nine brothers is the naval base which gives shelter to the ship Kennedy.” This is thought to have been a reference to the USS John F Kennedy, which is often at Mayport Naval Base in Jacksonville, Florida. The car had Florida plates.

More information at her site.

Hat tip: SarahW at AOSHQ, for that.

NoisyRoom.net has some interesting stuff. Very interesting.

Anyone remember what tomorrow, August 6, is the anniversary of?On August 6, 1945, the nuclear weapon “Little Boy” was dropped on the city of Hiroshima.

And Lest We Forget: An Israeli counter-terrorism expert did say about a month ago, that we’d see something in 90 days, or less.

And then there was Michael Chertoff’s gut feeling.

UPDATE V: (5:00 Sunday)

11:30 am. news conference tomorrow concerning the case:

Berkeley County Chief Deputy Butch Henerey said authorities will identify the men and disclose more details about the case Monday during an 11:30 a.m. news conference.

He said the Sheriff’s Office will file state charges against the men. It was not known whether the FBI plans to file federal charges.

????

UPDATE VI:

What?!

Not believed to be terror related?

Two middle Eastern men, non citizens, 21-year-old Yousef Megahed and 24-year-old Ahmed Mohamed, are stopped seven miles from a Navy Base, arouse suspicion when they try to hide their laptop computer, have unlawful explosives, igniters, and fuses in their car…and that’s not terror related?

I mean, that duck was walking and quacking all over the place.

Stay tuned.

UPDATE VII:

Okay, here’s what Andrew McCarthy at The Corner’s got:

Goose Creek – Two men are being held in the Berkeley County Detention Center after police find explosive making devices in their car. The men had at least one ready to go bomb and bomb making materials that include chemicals. (emphasis mine!)

Few details about the suspects are known at this time. They are believed to be students at a Florida college.

But not terror related, nooooo. Maybe by bomb making materials, they mean diet coke and menthos.

UPDATE VIII (8:00 am, Monday morning):

Conflicting accounts… local law enforcement authorities say:

…the materials included at least one bomb and a number of bomb-making elements, including chemicals capable of being used in the production of bombs, fuses and igniters — small gunpowder charges used to ignite some explosives.

Federal law enforcement sources say:

…no bomb was found — but the men arrested did not have ready explanations for materials found in the vehicle. That raised questions, which prompted local officials to contact the FBI and Joint Terrorism Task Force

UPDATE IX:

From The Blogs of War:

Two men pulled over Saturday in Goose Creek and detained for carrying explosives in the trunk of a car have been charged with possession of an incendiary device, Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt announced today.

If convicted of the charges, Youseff Megahed, 21, and Ahmed Mohamed, 24, could face between 2 to 15 years in prison.

Berkeley County Sheriff Wayne DeWitt says his officers thought the items to be something “other than fireworks.”

Authorities detonated something they described as an explosive device and Sheriff DeWitt says “materials and substances” have been sent to the FBI lab for analysis. It could be tomorrow before the results are known.

UPDATE X:

This is the last one, I promise, before I start a new post.

From Andrew McCarthy at The Corner:

AP quotes the sheriff as saying: “They admitted to having what they said were fireworks. Based on the officer’s judgment at hand, based on what he had seen, we judged it to be other than fireworks.” Authorities remain tight-lipped about exactly what they found in the car.

The two are engineering students at the University of South Florida’s campus at Tampa — the same school where Prof. Sami al-Arian, while a computer science professor USF’s College of Engineering, was running an outpost of the Palestinian Islamic Jihad terrorist organization. Al-Arian pled guilty in 2006 to conspiring to provide services to PIJ.

Just a little red flag, there.

Hat tip: Drew at AOSHQ, for that.

But the assessment is still that this is all just a huge misunderstanding.

And, yes, predictably CAIR is already involved.

See AOSHQ for more on the pipe bomb vs. rocket debate.

Meanwhile, in peaceful Canada, live landmines are being found:

They were found at a country creek where children swim and fish, just one meter away from each other. They appeared to be the type used to blow up tanks.

Unsure if more mines are hidden nearby, Strathroy police asked the OPP to conduct a sweep. It was to have been done by dusk yesterday.

The creek is popular with families, so police suspect the mines were put there to maim and kill, or in callous disregard of that possibility.

“The senseless loss of life or grievous bodily harm that could have taken place at this creek — it’s reprehensible,” Strathroy-Caradoc police Sgt. Mike Overdulve said.

Reminder from the Taliban graduation ceremony in June: The 300 Taliban “suicide bombers” were preparing for attacks in the United States, Canada, The UK, and Germany.

Maybe there are a few “homicide bombers” thrown in there, too.

Of course, Canada has had it’s fair share of terrorist cells, for some time.

Related?

From the New York Sun:

As an American-born spokesman for Al Qaeda threatens to blow up American embassies abroad, intelligence gleaned from last month’s British “doctors plot” of car bombers suggests that a Qaeda cell is on the loose in the American homeland….